Odometer: 740 miles


University of Maine, Orono campus

Our 500-mile trip to Orono and back went completely according to plan. David and I had a great weekend in the great state of Maine, and our Tesla, Lightning, performed exactly as expected in my pre-trip plan.

We were a bit surprised at our first stop at the Augusta, ME supercharger because we had set out at 6 am. When we arrived there at around 9:30, we discovered that the restaurants opened at 11 am, so we had to look elsewhere for a rest room. As it turns out, Panera Bread wasn’t more than a couple mall parking lots away, and that allowed us to stretch our legs while Lightning charged to 100% for the Bangor and Orono leg.

Augusta, ME Supercharger

This being my first supercharging experience, I was a bit astonished at the initial charge rate. Here’s a screen shot:

With a bit of quick math, I was astonished to see that the supercharger was charging the car at a rate of more than 100 kW. To put that in perspective, that’s more than the power needed for 20 houses (assuming power draw per house at 5 kw, which I’ve approximated from data from the Fire Protection Research Foundation)! We were able to charge from 22% to 95% in an hour, and we were back on our way. Superchargers are fabulous (and the bagels and coffee at Panera Bread aren’t bad either)

We did have one deviation from plan though. We stopped at the Augusta, ME supercharger on the way home, and because we were only 180 miles from home, I only charged to 80% figuring that would be sufficient. However, it was hot and traffic was slower on the way home, so we used up more charge than I had expected. By the time we reached New Hampshire, we had only had about 100 miles of range left to travel about 60 miles. While I’m reasonably sure we would have made it home safely, we would have arrived home below my arbitrarily imposed 20% reserve, and I wanted some safety margin in case we got stuck due to an accident or other unexpected event on I495. So we deviated for a 10-minute charge at the Seabrook supercharger, took on nearly 60 miles of charge in 10 minutes, and headed home with no concerns. Nothing eliminates range anxiety like having more than enough twice as much charge as you need.

Seabrook, NH Supercharger; what is it with Panera Bread and supercharging locations?