Tesla road trip to the Grand Canyon and Southwest

We took our Tesla on a road trip to the Grand Canyon and through the Southwest in 2022. It was a great way to explore nature and America’s national parks, and it was also a good way to test our Tesla’s electric power. We saved a ton of money because gas prices were so high at the time.

Here are some tips and takeaways if you want to take an electric car on a road trip.

Map out your trip

We took our Tesla Model Y on the road trip to the Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce. We mapped out the entire thing in advance using this site. If we couldn’t find Tesla chargers in areas we needed, we’d do more research or call our hotel to ask questions. One spot we stopped only had third-party chargers for example. This really helped us set aside time on the trip for charging, and made us feel safe that we wouldn’t get stuck anywhere with a low battery.

MORE: Our California road trip

Decide what types of chargers you want to use

We mostly aimed for superchargers because they’re faster, but they can also be more expensive. One place had free superchargers because it was at an outlet mall, and of course (just like they probably planned when they put those chargers there!), we spent money on the outlets.

We used a third-party (non-Tesla) charger at one hotel since it was close to our hotel room and convenient, but it was slower and more expensive.

MORE: Baby Blog: Tracking ovulation for pregnancy

change how the car breaks

I like to drive the Tesla on ‘roll’ which is more how a regular car drives. My husband likes ‘hold’ which is more like how a golf cart works, the car immediately starts to break as you lift your foot off the gas pedal. This happens in ‘roll’ too, but it’s more obvious in ‘hold.’

The bonus to using ‘hold’ is regenerative braking. This means you’re adding back to your car’s battery more when using ‘hold’ due to how the Tesla is engineered.

MORE: Sign up for media consulting services!

Be careful when using autopilot

We are used to driving the Tesla on autopilot in L.A., but driving in other places was new to us. So we were very careful to only use it when we felt safe. Sometimes roads merged on highways, or there were only two-lane highways, and when that happened we took it out of auto.