The drive is 294.2 miles, about 5h 40m. Along it sit about 109 DC fast chargers within 5 miles of the route — and 97 of those have somewhere to eat within a 10-minute walk, so the charging stop and the meal are the same stop.
Open this drive in the app →Leave Chicago at 8:00 am, take a break in Lafayette at 11:20 am, stop for lunch in Indianapolis at 12:45 pm and arrive in Cincinnati around 3:40 pm.
| When | Where | Charger | Food within a walk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 am | Leave Chicago, IL | ||
| 11:20 am Break · mile 120 | Lafayette, IN Lafayette, IN Rechargery Relay @ Wawa - North Creasy Lane | 400 kW 12 stalls | 🐕 Raising Cane's 1 min, 🐔 Chick-fil-A 1 min, 🐼 Panda Express 2 min |
| 12:45 pm Lunch · mile 180 | Indianapolis, IN Meijer-Meijer 154 (Indianapolis, IN) | 350 kW 6 stalls | 🐼 Panda Express 1 min, 🍎 Applebee's 1 min, 🍔 Wendy's 2 min |
| ~3:40 pm | Arrive in Cincinnati, OH |
Meals fall near their local hour (times are local at each stop), with about 20 minutes for a break and 40 for a meal. It is a driver’s plan, not a charging plan: where you need to charge depends on your car. Open this drive in the app to pick another leaving time.
Typical power along this route is 240 kW, with 73 stops at 150 kW or more and 28 on the Tesla network. Chargers under 50 kW are left out of the list — on a drive this length they cost more time than they save. Counting every DC fast charger, there is one at least every 34 miles of the way.
In order along the route — the strongest stop in each stretch of the drive, so the list covers the whole route rather than filling up with the city you left.
Leaving Chicago at 8:00 am, lunch falls in Indianapolis, IN around 12:45 pm, where Panda Express is a 1-minute walk from a 350 kW charger. The break in Lafayette, IN at 11:20 am has Raising Cane's 1 min from the charger. In all, 97 of the roughly 109 fast chargers along the way have a restaurant within a 10-minute walk.
About 109 DC fast chargers are within 5 miles of the 294-mile route, 104 of them 50 kW or more. 73 charge at 150 kW or more, 28 are on the Tesla network, and 97 have a restaurant within a 10-minute walk.
34 miles, between mile 214 (Shelbyville, IN) and mile 248 (Batesville, IN), with no DC fast charger within 5 miles of the route.
Counting the fast chargers of 50 kW or more on the route, the chains most often within a 10-minute walk are Starbucks (near 43 chargers), McDonald's (42), Subway (33), Chipotle (31), Dunkin' (28) and Wendy's (26).
It depends on the car. The app's estimate for a 10–80% charge is about 23 min for a Tesla Model Y at the 400 kW charger in Lafayette, IN; about 45 min for a Ford Mustang Mach-E at the 400 kW charger in Lafayette, IN; about 25 min for a Hyundai Ioniq 5 at the 400 kW charger in Lafayette, IN. These are rough figures from each car's battery size and peak charging speed; a cold battery or a busy site takes longer.
About 5h 40m of driving for 294 miles. Leaving at 8:00 am with the plan's 1 break of about 20 minutes and 1 meal of about 40, you arrive around 3:40 pm.