The drive is 316.8 miles, about 6h 00m. Along it sit about 113 DC fast chargers within 5 miles of the route — and 92 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 Benton Harbor at 10:45 am, stop for lunch in Hudsonville at 12:25 pm, take a break in Reed City at 2:35 pm and arrive in Traverse City around 4:20 pm.
| When | Where | Charger | Food within a walk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 am | Leave Chicago, IL | ||
| 10:45 am Break · mile 95 | Benton Harbor, MI Meijer 041 (Benton Harbor, MI) | 350 kW 6 stalls | 🐔 Chick-fil-A 6 min, 🍟 McDonald's 7 min, 🥪 Subway 7 min |
| 12:25 pm Lunch · mile 163 | Hudsonville, MI Meijer 254 (Hudsonville, MI) | 350 kW 6 stalls | 🌯 Chipotle 2 min, 🥪 Subway 3 min, 🍔 Wendy's 3 min |
| 2:35 pm Break · mile 244 | Reed City, MI Wesco Reed City MI | 320 kW 2 stalls | 🥪 Subway 1 min, 🌮 Taco Bell 1 min, 🍟 McDonald's 1 min |
| ~4:20 pm | Arrive in Traverse City, MI |
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 180 kW, with 71 stops at 150 kW or more and 24 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 28 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 Hudsonville, MI around 12:25 pm, where Chipotle is a 2-minute walk from a 350 kW charger. The breaks: Benton Harbor, MI at 10:45 am, Chick-fil-A 6 min from the charger; Reed City, MI at 2:35 pm, Subway 1 min from the charger. In all, 92 of the roughly 113 fast chargers along the way have a restaurant within a 10-minute walk.
About 113 DC fast chargers are within 5 miles of the 317-mile route, 106 of them 50 kW or more. 71 charge at 150 kW or more, 24 are on the Tesla network, and 92 have a restaurant within a 10-minute walk.
No stretch is longer than 28 miles: there is a DC fast charger within 5 miles of the route at least that often.
Counting the fast chargers of 50 kW or more on the route, the chains most often within a 10-minute walk are McDonald's (near 45 chargers), Subway (40), Burger King (33), Starbucks (32), Dunkin' (29) and Taco Bell (23).
It depends on the car. The app's estimate for a 10–80% charge is about 45 min for a Ford Mustang Mach-E at the 350 kW charger in Benton Harbor, MI; about 25 min for a Hyundai Ioniq 5 at the 350 kW charger in Benton Harbor, MI. These are rough figures from each car's battery size and peak charging speed; a cold battery or a busy site takes longer.
About 6h 00m of driving for 317 miles. Leaving at 8:00 am with the plan's 2 breaks of about 20 minutes and 1 meal of about 40, you arrive around 4:20 pm.