The drive is 255.7 miles, about 4h 52m. Along it sit about 97 DC fast chargers within 5 miles of the route — and 75 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 Detroit at 8:00 am, take a break in Bay City at 10:10 am, stop for lunch in Grayling at 12:15 pm and arrive in Traverse City around 1:50 pm.
| When | Where | Charger | Food within a walk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 am | Leave Detroit, MI | ||
| 10:10 am Break · mile 114 | Bay City, MI Meijer Bay City (Bay City, MI) | 350 kW 4 stalls | 🍦 Culver's 3 min, 🪵 Cracker Barrel 8 min |
| 12:15 pm Lunch · mile 205 | Grayling, MI Grayling, MI | 300 kW 6 stalls | 🍟 McDonald's 3 min, ☕ Starbucks 1 min, 🥪 Subway 9 min |
| ~1:50 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 64 stops at 150 kW or more and 5 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 43 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 Detroit at 8:00 am, lunch falls in Grayling, MI around 12:15 pm, where McDonald's is a 3-minute walk from a 300 kW charger. The break in Bay City, MI at 10:10 am has Culver's 3 min from the charger. In all, 75 of the roughly 97 fast chargers along the way have a restaurant within a 10-minute walk.
About 97 DC fast chargers are within 5 miles of the 256-mile route, 91 of them 50 kW or more. 64 charge at 150 kW or more, 5 are on the Tesla network, and 75 have a restaurant within a 10-minute walk.
43 miles, between mile 162 (West Branch, MI) and mile 205 (Grayling, MI), 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 McDonald's (near 38 chargers), Subway (31), Burger King (25), Starbucks (23), Taco Bell (23) and Arby's (16).
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 300 kW charger in Grayling, MI; about 45 min for a Ford Mustang Mach-E at the 350 kW charger in Bay City, MI; about 25 min for a Hyundai Ioniq 5 at the 350 kW charger in Bay City, 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 4h 52m of driving for 256 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 1:50 pm.