The drive is 244.2 miles, about 4h 30m. Along it sit about 66 DC fast chargers within 5 miles of the route — and 50 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 Minneapolis at 8:00 am, take a break in Clear Lake at 10:25 am, stop for lunch in Ames at 12:15 pm and arrive in Des Moines around 1:30 pm.
| When | Where | Charger | Food within a walk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 am | Leave Minneapolis, MN | ||
| 10:25 am Break · mile 131 | Clear Lake, IA Pilot Travel Center | 350 kW 4 stalls | 🥪 Subway 1 min, 🥩 Arby's 2 min, 🍟 McDonald's 2 min |
| 12:15 pm Lunch · mile 213 | Ames, IA Ames, IA - Tesla Supercharger | 250 kW 8 stalls | 🥪 Subway 2 min |
| ~1:30 pm | Arrive in Des Moines, IA |
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 150 kW, with 37 stops at 150 kW or more and 11 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 Minneapolis at 8:00 am, lunch falls in Ames, IA around 12:15 pm, where Subway is a 2-minute walk from a 250 kW charger. The break in Clear Lake, IA at 10:25 am has Subway 1 min from the charger. In all, 50 of the roughly 66 fast chargers along the way have a restaurant within a 10-minute walk.
About 66 DC fast chargers are within 5 miles of the 244-mile route, 59 of them 50 kW or more. 37 charge at 150 kW or more, 11 are on the Tesla network, and 50 have a restaurant within a 10-minute walk.
34 miles, between mile 131 (Clear Lake, IA) and mile 165 (Dows, IA), 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 22 chargers), Subway (19), Burger King (14), Starbucks (14), Caribou Coffee (13) and Panera Bread (12).
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 250 kW charger in Ames, IA; about 45 min for a Ford Mustang Mach-E at the 350 kW charger in Clear Lake, IA; about 25 min for a Hyundai Ioniq 5 at the 350 kW charger in Clear Lake, IA. 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 30m of driving for 244 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 1:30 pm.