Elon Musk finalizes plans for cross-country Tesla Motors road trip

Tesla Motors founder and CEO is planning a cross-country trip in a Tesla Motors Model S electric sedan. In these days of Model S electric cars and free Supercharger fast-charging networks, it no longer looks so daunting, Ingram writes.

Earlier this year, Tesla Motors founder and CEO announced his intentions for a cross-country Tesla Model S road trip.

In the past, such a trip would have been the work of much planning, countless hours charging and multiple stops along the way. But in these days of Model S electric cars and free Supercharger fast-charging networks, it no longer looks so daunting.

Musk tweeted earlier today that his Los Angeles to New York family road trip plans were finalized, says Tech Crunch, and expects the trip to take just six days, with only nine hours' charging required to cross the country.

Those nine hours will be spread across several stops, with around 1.5 hours of charging per day. Musk says that he'll only be stopping for eating or sightseeing--in other words, he won't be stopping just to top up the car. 

The concept of crossing the country via Superchargers in a Model S is nothing new of course, but Musk's run is as symbolic as it is a convenient way of crossing coast-to-coast. Given his propensity for publicity, it could be a good way of advertising the car's benefits to those still skeptical of the vehicle. It is, after all, a company CEO putting very public faith in his product and the infrastructure needed to support it.

For the rest of us, it's further reassurance that road trips won't die off with the advent of electric cars, nor even will the nature of them change--they'll just get a lot cheaper, and a lot greener. Maybe one day classic trips like Route 66 will be electrified and revitalized...