I ma curious what the experience/consensus opinion is about the ability to travel to Lake Tahoe from San Francisco bay area to Lake Tahoe. Even more specifically during ski season. Does anyone have experience with this? I currently use a 2013 Honda CRV to go to Tahoe in the ski season. I am looking to get either a EV SUV or a plugin hybrid SUV. Right now I am leaning towards a Toyota Rav4 plugin hybrid, however if I could get by with a EV SUV I would gladly go that route. I assume I would need to charge up somewhere along the way, perhaps Auburn if available. I know from using my Honda Clarity that the mountains can eat up a charge. What about the cold? How much does that eat into milage?
I used to drive to visit my brother in Nevada City when I lived in SF -- not quite as far or as high as Tahoe, but with enough range to spare that I could have made it to Tahoe. But that was in a Hyundai Kona -- small and really energy efficient. A bigger SUV won't do as well, for sure. There are ample places to charge along the way, including some in Auburn. Use Plugshare to scope out your options in advance and you should be fine. And there's lodging in Tahoe with charging on site.
I went from Fremont to around Lake Tahoe in my Model Y when I visited California back in July 2022. Now that was in summer, but it handled just fine. There were 3 supercharger stations around the lake, and Tesla's site lists a 4th one with an expected opening date in 2023. EV's excel in the mountains because electric motors don't lose power the way gas engines do at higher elevations. And on the way down, you can recover some of that electricity back with "regen braking", using the electric motor to slow you down instead of the brake pads like in a gas car. As far as winter driving, there's no mountain ranges in Wisconsin, but plenty of snowy conditions, and with snow tires, my Model Y drives just fine with its dual electric motors, one in the front, one in the back. I slipped on some slush/ice once on a section of freeway that the city hadn't plowed well yet. I thought I was going to spin out, but the Model Y's aggressive traction control along with the snow tires prevented that from happening. You can also get tire chains from Tesla as well.
I've had my MINI Cooper SE for two Minnesota winters so far, and with my snow tires (Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3s) the SE has been the best winter driving car I've had. The low center of gravity from the batteries and the regenerative braking really add to improved handling in snow conditions.
If you have a rooftop box for the skis that will cut the range as well and need to be taken into account. If there's room to put the skis inside the vehicle that will help the range.
