We took a family overnight trip to Karuizawa this summer, which meant 750 to 800 km round trip from home in the Kansai region. Even with the Model YL’s range that is not a no-stop distance, so EV road trip charging had to be part of the plan.
The tidy plan would have been to charge at Karuizawa itself, right where we were staying. The problem is that the Karuizawa Supercharger shows a queue in the app more or less permanently.
So I built the trip around a different idea: fill up properly at Matsumoto on the way in, then skip charging at Karuizawa entirely. This post is about that stop itself, specifically what you do with the hour it takes.
The short version: Matsumoto turned out to be close to ideal.
Arriving at Matsumoto With 16% Left
We rolled in a little after 11:00 with 16% on the battery.
The site sits a few minutes from the Shiojiri-kita interchange, so it is easy to reach without detouring far off the expressway.
Matsumoto has four stalls. Two cars were already plugged in when we arrived, making us the third. A fourth turned up shortly after, filling the place.
The app is in Japanese. The line under the battery reads “50 min to charge limit”, then “Charge limit: 100% · Charging”.
233 kW showing shortly after connecting. With all four stalls busy, that tells me the two earlier cars were already deep into their sessions.
The price field read ¥0.00, thanks to three years of free Supercharging. If you want to see what the full curve looks like from a much lower state of charge, I measured one in detail in my Model YL charging curve post.
The Shopping Centre Next Door Makes the Hour Easy
What makes Matsumoto work is location.
There is an Aeon Town right beside the chargers, so nobody has to sit in the car.
Lunch: Soba, Because Nagano
We started with lunch.
It is a chain restaurant, but the sign advertises Shinshu nihachi soba, the local buckwheat noodle style made with 80% buckwheat to 20% wheat flour.
The signage is Japanese. It reads “Soba-dokoro” (soba house), advertising Shinshu nihachi soba.
Eating something regional turns the charging stop into part of the trip rather than an interruption.
There was also a Tenhou, a ramen chain local to Nagano, for anyone in a ramen mood instead.
The sign reads “Chuka Shokudo Tenhou” (Tenhou Chinese diner), with “ramen” underneath.
Restocking at the Discount Supermarket
After eating we walked over to The Big, a discount supermarket in the same complex.
Drinks for the room, snacks, all the odds and ends you end up buying on a trip.
Buying this stuff before you reach a resort town is meaningfully cheaper. I intend to make it a standing part of our EV trips.
Watching the App to Time Our Walk Back
I kept an eye on the charge through lunch.
I was also watching the Karuizawa Supercharger ahead of us.
The map labels are Japanese place names. The circled marker is Karuizawa; Matsumoto is the marker to the west.
The red circle is Karuizawa. It was already showing a wait, before midday.
The line under the battery reads “25 min to charge limit”, then “Charge limit: 100% · Charging”.
80% at 11:40, with output already down to 53 kW.
This one reads “8 min to charge limit”.
By the time we finished shopping the car was at roughly 85%.
Nobody was waiting, so I let it run to 96%.
Then another Model Y pulled in, so I stopped there and gave up the stall.
Karuizawa Was Busy, Exactly as Expected
The panel reads “Tesla Supercharger Karuizawa / Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza / Wait time ~5 min / Capacity: 4 stalls (250 kW max)”.
That is the app as we approached Karuizawa. Four stalls, roughly five minutes of queue.
Sure enough, when we drove to a nearby shopping mall for dinner, several cars were lined up waiting.
Because we left Matsumoto at 96%, we covered all of the local sightseeing without plugging in once.
Queues at Supercharger sites in resort towns look likely to get worse as more Teslas arrive.
Summary: What Good EV Road Trip Charging Looks Like
How the Matsumoto stop went:
- Four stalls at Matsumoto; arrived at 16%, left at 96%
- 233 kW immediately after plugging in, ¥0.00 thanks to the three-year free period
- Soba lunch plus a supermarket run at the Aeon Town on foot filled the hour neatly
- I timed our walk back using the app, then unplugged early once somebody arrived
- Karuizawa was queuing, exactly as the app had warned
Faster charging is always welcome, but I would not want EV road trip charging to lose stops like this one, where an hour disappears into lunch without anyone noticing.
That only works if there are enough stalls to go around. Tesla Japan, over to you.
The follow-up covers what happened at Karuizawa: the queue, the top-up, plus my thinking on what percentage you should unplug at when people are waiting.
This article is also available in Japanese.
