Checked 16×
Is it cheaper to fly or drive a Tesla from Austin, TX to New Orleans, LA?
Don't buy the stress score? Switch it off and the numbers still stand.
Tesla it. You save $154, and the trip is 49% less stressful.
Austin, TX to New Orleans, LA is 822 km by road — 8h 55m of driving and 3 Supercharger stops — against 4h 45m door to door by air. Driving is cheaper: taking the Tesla costs $94 against $248 to fly, a saving of $154. On the 0-100 stress scale the drive scores 27 and the flight 53.
Priced with fast charging at $0.36 per kWh and 3.7 miles per kWh, airfare from a $95 base plus $0.13 a mile per person, one $35 bag and a $30 ride at each end. Airfare is modelled from flight distance, not a live fare quote, so treat it as a typical fare rather than today's price. Rates last reviewed 14 September 2026; this trip last priced 15 September 2026.
Checking the route…
430 city pairs, run through the same math
Sometimes the car wins. Sometimes the plane does.
Real driving distances from Google, the same cost and stress model your trip gets. Blue lines are the ones where the Tesla won.
Car wins
274
Average $301 kept on those trips, in US dollars at fixed rates.
Plane wins
135
Long enough that the road stops making sense.
Too close to call
21
Either choice is defensible. Your call.
Biggest money wins
Where flying costs the most.
Just fly it
Long enough that the plane wins.
Closest calls
Within a rounding error either way.
242 of these have been checked by a person. Latest: Austin, TX → New Orleans, LA, Lehi, UT → California City, CA, Kernersville, NC → Denver, CO.