Is it cheaper to fly or drive a Tesla from Milwaukee, WI to San Francisco, CA?
Don't buy the stress score? Switch it off and the numbers still stand.
Fly it. 2,168 mi is more road than this trip is worth.
Milwaukee, WI to San Francisco, CA is 2,168 mi by road — 31h 37m of driving and 12 Supercharger stops — against 7h 33m door to door by air. Flying is the better call: the flight costs $799 against $211 to drive, and it saves 24h 4m of travel. On the 0-100 stress scale the drive scores 100 and the flight 72.
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 13 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.