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Is it cheaper to fly or drive a Tesla from San Antonio, TX to McAllen, TX?
Don't buy the stress score? Switch it off and the numbers still stand.
Tesla it. You save $203, and the trip is 77% less stressful.
San Antonio, TX to McAllen, TX is 385 km by road — 3h 60m of driving and 1 Supercharger stop — against 4h 25m door to door by air. Driving is cheaper: taking the Tesla costs $23 against $226 to fly, a saving of $203. On the 0-100 stress scale the drive scores 14 and the flight 60.
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…
432 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
273
Average $287 kept on those trips, in US dollars at fixed rates.
Plane wins
137
Long enough that the road stops making sense.
Too close to call
22
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.
257 of these have been checked by a person. Latest: Shanghai, CN → Shenzhen, CN, Charlotte, NC → Savannah, GA, Chattanooga, TN → Greenville, SC.