Hi all,
I just booked with Hertz Rental in Worcester, MA a Model 3 for late June into early July.
I am traveling from Worcester MA out to Orange CA and back. I did it 4 times in the early 2000s when I worked for Toyota Motor Sales USA in Torrance, CA.
I once drove Memphis TN to Los Angeles in 2 days. The good old days. So, yeah, I won't be doing much sight seeing out and back.
I realize this poster hasn't logged in since shortly after they made their two posts on Tuesday, but in case they are lurking or do come back... The first thing I'd recommend is looking at what this trip looks like in a better route planner to see if it is acceptable to your or not. I think you may be surprised by the results. It certainly is a different style of driving than your previous long road trip experiences in an ICE vehicle. Driving across the country in a rented standard range model 3 wouldn't be high on my potential list of transportation methods between those two places.
But I am gleaning fast, that maybe I should supercharge on Tesla (only?) superchargers during the days, knocking the miles down, Should I not bother with competitor super-charger stations on the road? Will I have all kinds of problems there?
Yes like Rich said this trip would be predominantly if not solely done on Tesla's supercharging network. Yes you would have major problems on competitor networks, you wouldn't be able to charge at most if not all of them. Other fast charging networks that you have heard of like Electrify America in your other post use a different plug type that your rental car will not have the required adapter for.
and then what wall-charge at night at accommodating hotels with the supplied adaptor?
A couple of things here. First if you are intending on doing this, make sure the adapter is in the car before your leave the Hertz location. In the three Tesla's I've rented one of them didn't have the J-1772. And as an owner at this point if I plan on doing or potentially doing any J-1772 charging, I'm bringing mine with me. Then beyond that I'm with
@danpass and this is a personal preference, but if a hotel had charging great, but I wouldn't necessarily plan a trip out seeking it. There are too many things that could go wrong there be it: A) not functioning B) already in use by someone else C) blocked by a regular vehicle, etc.
The Hertz fine print says that authentic Tesla Superchargers bill back to them.
Yeah you aren't getting around that.
But back to charging, what can I expect average range highway driving off a 80-90% charge?
I think
@RichAZ/CapeCod 's numbers above are probably in the ballpark, maybe slightly optimistic. With that said though, like I said above. You should probably look at this trip in a better route planner to see if it is something you really actually want to do or not. The only times you should really be driving off 80 to 90% of the battery would be the first segment of the day.
Other than that like
@danpass noted in their post, the quickest way to drive on a road trip is on the lower 2/3 of the battery. This minimizes the time you spend charging. The optimal segment for a Standard Range Model 3 at interstate speeds per ABRP ends up driving roughly 100 to 130 miles charging for 15 to 20 minutes and repeating the process. Driving 1,000ish miles in a day that is obviously going to add up time wise. You need to decide whether that is acceptable to you or not.
---------------------------------------------
Then in the morning I went back to that same supercharger to get another 10% into the battery, or, more specifically, use the supercharger to warm up the battery while I car-plan my next supercharger stops in real time to my destination, which I had settled upon previously in the time I spent in ABRP.
You had me until here. If this works for you, by all means keep doing it. Personally though, if I knew I wanted 80% for the next day I wouldn't stop 10% short the night before. That last 10% will be quicker during the charging session because the battery is already warm. There really isn't any benefit to a warm battery in the morning either. Most people are presumably going 150+ miles on the first drive of the day and the car will have ample time to warm the battery to the optimal temperature for the first supercharger enroute. Plus you obviously can hit the road right away too...
