1400 mile below freezing Model Y LR Road Trip

[SSonnentag]

Lol sub zero f is not fun. Good data set though, I saw it for a few minutes.

Yep, when the C and f temp scales start aligning you know it is bad

-39C/f here right now with wind chill

These temps are much lower than the OP is anticipating though so their consumption should be much better than what I was getting.

I tried to update the chart with a graph and something got messed up. Here's the data and graph again.
Looks like I have collected 111,000 miles worth of data so far.

 

[rwiegand]

You might want to have a CCS adapter on board so you can take advantage of non-Tesla high power DC charges. ABRP will direct them to you. Unfortunately there's no way to condition the battery for charging on demand, so you have to point the NAV at a supercharger to get it to work. Fortunately on I70 you won't really need your nav system, so you can point at a SC that isn't anywhere near where you're actually going. A PITA, but there you go. How hard would a "precondition battery for charging" button be?

 

[soumak]

So just for those of you that are interested. i made it to my destination. Will be coming back on Monday but temperatures should be higher. Trip with no stop takes 10.5 hrs. Trip with Gas car takes about 11.5 hrs. Trip with Telsa during September took 12.5 hrs. This trip took 14 hrs.

Definitely could see a range drop in the Tesla. Since this is the first road trip in the winter, I stayed at the charging stations longer than I needed to. The lowest I arrived at a charger was 8%. The most I arrived at a charger was 25%. Overall the tesla did just fine. It was cloudy and at night it seems like the auto pilot does a better job than during the day when there is sun and glare. mostly charged up to about 80 and would go to the next stop and keep moving that way. Temperature was as low as 13 and as high as 32.

I did use the tesla superchargers the whole way and every one of them worked. i can't say the same would be true for CSS. Infact there was a video out recently from out of spec with their rivian r1t where they coudlnt' get electrifiy america to work in the cold.

 

[drtimhill]

So just for those of you that are interested. i made it to my destination. Will be coming back on Monday but temperatures should be higher. Trip with no stop takes 10.5 hrs. Trip with Gas car takes about 11.5 hrs. Trip with Telsa during September took 12.5 hrs. This trip took 14 hrs.

Definitely could see a range drop in the Tesla. Since this is the first road trip in the winter, I stayed at the charging stations longer than I needed to. The lowest I arrived at a charger was 8%. The most I arrived at a charger was 25%. Overall the tesla did just fine. It was cloudy and at night it seems like the auto pilot does a better job than during the day when there is sun and glare. mostly charged up to about 80 and would go to the next stop and keep moving that way. Temperature was as low as 13 and as high as 32.

I did use the tesla superchargers the whole way and every one of them worked. i can't say the same would be true for CSS. Infact there was a video out recently from out of spec with their rivian r1t where they coudlnt' get electrifiy america to work in the cold.

Glad the trip went well .. I had a similar experience driving from SF to Seattle a few months back. Overall the car did very well but I did find using ARBP to predict my route helped a lot. I simply setup the whole route in ABRP and then looked carefully at charge levels at different SCs, deciding which ones I could safely skip, then using the car nav to drive me to the next SC.

 

[soumak]

Glad the trip went well .. I had a similar experience driving from SF to Seattle a few months back. Overall the car did very well but I did find using ARBP to predict my route helped a lot. I simply setup the whole route in ABRP and then looked carefully at charge levels at different SCs, deciding which ones I could safely skip, then using the car nav to drive me to the next SC.

I’ll have to try abrp on the way back. I know this road and the stops pretty well because I drive it once per quarter so I knew once the charging speed slows down I can just move to next charger even if Tesla says to wait longer. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Also I just bought a model 3 with their 7500 off deal yesterday with delivery for the 28th! Impulse buy but the deal was too good to pass up.

 

[jcanoe]

I’ll have to try abrp on the way back. I know this road and the stops pretty well because I drive it once per quarter so I knew once the charging speed slows down I can just move to next charger even if Tesla says to wait longer. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Also I just bought a model 3 with their 7500 off deal yesterday with delivery for the 28th! Impulse buy but the deal was too good to pass up.

You can configure ABRP for fewer charging stops or more frequent charging stops according to your needs.

 

[BobCat]

ABRP has a variety of settings you can use and "use real time weather" is one. Not sure how exactly it computes the impact on range but you can run planning scenario's on different days/times to gauge its accuracy. I recommend going through all the settings before you start the planning process as they can be very helpful. For instance, I go to a fairly remote area of southern UT with a destination charger. I like to ensure I have sufficient charge for my activities before I settle in for the night so I set the arrival state of charge higher to account for that then charge as needed overnight.

I'm still on a steep learning curve. I've used the ABRP but don't know how to "use real time weather", "all the settings" or determine the charge at a destination?

 

[Dennisis]

I'm still on a steep learning curve. I've used the ABRP but don't know how to "use real time weather", "all the settings" or determine the charge at a destination?

Via your computer web browser the settings are on the top left. You can add your car and then other settings are listed in a series of drop downs below.

 

[drtimhill]

I'm still on a steep learning curve. I've used the ABRP but don't know how to "use real time weather", "all the settings" or determine the charge at a destination?

ABRP is powerful but the UI, to be generous, is a mess (I've given them feedback on this). If you want to get the most out of it you really have to study it, and even then it's still frustrating to use. But it DOES give good results, and you can use it to ensure your drive is optimal but also low-stress.

 

[JonB65]

I'm still on a steep learning curve. I've used the ABRP but don't know how to "use real time weather", "all the settings" or determine the charge at a destination?

There is a setting for Arrival State of Charge. You can set your desired arrival percentage there. If I'm road tripping I put this at 70% to ensure I've got a decent charge before stopping for the night.

 

[Electroman]

Remember Denver to Kansas is gentle downhill and lose a lot of elevation, and that would greatly help you. Going to be huge pita in the reverse direction

 

[boulder.dude]

Remember Denver to Kansas is gentle downhill and lose a lot of elevation, and that would greatly help you. Going to be huge pita in the reverse direction

And you typically have a tailwind when you’re traveling east

 

[TomServo]

Have a backup plan in case the destination charger is unavailable. Download the Plugshare app onto your phone to locate available charging stations.

Enter your trip into A Better Route Planner including assumptions about your highway speed, temperature, wind and road conditions. Note the charging stops that ABRP recommends, do charge for the recommended times at those locations. (Be sure to enter each, next Supercharger location in the Tesla Navigation system so that the Tesla Model Y Preconditions the battery for Supercharging while on route.)

Excellent advice and mirrors how I plan road trips. I also look for Lvl II chargers along my route and will typically add them to the Nav so in an emergency I can just tap it and go.

48 years working for the USAF and we called this Situational Awareness SA for short.

 

[soumak]

So just got back from the trip. Return temperature was between 17-38 degrees. Definitely better than the low teens when I went there. Took 16 hrs to get back! Every Tesla charger worked on first connect again so that was awesome. The Hays, KS had 6 charging station and when I arrived it was full with 3 other people already waiting. Took 40-45 mins for me to get a charger. Then an additional 10 cars came while I was charging. They definitely need to expand this charger asap.

Definitely noticed that at time of sunset I started to have phantom braking with one being a pretty hard braking. At night it worked perfectly so it definitely seems like sun glares and dirt on windshield causing phantom braking problems. When it was cloudy autopilot was perfectly fine also.

I think next trip I’ll get a CSS plugs just to avoid hays if possible.

 

[woolymammoth17]

I tried to update the chart with a graph and something got messed up. Here's the data and graph again.
Looks like I have collected 111,000 miles worth of data so far.

View attachment 887201

Wow this is extremely interesting. Seems a huge drop off in efficiency at freezing and below. I thought it would be more linear from 60 down to zero.

Perhaps because battery above freezing is fine and isn't using much active heat, but below freezing car is using a lot of power to make sure it stays above freezing and that's why the huge drop at 30-35?

 

[DrGriz]

Wow this is extremely interesting. Seems a huge drop off in efficiency at freezing and below. I thought it would be more linear from 60 down to zero.

Perhaps because battery above freezing is fine and isn't using much active heat, but below freezing car is using a lot of power to make sure it stays above freezing and that's why the huge drop at 30-35?

There's lots of reasons efficiency drops below freezing, battery temp being one. Also, traction control, winter tires if you have them, delta on the climate control. It's a big bite.

Also, note that that graph has very few miles at below 15 degrees F, so there could be sampling issues (driving at low temps before the battery has a chance to be warmed). But I have anecdotally noted the same.