1700 km road trip in Europe with Model S 70D - Video

[jwilf]

We recently did a 1700 km trip through Austria, Germany and Switzerland and I made a video about it - here is part 1:

The video is 33 minutes and includes our visit to Heidelberg, Germany.

I also wrote some blog posts about it...

Introduction
Day 1 - Salzburg to Mannheim
Day 2 - Heidelberg and drive to Switzerland

Experiencing a Telsa for 4 days was amazing. There were plenty of Tesla grins!

 

[jwilf]

Part 2 is now online!

This one includes plenty of footage of driving through the Swiss Alps. Dual motor is awesome!

 

[Cloxxki]

This makes me wonder. Are there roads that shortly passage through a neighboring country where one would not touch the wheel or pedals all of the journey through the country? Ideally 3 different countries driven through without any user input, even if it was done in all of 5 minutes

 

[bobjustbob]

I watched both parts this morning. Very well done and very enjoyable.

 

[buckerine]

What are your thoughts on how the 70D worked out on this trip (As opposed to a bigger battery)?

 

[jwilf]

I watched both parts this morning. Very well done and very enjoyable.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Video editing is very time consuming so it's nice to get comments like this

 

[jwilf]

What are your thoughts on how the 70D worked out on this trip (As opposed to a bigger battery)?

The 70D was actually perfectly adequate for this trip and the range is not much lower than an S85, which is what I expected to get. There are plenty of superchargers in the region. The only part that I was concerned about was going through the Swiss mountains, over the Susten, Grimsel and Furka passes. We had to do a range charge at Beckenried which gave us 360km rated range. I was very pleased when we got to our destination with 70km remaining, and that was after covering 209km of very mountainous terrain.

Of course, we would have been pushing it to reach the Bad Ragaz SuC the next morning which is almost exactly 70km from our AirBnB. But it was on a farm and we were able to charge overnight on 3-phase power, which really saved the day!

 

[Zneip]

We did a roadtrip from Trondheim, Norway - Italy earlier this summer. We were 4 guys and two 70D's. I was astonished as to how range had no impact on this trip. Totally, we drove approx. 7000km. Tesla did an awesome job with the supercharger network, and where they are placed. I'm definitely making a long trip next summer too

 

[habanero69]

The 70D was actually perfectly adequate for this trip and the range is not much lower than an S85, which is what I expected to get. There are plenty of superchargers in the region. The only part that I was concerned about was going through the Swiss mountains, over the Susten, Grimsel and Furka passes. We had to do a range charge at Beckenried which gave us 360km rated range. I was very pleased when we got to our destination with 70km remaining, and that was after covering 209km of very mountainous terrain.

Of course, we would have been pushing it to reach the Bad Ragaz SuC the next morning which is almost exactly 70km from our AirBnB. But it was on a farm and we were able to charge overnight on 3-phase power, which really saved the day!

Exsquisive ! You just inspired the wife and I to do something similar. My car arrives in about 2 weeks so I have time to polish my video skills... WELL DONE! What camera did you use by chance? GoPro 4K possibly?

 

[jwilf]

Exsquisive ! You just inspired the wife and I to do something similar. My car arrives in about 2 weeks so I have time to polish my video skills... WELL DONE! What camera did you use by chance? GoPro 4K possibly?

Thanks! Yes, GoPro Hero 4 Silver - but it was all filmed in 1080p 25fps, medium field of view for the driving. Wide gives too much of a fish-eye look and a higher resolution is not necessary. I'd recommend a lapel mic if you want to talk to the camera while driving, although I didn't always bother to use mine... anyway, I look forward to your video!

 

[RogerHScott]

We recently did a 1700 km trip through Austria, Germany and Switzerland and I made a video about it - here is part 1:

Imagine what people would routinely do if the car did let you drive off while plugged in!
I see you did as I did and ignored the "don't use an extension cord" warning. Very few outdoor outlets would be in reach of a reasonable
parking space w/o an extension cord.

 

[jwilf]

Imagine what people would routinely do if the car did let you drive off while plugged in!
I see you did as I did and ignored the "don't use an extension cord" warning. Very few outdoor outlets would be in reach of a reasonable
parking space w/o an extension cord.

Haha, indeed! Actually it didn't work with the extension cord and we ended up passing the UMC cable through a window into the house. That's why I wanted to move the car forward a bit.

I was actually quite surprised by how much charge we gained overnight from 220v at 13A

 

[buckerine]

Haha, indeed! Actually it didn't work with the extension cord and we ended up passing the UMC cable through a window into the house. That's why I wanted to move the car forward a bit.

I was actually quite surprised by how much charge we gained overnight from 220v at 13A

Very good to know. I might actually change my order from 90D to a 75D. It does seem like the Supercharger network (at least over where you are and over here in the US) is robust enough that range anxiety isn't an issue.

 

[RogerHScott]

range anxiety isn't an issue

Like insurance, extra range is worthless until it is invaluable.

 

[RogerHScott]

So how much "free rein" did you give the Tesla on the autobahn?

 

[jwilf]

So how much "free rein" did you give the Tesla on the autobahn?

Well, I didn't go too nuts but got up to 205kph on the first day. On the way back to Salzburg was the only time we had any real range anxiety... I was flying along at about 200 when the car said we would need to slow down to 110 to make it to the next supercharger. So I did that but then spotted what I thought was a closer supercharger at Starnberg near Munich so we diverted off the autobahn to use that.

It turned out that it was a destination charger at a hotel that was in the hotel car park and only available to hotel guests! I thought we were going to get completely stuck at that point but luckily the nav said we could still reach the next supercharger if we stayed under 105 (if I recall correctly)

Lesson learned - don't mistake destination chargers for superchargers and make sure you charge well over what the car says you need if you intend to go 200kph on the autobahn!

 

[jwilf]

This makes me wonder. Are there roads that shortly passage through a neighboring country where one would not touch the wheel or pedals all of the journey through the country? Ideally 3 different countries driven through without any user input, even if it was done in all of 5 minutes

How about this? That's Belgium on the left, Netherlands in the middle and Germany on the right...

That's nowhere near where I did my trip though so I couldn't comment on whether it's possible.

 

[Cloxxki]

Good find! I suspect would Luxembourg moight have shorter passages, but didn't check yet.
Crossing NL there may well take 15 minutes. Would be quite a feat to get through there handsfree.

 

[ggnykk]

Great video!! I love the scenery!

 

[jwilf]

I've just finished blogging about day 3 of the trip - Tesla Model S Road Trip – Day 3 – jwilf.uk