Trip was compliant with covid regulations in the UK and the European leg was permitted due to compassionate exemption.
1. Car details
- 2020 TM3 SR+
- No heat pump
- No aero covers
- 3rd party mud flaps front and rear
- Tyre pressures ~45 PSI
- 2021 Maps.
- 2021.4.18.2
2. Route Map
Scotland > England > Wales > England > Netherlands > Germany > Poland > Czechia > Slovakia
The detour to Pembrokeshire was for a wedding. As expected, this was the hardest part of the journey in terms of charging, however after fiddling with some engenie and podpoint account setup it wasn't too tricky.
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3. Charges
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4. Observations
I didn't make any alterations to my usual driving style, so no attempt at hypermiling or being cautious with the acceleration. I managed to have some fun on the auto-bahn. I've done similar trips in a BMW E39, E61, Audi A6 (all estate) and Jaguar X308 so they're a point of reference for my observations.
- The car knew I was in NL and the LTE signal was active before I'd disembarked the ferry. I'd read about the need to reset the car when arriving on the continent but this was not required.
- Being able to quickly switch the display from miles to KM was really useful.
- Autopilot seemed a lot more confident, far less jerky compared to the UK. I don't enjoy using it in the UK but did around 20% of the trip with it in Europe.
- No phantom breaking issues occurred. I passed loads of curtain sided lorries and when passing noticed they jumped away from the car on the visualisation rather than toward the car.
- The speed sign recognition and map speed is dangerously wrong, especially in Germany. Many issues of no speed limit enforced where it was actually 120 and failure to recognise reduced speed limits due to roadworks. It's often hard to know what the speed limit is when in a foreign country, especially if the limit is enforced when certain conditions apply, and you don't understand the language that's written below the speed limit. I'll probably setup waze for the return leg, just to handle the speed limits.
- Speed limits aside, the navigation was spot on, It's really clever how it works out which superchargers you need to visit and for how long.
- The leg between Dresden and Wroclaw was probably the tightest for range, I was advised to charge to 100% to arrive with 6%. I was also told to keep my speed under 120kph, I did this for the first 10 minutes, the warning then went away, and ultimately I arrived with 21%, far more than the 6% forecast.
- I was flashed once by an oncoming vehicle when my lights were dipped, so not sure if that was just a friendly local or if the lights would benefit from some adjustment to driving on the right hand side of the road.
- Many of the superchargers visited were on the forecourts of petrol stations (Gulf, Shell, Orlen). This makes sense to me yet not something I've seen in the UK yet.
Overall I found the SR+ to be a comfortable and competent tourer compared to my previous rides. Most of the time I was ready to stop and take a break when I needed to charge. I suspect with the LR or P I would have been able to reduce the charges stops/time charging and make the journey a bit quicker.
The EU leg took around 19 hours including stops, by the time I got to Poland though, I think I was probably the slow factor rather than the car as I'd already been driving for around 14 hours at that point.
I'm due to drive back in a month, fingers crossed the FSD/EAP subscription is active then as I'd love to activate that for the return leg.
Many thanks to
@spdpsba and
@noelebob as your Tesla Referral miles covered this trip, ultimately I spent around £30 to do the 1985 miles.