900 mile Supercharger road trip

[roblab]

It is 230 miles from Gilroy to Tejon Ranch, with the last stretch uphill as you begin the climb up the Grapevine. Unless you are prepared to drive 55 mph the entire way, I don't believe you can make it on a single charge. And covering those 230 miles would take at least an hour longer driving 55 vs. 75, so you might as well charge at Harris and be sure you can make it to Tejon.

At 60 mph you get ideal range of 300 miles per charge. 230 miles to Tejon Ranch is so easily doable that I would guess you could go 65 easily. 65 vs. 75 would save you ten minutes of time, which would be far less than pulling off the I-5 at Harris Ranch and doing some kind of top up charge, maybe with an included wait in line.

SET THE CRUISE at 65, put your regen on Low (to smooth out the accel / decel losses) and go from Gilroy to Tejon.

I am sorry I have not gone this route, but I will say that I went the 230 miles from Harris Ranch to Barstow, over the 4000' Tehachapi pass (takes 40 miles of range for the climb), at 60 mph cruise, and made it with 35 miles to spare. I don't know why you couldn't make it. If you don't have it on cruise, your mileage will suffer a lot as you pull out to pass slower cars, or speed up to get out of others' way. Maybe it's just driving style, but the semis are doing 60 - 65 and you can easily cruise with them.

Doing 60 might take 15 minutes more, but nowhere near an hour. Those who do "75" are often doing 80, often slowing, and getting horrible mileage, requiring a pit stop at Harris.

I get the feeling no one believes me. I have been driving EVs since 2002, always get near ideal miles except in town, and lifetime Wh / mi is running around 300. On trips, it is nearly always below 285, where the 300 mile per charge is. And I don't waste my time doing convenience charges due to range anxiety.

To each his own. Your mileage may vary.

 

[deonb]

SET THE CRUISE at 65, put your regen on Low (to smooth out the accel / decel losses) and go from Gilroy to Tejon.

Does the cruise control manage to hold speed with regen set to low (as opposed to the car speeding up downhill)?

If so, how does it do that?

 

[dennis]

At 60 mph you get ideal range of 300 miles per charge. 230 miles to Tejon Ranch is so easily doable that I would guess you could go 65 easily. 65 vs. 75 would save you ten minutes of time, which would be far less than pulling off the I-5 at Harris Ranch and doing some kind of top up charge, maybe with an included wait in line.

Doing 60 might take 15 minutes more, but nowhere near an hour. Those who do "75" are often doing 80, often slowing, and getting horrible mileage, requiring a pit stop at Harris.

To each his own. Your mileage may vary.

I agree it is a matter of driving style, but disagree with some of your numbers. From the Tesla blog post on Model S range:

One of the points that we feel represents a useful summary of this data is the range at a constant 55 mph under the conditions above. For the 85 kWh Model S this is slightly greater than 300 miles.

So 300 mile ideal range is achieved at a constant 55 mph, not 60. Also, 230/65=3.53 hours and 230/75=3.06 hours, a difference of 30 minutes, not 10. The traffic in the left lane of I5 moves at 75-80 mph, so achieving a 75 mph average is easy.

I like to drive so I never use cruise control. And I didn't purchase a P85 to caravan with the semis at 60mph. I'm using more than 300 wh/mi but I'm really enjoying driving my Model S. definitely a matter of personal preference.

 

[brianman]

Does the cruise control manage to hold speed with regen set to low (as opposed to the car speeding up downhill)?

If so, how does it do that?

I tested this at one point and it had no issues with keeping tight (+/- 1mph) with the setting regardless of Low regen. I didn't try coming down a mountain though.

 

[napabill]

I tested this at one point and it had no issues with keeping tight (+/- 1mph) with the setting regardless of Low regen. I didn't try coming down a mountain though.

I did, and it appeared that CC speed is the primary goal and that regen adjusts to maintain it regardless of the regen setting.