94 Miles on Gravity!

[Polly Wog]

Not sure how that would work. As far as I know the heating of the battery when needed occurs through warming the coolant with heat from the motor and inverter.

One of the "tinkerers" on this forum posted information on the cooling system back when the 3 first came out, but I don't remember the details. I sort of remember, though, that there is a relationship between the cabin conditioning system and battery conditioning system. I'll have to search for it later.

 

[Feathermerchan]

Cabin is separately heated and cooled from coolant. The A/C system can cool both the cabin and coolant or either one separately.
The cabin heater is an electric heating element connected to the HV battery. The inverter for the rear motor can send current thru the motor but not produce torque. The resultant heat is used to heat the coolant and battery.

 

[ForeverFree]

Another shot from the summit, with 2 of the telescopes in the background.

View attachment 395118

Jealous. Wish we'd had our red Model 3 when we did that drive over Christmas. Instead, we had a rental Toyota Somethingorother. Definitely wasn't thrilled to be climbing to 10,000 feet.

Pretty cool to eke out 94 miles from the top. The best we've done with our mountains here in LA was 45 miles (from 7,000 feet).

Have you ever done the Skyline Trail mountain bike route off the back (by the observatory)?

 

[Polly Wog]

Jealous. Wish we'd had our red Model 3 when we did that drive over Christmas. Instead, we had a rental Toyota Somethingorother. Definitely wasn't thrilled to be climbing to 10,000 feet.

Pretty cool to eke out 94 miles from the top. The best we've done with our mountains here in LA was 45 miles (from 7,000 feet).

Have you ever done the Skyline Trail mountain bike route off the back (by the observatory)?

@ForeverFree, 45 miles isn't bad at all, especially in southern California. I would expect folks driving to the top of Pike's Peak near Colorado Springs could do a little better than 45 after coming down, but someone would have to report it to know that . I personally haven't biked down the Skyline Trail, but I have close friends that have and I'm hoping to do it some day.

 

[Celledral]

Nice post. I think all post should have content and photos.

 

[srs5694]

One of the "tinkerers" on this forum posted information on the cooling system back when the 3 first came out, but I don't remember the details. I sort of remember, though, that there is a relationship between the cabin conditioning system and battery conditioning system. I'll have to search for it later.

Most EVs have separate cooling systems for the battery and the cabin. Tesla links the two in a way that still enables the battery and cabin to be heated or cooled independently. The key is the Superbottle, which is a shared coolant reservoir that enables pumping coolant to either the cabin or battery systems.

 

[Feathermerchan]

Coolant does not enter the cabin and is not used to heat or cool the cabin in any way. Refrigerant does. There is a refrigerant heat exchanger close to the superbottle that can be used to chill the coolant.

 

[deproduction]

Are y'all using neutral?
Here's a video of me comparing coasting in neutral vs using the accelerator pedal and there seems to be a slight advantage gained from using neutral.

 

[abasile]

Are y'all using neutral? Here's a video of me comparing coasting in neutral vs using the accelerator pedal and there seems to be a slight advantage gained from using neutral.

On a very gentle downslope, I would expect neutral to be slightly more efficient since the motor power can be more precisely zeroed out. This is not exactly applicable to descending mountains, though!

We frequently do a 4900' descent from our mountain town. It's common to regen back ~15 miles of range in the Model S and ~20+ miles in the Model 3. On the other hand, the Model 3 uses more miles on the climb. We're not slow drivers.

It's quite normal for the regen to be limited, at least at some point on a long mountain descent, due to having a battery charge above 70-80% and/or a battery temperature on the cool side. Still, as long as no sudden stops are needed, we can charge to ~88% at home and then drive down the mountain without touching the brakes.

 

[avesraggiana]

Hey, do you own Maui Tacos, or a business in a Kihei strip mall? There’s a natural foods grocery store there too.

I see a very attractive red Model 3 parked there all the time.

 

[maztec]

@Polly Wog That's cool! Great job on your energy efficiency with a gravity run.

I have a crazy question. Can your Model 3 climb out of Waipio Valley, up the road? I would love to see a Dashcam video of that!

 

[Nocturnal]

OP is a witch! Burn him!

 

[Polly Wog]

Hey, do you own Maui Tacos, or a business in a Kihei strip mall? There’s a natural foods grocery store there too.

I see a very attractive red Model 3 parked there all the time.

Sorry, but I'm not the owner of Maui Tacos (And I believe it is their car). The Maui tacos location you refer to is very close to our home, and my wife shops at the natural foods grocery store on occastion (Hawaiian Moons) and has seen their car there many times.

 

[Polly Wog]

@Polly Wog That's cool! Great job on your energy efficiency with a gravity run.

I have a crazy question. Can your Model 3 climb out of Waipio Valley, up the road? I would love to see a Dashcam video of that!

@maztec, I'm sure my model 3 could climb out of Waipio Valley, if not for the condition the road is in most of the time and the fact that it is on the Big Island, and not Maui

 

[rkmvca]

That's awesome!

My best effort was from the top of Tioga Pass (9945') at the eastern edge of Yosemite National Park coasting down to the town of Lee Vining on the shore of Mono Lake (6378'). It's 13 miles linear distance, and my range increased by 10 miles, so I effectively increased my range by 23 miles!

.

Note, this is in a Model S 75D, and I didn't really optimize anything: coasted at 55-60 mph on a smooth road with climate on (mild day). My rule of thumb for the S is that every 1000' of altitude costs you just about 6 miles of range, so this lines up very well: 3567' * .006 mi/' = 21.4 miles.

But 10,000 vertical feet in one go is amazing!!

 

[one true morty]

When we did it we were in a little 4-cylinder Nissan Versa. I am sure it would have been much less nerve-racking in the 3. My husband was messing with me and going 'whooooaa!' around almost every corner. If it were not for my daughter being in the car I may have shoved him out of the door a few of the times. This is really cool that you have shared your experience! Thank you. (also it makes me want to come back to Maui.)

 

[Nv628]

Awesome. Standard regen? Can't do much coasting with that

 

[arcus]

Still, I'm not sure who would be able to break this record. Maui and the Big Island are probably the only places where it could be done

Very impressive! If you're up to beating your own record, a stretch of the road between Concocha and Paramonga in Peru is considered the longest continuous paved descent in the world

 

[arcus]

My best effort was from the top of Tioga Pass (9945') at the eastern edge of Yosemite National Park coasting down to the town of Lee Vining on the shore of Mono Lake (6378'). It's 13 miles linear distance, and my range increased by 10 miles, so I effectively increased my range by 23 miles!

We did the same trip last year and I had very similar, impressive range gains (S75):
California, here we come! (Road trip 2018 – part 10)

 

[Polly Wog]

Very impressive! If you're up to beating your own record, a stretch of the road between Concocha and Paramonga in Peru is considered the longest continuous paved descent in the world

I was unaware of that location, so maybe someone with a Model 3 in Peru can break my record! The descent there appears to be about 13,000 feet, so that they could theoretically gain even more range on the way down, as well.