An interesting journey last night

Picking my son and 3 of his friends up from Gatwick yesterday. Had been a bit out during the day so car charge was down a bit and while plugged in at home it didn't quite get to a level I wanted it before I had to leave. Technically I should have been able to make the trip there and back with 8% spare at the start.

So off I go and figure don't want to run it so close so I'll try the new Gridserve with 4 Tesla chargers as I could give it a 5 - 10 quick boost, buy a coffee and all I'd need. Punch this into the nav and use 4% of the battery in preheating. I get there to find our car no longer DC charges. We got it back a week ago from a body shop for a dent someone put into a door in parking lot plus getting rims sorted. Guessing they disconnected the HV battery and maybe haven't plugged something back in. Tried 2 Tesla chargers (One of which saw another Tesla charging on OK) and 2 of the other non-Tesla chargers and none worked.

So burned 4% pre-heating. Car says now I should get home with 4% so I normally trust that to be pretty accurate. Picked everyone up and decided to go 60 instead of 70 to be on the safe side anyway...

That was not enough, about 2 miles in my arrival dropped from 4% to 3, another 2 miles roughly and my arrival was 2%, clearly seemed wasn't going to make to so dropped further down to 55mph. That seemed to do the trick. And it got up to 3% and seemed to stay there the whole time.

A few points from this:

1. Tesla range estimations on battery arrival are amazingly accurate but it cannot of course account for you adding 4 more adults and all their luggage in before you set off. That extra weight in a Model 3 makes a massive difference. I had to go at 55mph to get the efficiency I'd have got with just me in the car at 70mph.

2. If you've had the car in a garage, even if it's just a dent. I guess they disconnect the battery for safety reasons, check both AC and DC charging before you need to use it in anger.

3. Was planning on being a two EV household but has made me wobble a little that maybe one car still needs to be an ICE or PHEV. Yes they can break down but as long as running you can probably always put fuel in the tank. Distance I did yesterday would be about 1/3rd a tank of diesel.

4. Going 55mph in a motorway is the slowest I've ever done. Hope I don't have to crawl home like that again. It's unfitting for a Model 3 Performance.

"Nachhaltige E-Mobilität: Tesla Model 3 aufladen mit einem Typ 2-Stecker" by verchmarco is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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[easyev]

Picking my son and 3 of his friends up from Gatwick yesterday. Had been a bit out during the day so car charge was down a bit and while plugged in at home it didn't quite get to a level I wanted it before I had to leave. Technically I should have been able to make the trip there and back with 8% spare at the start.

So off I go and figure don't want to run it so close so I'll try the new Gridserve with 4 Tesla chargers as I could give it a 5 - 10 quick boost, buy a coffee and all I'd need. Punch this into the nav and use 4% of the battery in preheating. I get there to find our car no longer DC charges. We got it back a week ago from a body shop for a dent someone put into a door in parking lot plus getting rims sorted. Guessing they disconnected the HV battery and maybe haven't plugged something back in. Tried 2 Tesla chargers (One of which saw another Tesla charging on OK) and 2 of the other non-Tesla chargers and none worked.

So burned 4% pre-heating. Car says now I should get home with 4% so I normally trust that to be pretty accurate. Picked everyone up and decided to go 60 instead of 70 to be on the safe side anyway...

That was not enough, about 2 miles in my arrival dropped from 4% to 3, another 2 miles roughly and my arrival was 2%, clearly seemed wasn't going to make to so dropped further down to 55mph. That seemed to do the trick. And it got up to 3% and seemed to stay there the whole time.

A few points from this:

1. Tesla range estimations on battery arrival are amazingly accurate but it cannot of course account for you adding 4 more adults and all their luggage in before you set off. That extra weight in a Model 3 makes a massive difference. I had to go at 55mph to get the efficiency I'd have got with just me in the car at 70mph.

2. If you've had the car in a garage, even if it's just a dent. I guess they disconnect the battery for safety reasons, check both AC and DC charging before you need to use it in anger.

3. Was planning on being a two EV household but has made me wobble a little that maybe one car still needs to be an ICE or PHEV. Yes they can break down but as long as running you can probably always put fuel in the tank. Distance I did yesterday would be about 1/3rd a tank of diesel.

4. Going 55mph in a motorway is the slowest I've ever done. Hope I don't have to crawl home like that again. It's unfitting for a Model 3 Performance.

View attachment 1041474
"Nachhaltige E-Mobilität: Tesla Model 3 aufladen mit einem Typ 2-Stecker" by verchmarco is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail

I’m always telling my wife how accurate the range estimates are. I have only found it off twice. Once in -15°C Canadian weather in February 2023, it was off by about 80km.

Second time was racing out the door, realizing my old Model S didn’t have enough charge to make it to a dealer north of Toronto to see a new Model S Plaid. The sales rep said: come take it for a rip! He didn’t have to ask me twice!

So I stopped at a local mall and decided to go by Tesla’s recommendation of “you can continue on your journey” and I put the bare minimum in. It was warning me constantly while stuck on a highway in traffic going north (uphill) I will soon be out of the reach of all superchargers and would be on my own. I must say it was pretty nerve-racking, and I’m glad my wife and kids weren’t in the car.

I got to the Audi dealership with 17 km left. Luckily there was a Tesla service centre right beside them and I supercharged right back up to 75% again.

Anyways, I’m going back to my more conservative way of giving it an extra 10 or 15 minutes past Tesla recommendations. No need to white-knuckling it back home wondering if you’re going to be above zero let alone 20% left for my 80:20 rule.

 

[RickPaq]

Just as an update but raised a ticket with Tesla to take into a Service Centre on Thursday but thought I'd double check it, went to another Supercharger and the car worked first time. Have a bit of a concern about getting caught out but will cancel the appointment and hope it doesn't happen again. Pretty sure I tried enough chargers at Gatwick that it couldn't have been the chargers, I think that Gridserve is only a few months old also so unlikely to have lots of broken chargers.

Never booked a service appointment with Tesla before but it went to diagnostics complete, does it mean they picked something up from the car? I assume as they also run the Superchargers they'll have data that the car was plugged in and wouldn't charge. Maybe there's a way to disable the DC charging in software and they just flicked it back on?

At a loss on it.

I've had occasional issues at chargers. Usually with a call to roadside service they can either confirm that a charger is out of service, or check to see if there's a car issue. In all cases, they got the charging situation fixed within a few minutes and I was charging away! Seems it's always good to call them when there's an issue.

 

[easyev]

I've had occasional issues at chargers. Usually with a call to roadside service they can either confirm that a charger is out of service, or check to see if there's a car issue. In all cases, they got the charging situation fixed within a few minutes and I was charging away! Seems it's always good to call them when there's an issue.

Who knew you could call and get them fixed! I was freaking in Corwall last year with old S, -20 degree C Feb weather, rolled up and SC wouldn't charge. 70km left in "tank" and was so worried it was a car problem not charger problem since up until then, I'd never experienced a bad supercharger. Yes, I know, I don't charge a lot at Supercharges, it's mostly at home and hotels. My wife loves finding hotels with chargers, but beware, sometimes they can be offline due to owner not paying bills for service. Ended up using 120V extension, then finding a 220V 50A(!) at a Canadian Tire just a stone's throw from the hotel. We could keep an eye on the car while it sat there all by its lonesome in the empty lot.

 

[FastLaneJB]

I've had occasional issues at chargers. Usually with a call to roadside service they can either confirm that a charger is out of service, or check to see if there's a car issue. In all cases, they got the charging situation fixed within a few minutes and I was charging away! Seems it's always good to call them when there's an issue.

To be fair I should have done this. If it happens again I'll give it a whirl.