Any plans for Superchargers in Richmond VA or Norfolk VA?

[ModelNforNerd]

I've driven down from MA 3X in my Model S, twice before Salisbury, MD was opened.
As long as you find good L2 charging (read: Nissan dealer) it is definitely do-able.
The last two times I went were in the middle of winter.

Awesome, good to know!

According to PlugShare, there are ChaDEMO's going in Macarthur Mall parking garage, and some at Scope's garage already. So, I could do the trip now. The only thing holding me back on getting one ATM and using it as the "distance car" is that gap through PA.

To get to the Appomattox area, where the in-laws live, we're currently restricted to coming down through MD, DC, and Richmond. Not bad if you time the trip overnight...but on the way home, we almost always go during the day, and traffic through that area would have me constantly watching the range.

If we had 81/78/84 through PA as an altrernative, I'd feel a lot better about it.

(And I don't like car notes. If I were to buy one right now, I'd half to finance almost half of it. If I were to wait ~ year, I'd only have to finance ~ $20K)


Question for those using the onboard Trip Planner:

Is it smart enough to reroute you around traffic, and if so, does it take into account how the traffic will affect your charge?

 

[EdA]

Awesome, good to know!

According to PlugShare, there are ChaDEMO's going in Macarthur Mall parking garage, and some at Scope's garage already. So, I could do the trip now. The only thing holding me back on getting one ATM and using it as the "distance car" is that gap through PA.

To get to the Appomattox area, where the in-laws live, we're currently restricted to coming down through MD, DC, and Richmond. Not bad if you time the trip overnight...but on the way home, we almost always go during the day, and traffic through that area would have me constantly watching the range.

If we had 81/78/84 through PA as an altrernative, I'd feel a lot better about it.

(And I don't like car notes. If I were to buy one right now, I'd half to finance almost half of it. If I were to wait ~ year, I'd only have to finance ~ $20K)


Question for those using the onboard Trip Planner:

Is it smart enough to reroute you around traffic, and if so, does it take into account how the traffic will affect your charge?

You will find once you get the car that "anything" is doable and you'll not want to drive *anything* else.
With CHadEMO adapters available it is easier too. (I don't have one).

 

[DFibRL8R]

Not bad if you time the trip overnight...but on the way home, we almost always go during the day, and traffic through that area would have me constantly watching the range.

Remember heavy traffic = low speeds which generally = better milage. Exceptions are if it is extremely hot or cold and you are using a lot of climate control or if you tend to accelerate hard and brake hard which will waste range.

Question for those using the onboard Trip Planner:

Is it smart enough to reroute you around traffic, and if so, does it take into account how the traffic will affect your charge?

Trip planner so far is a disappointment. I have had trips where I literally leave the supercharger with a full charge and it is telling me to go back to the super charger to charge instead of continuing to my next destination which is clearly within the projected range. I see this becoming a decent tool eventually but it is clearly still in the beta test phase.

 

[LetsGoFast]

Question for those using the onboard Trip Planner:

Is it smart enough to reroute you around traffic, and if so, does it take into account how the traffic will affect your charge?

Yes and no. The feature that routes around heavy traffic is pretty robust. It uses Google Maps red/yellow/green data and it is generally pretty good at avoiding traffic hot spots. It isn't as good as Waze and I'm not convinced it recalculates as frequently as it should, but it mostly works as advertised. It also appears to use those detours in its consumption estimates. However, the whole Trip Planner feature is still quite buggy. It sometimes tries to have you backtrack to a supercharger behind you, it tends to lock up when you stop the car for a snack or bathroom break and some people have reported flat out wrong estimates of charging times or routing. I'm optimistic that they will fix it in a future release, but as currently implemented it isn't very useful yet.

 

[Amped-Up]

That is exactly the exit I first thought of as well because of the proximity to the tunnel. The problem is that there really aren't any restaurants close to the exit, unless you head away from the tunnel towards Military Circle/Janaf. Military Highway near Qdoba would make sense and still be off the Northhampton exit. That rumored outlet mall would be perfect, but no way its ready nearly in time.

Inside source says Simon Outlet mall opening a year late - Oct 2016. I think the SC was supposed to open this year so must be elsewhere (hopefully!)

 

[LetsGoFast]

Inside source says Simon Outlet mall opening a year late - Oct 2016. I think the SC was supposed to open this year so must be elsewhere (hopefully!)

They told me they expected it to open in late May or early June, which suggests that it is already under construction. I might do some scouting next time I'm down there.

 

[Plug Me In]

Question for those using the onboard Trip Planner:

Is it smart enough to reroute you around traffic, and if so, does it take into account how the traffic will affect your charge?

The weakness of the on board nav remains in it's route planning. It has always preferred major routes and will take you on pretty inefficient routes. Example: I travel to the RDU area from my home in Virginia pretty frequently. About a 130 mile trip, partially on 2 lane roads. I had 200 miles on the car, double checked the distance with the nav to make sure before setting out for home. It came up with a 160 mile route and wanted me to spend 40 minutes at the Burlington Supercharger. I disregarded and went straight home, arriving with 50 miles rated to spare.

I always plan my route before I leave and then if range is going to be close, plug my route in at a point where the car doesn't have a choice but to use the one I'm on, if that makes sense. It also seems that I'm more comfortable running the car down to < 20 miles range than the nav is.

 

[LetsGoFast]

That is exactly the exit I first thought of as well because of the proximity to the tunnel. The problem is that there really aren't any restaurants close to the exit, unless you head away from the tunnel towards Military Circle/Janaf. Military Highway near Qdoba would make sense and still be off the Northhampton exit. That rumored outlet mall would be perfect, but no way its ready nearly in time.

I claim excellent prognostication skills. I tracked down the permit to the Janaf shopping center and called the folks there who confirmed that it was in progress and the exact location. I created a new thread for it.

 

[EdA]

i claim excellent prognostication skills. I tracked down the permit to the janaf shopping center and called the folks there who confirmed that it was in progress and the exact location. I created a new thread for it.

awesome work!

 

[jthompson]

I claim excellent prognostication skills. I tracked down the permit to the Janaf shopping center and called the folks there who confirmed that it was in progress and the exact location. I created a new thread for it.

Awesome!

 

[Amped-Up]

I claim excellent prognostication skills. I tracked down the permit to the Janaf shopping center and called the folks there who confirmed that it was in progress and the exact location. I created a new thread for it.

Made my day! Great sleuthing job! OBX - here I come....

 

[swengl]

I'll second that! I had over 170 miles of range left as I was leaving Raleigh and when I put in my home address, I received the dreaded: You won't make it! message . I wanted to stop in at the Burlington SuperCharger anyway, so this gave me an excuse, but I agree, if you don't know the route or actual miles the nav could scare you into a path less taken.

The weakness of the on board nav remains in it's route planning. It has always preferred major routes and will take you on pretty inefficient routes. Example: I travel to the RDU area from my home in Virginia pretty frequently. About a 130 mile trip, partially on 2 lane roads. I had 200 miles on the car, double checked the distance with the nav to make sure before setting out for home. It came up with a 160 mile route and wanted me to spend 40 minutes at the Burlington Supercharger. I disregarded and went straight home, arriving with 50 miles rated to spare.

I always plan my route before I leave and then if range is going to be close, plug my route in at a point where the car doesn't have a choice but to use the one I'm on, if that makes sense. It also seems that I'm more comfortable running the car down to < 20 miles range than the nav is.