As I am charging in Arkansas on a 13 hours drive that feels like a 6 hours drive, wanted to share some pointers from experience driving the model Y on a long roadtrip, hope many of you find it useful should you do a long roadtrip, mind you that I am not just driving long distance but moving, so I have all my stuff packed in, extra weight, and it’s pretty cold right now
1. Generally, you will stop at a super charger every two hours or so, give or take, this is based on Tesla’s algorithm to ensure you don’t run out of juice, this may seem like a lot, truth to be told, it is. if you are one of those drivers that like one shot drive all the way, you will hate this and you should not consider a Tesla to be honest, on average between every supercharger, you will be spending 50-70% of your battery, many factors play into that
2. Factors like Speed and AC, as you may know higher speed is more motor power thus more juice, Tesla does exceptionally well in traffic, I was stuck in a heavy traffic in Tennessee for an hour, guess how much battery juice I consumed, 1% !!
In addition, the AC is probably the biggest factor of your range and battery consumption, a good trick To Mitigate that is heated steering wheel and heated seats, those dont seem to affect consumption as much as the AC, of course this does not matter if you are driving short distance, but if you want to conserve battery and be warm, turn the heated steering wheel and heated seats but turn off the AC
3. Superchargers are incredible, they are mostly positioned near restaurants, gas stations, stores, giving you a good short break for the bathroom, coffee or food, the average Time to charge there varies, Model Ys from 20 - 90% may take about 20-30 minutes depending on traffic on that supercharger station and KW, this is not bad, but put that into perspetive to the overall length of your trip
4. Road-trips In Teslas are not shorter, they are longer, not cause of supercharging, but the frequency o stops, this isn’t due to battery limits, but due to the algroithm trying to make sure you dont run out of battery and not damage it, it is not convenient, but it’s safe for the car
5. Tesla also uses the pattern from your driving habits to predact how much juice you will need to your next stop, that estimate is usually very aggressive, meaning you probably will make it with more percentage, but Tesla wants to give you a worst case scenario, which is a good thing, except it could cost you time
6. tesla drive safely, Of course thee are setting to make it a bit more aggressive but the car will always drive more conservative, make safer decisions and not take risks, or aggressive drivers it may be an issue
7. Tesla tries to stay away from the passing lanes, which is the right thing to do I guess, but it could be annoying for aggressive drivers, the good thing it does Learn form your driving habits and tries to adapt your passing behavior, and it could overdo that. Too, including making unnecessary lane changes,
8. For FSD / enhance AP, the volume scroll is the best trick, it will make your auto lane change and lane assist a breeze, FSD does an incredible job which makes long distance driving so easy, I find myself feeling that two hours driving feels like minutes onlay, the driving stress do Not exist, which is why I recommend FSD at least monthly when you are travelling
ABRP can make more accurate prediction, but think of it this way, ABRP is about speed, Tesla navigation is about safe bets, so having both can give you good perspective, but trusting Tesla is better since it is more accurate with your car conditions
Tesla Model Y is incredible and the experience is out of this world, I can’t wait to go all over the country with this incredibly intelligent car!
you will never regret it!
