Battery Charging between LA & SF [edited title]

[EVenthusiast123]

I’ve purchased a SR+ model 3 and will be driving back and forth between LA & SF fairly often (~360 miles). Will I be able to make it only stopping and charging once along the way?

I don’t mind stopping for a longer 30-40 min charge if I only have to stop 1 time. But since I’ll be making this drive often, I want to stay between 20-80% battery to prevent degradation. Any tips/thoughts are appreciated from anyone who’s done this drive before

 

[miimura]

My gut reaction was no way. Further research says no.

ABRP result shows a total of 128% added in two stops driving at only 100% of the posted speed limit. This is really slow for this route. Driving with the flow of traffic will take even more energy. This also starts with 95% and arrives with 10%.

 

[Rocky_H]

I see this reflects the idea that people have who are new folks to electric cars. They seem very determined to have as few stops as possible. But this is doing yourself a disservice, actually. Because of the way batteries need to recharge, they do not blast along at their fastest recharging speed all the way up to 100%. There is a tapering off where the charging speed slows down as the battery gets more full.

So by trying to insist on only one stop, you would be going way up into that much slower charging and taking probably well over an hour to try to get back up near 100% in the middle. The trip would actually have less charging time if you break that into multiple charging stops so you can charge faster up to the 60, 70, 80% type of range instead of trying to "fill-up". So instead of one really long stop of an hour or more, you could take two stops of less than a half hour each.

Plus, it's usually not too hard to walk around a bit and get a coffee or something and kill 20 minutes or so without much trouble of feeling bored, versus if it's an hour.

 

[animorph]

Those two stops for 42 minutes are faster than one 100% charge in the absence of software limited battery capacity. Go for the best overall trip time, not fewest stops.

 

[miimura]

I would like to add a little more.

Stopping for a third time closer to your destination would leave you with enough charge to drive around locally until you turn around and go back the other way. Obviously it would be nice to have destination charging while you do your normal activities, but it's not always convenient. Here's an example:

by charging for less time in Bakersfield and making an additional stop in Santa Clarita, you only charge for 5 more total minutes, but arrive with 40% charge.

 

[jjrandorin]

I’ve purchased a SR+ model 3 and will be driving back and forth between LA & SF fairly often (~360 miles). Will I be able to make it only stopping and charging once along the way?

I don’t mind stopping for a longer 30-40 min charge if I only have to stop 1 time. But since I’ll be making this drive often, I want to stay between 20-80% battery to prevent degradation. Any tips/thoughts are appreciated from anyone who’s done this drive before

At any sort of freeway speed you would be driving, your car will have an effective range of about 170 ish miles or so, give or take, so no, there is no chance of you making this trip with only 1 stop.

Also, putting on the mod hat for a second, is your thread title supposed to be battery charging "between"? the word "brown" doesnt make sense to me there, so feels like a typo.

[mod note: edited title]

 

[Rocky_H]

Also, putting on the mod hat for a second, is your thread title supposed to be battery charging "between"? the word "brown" doesnt make sense to me there, so feels like a typo.

I was about to report this to ask for it to be changed to "between"

 

[jjrandorin]

I was about to report this to ask for it to be changed to "between"

Agreed, changed (thanks!)

 

[Pied]

I don't think it's possible to charge only once with an SR+. Could be possible if you draft behind trucks or drive pretty slow. I was able to make the trip stopping one time to charge, but in an LR AWD.

The problem is some areas of i-5 has a lot of wind. Driving north, I had to draft trucks for a bit because the wind was killing my range. I was also doing 80mph into a head wind, so that didn't help.

 

[Gasaraki]

My gut reaction was no way. Further research says no.

ABRP result shows a total of 128% added in two stops driving at only 100% of the posted speed limit. This is really slow for this route. Driving with the flow of traffic will take even more energy. This also starts with 95% and arrives with 10%.

View attachment 610006

And it's a SR, not even LR.

 

[EVenthusiast123]

Ended up purchasing LR. This forum can be closed

 

[Rottenapplr]

Good idea. I’d I were those with sr just drink water like normal human being and stop for 10 min pee breaks lol while charging. That should get you to sf and back with little perceived time lost.

 

[tivoboy]

I really haven’t even been able to do ONE stop with a LR model 3 from Menlo Park to Santa Monica. I usually leave with 100% and get to kettleman, then another stop after about 100 miles in Tejon Ranch, then make it there fine.. going UP the grapevine from SF to LA, battery will degrade quickly but you make most of it up going down the other side into LA basin. With SR+, I can’’t really imagine this being possibly even with just one stop.