I dislike the idea of a "hidden reserve." Of course, some people set their clocks 5 minutes fast, which they seem to believe keeps them from being late. I've not been that good with self-deception.
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Interesting quote on that site: "It can deliver a full Level III DC charge in 20-30 minutes while using less than one gallon of fuel!". That's presumably talking about using the truck's CHAdeMO charger to charge a Leaf. If we assume that a "full level III DC charge" means 80% charge of the Leaf which has 73 miles EPA range, that gives 58.4 miles per gallon (of diesel), or better if they really mean 'less than' one gallon. Not bad.
Me either. But oddly enough there is scientific evidence that placebos actually work to some degree, and that they even work if the individual knows it's a placebo. So go figure.
If I remember right I installed the software update the day before this trip.
As far as having a reserve - with the Roadster I could always modify my driving if necessary if range was an issue. I'm pretty good at getting home with only a mile or two of range showing (in standard mode). I'll probably do the same in the Model S on occasion, but instead of shooting for zero I'll make 20 or 25 miles of range remaining my target. I've probably only accessed the reserve on the Roadster once a year or so, and always for less than five miles.
My head's starting to hurt thinking about this, so maybe one of you can help. If you do a "range" charge using a 14-50NEMA, you'd have 85kWh/265 miles. My question is can I make it 250 miles if I go low and slow? Second part to the question is how long would it take to do the about charge if you started with about 40 miles remaining. Thanks.
The EPA five cycle procedure is probably the worst case scenario unless you jackrabbit at every start or are driving in mountainous terrain where you have to add a bit over 6 miles for every 1000 feet of elevation gain.
Here's the mnemonic for charging rates and note that the rate slows down as the charge gets above a certain value (when this happens varies by the charging speed--faster chargers slow down earlier):
Walking, 15 amps, 5 mph, standard 110V
Bicycling, 30 amps, 15 mph, dryer or oven.
Driving, 50 amps, 30 mph, RV plug
Light rail, 80 amps, 60 mph, HPWC
Shinkansen, 90 kWh, 300 mph, Supercharger
I'm finding that secondary roads / city driving produce *worse* results than consistent 65 MPH highway driving. I wouldn't worry too much about your trip. Once you've driven 30 miles @65, you'll be at about 5-10% less than rated range (due to 21" wheels instead of 19") as long as windows are up, HVAC is off, and you're not driving through a hurricane
Took another long drive today and got home with 10 miles of range remaining. Went out to dinner and back and I was down to 2 miles. The parking lot behind my building was empty so it seemed like a good time to see what happens when you get down to zero. I cranked the heater up to high and drove around the lot. BTW Tesla is right about the heater using way more juice than the seat heaters. Both seat heaters and rear defrost barely moved the Kw needle but the cabin heater sure did. Anyway I circled the lot until I got to zero and at that point the range indicator in the speedo changed from "1" to "Charge Now". I took a few more laps around the (small) parking lot, nothing else happened. Since I'm pretty sure that running it below zero is not a good thing that's as far as I went. The display was showing 76.9 kWh used, and that was from a full range charge. The battery indicator (which turned red at 5 miles remaining) still shows something left but I'm not going to speculate about its meaning. Maybe you can drive 1/2 mile after you hit zero, maybe 5, or 10, or maybe I just got lucky. At some point I'm sure someone will be unlucky enough to find out how far you can go.
SCW-Greg
Active Member
I was a little surprised at that too, since it was mostly two lane 55 - 60 mph driving. It was VERY windy, but mostly crosswinds, very little headwinds or tailwinds. In the past when I've driven 55 I've always done significantly better than the rated range.
Crosswinds are usually worse than a direct headwind when it comes to it's affect on drag, so not all that surprising.
Absolutely.
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Good information, and something I'll definitely keep in mind the next time I'm in a similar situation. For whatever reason I've never noticed the drag / crosswind connection. When I left home that morning I expected to have at least 50 miles left on the car when I got home. I'm glad I decided to charge in range mode, that saved me from having to stop for a charge on the way home.
Another cool item with the RAV4 EV is that if your battery is less than ~15% it will not allow you to delay the charge and charges immediately on plugging the car in. Very well thought out!!
It initiates a full charge i believe. I did not stay and watch it through the full charge cycle. I will update if I find out differently with continued usage.
It does not want you to wait to charge when the battery is at a low state of charge.
It does not want you to wait to charge when the battery is at a low state of charge.
NigelM
Recovering Member
Started the day with ~240 and gave a few test drives to some friends; it was as I parked at lunchtime that I noticed this:
Note that Sarasota is flat as a pancake (this isn't from running downhill at all). This comes from driving around the city and coasting with regen up to stop lights. I always have good city mileage in my Roadster, despite showing off when the lights turn green.
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