I've been driving EV's since 2011, my first being a conversion I did myself of a 1985 Mazda RX-7 to 100% battery Electric. That car had only a 16 kwh battery and so the range was a maximum of 80 miles under optimum conditions (200 wh/mile). I could drive it like a madman on the worst days and still get 40 miles. I drove it as my daily for 4 years. During that time I was watching the supercharger network build out and when it became adequate for actual cross country travel I bought a CPO Model S so I could get rid of my ICE vehicle that I was only using for road trips. I have put 45000 miles on my S in the last 2 years about half of which were on road trips. I have visited 117 different Supercharger locations so far. I believe I have considerable experience road tripping my Tesla. While I like my Model S it is a larger car than I need. I have a Model 3 on order and I know I want AWD and Air suspension so I have around a year to wait for the car. The options other than the battery pack size are all a personal preference thing. With the larger battery pack being a $9000 upgrade the question is who would really need this?
With the smaller battery pack we have a rated range of 220 miles. Two years ago I would have said that this is not enough to do road trips but with the additional build out of the supercharger network this is no longer true. 220 miles is more than enough to drive coast to coast and there are very few trouble spots even on a cold winter day with a headwind. So you no longer need to worry about that $9000 expense if your anxiety was for road trip range.
If you have a place to charge at home or at work you are pretty much set with the 220 mile battery. You will be charging at home for at least 8 hours per day or at work for about the same. If you only use a level 1 charge rate you will be seeing about 4 miles per hour which is about 32 miles. I charge my S from a 120 volt outlet in the garage although I have considered installing a 14-50 outlet because on really cold days the 120 volt at 12 amps is not enough to preheat the car. My average daily drive is about 20 miles so this works fine for me most days. If your daily drive is more than 32 miles you would want to install a 14-50 outlet in your garage which would give your Model 3 a recharge rate of 30 miles per hour with the small battery or 37 miles per hour with the large battery. Installation of a high power wall charger on a dedicated breaker would allow the large battery equipped vehicle to charge at 44 miles per hour so a full charge in under 8 hours is possible there as well. These full charge times are mostly silly because almost nobody drives enough per day for that to be a problem. And if it is then an EV may not yet be right for you. Refueling at home is one of the things that makes EV's so much better than ICE.
So does anyone need the large battery? Yes, I have come up with two classes of people who do. The first case is someone who does not have a place to charge at home or at work. Assuming you drive the average of 40 miles per day you would be able to go 7.75 days between 100% charges on a battery that can do 310 miles. This means you would need to use a Supercharger only once per week if you have the large battery in your Model 3. If you drive 80 miles per day you are going to have to charge twice per week and unless you have supercharger access at shopping facilities I am guessing this will not work for you long term. You will get annoyed with charging. The other type of person who needs the larger battery is one who drives more than 175 miles per day. With the small battery you would be pushing your range often and risking accelerated battery degradation. If you drive more than about 250 miles per day on a nearly daily basis then a Model 3 is probably not for you.
My recommendation is to save that $9000. $9000 will buy you about 75000 kwh of electricity or around 300000 miles of travel. (based on 12 cents per kilowatt hour and 250 wh/mile)
Hope that helps some of you save a little cash.
With the smaller battery pack we have a rated range of 220 miles. Two years ago I would have said that this is not enough to do road trips but with the additional build out of the supercharger network this is no longer true. 220 miles is more than enough to drive coast to coast and there are very few trouble spots even on a cold winter day with a headwind. So you no longer need to worry about that $9000 expense if your anxiety was for road trip range.
If you have a place to charge at home or at work you are pretty much set with the 220 mile battery. You will be charging at home for at least 8 hours per day or at work for about the same. If you only use a level 1 charge rate you will be seeing about 4 miles per hour which is about 32 miles. I charge my S from a 120 volt outlet in the garage although I have considered installing a 14-50 outlet because on really cold days the 120 volt at 12 amps is not enough to preheat the car. My average daily drive is about 20 miles so this works fine for me most days. If your daily drive is more than 32 miles you would want to install a 14-50 outlet in your garage which would give your Model 3 a recharge rate of 30 miles per hour with the small battery or 37 miles per hour with the large battery. Installation of a high power wall charger on a dedicated breaker would allow the large battery equipped vehicle to charge at 44 miles per hour so a full charge in under 8 hours is possible there as well. These full charge times are mostly silly because almost nobody drives enough per day for that to be a problem. And if it is then an EV may not yet be right for you. Refueling at home is one of the things that makes EV's so much better than ICE.
So does anyone need the large battery? Yes, I have come up with two classes of people who do. The first case is someone who does not have a place to charge at home or at work. Assuming you drive the average of 40 miles per day you would be able to go 7.75 days between 100% charges on a battery that can do 310 miles. This means you would need to use a Supercharger only once per week if you have the large battery in your Model 3. If you drive 80 miles per day you are going to have to charge twice per week and unless you have supercharger access at shopping facilities I am guessing this will not work for you long term. You will get annoyed with charging. The other type of person who needs the larger battery is one who drives more than 175 miles per day. With the small battery you would be pushing your range often and risking accelerated battery degradation. If you drive more than about 250 miles per day on a nearly daily basis then a Model 3 is probably not for you.
My recommendation is to save that $9000. $9000 will buy you about 75000 kwh of electricity or around 300000 miles of travel. (based on 12 cents per kilowatt hour and 250 wh/mile)
Hope that helps some of you save a little cash.
