This thread swows there are 2 groups- those who push to get to a goal quickly and may be reluctant to change their pattern and those who take their time stopping as they want. Probably electrics are not developed to the point the first group can be satisfied with them. They might want to stay with ices or wait for hydrogen to reach practically. Most of the second seem to be happy for their uses. This problem will probably show up more as Tesla pushes past the early adopter market.
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Be honest: is SCing on a long trip annoying?
- Thread starter buckerine
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- Model S Supercharging
I don't see that ever happening. Hydrogen cars are just electric cars with a very inefficient "battery" and many safety issues when older. Toyota puts a "do not drive after" sticker on theirs.
SmartElectric
Active Member
The trip planner site app assumes full charge to start. Which is what we always do before our trips.
Chopr147
Active Member
The real problem is that there still aren't enough superchargers. A 90D can go almost 300 miles. But, you're forced to stop on long trips every 150 miles or so because it's either that or you can't make it to the next stop. If/when there are more superchargers, this becomes much less of an issue.
Although my own opinion is that for very long distance travel (say, 10+ hour trips), it's better to just go with an ICE if you're the type that doesn't like to stop or if you're in a rush.
Those of us who aren't that young anymore stop about every 150 miles regardless
SmartElectric
Active Member
Better to fly if you are in a rush for that distance.
Thanks but no thanks, we'll take our Tesla on road trips, so glad to be free from ICE cars!
+1 on that.Those of us who aren't that young anymore stop about every 150 miles regardless
KublaConn
Member
Well, there is a bit of a sub-group in the second one you list, isn't there? There are those who seem to not mind the stops, but their trepidation isn't base upon being able to stop "when" they want so much as "where" they want. Having one's route limited almost exclusively to the interstate system will definitely be a deterrent for some until the supercharger networks gets filled out more.
KublaConn
Member
Those of us who aren't that young anymore stop about every 150 miles regardless
Yes, by the very nature of the cost of a Tesla, it tends to self-select for an older ownership, but in the next few years, the average age of a Tesla owner will be dropping drastically. It will be interesting to see how those young, impatient whippersnappers deal with it all.
This will be less and less of a problem as time goes on for these reasons.Yes, by the very nature of the cost of a Tesla, it tends to self-select for an older ownership, but in the next few years, the average age of a Tesla owner will be dropping drastically. It will be interesting to see how those young, impatient whippersnappers deal with it all.
1) The range of the cars gets better every year.
2) The number of supercharger locations increases every year. Just look at supercharge.info every month and you can see the progress.
3) Young people I know are more patient when something is free.
gavine
Petrol Head turned EV Enthusiast
I have never used a Supercharger, but will be soon on my X 90D for a 1,000 mile trip from South Jersey to Kissimmee, FL. Can someone explain why EV Trip Planner estimates 6 hours of charging for this trip? If Superchargers add 300 miles of range per hour and you start with a full charge, in my mind it should be about half of what Trip Planner estimates in the quote above. Please tell me it's not going to require 6 hours of en-route charging for this trip.
purplewalt
Active Member
My suggestion would be for you to take a mini trip somewhere using Superchargers, before going on a long trip, kind of a dry run.
Maybe a short weekend trip to somewhere where you can both explore the road, and familiarize you with the Supercharging sequence of locating one and getting a significant charge as you head off to your next destination.
The mini-trip will give you two things:
A bit of confidence and knowledge how far you can go on a charge dependent on your driving style and actually locating a charger and charging.
Some locations might take 20 minutes to charge, some might take 40 minutes depending on how close your next destination is.
You DO NOT need to fill your battery each time, just give yourself a little amount (30 miles?) of extra charge.
There are a couple of things here: First the 300 mph is the speed when the battery is almost empty. To protect the battery the rate of charge slows as the battery fills. Fastest way is to only charge enough to make it to the next SC plus a bit extra as a margin of safety. Also, EVtripplanner's results depend on what parameters you put in. In particular, higher speeds increase the energy usage. So if you put in 1.1 as the speed factor charging times will increase an hour. Also EVtripplanner doesn't have listing for the Model X (at least it doesn't when I do it). I get 4.5 hours when I use P90D 21" tires Model S and the default settings.
The other thing to consider is that there will likely be two eating stops and one sleep stop, so the actual time you will spend waiting for a charge to complete will only be a few minutes, if that.
Chopr147
Active Member
Noneduck
Member
Agree that sometimes SCs are not sited at locations where I want to eat. My plan: arrange to pick up a meal elsewhere and bring it to the SC.
CliffG
Member
[good advice and explanation of charge timing elided...]
I would add to this last point that you will likely find your car nagging you that it's charged enough to get to the next stop and it's time to go, while you're not done with whatever you were doing during the stop (eating, whatever). The estimates are just that - estimates. On our last trip, the car was waiting for us more than we were for it; on the other hand, we weren't in any hurry. YMMV, as always.
snellenr
Member
I'd add that you should bump your charge limit to 100% *while on a long trip* to take full advantage of the charger on longer breaks (lunch, naps, etc) -- just be sure to reset it at the destination (you'll be nagged on this, of course).
Second, EVTripPlanner is good, but it's always worthwhile to review the Steps & Details tabs to see whether it is planning a long charge somewhere along the way. If there is, look at the route to see if there is an intermediate SC that you can add (by clicking the site and pressing the "Charge Here" button) and improve the route. EVTripPlanner seems to have a tendency/bias against those situations -- and it's an easy "what-if" experiment. On my trips, for example, the Country Club Hills IL supercharger tends to be missed -- but it's a quick divert that eliminates a 1 hour charge at St. Joseph, MI.
Second, EVTripPlanner is good, but it's always worthwhile to review the Steps & Details tabs to see whether it is planning a long charge somewhere along the way. If there is, look at the route to see if there is an intermediate SC that you can add (by clicking the site and pressing the "Charge Here" button) and improve the route. EVTripPlanner seems to have a tendency/bias against those situations -- and it's an easy "what-if" experiment. On my trips, for example, the Country Club Hills IL supercharger tends to be missed -- but it's a quick divert that eliminates a 1 hour charge at St. Joseph, MI.
It's not about pigeon holeing owners into 'patient' and 'inpatient'.
It's all about where a particular road trip falls On the journey<-->destination spectrum. At some point, everyone does both of those extremes, and far more often people operate somewhere in between--often dynamically over the course of a trip.
What really matters is the user experience. Even for the extremes of the spectrum where by almost all accounts an ICE does objectively 'better' than a tesla [currently does], nobody in this thread would trade their S/X for an ICE because the overall tesla experience is far superior.
