If you draft you'll see that it makes a huge difference. I noted this with my couple of road trips over the last couple months from Kansas to South Carolina and another from Kansas to Alabama. Find someone doing as fast as you're willing and get in behind them. The reduction in wind drag from drafting (I use the TACC and set it to the closest setting) is huge. I can drive 75-80 mph in this state and have consumption down to the same as 65-70 without drafting, per the paid version of ABRP that's tracking my energy usage real time.
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Best speed for road trips?
- Thread starter KaptKamp
- Start date
I’ll add another perspective. I’m in Alaska 3k miles of roads with no superchargers, well we got our first this winter in Soldotona but there is still massive distances with no charging. Had a Tesla for going on 8 years, 4 with an S, now going on 4 years with a 3.
I find 55-60 mph is the sweet spot I can get rated range or better, that is on flat ground with no wind in the summer. Only real charging on trips is campgrounds and most only have 30a. A few scattered places have Tesla wall connectors and very few chargepoints, so most places I can charge on the road only get ~5% or ~15 miles per hour plugged in.
Without charging on the trip In the summer I regularly get to Talkeetna and back (~290 miles) in my 2018 LR. In the winter I can do Seward and back (~180 miles) as long as it isn’t snowing.
I find 55-60 mph is the sweet spot I can get rated range or better, that is on flat ground with no wind in the summer. Only real charging on trips is campgrounds and most only have 30a. A few scattered places have Tesla wall connectors and very few chargepoints, so most places I can charge on the road only get ~5% or ~15 miles per hour plugged in.
Without charging on the trip In the summer I regularly get to Talkeetna and back (~290 miles) in my 2018 LR. In the winter I can do Seward and back (~180 miles) as long as it isn’t snowing.
Interesting thread , I went from Aberdeen to south of London in winter weather Scotland is not the best place for long distance EV usage , stuck to 65-75 as that's what people were doing think it got about 310Wh/mil , that was a 2019 M3 SR + and 580 miles but cold weather
Now Petrol (Gas to you guys) is a shocking $7.85 a gallon here now .. that's a USK gallon I checked the conversion . Everybody is now going 60-65 .
last trip in better weather of 450 miles (Now in a New 3 DM LR) 1 supercharge while I had coffee and food, got home on that one charge the car was asking for another in the plan but the service was so slow for food one charge was enough in the end . It had been a long day I stopped for another about 80 miles from home ... but it was the Coffee I stopped for didn't need any power
Dint have Teslafi for that first trip to London ... only got the car the day before and the trip just came up and flights were way too expensive
Wind and hills kill the range , unfortunately that's most of Scotland covered ... and a lot of the roads have average speed cameras so you can only do 70 and chance 75
So for now im going 65 or so , Im going to south of London and Ireland (North and South) in the next 4 weeks , then a trip to Belgium / Germany after that ... see how it goes at 65 ... but I will t be maxed in Germany at some point just to try that out but some of the roads are a bit rough and you think your the king of the road there at 150mph and then a car flashes you to pass .... and they go by like your standing still
Now Petrol (Gas to you guys) is a shocking $7.85 a gallon here now .. that's a USK gallon I checked the conversion . Everybody is now going 60-65 .
last trip in better weather of 450 miles (Now in a New 3 DM LR) 1 supercharge while I had coffee and food, got home on that one charge the car was asking for another in the plan but the service was so slow for food one charge was enough in the end . It had been a long day I stopped for another about 80 miles from home ... but it was the Coffee I stopped for didn't need any power
Dint have Teslafi for that first trip to London ... only got the car the day before and the trip just came up and flights were way too expensive
Wind and hills kill the range , unfortunately that's most of Scotland covered ... and a lot of the roads have average speed cameras so you can only do 70 and chance 75
So for now im going 65 or so , Im going to south of London and Ireland (North and South) in the next 4 weeks , then a trip to Belgium / Germany after that ... see how it goes at 65 ... but I will t be maxed in Germany at some point just to try that out but some of the roads are a bit rough and you think your the king of the road there at 150mph and then a car flashes you to pass .... and they go by like your standing still
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Drafting does make a huge difference, but you also raise the risk of a cracked windshield, not to mention the risk of rear-ending the vehicle in front of you, since a TACC setting of "1" might be about ½ a second. I like road trips to be low-stress, since I probably have a lot of miles to drive, so I usually stay far away from other vehicles on a TACC of "7".
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