dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
In so many ways this makes me feel even worse :-(I can confirm that the ACC limit is 150 km/h on my EU P85D. Not a big problem as it is not possible to cruise for extended periods of time at high speed in a Tesla
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I can confirm that the ACC limit is 150 km/h on my EU P85D. Not a big problem as it is not possible to cruise for extended periods of time at high speed in a Tesla
Did you buy it from Poland or Germany? I'm asking to find out if German-spec cars have this limitation or not.
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Well 6.2 is supposed to increase the P85D's top speed to 155 mph. I'm assuming Tesla did the necessary testing to ensure you can keep that speed up for as long as it takes to drain the battery (which should be fairly quick - half an hour perhaps?)
dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
Woot... a 100k EUR car that can drive for 80 miles / 130 km...
Oops
(yeah, yeah, I realize this is not a fair statement... but come on, you walked into that one...)
Hmm ok let's see here: a €100k gas-powered car that can do 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds will probably get 5 mpg at 155 mph due to high wind resistance at such speeds.
Assuming it has a 20-gallon tank, simple & quick math shows that such a car will travel 100 miles before it runs out of gas.
I'll let our German experts chime in here, but I have heard several stories of cars needing to be refueled every half hour or so while traveling at Autobahns' "gentlemen's agreement maximum speed" of 155 mph (250 kph).
Any car going that fast will need a substantial amount of energy to break through exponentially more perceived dense air.
Given the low 0.24 drag coefficient of the Model S, I would venture to say that it would be able to travel further than any equally-powerful gas car at 155 mph.
Cottonwood
Roadster#433, Model S#S37
Several western states have some sections of interstate highway with speed limits of 80 mph, and Texas has some 85 mph segments. Pretty easy to see some drivers in these regions wanting to set TACC higher than 90.
State Speed Limit Chart | Speed Limits
State Speed Limit Chart | Speed Limits
dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
0-60mph in 3.2 seconds is a great achievement - but more than 50% of the luxury cars bought in Germany are Diesel. There are quite a few of them who will go quite a while at 155mph...
Small side note... I'm a German living in the US. A little over a decade ago I commuted twice a week for 160 miles (one way) usually averaging more than 100mph (and that includes city traffic on both ends of the journey). And no, I didn't have to refuel during those trips.
There is ample evidence that you can go more than 250 miles in a 535d while driving as spirited as Autobahn traffic will allow. Even if the P85D will be able to sprint away from the 535d when starting at a stop light, in typical Autobahn traffic the difference will likely be rather marginal (see all the posts in the forum that 40-70mph and 60-90mph acceleration of the P85D isn't all that impressive... and I haven't seen any posts on 120-150mph acceleration, yet, but my guess is it won't be all that stunning, either). And the P85D will spend 40 minutes at a supercharger on this 250 mile journey (assuming the speeds that we are talking about... I'd actually be worried if a single supercharger stop is enough).
So yes, you are correct. At a constant 155mph all cars have sucky fuel efficiency. And I guess my flippant comment drew the argument in that direction. But the bigger picture is still that at the much higher speeds on the Autobahn a P85D has its limitations.
OK, so this is just one guys opinion and I expect to get loudly shouted at. BUT, I do not care WHAT the speed limit is, that should not be the driver of the conversation. Question should be: whether in Tennessee, Texas, Nevada, Alberta, Germany, or the Moon... what is the safe speed at which a) cars SHOULD travel on cruise control to begin with, and b) cars outrun their ACC? I expect (a) may be higher than (b). Any manufacturer who ships a car with ACC that goes above the level the car outruns ACC is irresponsible. If Tesla is limiting ACC at point it is outrun, that is responsible. Where they may have missed a trick is by not offering normal cruise above that.
Personally... and I know someone is going to blather on statistics about how safe the Autobahn is... M-B and BMW being irresponsible is no reason for Tesla to be!
And, just because people routinely drive 10mph over 55 and 65 speed limits doesn't mean people in US should automatically expect to drive 10mph over 85 speed limit! They will, but I'm not convinced their car should help them!
Just my opinion.
I bought it from Tilburg, NL (it's where they receive and assmble cars for EU). Poland is not a "core market" for Tesla. No presence in PL. I don't think EU cars have differences between each other other than language on stickers.
Thanks for the all details. I understand your initial comment was a play on my note regarding how far the P85D can travel on a full charge at 155 mph, but it has made me curious about what its high-speed consumption would be as compared to ICE vehicles.
In your commute examples, you said "usually averaging more than 100mph". How much above were you averaging? There is a BIG difference between 101 and 155 mph as wind resistance grows exponentially (I think it's by a factor of 2) with speed, meaning if you assume the increase of resistance from wind by going 50 to 100 mph is X, going from 100 to 150 mph will increase it by X^2.
There was a pretty cool Top Gear episode on the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 in which they showed that it "only" takes 270 hp or so to drive at 155 mph, but 730 more (1000 hp, the car's peak power) to drive at 100 mph faster (255 mph).
Anyway, I don't have any data to assume that the P85D will go substantially further, or less far, at its top speed (assuming it can sustain such high speeds for a sustained amount of time) than gas-powered performance vehicles. So it will be interesting to see what German customers will experience once 6.2 is out.
Thanks for the clarification. I'd be curious to know what, if anything, firmware 6.2 will change with regards to TACC.
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