I am looking for some charging advice to save time on my first trip from Toronto Ontario Canada to South Carolina. Are there ways to help me map out the most efficient charging stops along the way. I am getting different reviews from fully charging, which takes 55 to 60 minutes compared to just charging for 15 minutes and stopping more frequently. New to Tesla new to the forums. Appreciate the help.
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Trust the Tesla nav to map out the stops and durations. It works well and you can monitor energy in the Energy app. I sometimes will pick different charging stops though if the nav is sending me to a 150kW V2 Supercharger and there is a 250kW v3 nearby I can make it to.
ATPMSD
Active Member
Go here and tinker with different options. They also have an app.
abetterrouteplanner.com
Generally more stops with shorter charging will get you to your destination faster than longer stops with long charges.
ABRP
ABetterRouteplanner is the world's most popular consumer EV routeplanner - both for beginner and experienced EV drivers. And of course for anyone curious about EVs.
abetterrouteplanner.com
Generally more stops with shorter charging will get you to your destination faster than longer stops with long charges.
bradtem
Robocar consultant
I recommend also to get the CCS adapter if you live in Ontario, as there's a lot of areas of Ontario and Quebec that only have CCS/CdM and not Tesla.
ABRP will route to include those. You will prefer your superchargers but having these opens up a lot more options on alternate routes if you want to avoid the boring most direct route.
ABRP will route to include those. You will prefer your superchargers but having these opens up a lot more options on alternate routes if you want to avoid the boring most direct route.
If you can, only use superchargers that are V3 250 kW. Never do a full charge. Just charge the minimum needed to get to your next charging stop or destination. I usually assume about 75% efficiency given speed and conditions, so if my next stop is 150 miles away, I'll add at least 200 miles of range, plus another 10% to be safe.
As others mentioned, the Tesla nav system will suggest charging stops and how long to charge. A Better Route Planner is even better, but not built into the car.
For the future if you're a nerd like me...
If you plan on making this trip frequently, here's something I do. I take a photo of when I leave, when I arrive at a charger, and when I leave the charger and then keep stats in a spreadsheet about how long each leg of the trip is and how many miles of range I used and how long I spent charging. Then I can get a feel for how much battery it really takes to go from A to B and I can adjust my charge durations accordingly.
You can figure out your car's efficiency by dividing the actual miles by the number of miles of range used. eg if you left with your battery saying 200 miles and arrived with your battery saying 100 miles, but the actual distance was 80 miles, then you had 80% efficiency. If you take the Wh/mi for that leg and divide by your efficiency (80%), you can get an idea of what the related Wh/mi is for your car. For a Model Y it is about 225 Wh/mi. When I'm on a road trip it's usually about 300 Wh/mi, but I'm not in the cold weather which makes it worse.
As others mentioned, the Tesla nav system will suggest charging stops and how long to charge. A Better Route Planner is even better, but not built into the car.
For the future if you're a nerd like me...
If you plan on making this trip frequently, here's something I do. I take a photo of when I leave, when I arrive at a charger, and when I leave the charger and then keep stats in a spreadsheet about how long each leg of the trip is and how many miles of range I used and how long I spent charging. Then I can get a feel for how much battery it really takes to go from A to B and I can adjust my charge durations accordingly.
You can figure out your car's efficiency by dividing the actual miles by the number of miles of range used. eg if you left with your battery saying 200 miles and arrived with your battery saying 100 miles, but the actual distance was 80 miles, then you had 80% efficiency. If you take the Wh/mi for that leg and divide by your efficiency (80%), you can get an idea of what the related Wh/mi is for your car. For a Model Y it is about 225 Wh/mi. When I'm on a road trip it's usually about 300 Wh/mi, but I'm not in the cold weather which makes it worse.
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bradtem
Robocar consultant
No, the 250s are better but only modestly better, do not go out of your way to use them. Other factors are stronger like how much detour and most of all, the quality of the food or shopping that you plan to make use of at the stop, and you should always have something to do at the stop that you were already planning to do.
Charge longer if your meal takes longer. Don't charge with only enough if that's to reach a charger with too much detour or without the amenities you need.
If you charge while eating it doing something you already planned to do it takes no time from your trip, and that's always the best choice. Can't get fast than zero extra time
250kW V3 chargers are WAY better mainly because the pedestals don’t share a charger. It sucks when you just start charging and someone pulls up next to you and then steals half your charge rate. I avoid V2 Superchargers if possible.
bradtem
Robocar consultant
That is true, though there is some sharing at V3, but in a larger pool. They can't charge every car in a V3 station at 250kw, apparently not even close. That's not that much of a problem though because essentially never will all the cars be able to take 250kw at the same time. Most cars only take the full 250kw for a short time -- which is why there is less difference between a 250kw and a 150kw station unpaired.
I agree that if you go to a 150kw station and park next to a model X that just got there, you are going to get sucky power and want to avoid that. However, a half-full v2 station will charge you almost as fast as a v3 station, and perhaps a bit faster than a full v3 station, where I think the total capacity is around 80kw/stall according to some reports. (Which is the right way to design it, and a problem with meeting the new IRA subsidy rules which require the station be able to deliver 150kw simultaneously to all cars, which no Tesla station does.)
All other things being equal, go for a 250kw station. But all things are almost never equal. As I wrote, by far the most important factor in choosing a station is how well it helps you do what you were going to do while charging, something you already needed to do. For that the #1 choice is eating. It's almost always better to pick a station that will fill you up in 40 minutes while you eat than one that will do it in 20 minutes while you sit around waiting. Now, of course you won't sit around entirely, you will play with your phone, and that's OK if that saves you from 20 minutes you were going to play with your phone later, but usually you just spend extra time playing with the phone so the time was largely lost. 40 minutes of time not lost at all is better than 20 minutes lost.
The next factor is detour to the station, because that's 100% time lost.
Charging speed is worth tracking. You will do more to avoid 72kw chargers though you don't always find them out in the country. And yes, nearly full V2 chargers can result in slower charge. But remember, if you have planned this to be your mealtime, it doesn't matter how slow it is as long as you will get the charge you want during your meal. If you take a sit-down meal, even the V2 charger is going to give you plenty before you are done the meal -- my normal experience is the reverse, I have to go move the car in the middle of the meal if the charger is too fast. I would slow it down if I could.
For a counter-service fast food meal, faster charging might help, but only a little.
First thing's first is that the OP should state which year, model, and battery pack they have because that can play a difference in charging strategy. In our old MS85, we only see a peak charging rate of 128kW for a few seconds with a SOC below 10% and drops below 70kW before 30%. It is rare that we Supercharge over 70% since our time is better spent driving to the next furtherest SuC site we can. Given our slower charging speeds Supercharger type doesn't really matter too much but we do try to visit sites with less than 60% utilization.
Our car also sees about an 8% efficiency drop per 5mph increase over 60mph. So watching the projected Energy -> Trip window is important if you're going to be stretching each kW. Keep in mind that HVAC, wind speed, and payload can play a factor in energy consumption. The 2018 and newer Teslas Supercharge about 2X faster than the old 85kWh packs going from 10-80% SOC...makes upgrading the pack tempting. I found myself overriding the Tesla onboard trip planner during my last trip from Orange County to Napa, Ca and back. Their suggestions got me to more crowded SuC sites with higher SOC. It also suggested I went to harder to access locations. For instance, there are two SuC sites in Gustine each on opposite sides of the highway. The nav suggested I cross the highway via the overpass to the further SuC site, then double-back over the overpass again to re-enter the highway. Instead, I went to the SuC site on the same side of the highway off-ramp/on-ramp and saved myself about 6 minutes of traffic. For those familiar, I was headed northbound on I-5 and went to the Pea Soup Andersen's SuC site instead of the Hotel Mission de Oro. I went to Hotel Mission de Oro site when driving southbound on I-5.
Our car also sees about an 8% efficiency drop per 5mph increase over 60mph. So watching the projected Energy -> Trip window is important if you're going to be stretching each kW. Keep in mind that HVAC, wind speed, and payload can play a factor in energy consumption. The 2018 and newer Teslas Supercharge about 2X faster than the old 85kWh packs going from 10-80% SOC...makes upgrading the pack tempting. I found myself overriding the Tesla onboard trip planner during my last trip from Orange County to Napa, Ca and back. Their suggestions got me to more crowded SuC sites with higher SOC. It also suggested I went to harder to access locations. For instance, there are two SuC sites in Gustine each on opposite sides of the highway. The nav suggested I cross the highway via the overpass to the further SuC site, then double-back over the overpass again to re-enter the highway. Instead, I went to the SuC site on the same side of the highway off-ramp/on-ramp and saved myself about 6 minutes of traffic. For those familiar, I was headed northbound on I-5 and went to the Pea Soup Andersen's SuC site instead of the Hotel Mission de Oro. I went to Hotel Mission de Oro site when driving southbound on I-5.
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