choosing supercharging stops

[sleepydoc]

We drove from Minneapolis down to Madison this weekend. The car had 90% battery when we were leaving but the navigation system routed us to a supercharger that's 15min away from our house to charge for 5 minutes, then had another stop half way rather than actually drive a more reasonable distance. (there now 6 superchargers along the route we took.) Specifically, we wanted to charge when we stopped for dinner.

Is there any way to preferentially specify charging stops in the software? The only way I got it to work was because I knew there was a supercharger in LaCrosse so I could enter that as the destination. I could have ignored the first charging stop but then I would have wasted a bunch of energy warming the battery to prepare for supercharging that I wasn't going to do, and If I had just put 'LaCrosse' into the GPS it would have assumed I was going to use destination charging.

 

[KArnold]

Put your desired SC as your destination and remove all SC's? There's a button to not include any SCers along your route.

 

[Yelobird]

We drove from Minneapolis down to Madison this weekend. The car had 90% battery when we were leaving but the navigation system routed us to a supercharger that's 15min away from our house to charge for 5 minutes, then had another stop half way rather than actually drive a more reasonable distance. (there now 6 superchargers along the route we took.) Specifically, we wanted to charge when we stopped for dinner.

Is there any way to preferentially specify charging stops in the software? The only way I got it to work was because I knew there was a supercharger in LaCrosse so I could enter that as the destination. I could have ignored the first charging stop but then I would have wasted a bunch of energy warming the battery to prepare for supercharging that I wasn't going to do, and If I had just put 'LaCrosse' into the GPS it would have assumed I was going to use destination charging.

Oddly funny as I make that same trip often and had the same odd request to stop for 5 minutes lol. Usually just stop at the Eau Claire stop and Madison is a single shot.

 

[swaltner]

You can add stops to force the routing to go your desired path. If you add a Supercharger as a Stop to the route, it will use that as a charging stop and supplement as needed.

From the Owner’s Manual

Model 3 Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn how to operate and customize your navigation settings.

www.tesla.com

Adding Stops to a Route​

After you have entered a destination, you can edit your route by adding, deleting or reordering stops. Touch the three dots at the bottom of the turn-by-turn direction list to view options to edit your route.

Add Stop allows you to add a stop by searching for a location or adding a Home, Recent or Favorite destination. You can also add a stop by touching any pin on the map and selecting Add from the popup.

Edit Stop allows you to set up a complex trip by adding or deleting stops on your route. Drag and drop stops by touching the equal sign to reorder your trip.

So, three dots, edit trip, add stop, charging, select the desired Supercharger stop, drag the stops to set the desired order.

 

[moa999]

Just drive. At some point it will update and dump the first stop

 

[DJ Palmis]

I'm from Italy and I experience exactly the same behaviour! Honestly?! I blindy follow my car's desires.. but my wife hates me when we stop 15 minutes later
Seriously: I trust Tesla's algorithms.. there must be a reason why they choose to navigate in such a strange way.
Please note: if you charge to 100% that strange stop will be skipped.. let me know if it the same for you

 

[ElectricIAC]

I’ve had the same suggestions from time to time. I usually pre-calculate sectors based on worst case consumption for the conditions anyway so I pay them no mind, select my favored charging stop and remove all stops it tries to force.

 

[Yelobird]

Taking a big Guess but I suspect the system is assuming your end point is not a charger and estimating also how far from that end point is the next supercharger location. Again just an assumption but getting there is only half the task, leaving should be considered.

 

[sleepydoc]

Just drive. At some point it will update and dump the first stop

The problem with that is that Tesla starts conditioning the battery, wasting energy.

Put your desired SC as your destination and remove all SC's? There's a button to not include any SCers along your route.

Thanks for the tip - I didn’t know about that option. I’m not sure if it would help, though since there’s no way for me to make the trip without charging.

You can add stops to force the routing to go your desired path. If you add a Supercharger as a Stop to the route, it will use that as a charging stop and supplement as needed.

From the Owner’s Manual

Model 3 Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn how to operate and customize your navigation settings.

www.tesla.com

So, three dots, edit trip, add stop, charging, select the desired Supercharger stop, drag the stops to set the desired order.

Yes, The problem is you have to know where the superchargers are to do that and that’s exactly my issue. They don‘t readily show up on the map unless you’re zoomed in so I ended up using a combination of Tesla’s web page and A better route planner to figure out a route, then manually programming it in myself. At that point what’s the advantage of Tesla’s navigation system? I might as well be driving an Ioniq or and EV.4.

Taking a big Guess but I suspect the system is assuming your end point is not a charger and estimating also how far from that end point is the next supercharger location. Again just an assumption but getting there is only half the task, leaving should be considered.

Yeah, I’m not sure - it seems to have no qualms about getting you to your destination with less than 10% battery, so it seems to assume that you’re able to charge at your destination.

We just got back and on the ride home it initially had us driving from Madison to Tomah, about 100 miles, then it decided we needed to stop at Mauston but it did so too late to have the battery conditioned in time so charging took forever. Arrgh! After we got home my wife said - “Next time we’re taking the van!” I can’t disagree with her - routing and charging was a royal pain in the butt for a trip that should have been quite simple.

 

[Supcom]

The problem with that is that Tesla starts conditioning the battery, wasting energy.

Thanks for the tip - I didn’t know about that option. I’m not sure if it would help, though since there’s no way for me to make the trip without charging.

Yes, The problem is you have to know where the superchargers are to do that and that’s exactly my issue. They don‘t readily show up on the map unless you’re zoomed in so I ended up using a combination of Tesla’s web page and A better route planner to figure out a route, then manually programming it in myself. At that point what’s the advantage of Tesla’s navigation system? I might as well be driving an Ioniq or and EV.4.

Yeah, I’m not sure - it seems to have no qualms about getting you to your destination with less than 10% battery, so it seems to assume that you’re able to charge at your destination.

We just got back and on the ride home it initially had us driving from Madison to Tomah, about 100 miles, then it decided we needed to stop at Mauston but it did so too late to have the battery conditioned in time so charging took forever. Arrgh! After we got home my wife said - “Next time we’re taking the van!” I can’t disagree with her - routing and charging was a royal pain in the butt for a trip that should have been quite simple.

If you have no charge facilities at the destination, plan the route as a round trip back to home. That way the planner will ensure you don't get stuck at your destination. Be sure to add extra charge at the last stop before the detstination to account for vampire drain or any local driving.

And, if available, don't forget that even the 110V mobile charger adapter will add a lot of miles in 24 hours.

 

[Yelobird]

The problem with that is that Tesla starts conditioning the battery, wasting energy.

Thanks for the tip - I didn’t know about that option. I’m not sure if it would help, though since there’s no way for me to make the trip without charging.

Yes, The problem is you have to know where the superchargers are to do that and that’s exactly my issue. They don‘t readily show up on the map unless you’re zoomed in so I ended up using a combination of Tesla’s web page and A better route planner to figure out a route, then manually programming it in myself. At that point what’s the advantage of Tesla’s navigation system? I might as well be driving an Ioniq or and EV.4.

Yeah, I’m not sure - it seems to have no qualms about getting you to your destination with less than 10% battery, so it seems to assume that you’re able to charge at your destination.

We just got back and on the ride home it initially had us driving from Madison to Tomah, about 100 miles, then it decided we needed to stop at Mauston but it did so too late to have the battery conditioned in time so charging took forever. Arrgh! After we got home my wife said - “Next time we’re taking the van!” I can’t disagree with her - routing and charging was a royal pain in the butt for a trip that should have been quite simple.

It’s not a MN thing but will say my planning is always off traveling there late in the year. Not sure if you are in the crazy cold temps yet but I have had a few to MN that ended in the -25 range which Really messes with range estimates.

 

[sleepydoc]

If you have no charge facilities at the destination, plan the route as a round trip back to home. That way the planner will ensure you don't get stuck at your destination. Be sure to add extra charge at the last stop before the detstination to account for vampire drain or any local driving.

And, if available, don't forget that even the 110V mobile charger adapter will add a lot of miles in 24 hours.

That’s a good tip - I generally just keep in mind how much charge I have left and where I’m going. One of the nice things about A Better Route Planner is it lets you specify how much charge you want on arrival. its interface leaves a bit to be desired, though, and of course it has no integration with the car. The problem is you can’t use it on the fly while you’re driving unless you have a passenger available to do the research for you.

 

[sleepydoc]

It’s not a MN thing but will say my planning is always off traveling there late in the year. Not sure if you are in the crazy cold temps yet but I have had a few to MN that ended in the -25 range which Really messes with range estimates.

Could be - we got the worst range we’ve ever gotten on the way back - on the order of 470 Wh/mi. It was cold (-15º C/5º F), windy and we were driving 75 MPH so charging ended up taking an inordinate amount of time for a trip you can normally drive in about 4 ½ hours. I didn’t time it specifically but we spend over an hour charging for a 250 mile trip, and that was starting with 70% charge.

 

[Supcom]

That’s a good tip - I generally just keep in mind how much charge I have left and where I’m going. One of the nice things about A Better Route Planner is it lets you specify how much charge you want on arrival. its interface leaves a bit to be desired, though, and of course it has no integration with the car. The problem is you can’t use it on the fly while you’re driving unless you have a passenger available to do the research for you.

I often use ABRP to plan trips so that I know what options I have. It's a great tool with many options.

 

[vikingrob]

We drove from Minneapolis down to Madison this weekend. The car had 90% battery when we were leaving but the navigation system routed us to a supercharger that's 15min away from our house to charge for 5 minutes, then had another stop half way rather than actually drive a more reasonable distance. (there now 6 superchargers along the route we took.) Specifically, we wanted to charge when we stopped for dinner.

Is there any way to preferentially specify charging stops in the software? The only way I got it to work was because I knew there was a supercharger in LaCrosse so I could enter that as the destination. I could have ignored the first charging stop but then I would have wasted a bunch of energy warming the battery to prepare for supercharging that I wasn't going to do, and If I had just put 'LaCrosse' into the GPS it would have assumed I was going to use destination charging.

Is the nav system sending you to Oakdale?

Here's how I would do this trip in my car if you don't like the routing:

- If you do not have a CCS1 adapter, I would start by setting the Menomonie supercharger and Tomah supercharger as waypoints along the route, and force the navigation system to use those stops. Both are V3 superchargers.

- If you do have the CCS1 adapter, the route I would set is first to the Electrify America station in Eau Claire, then to the Eau Claire supercharger, then the Tomah supercharger. This will allow you to take advantage of the higher power EA station as opposed to the V2 on the other side of Highway 53, and you will precondition as you approach Eau Claire. The drawback is the fact that the EA station at Eau Claire is set up using diagonal parking. At Tomah, there is an Electrify America in the Walmart parking lot just across the road from the supercharger, and it's not a diagonal parking setup. The drawback is that two EA stalls are down per the app as I type this.

 

[vikingrob]

The problem with that is that Tesla starts conditioning the battery, wasting energy.

Thanks for the tip - I didn’t know about that option. I’m not sure if it would help, though since there’s no way for me to make the trip without charging.

Yes, The problem is you have to know where the superchargers are to do that and that’s exactly my issue. They don‘t readily show up on the map unless you’re zoomed in so I ended up using a combination of Tesla’s web page and A better route planner to figure out a route, then manually programming it in myself. At that point what’s the advantage of Tesla’s navigation system? I might as well be driving an Ioniq or and EV.4.

Yeah, I’m not sure - it seems to have no qualms about getting you to your destination with less than 10% battery, so it seems to assume that you’re able to charge at your destination.

We just got back and on the ride home it initially had us driving from Madison to Tomah, about 100 miles, then it decided we needed to stop at Mauston but it did so too late to have the battery conditioned in time so charging took forever. Arrgh! After we got home my wife said - “Next time we’re taking the van!” I can’t disagree with her - routing and charging was a royal pain in the butt for a trip that should have been quite simple.

Tap on the right hand edge of the screen, then select the charging stops - if you do so, it will show the superchargers in the area.

I did Minneapolis to the Chicago area over Thanksgiving weekend. The stops I did were Eau Claire EA, Tomah (SC or EA), Lake Delton, Janesville; when I got there, I was staying in the northwest suburbs, so I used Elmhurst EVgo and Rolling Meadows SC while there.