Cruising out of Baltimore

[cmu5p]

Maryland friends,
Signed family up to cruise out of Baltimore and wonder if you have opinions on where to park/charge (or not) Tesla for the week. My plan is to max charge at our hotel the night before so battery is full before the weeklong park. When the ship docks at 9am on Sunday, I'd like to have at least 150mi range back to get to Strasburg to charge before going home. (Though, depending on how much battery drain for the week, I'd be ok with stopping in Bethesda or Rockville to charge, but prefer not to). It does not look like there is an outlet at the parking garage at the port.

Any recommendations or prior experiences doing this?

Hubby was teasing the other day and calling it a "Stress-la" road trip. I told him he'd have to drive if we end up taking the ICE van.

Thanks for any help!
Claire

 

[CHRGIT]

Maybe the Laurel Supercharger will be open by then.

 

[Hover]

You could leave it at my house, and we could leave it plugged in. I'm here this week. In Laurel, MD. [email protected]. MS85, # 1686. If you leave shortly, I can drive you to the ship. Tell me what you want it to charge to, and I'll be sure you're all set.
Why do this? Because we aren't Expensive German Car drivers.....

 

[mrElbe]

During a week of parking you should lose no more than 5% of range. Nothing to worry about.

 

[CatB]

Another option is to have lunch/brunch at one of the destination charging hotels - Hyatt Regency has a number of options that can top you off nicely.

 

[mikeash]

It's around 140 rated miles from Baltimore to Strasburg, according to EVTripPlanner. If your hotel is in Baltimore, it should be no problem. A 90% charge should give you around 230 rated miles, and you're not going to lose anywhere close to 90 rated miles while it sits. I wouldn't even bother with the 100% charge, that just stresses the battery with no need for it. As a backup, keep in mind there are a buttload of L2 chargers in the DC area if you suddenly find yourself wanting for range. Grab lunch at Tysons Corner Center while plugged into the Tesla HPWCs there, for example. But it sounds like you won't need to, not even close.

 

[andrewket]

+1 for not leaving the battery near 100% SOC for a week.

 

[cmu5p]

You could leave it at my house, and we could leave it plugged in. I'm here this week. In Laurel, MD. [email protected]. MS85, # 1686. If you leave shortly, I can drive you to the ship. Tell me what you want it to charge to, and I'll be sure you're all set.
Why do this? Because we aren't Expensive German Car drivers.....

Ha! Thank you, very generous offer, but I'm feeling more reassured by the other commenters. But, very appreciative of your offer. Another example of TMC awesomeness.

- - - Updated - - -

Another option is to have lunch/brunch at one of the destination charging hotels - Hyatt Regency has a number of options that can top you off nicely.

great idea! This is where we plan on staying the night before to "top off".

 

[DFibRL8R]

Hubby was teasing the other day and calling it a "Stress-la" road trip. I told him he'd have to drive if we end up taking the ICE van.

Claire

Don't do that, then he'll be suffering from "Low T" which is way worse!

 

[cmu5p]

It's around 140 rated miles from Baltimore to Strasburg, according to EVTripPlanner. If your hotel is in Baltimore, it should be no problem. A 90% charge should give you around 230 rated miles, and you're not going to lose anywhere close to 90 rated miles while it sits. I wouldn't even bother with the 100% charge, that just stresses the battery with no need for it. As a backup, keep in mind there are a buttload of L2 chargers in the DC area if you suddenly find yourself wanting for range. Grab lunch at Tysons Corner Center while plugged into the Tesla HPWCs there, for example. But it sounds like you won't need to, not even close.

Thank you. This is very reassuring. Is the SOC to battery stress logarithmic? i.e., would leaving it at 98% cause less stress or is anything over 90% stressful? Sorry. I'm sure there are other threads to search. I'm being lazy. Thank you to everyone, for your input. Hope to meet some of you in Williamsburg for TRT 2016!

 

[DFibRL8R]

Generally better to charge to only around 90% or less for extended storage to maximize battery life. My understanding is leaving at closer to 100% SOC (or too close to empty) for a longer time puts undue stress on the battery and can shorten battery life a bit. Ideal long term storage is probably closer to 50% but probably not worth worrying about for a week. It is less of an issue to do a max charge and immediately drive but still something to avoid on a regular basis.

 

[paulkva]

Another option you might consider, regardless of rated range, is taking I-70 to I-81 instead of going through DC to get to Strasburg. One advantage is you'd have Hagerstown as an option for an interim charge, only 75 miles from Baltimore. The other advantage, depending on the timing of your trip, could be traffic avoidance. It's an extra 15 miles total, and an extra 5-10 minutes total without traffic, according to Google Maps.

 

[mikeash]

Thank you. This is very reassuring. Is the SOC to battery stress logarithmic? i.e., would leaving it at 98% cause less stress or is anything over 90% stressful? Sorry. I'm sure there are other threads to search. I'm being lazy. Thank you to everyone, for your input. Hope to meet some of you in Williamsburg for TRT 2016!

Good question! I don't know much beyond the basic idea that charging to 100% just before driving is fine, letting it sit at 100% over a long period isn't good for it, and 90% is fine. So far I haven't encountered a situation where it was useful to try for something between 90% and 100%. I'm sure it ramps up in some way over that interval but I don't really know the shape of that curve.