By my calculations, 190 km should be easily doable in the winter.
Sounds good for 190 km (for the case of S85 owners, not S60), given that that distance is less than even a generous de-rating by 50% of the S85's rated range of 420 km (that applies in fact to only fairly slow driving in summer).
But you can't say the same about 250-255 km, which is the distance between the Kingston and Toronto SCs.
That's why we truly need the Cobourg area SC!
As others have also reported here, I recently distance-travelled at around -16C degrees, in my case from Hamilton to Montreal return. I found it remarkable how great it really is to have the Cornwall SC between Kingston and Montreal for this trip because it strikingly gives you the trip time minimizing benefits that Elon wants us to experience and that you get when you charge from low but, because the next stop is near, you DON'T need to go way up to near-full and deep into Big Taper slowdown.
The absence of an SC in the Cobourg area was a strikingly bad contrast to the above experience of well-spaced SCs, for two reasons:
(A) The "no-Cobourg factor"
seriously delayed my total trip time relative to normal expected with an ICEV. Specifically, my prior winter highway driving experience in -16C temperatures (and always with my stubborn goal to maintain a reasonable driving speed around 110-115 km/hr and reasonable interior comfort at +19C) has proven to be consistent and even predictable: Once warmed up, my S85's battery gives me an
actual range of 60-65% of rated range under the above conditions. So with that simple guide, on my recent trip (and not wishing to give up either reasonable speed or comfort), the 250 km Kingston-Toronto leg rationally needed me to supercharge to 400 km of rated range (400 = 250 km / 62% ). That level being 95% of the S85's max 420 km, I obviously had to be patient for a pretty long time at the SC as the final taper crawled in to target (the Toronto SC was crowded and so was particularly slow).
(B) The "no-Cobourg factor" also
gave me an unexpected taste of range anxiety on the Kingston/Toronto leg! The new trip app in 6.1 and its display of estimated charge remaining at your destination is very nice overall I think because AFTER driving an SC-to-SC leg for a good while, it gives a good and ever-present reassurance about the plans that you've just made for both: (a) the level of charge you needed to start on this leg at the current temperature, and (b) the driving speed you've (stubbornly) chosen to target.
But for my comfort at least, the trip app takes too long to gradually ramp its estimate of your destination charge down from its balmy-looking initial percentage and to finally stabilize on its ever-refined estimate, even when your speed continues to be very steady all along.
This trip app behaviour meant for me that when I started out from Kingston with my "so nicely pre-planned" 400 km rated range charged up for my targeted speed in the bitter cold, the trip app at first seemed reasonable in steadily dropping its prediction of remaining charge in Toronto from its silly-high starting estimate. But as time passed, I thought it wasn't slowing down its rate of descent at all and so would soon solidly overshoot to zero or negative instead of easing in to/near my targeted range of a 2-7% residual. I "admit"
that I almost capitulated with an ugly slow-down to truck speed or less (what horror
), but just then the good trip app decided its estimate was now stable. But from there on, I really did have a great remaining leg and trip.
The Cobourg area SC will be very important in order for Tesla Motors and Tesla owners to honestly consider and declare the 401 corridor travellable in a normal and routine fashion.
For 401-only trips like this one, at least, I think it could usefully be placed anywhere from Clarington to Cobourg or even Colborne (at the Big Apple?).
But in the meantime, I know that I'll want to figure out what that time tradeoff might be between (a) time I would lose by targeting a rather slower driving speed than what I'd call desirable (especially for a strong and good-looking Tesla Model S!) and (b) time I could gain by supercharging to a lower charge target that such a slower speed would require.
