Emergency Road Service Charging

[SantaFeSpence]

I'm a new LRM3D owner and can't wait to take her out on a long road trip. while I don't anticipate running out of charge while on the road, what happens if I do (aside from coming to a stop ;o)) Is there an emergency number to call to get a charge sufficient to get me to the closest charging station?

 

[trace]

Welcome!

You will not run out of charge if you follow directions and charge when told to. If you do happen to run out you'd have to get towed to the nearest charger.

I'd suggest using abetterrouteplanner.com to figure your route out.

 

[Kenz]

Become familiar with the energy graph in your car.
Try to keep the battery between 20 - 80% if possible for the fastest charge and the health of the battery.

 

[MrMassTransit]

You can request roadside assistance through the Tesla app and be towed to the nearest charger. I wouldn’t be concerned about this though. If you are running lower than expected, drop your speed to 55 MPH or lower and shut off the heat/AC. You will see an major increase in range versus higher speeds and hopefully it will be enough to get you to the next charger. I rode trip with an SR+ and have never had an issue, you should be fine.

 

[Rocky_H]

Just don't let that happen. I had decided before ever getting an electric car that I was never going to be "that guy" who let his electric car run out and got stuck and had people pointing and laughing and giving a black eye to the public's perception of electric vehicles.

Become familiar with the energy graph in your car.

This. When you are traveling, have your charging destination in the Navigation. It will show an expected battery % at arrival. I try to start off with that around 15-20%. Just keep an eye on that as you are driving. If that is dropping down to 12, 11, 10, 9%, you'd better slow down some to decrease the energy usage, and it will stabilize and creep up a little. Just use that and don't let that estimate get down into the low single digits, and that's how you keep from running out.

 

[KenC]

I think AAA had a few test vehicles to charge Teslas back in 2013 or so. Didn't last long. On long trips, plan ahead. Use A Better Routeplanner, aka ABRP. It's far more precise than the Tesla planner, assuming you put in good inputs. During hurricane power outages in the SE, some people were planning to carry small generators to charge their Teslas in a pinch. I guess that might be something someone going on a long camping trip also might consider, as having a small generator could be useful.

 

[SantaFeSpence]

Thank you all for the responses. All good advice. Like I said, I doubt I’ll ever be in that situation, but taking road trips in the wild west will take me to some pretty remote spots. Good planning should relieve any anxiety. I’ve seen numerous postings about A Better Routeplanner. Why/Is that better than the Tesla planner?

 

[toolman335]

If that ever happens to me I want to be towed while on the road so I can see how quickly regen builds up some juice lol

 

[640k]

OP - worse comes to worse, you can always find someone with a big truck...

(don't do that)

 

[Electric700]

Congrats, SantaFeSpence! I recommend you make the navigation system your friend. As others mentioned, it has an energy estimate tab and round trip calculations. Just enter the destination, and Superchargers can be automatically added to your trip. Destination chargers are also available to list (use the charging button on the map), or use the PlugShare app.

 

[SantaFeSpence]

Thanks again. Btw, I also have a reservation on a tri-motor CT which will give me even more range here out on the open range. Just took a look at ABRP, and it sure does look good!

 

[KenC]

Thank you all for the responses. All good advice. Like I said, I doubt I’ll ever be in that situation, but taking road trips in the wild west will take me to some pretty remote spots. Good planning should relieve any anxiety. I’ve seen numerous postings about A Better Routeplanner. Why/Is that better than the Tesla planner?

More variables like temperature and wind can be input. You can put in waypoints, and how long you plan to stop, etc. Lots of things you can test. Plus you can try other EVs to see if they'll suit the kind of trips you take.

 

[camalaio]

If you are driving any time it's a bit cold (even a bit, if the heater could be used at all basically) the built-in trip planner will be too optimistic to trust. If you do trust it, it may strand you. If it strands you, you need a tow truck. Turn everything off because you need to preserve the 12V battery to be able to put it in tow mode. Familiarize yourself with the tow procedures (mostly how to jump the 12V battery if needed, and how to put it in tow mode) because the tow truck driver may not know these things.

As others have mentioned, use abetterrouteplanner.com (most folks call it ABRP). You can expand the settings to account for the temperature and road conditions. Doing so on a recent trip, ABRP was +-1% for almost all legs, whereas the built-in planner was off by 20-40% consistently (sometimes even when not using heat to try to make it to the next stop, and going slower than the speed limit).

ABRP does optimize the route for lowered overall duration. This means it keeps you working the bottom end of the charge capacity, because it can charge faster at a lower state of charge. It also means more frequent stops. If you use ABRP, add a few extra percent on each charge and plan for it to be slower than it calculates (I lost one or two hours every day compared to its estimate). If you use ABRP in the car's browser, be prepared for a lot of lag when loading it, but it has a neat feature where you can adjust your actual state of charge compared to its prediction and replan the route if necessary. You can even get it to look up Level 2 charger in a real pinch.

You will not run out of charge if you follow directions and charge when told to.

While this might work well somewhere warmer or during summer, it is bad general advice with the current implementation. The built-in trip planner is great at giving you a estimate accounting for speed and elevation (which is fantastic), but that seems to be about it. When it comes to cold (and I really mean anything below 10C or 50F), it is dangerously optimistic. Even following its warnings of "oh shoot you're gonna have to go X mph to make it" will leave you stranded miles before the Supercharger in the cold. And it has you skip chargers that would otherwise be beneficial to your sanity, because it seems to optimize for lowest number of stops.

(Yes, I'm mildly bitter after my recent 2000+km trip that the built-in trip planner was completely hopeless for)

 

[neurocutie]

I've been wondering about this myself... maybe we're all careful and do what we're supposed to. But it has to be that as more and more Tesla's and other EVs are sold, its going to happen increasingly. People will run down to empty and need either a charge on the road or a tow. It will be interesting to see what kind of creative solutions and "market opportunities" and solutions will arise in the next few years to address this looming gap.

 

[toolman335]

I don't know guys. I find that in cold temps the car does a great job of adjusting to the conditions and gives clear instructions if there's a remote chance that I'd run low on power. The overall range obviously drops a ton, but the navigation is very conservative with its estimate as well.
I'm not saying someone is an utter fool to run out of power, but unless some emergency takes place or you're NOT using navigation, you almost have to try to run out. The navigation system and/or the car flashes all kinds of warnings at you with PLENTY of notice.

 

[Rocky_H]

People will run down to empty and need either a charge on the road or a tow.

Yes--a tow.

It will be interesting to see what kind of creative solutions and "market opportunities" and solutions will arise in the next few years to address this looming gap.

It's not a gap. People have been getting towed for this for some time now. The solution already exists.

 

[Rocky_H]

I don't know guys. I find that in cold temps the car does a great job of adjusting to the conditions and gives clear instructions if there's a remote chance that I'd run low on power. The overall range obviously drops a ton, but the navigation is very conservative with its estimate as well.
I'm not saying someone is an utter fool to run out of power, but unless some emergency takes place or you're NOT using navigation, you almost have to try to run out. The navigation system and/or the car flashes all kinds of warnings at you with PLENTY of notice.

Yes. I think this is something people are overlooking. They are saying that in the cold, the car will make a bad estimate, and you will be screwed, but that's not really accurate, because it doesn't just give you an estimate once, at the end, when you are nearly at your destination. It will start off with a prediction, and then it realtime updates every couple of minutes as you are driving for hours! The way people sometimes get in trouble is if they only look at the initial estimate before starting out and then turn it off and never look at it for the next couple of hours of driving and go too fast. I've dealt with this trips in the cold plenty, and if you check that estimate in the nav window occasionally, you will see if you need to turn your cruise control down a few mph to increase your buffer. That will make a significant difference over an hour or more of driving. Just pay a little attention, and it's fine.

 

[toolman335]

Yes. I think this is something people are overlooking. They are saying that in the cold, the car will make a bad estimate, and you will be screwed, but that's not really accurate, because it doesn't just give you an estimate once, at the end, when you are nearly at your destination. It will start off with a prediction, and then it realtime updates every couple of minutes as you are driving for hours! The way people sometimes get in trouble is if they only look at the initial estimate before starting out and then turn it off and never look at it for the next couple of hours of driving and go too fast. I've dealt with this trips in the cold plenty, and if you check that estimate in the nav window occasionally, you will see if you need to turn your cruise control down a few mph to increase your buffer. That will make a significant difference over an hour or more of driving. Just pay a little attention, and it's fine.

Exactly. Don't look at the stated remaining range showing on the car, the navigation estimate, then drive like a maniac and be surprised at how it plays out

 

[neurocutie]

Yes--a tow.

It's not a gap. People have been getting towed for this for some time now. The solution already exists.

*A* solution already exists. I'm suggesting that there may be other solutions developed. At very least, a dramatic rise in the number of charging stations available will help mitigate otherwise long tows. Or maybe there will be a way of getting a quickie 10min charge which may be enough to hobble over to a charging station, not unlike getting a gallon of gas.

 

[Rocky_H]

*A* solution already exists. I'm suggesting that there may be other solutions developed. At very least, a dramatic rise in the number of charging stations available will help mitigate otherwise long tows. Or maybe there will be a way of getting a quickie 10min charge which may be enough to hobble over to a charging station, not unlike getting a gallon of gas.

Sure, mobile charging equipment setups like that already exist, which could be put together, but they are massively expensive for the nearly zero amount of use they would get that makes it nowhere near worthwhile. It's not like this is going to be a significant industry around which anyone could build a business case.