Evacuation from Hurricane in a Tesla

[ivengo]

If you look at the news sites you see lines of people in front of gas stations filling up and leaving the coast.
What happens if Model S/X are the only cars you have to evacuate in?
Do superchargers get suddenly huge lines as well?
Or actually it is a less painful experience than having a ICE car because you can charge at home and then hop via superchargers and then just camp in you car?

I know that a Tesla can hold quite will in the water. Are there any other positives?

Can somebody post an experience how it is to evacuate from a hurricane in a Tesla?

 

[Saghost]

Well, you have the advantage of starting with a mostly full tank, and a Tesla is more efficient at the fairly low speeds the traffic will force. So the first couple hundred miles/several hours won't be an issue.

After that I suspect the Superchargers may get overwhelmed, depending on how many suitable routes there are and how many Teslas.

I don't think there's been a major mandatory evacuation in the Supercharger network era, so I don't think there is any real experience out there.

 

[TexasEV]

Not having to go to a gas station to start the trip is a huge advantage. It's likely that Tesla owners charged to 100% at home overnight before starting out.

 

[LastGas]

South Carolina is evacuating two counties (Georgetown, Horry) right now in the path of Hurricane Matthew. I guess the two Teslas (uninformed estimate) down there might make it to Charlotte on a full charge, depending on the wind.

 

[SpiceWare]

For Rita I was unaware of it as I'd been laid up in bed due to a really bad bug. I went back to work on the day they were shutting down the plant so everybody could evacuate the next day. By that time the gas stations throughout Houston had run dry, as Katrina was still fresh in everybody's mind. I only had a 1/4 tank so I ended up having to ride out the storm in town rather than heading out to stay with family in Bandera (west of San Antonio). Due to that experience I now fill a couple 5 gallon gas cans at the start of hurricane season - if I haven't needed them by December I use them to fill up the car.

With a Tesla I'd have been able to make it out of town. My family's 256 miles from my place; which, with the expected slow rate of traffic, even an S60 could make on a single charge. As such, I wouldn't need to make use of any superchargers.

 

[kort677]

I am in a mandatory evac zone and will be leaving tomorrow at 5 am, I expect no issues with charging. I am leaving home in my 90d wit a range charge and will drive to tallahassee fl. I will report on my return if I encountered any charging issues

 

[Lawsteve]

I am in a mandatory evac zone and will be leaving tomorrow at 5 am, I expect no issues with charging. I am leaving home in my 90d wit a range charge and will drive to tallahassee fl. I will report on my return if I encountered any charging issues

Best of luck to you and safe travels. I'm going to make the last minute call tomorrow re whether I head to Disney for my meetings. Still planning to use my wife's ICE SUV if we go. If I need to have a hurricane party, I might as well do it at Disney.

 

[TI Sailor]

ABC News with David Muir had a piece tonight on the SC evacuation on I-26. Front & center in the video was a black Model S traveling west.

 

[Zogs90d]

We evacuated from Jacksonville FL to Atlanta for Hurricane Matthew No problems at all, a lot of friends/ coworkers were worried about our electric car as e passed many gas stations that were out of gas.

 

[ivengo]

glad to hear you are safe and getting out in Tesla was not a problem

 

[Pollux]

I hope everyone is safe, healthy and in good shape after the storm has passed. I know some folks are still dealing with flooding and power outages; good luck to all.

One surprise to keep in mind for the future: a Tesla in stop-and-go traffic can wind up using huge amounts of power. I was shocked to discover this problem last summer. My family and I were traveling from the Boston area down to the Falmouth area of Cape Code. We left later than we should have on a Saturday morning, and got caught in brutal stop-and-go traffic. What should have been a ride of 2-3 hours became a ride of (IIRC) 7 hours.

We were running the air conditioning. It was... mmm.... maybe 85 degrees out.

After a while, I found that the car's power consumption was ramping way up, from the 330-350 range to the 700-900 range. And STAYING up. After a while, I became nervous and called Tesla to ask. They poked around, decided that there was nothing wrong with the car. The upshot: stop-and-go means that you are constantly just barely making the transition from static friction to rolling friction, and then stopping again. You are essentially repeating the most expensive part of the car's movement and never benefiting from the more efficient part, where you are rolling along. So... power consumption spikes and can remain spiked. If you just sit there without moving at all for an hour, you won't lose much energy at all. If you roll along at 10-20 mph, you'll probably also be fine. But extended stop-and-go.... maybe not so efficient!

A time-crunched situation like an evacuation is maybe one of the few remaining scenarios where I'd consider an ICE. (After 3 years, I don't take an ICE ANYWHERE. Next trip up through the Canadian Maritimes will be via Tesla.) You can definitely recharge your Tesla in many more places than there are gas stations (but be sure to pack your various charging adapter tips, maybe even consider purchasing a chademo adapter). But unless you can find Superchargers, you're going to spend way more time recharging than you would refueling(*). And time is definitely what you want to optimize when you are evacuating.

Alan

(*)But of course there's a caveat on refueling: are the gas stations running dry? Short or long lines there?