EXPERIENCE: 2400 miles trip Model 3 SR Plus

[youngmcdonald]

Thanks so much for the trip report. I'll be taking my first 200 mile road trip this w/e, lol.

I have a trip to Atlanta planned (850 mi) coming in August... My son and I are going back and forth on taking the Standard Range M3 or renting something (college move-in). Reports such as this are helpful. In the past, we've made the 13 hr trip in a single day (once) or 2 days (twice).

I think the 240 'rated range' and necessary charging time will prevent this from being a 1-day (practical) adventure. Online planner shows 7 stops for a total of almost 3 hours, added to the 13.5 hr trip. Obv no need for food/bathroom breaks as those will be taken care of... But 2 days, seems relatively practical, esp when you grab a destination charge and save on 1 or 2 super charges in the process.

Add in the reduced fatigue with EAP... I think it could be a fun trip. If I took something else, my guess is I would be downright exhausted by the time I got back after a marathon there and back drive and need to take a day off work anyway upon return.

We have driven 600 miles one way with plenty of (unnecessary but safety focused) breaks in a combination of decent and terrible weather every day for the last three in the SR+. We start at 9 am and we stop at 9 pm. Driving at posted speeds, keeping the battery warm and wherever we found no rain helped us tremendously to get near rated range out of that car.

850 miles is not a great one day drive, unless you’re absolutely sure that you won’t fall asleep behind the wheel; it’ll be about 14 hours of driving including more than sufficient breaks etc.

 

[mec37]

In the first week of April, I bought a Model 3 in white, rear wheel drive with 18 inch wheels, Partial Premium interior, standard range plus (240 miles EPA rated range), and Autopilot.

6. I’m one of those people who have the true legacy “Enhanced Autopilot” that somehow I managed to get for $3000 basic “AutoPilot” package when I ordered the car in late March 2019. Enhanced AutoPilot does everything that today’s basic AutoPilot does (traffic aware cruise control, automatic steering with lane change execution when you initiate a turn signal while driving in the Autopilot mode) and adds three more things - Navigate on Autopilot which enables speed and traffic based fully automatic lane change (with or without driver’s consent), entering and existing highway ramps (often jerky and with phantom braking), and lateral summon (which will be enhanced later this year)...

You just answered a major question I had about our M3. We too have an SR+ that we ordered with Autopilot and was delivered at the end of March. We also appear to have Navigate on Autopilot and Summon, which I guess means we also have the Enhanced Autopilot. I wondered if this was some sort of trial or something, but couldn't find anything online or on our account to suggest this was the case. (Is there a thread somewhere that talks more about this?)

So now my question now is whether we'll get to keep these features or if they'll disappear after some future update (much like the satellite maps disappeared after the last update). I like the idea of FSD, but $7k post-delivery (and likely to increase further) is too rich for me.

Anyway, thanks for posting!

 

[youngmcdonald]

You just answered a major question I had about our M3. We too have an SR+ that we ordered with Autopilot and was delivered at the end of March. We also appear to have Navigate on Autopilot and Summon, which I guess means we also have the Enhanced Autopilot. I wondered if this was some sort of trial or something, but couldn't find anything online or on our account to suggest this was the case. (Is there a thread somewhere that talks more about this?)

So now my question now is whether we'll get to keep these features or if they'll disappear after some future update (much like the satellite maps disappeared after the last update). I like the idea of FSD, but $7k post-delivery (and likely to increase further) is too rich for me.

Anyway, thanks for posting!

A lot of discussion on Reddit that I also posted on about $3k package being the legacy EAP and not AP.

I have not gotten a single firmware update since I bought the car. It’s wait and watch to see if the features go away and we are left with AP.

 

[youngmcdonald]

Day 4 (final day): we made it from Pittsburgh, PA Reno, NV safely! Our energy consumption for the whole trip was 280 Wh/Mile.

We drove about 2400 miles in 4 full days and spent 3 nights in hotels. We were on the road for about 12 hours every day from 9 am to 9 pm.

Unfortunately we had to go through some terrible patches of very cold weather, pouring rains, and snow. Today, snowy patches were hit in western Wyoming, as expected. The drive from West Wendover, NV to Elko, NV was pretty bad. But the last four hours before Reno were warmer and sunny thankfully.

That said, car held up like a champ in all weather conditions on stock tires and drove beautifully and was very stable. So much so that the two year old Beagle was no trouble whatsoever and just napped all the way (of course, he got lots of walks on breaks and the plenty of new smells and sights stimulating and tiring him out).

For us, however, the supercharging breaks were often bothersome, as we were walking the dog in shivering cold or under snow or rain. Really strange for this time of the year. But all that was counterbalanced by almost zero fatigue inducing driving model, minus the first couple of range anxiety incidents early on.

Overall, all the lessons learned after day 1 still hold true. However, my range anxiety significantly reduced as I drove more. I started to rely more and more on the in car navigation system, but I still think it’s overambitious and needs an override option to insert a supercharging stop (like PlugShare). And yes, rain and heating are a killer for the range. But driving slow, heating the seats, and using window defogger sparingly got us through when the weather was bad and stops were farther apart on couple of occasions.

Just one ICEing spotted in a hotel by two guests in WY but plenty of Tesla stations were available so it didn’t turn into an incident. In our some twenty two stops, we always had a Tesla neighbor except twice.

PlugShare is a great resource for locations and reviews. It helped us a great deal. Thanks to all the users who post on it.

Lastly, thanks for all the likes and encouraging words here.

Finally, let me put this into perspective for potential buyers who currently don’t believe in EV or on the fence. It is 2019, and I just took a brand new base model of an electric “commuter” car with a rated maximum range of 240 miles (real range about 170-190) from Western PA to Western NV in four days (could have done it easily in 3) covering 2400 miles without issues. It cost me significantly less money than gasoline, and I added almost no emissions to the air. My opinion is that it’s simply a revolutionary car and charging network of our time made by a relatively new but revolutionary automobile company! Give it a thought.

 

[Leafdriver333]

What were your high speed cruising speeds? 80mph?

Have you signed up for 14 day free trial on TeslaFi?
It will analyze your drives. No need to enter Credit Card info.

 

[youngmcdonald]

What were your high speed cruising speeds? 80mph?

Have you signed up for 14 day free trial on TeslaFi?
It will analyze your drives. No need to enter Credit Card info.

75-85 mph. Sometimes 60 mph in snow.

I tried the TeslaFi and I also have the Stats application but I signed out of both. It brought my phantom drain down significantly.

 

[Bejj]

Thanks for sharing your experience billionaiire, I'm still to get a VIN for my SR+ order so I'm reading up on what to expect.
Two questions though, when and how did you use dogmode? While plugged in charging?
And did you always start the day off with a preheated battery?

 

[Lostb0y]

Awesome to see. Thanks for posting. Looking forward to my little trip this weekend for my birthday.

 

[viper driver]

A lot of discussion on Reddit that I also posted on about $3k package being the legacy EAP and not AP.

I have not gotten a single firmware update since I bought the car. It’s wait and watch to see if the features go away and we are left with AP.

same here, with EAP, and thinking it'd leave at some point. Got my first software update today and EAP is still there. I don't get it.

 

[timdoes]

same here, with EAP, and thinking it'd leave at some point. Got my first software update today and EAP is still there. I don't get it.

Same here as well. Was told it's a 60 day FSD trial by the sales rep but do not see trial listed anywhere. Did not opt into the trial. And have no clue of the trial end date.

Seems a bunch of us are on the Wait And See plan lol

Definitely not paying $7K or higher for the FSD.

 

[Big Earl]

How was your hotel experience? I’ve been using PlugShare to find hotels with EV charging, but finding ones that are also pet-friendly is tricky.

 

[youngmcdonald]

How was your hotel experience? I’ve been using PlugShare to find hotels with EV charging, but finding ones that are also pet-friendly is tricky.

Finding a pet friendly hotel using simple google search took us five minutes. We booked the hotel at around noon daily for a 9 pm arrival. There was only one time where we couldn’t find it next to the charger as it was sold out. We just camped out to charge and then called it a night.

 

[youngmcdonald]

Thanks for sharing your experience billionaiire, I'm still to get a VIN for my SR+ order so I'm reading up on what to expect.
Two questions though, when and how did you use dogmode? While plugged in charging?
And did you always start the day off with a preheated battery?

Dog mode was used when we were charging yes. And yes we tried to charge a little bit in the morning but battery would still be cold. We just drove an hour or so and it heated up. In fact, when we stopped for more than 45 minutes to charge, it would get cold again but it would get warm again after we started driving within a few minutes.

 

[viper driver]

Same here as well. Was told it's a 60 day FSD trial by the sales rep but do not see trial listed anywhere. Did not opt into the trial. And have no clue of the trial end date.

Seems a bunch of us are on the Wait And See plan lol

Definitely not paying $7K or higher for the FSD.

I've been chasing this down the last week or so, to try and determine if FSD is worth it before the price goes up. here's what I'm fairly sure of, after talking to several Tesla folks....

-there is no FSD trial if you have autopilot, as you and I do. there's a trial only for people with no AP at all.
-if you have a trial you will know it. It's shown on the screen and counts down daily. I do not, so I haven't personally seen this.
-to get the 'trial' price for FSD of $5,500, you must be on the actual trial. Which means, and I totally disagree with this idea, you can only get FSD at the trial price if you don't already have AP. If you bought AP at delivery, there's no trial FSD price for you. you sort of get penalized for buying AP before delivery. I'd actually recommend buyers either get both or none, then use the trial to check it out.
-the mobile ranger here thinks my EAP won't disappear. But, several reddit folks have seen theirs go away. I don't know....
- I would pay $7k for FSD if I lost my EAP. I'd pay $8k as well, which seems like what likely will happen.
-the best possible option is unfortunately to see it in action during your week 1 'test drive' and then return your car to get $5k FSD pre delivery of the next car. Had mine worked at delivery, and not taken a week to fix the radar, this is what I'd have done. Returning the car to save $2k on FSD is dumb, but them's the rules it seems.

 

[Daddywolf]

Great post, billionaire. I have to say, I've been chomping at the bit to get my INFINITI Q50 sold and get my Tesla Model 3 order in, however, reading this gives my pause. My budget allows for the SR+ and while I work a mere 4 miles from my home, we do take 2-3 road trips per year, to Cleveland, OH and Orlando (each right about 8 hours from Charlotte) so I'm extremely distressed to hear the real range of the SR+ is actually about 170-180 miles. I have no idea about the supercharger networks between mine and those locations, however I have to think they are pretty robust. My fear is getting to charging location and having to wait 30 mins to plug-in in addition to the 30-40 mins charging time. Help ease my fears!!!

 

[Retaw]

Great post, billionaire. I have to say, I've been chomping at the bit to get my INFINITI Q50 sold and get my Tesla Model 3 order in, however, reading this gives my pause. My budget allows for the SR+ and while I work a mere 4 miles from my home, we do take 2-3 road trips per year, to Cleveland, OH and Orlando (each right about 8 hours from Charlotte) so I'm extremely distressed to hear the real range of the SR+ is actually about 170-180 miles. I have no idea about the supercharger networks between mine and those locations, however I have to think they are pretty robust. My fear is getting to charging location and having to wait 30 mins to plug-in in addition to the 30-40 mins charging time. Help ease my fears!!!

Why not use ABetterRoutePlanner to check superchargers, elevation, loss in cold weather, etc on those routes first?
Regarding Supercharger availability, looks like Tesla shut down the public interfaces, so you might need to ask an owner around you to check the live usage status in car during busy hours to get an idea. 30min charging should be fine for a meal or a break, but yeah waiting to plug in sucks.

 

[Big Earl]

Why not use ABetterRoutePlanner to check superchargers, elevation, loss in cold weather, etc on those routes first?
Regarding Supercharger availability, looks like Tesla shut down the public interfaces, so you might need to ask an owner around you to check the live usage status in car during busy hours to get an idea. 30min charging should be fine for a meal or a break, but yeah waiting to plug in sucks.

I’ll second that recommendation. Plan out some trips and see what it really looks like.

 

[Ol'Blue]

Just throwing this out there as someone who has road tripped across North America several times. Anyone viewing this thread and comparing driving east to driving north or south on the easy coast is not going to get a good comparison.

From the east coast to where billionaire went, the elevation starts at sea level then gradually inclines to around the edge of Wyoming/ Montana before it starts to decline again before hitting the mountains.

Because of this gradual incline, your vehicles rated range will never be seen. Especially in cold.

Driving south to Florida is more level, and ends warmer, you will see at least 15-20% better range results then billionaire experienced. If billionaire were to do the same trip back, the cars 280wh/mi would be much lower and much less stressful.

 

[Daddywolf]

Why not use ABetterRoutePlanner to check superchargers, elevation, loss in cold weather, etc on those routes first?
Regarding Supercharger availability, looks like Tesla shut down the public interfaces, so you might need to ask an owner around you to check the live usage status in car during busy hours to get an idea. 30min charging should be fine for a meal or a break, but yeah waiting to plug in sucks.

Thanks, I’m not familiar with that but I’ll give it a look.

 

[Daddywolf]

Just throwing this out there as someone who has road tripped across North America several times. Anyone viewing this thread and comparing driving east to driving north or south on the easy coast is not going to get a good comparison.

From the east coast to where billionaire went, the elevation starts at sea level then gradually inclines to around the edge of Wyoming/ Montana before it starts to decline again before hitting the mountains.

Because of this gradual incline, your vehicles rated range will never be seen. Especially in cold.

Driving south to Florida is more level, and ends warmer, you will see at least 15-20% better range results then billionaire experienced. If billionaire were to do the same trip back, the cars 280wh/mi would be much lower and much less stressful.

Makes total sense. Heading north we do have a pretty decent elevation change, but we don’t go to Ohio in the winter! I appreciate the input.