First long Tesla trip: any tips?

[chrg]

Dear,

In a few weeks I'm planning to travel from Waasmunster, Belgium to Grimaud, France. Weapon of choice for this 1 200km trip = M3 LR. As my wife is not 100% convinced and would prefer to use her (hybrid) car, I need all the tips and tricks I can get. I used abetterrouteplanner.com to plan a route, but according to my calculations I could manage with only 3 stops instead of 4. Does the extra stop compensate for the decrease in charging speed? After 16 000km, my average consumption is 197Wh/km, but if I drive a bit slower (120km/h) it should be about 180 Wh/km, no?
Also planning to drive at night (travelling with a baby so I hope he sleeps most of (=all) the way) so traffic should be calm and chargers should be available.

Thanks for your feedback

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Fastest time is normally driving faster and stopping more. It also means that you get more breaks from driving. But if you can make a small change to skip a Supercharger you can save time. It can depend on the diversions and need for bathroom breaks.

 

[Xenius]

Short advice: Don't worry and have fun.

Longer: ABRP is great, and should be pretty optimal. Depending on conditions sometimes it is more efficient (time-wise) to stop more frequently for shorter periods of time. However lots of data points go into that (time to plug in from getting off route, etc).

In a m3 LR, you're going to be fine. Hopefully you have autopilot to do some of the driving for you and reduce the stress of a long drive. Even if you don't, the lack of constant explosions vibrating your entire car will help this trip be better than in an ICE vehicle.

Lean back and enjoy the ride, you'll be fine.

 

[DontBetAgtsEln]

Dear,

In a few weeks I'm planning to travel from Waasmunster, Belgium to Grimaud, France. Weapon of choice for this 1 200km trip = M3 LR. As my wife is not 100% convinced and would prefer to use her (hybrid) car, I need all the tips and tricks I can get. I used abetterrouteplanner.com to plan a route, but according to my calculations I could manage with only 3 stops instead of 4. Does the extra stop compensate for the decrease in charging speed? After 16 000km, my average consumption is 197Wh/km, but if I drive a bit slower (120km/h) it should be about 180 Wh/km, no?
Also planning to drive at night (travelling with a baby so I hope he sleeps most of (=all) the way) so traffic should be calm and chargers should be available.

Thanks for your feedback

I just did ~5600 KM (3500 miles) going from Florida to Canada and back. my first trip in my new M3LR.

What I learned is:

1. that I have no range anxiety.
2. use both ABRP and the Tesla navigation
3. make sure to navigate to superchargers directly in order to have the battery preconditioning
4. be opened to doing more stops. they will be shorted and will charge in less time. This will also allow you to drive FASTER. the speed limit in France is 130. Why go 120?

FINALLY: Enjoy your car and Autopilot!

 

[ewoodrick]

So, you now know that you can make it, great.
When you get on the road, life will happen and you'll probably do things differently. Just let the car nav be your guide. Remember, speed kills the battery,

When road tripping, look at scheduling charging at the same time as you are taking breaks and meals. If you do it well, you'll find that charging adds no time to your trip and that you may even have to interrupt a meal take the car off of a charger.

Remember that charging on a lower stat of charge is faster than charging when the car is full. So you'll have a tendency to skip a charger, as long as you can make it to the next one.

 

[miimura]

Also, after you plug in at a Supercharger, enter your next stop in the navigation. The phone app should notify you when the car has enough charge to continue your journey.

 

[Candleflame]

the most efficient speed for a Model 3 and 120kw supercharging is around 165-170kmh as long as you stick to 5-80% charging. Given the good supercharger coverage you should therefore drive faster and do more chargestops if you want to reach your destination sooner.

 

[ChtiLuxo]

Sorry I read this thread so late...

In addition to all the excellent advices above, I'd like to share my experience.

What we have noticed after our first long trips (similar to yours : Luxembourg-la Croix Valmer) is something that might sound obvious when ou read, but we didn't expect it as a benefit: the duration of the journey increases by making more breaks to charge, but making rests allows you to reach destination more relaxed and less tired !

The journey has become part of the holiday, and that was quite a change of mindset for us, who were used to try to reach destination as fast as (legally) possible.

We now frequently cut long journeys by spending a night at a nice accommodation with a destination charger, which seamlessly allows to spare a supercharge (recently found a really nice one I can only recommend, even if a little of the track: chateau de Moison). You get to discover new regions, new people... Roadtrip reloaded !

And as said above: lean back, relax and enjoy the autopilot, but keep the hands on the wheel !

 

[Tozz]

Dear,

In a few weeks I'm planning to travel from Waasmunster, Belgium to Grimaud, France. Weapon of choice for this 1 200km trip = M3 LR. As my wife is not 100% convinced and would prefer to use her (hybrid) car, I need all the tips and tricks I can get. I used abetterrouteplanner.com to plan a route, but according to my calculations I could manage with only 3 stops instead of 4. Does the extra stop compensate for the decrease in charging speed? After 16 000km, my average consumption is 197Wh/km, but if I drive a bit slower (120km/h) it should be about 180 Wh/km, no?
Also planning to drive at night (travelling with a baby so I hope he sleeps most of (=all) the way) so traffic should be calm and chargers should be available.

I would recommend _not_ using ABRP and other navigation tools. I did that my first road trip to Czech Republic and it was disappointing. I calculated and tuned a route using ABRP for days, to navigate to Superchargers almost empty, do as few stops as possible, etc

We started our trip in the middle of the night, and it was considerably colder than I anticipated with ABRP (3 degrees instead of 18). That was the first let-down. I needed to stop at a Supercharger I wanted to skip. Again, this was our first road trip in the middle of the night. I can still hear my wife complaining.

Then somewhere in Germany I missed an exit a construction area (baustelle). This was a 50km or so detour. Not a big issue by itself, but it did mean I had to stop at yet again a Supercharger I wanted to skip. At this time my wife was searching for a divorce lawyer (jk)

I then threw away my ABRP printouts, entered my destination in the Tesla navigation and had the most relaxed journey ever. Since then I don't do any planning, I just enter the destination and go. Works every time, flawlessly. Best. Car. Ever.

It adds additional charges when required, it skips when it can, etc. So I would not focus to much on 3 stops instead of 4. Just do the trip and do as the car tells you. One stop more or less doesn't matter and you will find that the stops are actually quite nice. You can take a leak, have something to eat, change diaper, stretch the legs, etc. We never find the mandatory charging stops inconvenient.

I don't do "hypermiling" either. I usually go about 150 km/h on AP on the Autobahn, with the occasional fun sprints to 220+ km/h.

 

[Tozz]

3. make sure to navigate to superchargers directly in order to have the battery preconditioning

IMHO this is completely useless. Battery preconditioning is only required if the battery is cold, e.g. the first 50 kilometers or so. After that the battery is warm due to driving the car and preconditioning is no longer required.

 

[Candleflame]

IMHO this is completely useless. Battery preconditioning is only required if the battery is cold, e.g. the first 50 kilometers or so. After that the battery is warm due to driving the car and preconditioning is no longer required.

yeah that never made sense to me. On the one hand the battery power gets cut due to overheating (i.e. driving fast on the autobahn), on the other hand people feel the need to preheat their pack before a supercharger.

 

[Tozz]

yeah that never made sense to me. On the one hand the battery power gets cut due to overheating (i.e. driving fast on the autobahn), on the other hand people feel the need to preheat their pack before a supercharger.

Pre-heating helps when the battery is cold (below 20 degrees Celcius or so). When the car is driven for about 50 kms the battery is warm enough by itself, so yes, after those initial 50km pre-heating will not occur anymore and battery cooling is more likely

 

[Richt]

I don’t know if this word in Europe but in the US, abetterrouteolanner.com works really well in the web browser. Just add your route plan url in your calendar in the note field.

In the car, open the calendar and click on the link. The browser opens and you get your route plan along with a comparison of predicted charge state.

And you will find that the fastest route is recharging when ur at 15% and recharging to about 65%. That’s about 200km or two hours of drive time. On an M3 that should be about 15 minutes of a stop.

I would recommend _not_ using ABRP and other navigation tools. I did that my first road trip to Czech Republic and it was disappointing. I calculated and tuned a route using ABRP for days, to navigate to Superchargers almost empty, do as few stops as possible, etc

We started our trip in the middle of the night, and it was considerably colder than I anticipated with ABRP (3 degrees instead of 18). That was the first let-down. I needed to stop at a Supercharger I wanted to skip. Again, this was our first road trip in the middle of the night. I can still hear my wife complaining.

Then somewhere in Germany I missed an exit a construction area (baustelle). This was a 50km or so detour. Not a big issue by itself, but it did mean I had to stop at yet again a Supercharger I wanted to skip. At this time my wife was searching for a divorce lawyer (jk)

I then threw away my ABRP printouts, entered my destination in the Tesla navigation and had the most relaxed journey ever. Since then I don't do any planning, I just enter the destination and go. Works every time, flawlessly. Best. Car. Ever.

It adds additional charges when required, it skips when it can, etc. So I would not focus to much on 3 stops instead of 4. Just do the trip and do as the car tells you. One stop more or less doesn't matter and you will find that the stops are actually quite nice. You can take a leak, have something to eat, change diaper, stretch the legs, etc. We never find the mandatory charging stops inconvenient.

I don't do "hypermiling" either. I usually go about 150 km/h on AP on the Autobahn, with the occasional fun sprints to 220+ km/h.