First road trip in Model 3 - Adirondacks

[RedSafari]

Just wanted to share my experience of our first long road trip over the Victoria Day weekend. We went from Toronto to the Adirondacks with the idea of a lot of driving our week-old Model 3 in three days, a bit of hiking and not much else.
In short, it was a lot of fun, great performance from the car, no worries about safety or range, can’t wait to do it again

Set off from Toronto with a ~80% charge, did route planning in-car on the morning of departure. It went very smoothly with three supercharging stops. We did not have to wait for the car to charge, it was ready to go by the time we were. Didn’t watch our speed to save energy, just drove. Last stop in Queensbury was long to charge up for the next day.
Our hotel didn’t advertise any EV charging, but they had a 110V outlet and let me use it overnight. Score!

Next day, we covered 420km of spirited, hilly driving all over the Adirondack mountains. Didn’t charge anywhere and had 5% left, still no worry about running out of range. This car is such a blast to fly around all the beautiful scenery!
The day of the return trip, we charged in Queensbury during breakfast, then in Plattsburgh and Kingston and arrived home with ~20% left. We never waited for the car, a positive surprise that charging was not a chore. Covered 1,900km in all.

Driving highways on Autopilot is just amazing. The car feels like it’s on rails and, in Chill mode, a smoother driver than me. Driving backroads on traffic-aware cruise is just as awesome, so much more relaxing than without it.
Some pics:

 

[chevycc]

Amazon.
Thanks for sharing the experience.

 

[chevycc]

*amazing...

Too much shopping

 

[Vawlkus]

Good trip it seems.

It’s surprising that people think charging will be a chore until they find out it isn’t. I thought I might have a few issues on my Montreal trip, since I’m outside the Tesla supercharger network area, but even with being limited to DCFC and level 2 chargers, I RARELY found myself waiting for my car to charge. By the time I’d gotten a snack and hit the bathroom, the car was pretty much ready to roll on out.

 

[pmich80]

That's amazing. I'm hoping to take A LOT of roadtrips with my car when i get it. If you don't mind posting your itinerary or map, it'd be nice to see the route you took.

 

[noicepls]

Thanks for sharing - glad you had a super nice first long-drive experience.
Wife and I have already started planning our first trip after taking delivery of the Model 3 next week. The trip will take us along the 401 - 402 drive in Ontario, on through Michigan via Port Huron, up north along the I-75 route to visit friends in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Don't think there are enough superchargers yet, so some destination charging might come into play. But with a bit of planning, there should be no range issues.

 

[kenderu]

Thanks for sharing - glad you had a super nice first long-drive experience.
Wife and I have already started planning our first trip after taking delivery of the Model 3 next week. The trip will take us along the 401 - 402 drive in Ontario, on through Michigan via Port Huron, up north along the I-75 route to visit friends in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Don't think there are enough superchargers yet, so some destination charging might come into play. But with a bit of planning, there should be no range issues.

Ah, I'm actually planning to go through Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie. The last supercharger is in Sudbury and will be level 2 or wall plug after that.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Great first adventure,

I just turned over 17,000 miles in my first year with my X and realized that if it was a gas SUV, it would have consumed 1,000 gallons of gasoline. I have a hard time picturing what 1,000 gallons of gasoline would look like in a container.

These EV's are amazing.

 

[noicepls]

Ah, I'm actually planning to go through Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie. The last supercharger is in Sudbury and will be level 2 or wall plug after that.

New supercharger in the Soo is target "late 2018". Should be nice - wonder how far along that is. Anyone there chime in?

 

[kenderu]

New supercharger in the Soo is target "late 2018". Should be nice - wonder how far along that is. Anyone there chime in?

Nothing on supercharge.info, as with every 'coming 2018' supercharger, it's just nothing right now. Unless they pull a Markham Woodside and just have it pop up out of nowhere.

 

[Viv ki Bijli]

Awesome experience

5% and not worried?

We’re you aware of the next charging station.

 

[ebatmobile]

Awesome experience

5% and not worried?

We’re you aware of the next charging station.

Coming from a Nissan Leaf getting to 5% is nothing! You get used to having zero (100km or so) range with it. When you need to sweat is when the range disappears and it constantly starts harassing you

 

[CadillacJack]

I wouldn't make that assumption on zero - I'd suggest reading Doug's roadtripping guide. I rolled into my dad's driveway with 0 range on my S on my first long trip, and was told by many afterwards that it was a bad idea. Apparently there are lots of reports of people being told to pull over immediately/car shutting down before the zero range mark - not after.

 

[Electroman]

Driving highways on Autopilot is just amazing. The car feels like it’s on rails and, in Chill mode, a smoother driver than me. Driving backroads on traffic-aware cruise is just as awesome, so much more relaxing than without it.

 

[swaltner]

I just turned over 17,000 miles in my first year with my X and realized that if it was a gas SUV, it would have consumed 1,000 gallons of gasoline. I have a hard time picturing what 1,000 gallons of gasoline would look like in a container

I didn’t find pictures of 1,000 gallon gas tanks, but found lots of pictures of 1,000 gallon septic tanks. They’re pretty similar in form/function.

 

[SageBrush]

Coming from a Nissan Leaf getting to 5% is nothing! You get used to having zero (100km or so) range with it. When you need to sweat is when the range disappears and it constantly starts harassing you

LEAF owner here, and exact same sentiment.

 

[hingisfan]

Why did you start with 80% and not 100%?

 

[Electroman]

Why did you start with 80% and not 100%?

Thats what I want to know. Charging to 100% is perfectly okay, in fact the correct thing to do on any trips over say 100-150 miles. In M3 you really don't get a lot of chance to charge to 100%. So when an opportunity presents itself you should go for it.

 

[dhrivnak]

Just wanted to share my experience of our first long road trip over the Victoria Day weekend. We went from Toronto to the Adirondacks with the idea of a lot of driving our week-old Model 3 in three days, a bit of hiking and not much else.
In short, it was a lot of fun, great performance from the car, no worries about safety or range, can’t wait to do it again

Set off from Toronto with a ~80% charge, did route planning in-car on the morning of departure. It went very smoothly with three supercharging stops. We did not have to wait for the car to charge, it was ready to go by the time we were. Didn’t watch our speed to save energy, just drove. Last stop in Queensbury was long to charge up for the next day.
Our hotel didn’t advertise any EV charging, but they had a 110V outlet and let me use it overnight. Score!

Next day, we covered 420km of spirited, hilly driving all over the Adirondack mountains. Didn’t charge anywhere and had 5% left, still no worry about running out of range. This car is such a blast to fly around all the beautiful scenery!
The day of the return trip, we charged in Queensbury during breakfast, then in Plattsburgh and Kingston and arrived home with ~20% left. We never waited for the car, a positive surprise that charging was not a chore. Covered 1,900km in all.

Driving highways on Autopilot is just amazing. The car feels like it’s on rails and, in Chill mode, a smoother driver than me. Driving backroads on traffic-aware cruise is just as awesome, so much more relaxing than without it.
Some pics:
View attachment 303116
View attachment 303117

Agreed this has been our experience as well.

 

[RedSafari]

Awesome experience
5% and not worried?
We’re you aware of the next charging station.

Sorry, it was actually 5 miles left, not 5%... I knew I’d charge up overnight at the hotel and it would be more than enough to reach the next supercharger. From reading up online I knew that the estimation is pretty precise, so I wasn’t worried about seeing 5 left and then suddenly stopping out of power.

Why did you start with 80% and not 100%?

I don’t yet have charging at home, so it was what the battery had left from the last supercharging visit. With that, I think the car skipped two chargers along the way before we had to stop. It worked out great as it was lunchtime.