Has Tesla Solved the Road Trip Problem?

[green01]

Seeking Alpha

A generally positive Seeking Alpha article seeing Tesla's enablement of road trips as the key to it's future growth.

 

[Jaff]

Seeking Alpha...road trip problem key to TMCs future growth...hmmm...who, other than retired folk, spend 99% of their time driving on roads trips?...I, like most Model S owners (imo), might spend 1% of my time on a (vacation) road trip...another erroneous conclusion...

 

[tdiggity]

Seeking Alpha...road trip problem key to TMCs future growth...hmmm...who, other than retired folk, spend 99% of their time driving on roads trips?...I, like most Model S owners (imo), might spend 1% of my time on a (vacation) road trip...another erroneous conclusion...

A lot of people I've spoken to bring this up a lot though. It's a valid concern for some. Irrational, yes.

 

[mattjn]

Nothing irrational about wanting your $80K car to be able to travel more than 200 miles in a single day without extending road trips by 2-3 hours just to charge. I would imagine that the majority of people who travel long distances, unlike people on these forums, would not find having to stop every 3 hours for 1 hour to be enjoyable. As an example, if I want to drive to Florida for vacation, with a Model S it would be impossible. I know people think superchargers are going to be great, but they won't come close to covering everywhere in this country anytime this decade. No point in paying 80K dollars if I still am going to have to keep a second car.

 

[Doug_G]

You don't need a second car. For a fraction of the cost you can occasionally rent an ICE car for long trips.

 

[Krugerrand]

Somebody always thinks they know what someone else (Tesla in this case) should be doing, has to do, blah, blah, blah. Almost always those views come from a limited and personal perspective. If you're someone who takes road trips every weekend, then of course you'd think Tesla has to solve the road trip dilemma. If you're someone who makes $30k/year, then of course you'd think Tesla has to solve the cost/vehicle dilemma. And so on.

Tesla doesn't have to solve all the problems of the car world for every single person on the planet to be disruptive, successful, fill in your verb of choice.

 

[Al Sherman]

Nothing irrational about wanting your $80K car to be able to travel more than 200 miles in a single day without extending road trips by 2-3 hours just to charge. I would imagine that the majority of people who travel long distances, unlike people on these forums, would not find having to stop every 3 hours for 1 hour to be enjoyable. As an example, if I want to drive to Florida for vacation, with a Model S it would be impossible. I know people think superchargers are going to be great, but they won't come close to covering everywhere in this country anytime this decade. No point in paying 80K dollars if I still am going to have to keep a second car.

Definitely not the car for you. Yet.

Edit: BTW, my "troll alert" flag is heading up the flagpole.

 

[rolosrevenge]

I thought I'd take a lot of road trips when I bought my used A6, but I haven't driven anywhere in the last two years that I couldn't have done just as easily in a 60 kWh Model S. Also, 99.9% of my driving could have been done in a LEAF with only those 170 mile jaunts to my parents house requiring something more substantial. A Model S would add 0 inconvenience to my life.

 

[ChadS]

Nothing irrational about wanting your $80K car to be able to travel more than 200 miles in a single day without extending road trips by 2-3 hours just to charge.

I agree, that's not irrational - but that wasn't the issue. The issue was whether or not Tesla MUST (as the article claims) improve EVs so instead of having just one downside when compared to gas cars that they have zero downsides.

No car works for everybody. Fortunately no car has to, because no car has to be the only car sold. It only has to solve enough problems for enough people that the manufacturer can make money on it. Most Model S owners have another car, and even those that don't often fly or rent for long trips. For those people - and there are an awful lot of them - there is no downside to buying a Model S.

The "irrational" part is where people fear that an electric car will be terribly inconvenient because they will spend all sorts of hours waiting for a charge. My wife has been driving BEVs for years, and has NEVER waited a single minute for a charge to complete. On days she has to drive past the range, she just takes another car. The irony is that her life has become much more convenient since she started driving a BEV - no more emissions inspections or gas station visits, and less maintenance too. Plus a better ride. The irrational part is worrying about a single potential downside without considering how you can easily avoid that downside, and without considering benefits.

 

[dsm363]

Nothing irrational about wanting your $80K car to be able to travel more than 200 miles in a single day without extending road trips by 2-3 hours just to charge. I would imagine that the majority of people who travel long distances, unlike people on these forums, would not find having to stop every 3 hours for 1 hour to be enjoyable. As an example, if I want to drive to Florida for vacation, with a Model S it would be impossible. I know people think superchargers are going to be great, but they won't come close to covering everywhere in this country anytime this decade. No point in paying 80K dollars if I still am going to have to keep a second car.

This is clearly not the car for you. Were you planning on getting one anyway? You don't say where you are from but when is the last time you drove to Florida on vacation?

No single car is right for everyone. I haven't driven over 300 miles in a day since 2009 so this is a non-issue for me. SuperChargers would virtually eliminate any travel concerns for me within Texas. Anytime I want to leave Texas, I'd be flying anyway so the Model S does work for some people.

 

[GeekGirls]

You don't need a second car. For a fraction of the cost you can occasionally rent an ICE car for long trips.

Bingo. That's what we finally decided, and it's essentially the same reason we don't own a moving van, a bulldozer, a pickup truck, etc. For the vast majority of the driving we do the range is fine, and it may even suffice for leisurely road trips up and down the West Coast. I'm looking forward to finding out!

 

[dsm363]

Bingo. That's what we finally decided, and it's essentially the same reason we don't own a moving van, a bulldozer, a pickup truck, etc. For the vast majority of the driving we do the range is fine, and it may even suffice for leisurely road trips up and down the West Coast. I'm looking forward to finding out!

You don't own a bulldozer? Some people:smile:
IF I HAD A BULLDOZER Lyrics - HEYWOOD BANKS

 

[Citizen-T]

I think the point was just, "this is how Tesla puts the last nail in the ICE coffin" and I am inclined to agree. Oh, and...I'd like to see how much the ICE spent on fuel to make that cross country trip a bit faster.

 

[dsm363]

Everyone is different but once EVs get up to 400 miles of real-world 75mph with AC on driving then SuperChargers won't really even be needed (but still nice). As long as my destination has a decent level 2 charger then I'll be fine. This won't work for everyone though and SuperChargers will still be important as you wouldn't be as dependent on good charging at your destination if you can top-up during the trip.

 

[Eberhard]

I am just on a road trip and being 1800km away from home. I do this for the second time after 2011. But now, my roadster has more than 120.000km on the odometer. my daily legs are between 600km and only 240km. Tomorrows leg will be about 360km and i have to do a 2-3h charge at 16A while i will dine and shop (the charging will be done at a shopping center). Day after tomorrow i will join Rafael de Mestre (the one, who did and won round the world race again the French) for testing an race course (Parcmotor Castelloli) and after a little recharge i will head to Perpignan (245km + track). I will stay overnight in Perpignan and next day to Lyon (450km) with 2h charge at an hpc. From Lyon via Geneve and Zürich (both have HPC) after ca.600km to Feldkirch (HPC too) to be ready next day for the "get amped tour" in munic (250km).

What about that? If you want to do it, you can do.

 

[GLDYLX]

By the time I get a Tesla, I plan to be scaling back my hours a bit (down to 40hrs/wk would be a miracle!) and doing more trips to Mammoth and Palm Springs (from LA). I'm an...... uh..... aggressive driver (only on highways), so I don't expect to get EPA rated range. I won't want to park/maintain two cars. I also live in an apartment, so will likely depend on an extension cord out of my (work, traffic-permitting) loading dock, occasional charges at pay-per-use charging stations at various restaurants/shopping centers and road-trip superchargers. My Tesla will probably be my one big non-investment purchase in my life (I *might* buy a house someday, but setting roots isn't really my "thing"), because I LOVE to drive.

All of the preceding makes the article's speculations encouraging for me.

Full disclosure: I am long on TSLA, the Roadster is too small for me, the S is too large, and I believe the Bluestar/Gen III will be juuuuuuust right.

 

[MikeC]

Will the future 120 kW superchargers for Gen III mentioned in the article not be compatible with Model S?

 

[VolkerP]

Will the future 120 kW superchargers for Gen III mentioned in the article not be compatible with Model S?

Supercharges as of today ARE 120kW. They consist of 4x3 charger units, a modified version of the onboard chargers.
The clue is, every supercharger unit serves two charge plugs and distributes power on an "as-needed" base between two charging cars. Ramping up/down is done in steps of 30,60,90kW. If one is ramping down the charging power, the other can increase.
So there is at least 30kW available on that second plug, when you arrive and another Model S is charging from the same supercharger unit. In the future, we expect to see cars from Tesla that can draw the full 120kW all on themselves.

 

[Larry Chanin]

As an example, if I want to drive to Florida for vacation, with a Model S it would be impossible. I know people think superchargers are going to be great, but they won't come close to covering everywhere in this country anytime this decade.

Hi Matt,

We of course don't know where you live, but hopefully your assessment of the Supercharger coverage will prove to be overly pessimistic so eventually you can make that trip to our Sunshine State in style in a Model S. To be a success the Supercharger network only needs to be accessible to the majority of the driving public. Personally I believe that this will certainly happen in less than a decade. Of course noone knows precisely where all the Superchargers are going to be located so it remains to be seen whether it will be feasible for you specifically to make that trip. If making that occasional trip is a prerequisite for you to seriously consider buying a Model S, let me tell you first-hand as a Model S owner, that you will be depriving yourself of a fantastic driving experience for the vast majority of your driving.

Larry

 

[Todd Burch]

WRT superchargers, I vaguely remember hearing that not only are the existing superchargers capable of delivering more than the current 90 kW, but that the Model S may be able to take more. Not clear if that would require new battery chemistry, new wiring/hardware, or if the limitation is just in software right now (and unannounced) while Tesla continues to do long-term testing.

How awesome would that be if, later this year, Tesla announced that existing cars can now charge at 100 or 110 kW instead of 90? That would be awesome. I won't bet on it or get excited for it, but just thought I'd mention that to add to the comments that the superchargers can already exceed 90kW.