Hello and help with first 185 mile journey home.

[Scoobycity]

Hi everyone.

After two test drives and much deliberation/research I have just put a deposit down on a pre-owned 85 which I should be picking up Tuesday.

The only fear I have is getting the car home as it's 185 mile trip (N. Yorkshire to Norwich) and there are no superchargers anywhere near my route.

I have asked the dealer to ensure it has a full range charge done prior to collection but I'm not sure if the car comes with the right adaptors to fit other points or if I'll be able to register / get the membership cards etc sorted in time to use them?

If I just take it steady what are my chances?

 

[Cosmacelf]

Fully charged, 185 miles shouldn't be a problem.

 

[arg]

If I just take it steady what are my chances?

Very good, if they do give you a full range charge before setting out.

Unless it's pissing with rain, blowing a gale or similar, you shouldn't have the slightest trouble. Even if it is, slowing down a bit should get the job done - and your route's not all motorway, typically on A-roads you get better consumption (simply because you are naturally driving slower).

Standard advice for any journey where you are "tight" on range (really this one isn't that bad, but...): put your destination in the navigation, open up the "energy" app on the main screen, and select the 'trip' graph. If it's all green, you are comfortable, if there's some yellow, you need to take care, if it's red you need to think about plan B. There's also a projected percentage left shown at the end of the trip: keep an eye on this for a bit after you've got the cabin warmed up and settled into your cruising speed - if the percentage is going up, you are laughing, if it's going down, you are using up your safety margin and may want to slow down.

Other standard advice: if it is all going pear shaped for whatever reason, start looking for plan B earlier rather than later - while you've still got charge in hand to move on to plan C in extremis.

Yes, it's probably too late now to get Ecotricity etc. cards before Tuesday, but worth loading the CYC and maybe Polar Instant apps onto your phone - starting a charge from a phone app is much less reliable than having the card, but it's better than nothing. CYC you can set up and register your credit card in the app without actually spending anything; Polar you have to load £20 so maybe just load the app and wait until you need it.

CYC point in Kings Lynn looks to be maybe on your route? It'll be slow without the CHAdeMO adapter which ypu presumably haven't bought yet, but better than nothing. Does your car have dual chargers?

 

[chetalien]

there is a SC at Sheffield- not sure how much of a detour- atleast no butt clenching moments.
certainly ask if you can get a charmed adapter- u should be able to buy one off the dealer- tesla, for about £400- most useful thing.

 

[roblab]

Very good, if they do give you a full range charge before setting out.

... you shouldn't have the slightest trouble... slowing down a bit should get the job done

It's been a LONG time since I had Range Anxiety, which is what you have here.

You've already been told that if you slow down, your range goes up. If you learn that one thing, you will have no problems. I have easily traveled 280 miles in my original S by setting the cruise control at 55 mph... and you are talking a hundred miles less.

The advice to set a route and then watch the Trip tab is good. You can do the same in your head by knowing you have 185 miles to make it, and you have a buffer, which should be around 40 miles. After driving ten miles, you car will say you have X miles of range left: 175 miles plus buffer. If the buffer is going down, slow down. If it's going up, Keep Calm and Carry On!

You will soon learn that worry is just a waste of energy. You will do fine.

Don't bother with charging stops. You won't need them.

 

[Scoobycity]

Hi Guys,

Sorry I haven't been able to reply sooner due to the site upgrade.God knows where it got that profile picture from??? Scary stuff.

Thanks so much for all the help and advice. I'm not planning to make any stops on the way home, just take it nice and steady. I've also found out it comes with the leads below so I'm guessing I have everything I'll need in terms of leads and adaptors?

 

[Scoobycity]

Attachment...

 

[arg]

That's a useful pair of leads - for charging from a standard 13A socket and for charging from dedicated EV slow charging points. They will cover all likely requirements for overnight/unattended charging away from home. However, the sort of charging supported by those leads is sufficiently slow that you will never voluntarily sit there and wait for it to complete.

The one other adapter you may want to consider is the CHAdeMO adapter for fast charging at "rapid" chargpoints (Ecotricity etc.). This ups the charging rate to around 120 miles of range added per hour of charging - sufficient that you can put on a useful amount of charge in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee etc.

Entirely depends on your travel patterns (and the ongoing expansion of the supercharger network) whether that is something that matters to you or not.

One other point to check is whether the car has dual chargers or not. Nowadays, hardly anybody orders the 2nd charger because (in the UK context) nearly everywhere you can take advantage of the 2nd charger you can also use the CHAdeMO adapter - and the CHAdeMO adapter is both cheaper and better (twice as fast). However, many of the early UK cars were ordered with dual chargers (because the CHAdeMO adapter wasn't available then), so you may have it already.

Most of these rapid chargers also have an 'AC' plug on them, which with dual chargers gets you 60 miles per hour of charging (with standard single charger, only 30 miles per hour of charging).

 

[Scoobycity]

Thanks Arg,

Is there any visible way of telling if it has dual chargers? As i'm not buying from a main Tesla dealer they don't know too much about them and haven't listed half the options that I know the car to have.

Danny

 

[arg]

Actually, that's extremely tricky! You can't even lift the back seat to check, since all UK cars until recently were built physically with two chargers fitted - just with the second one turned off in software if you hadn't paid for it. Tesla ought to be able to tell you if you ask (and you presumably need to be in touch with Tesla to register yourself as the new owner). Otherwise you need to visit a suitable chargepoint and try it out.

 

[jthtyu]

Hi, I am a Model S owner in Hong Kong and have a question on the CHAdeMO adapter for sale in UK
1) Do you guys have a Type 2 charge port that we have in Hong Kong (see picture), i.e the adapter should be compatible
2) How much does it cost in UK including VAT?
This is because they have discontinued the CHAdeMO Adapter in Hong Kong suddenly and I would like to see if I could get my friend to order in UK and bring it to Hong Kong for use.

 

[arg]

Hi, I am a Model S owner in Hong Kong and have a question on the CHAdeMO adapter for sale in UK
1) Do you guys have a Type 2 charge port that we have in Hong Kong (see picture), i.e the adapter should be compatible

Yes, our chargeport here is the same.

2) How much does it cost in UK including VAT?
This is because they have discontinued the CHAdeMO Adapter in Hong Kong suddenly and I would like to see if I could get my friend to order in UK and bring it to Hong Kong for use.

I suppose they could disable it in software for the Hong Kong market if there's some reason for that?

Price in the UK used to be £350 inc VAT, but I heard someone say yesterday that it had just gone up to £408.

 

[jthtyu]

Dear Arg
There are other owner in HK who bought the adapter before they discontinued without any issue
Do you happen to have the mobile number of any sales, preferably London or Bristol so that I can call to find out the exact price please?

 

[arg]

Dear Arg
There are other owner in HK who bought the adapter before they discontinued without any issue
Do you happen to have the mobile number of any sales, preferably London or Bristol so that I can call to find out the exact price please?

Main number for West Drayton (London main sales/service centre near Heathrow airport, it's where my CHAdeMO adapter was dispatched from): +44 1895 714009

That's probably your best bet; the Bristol store is +44 1172 050 332 but that's just a store and I wouldn't expect them to stock CHAdeMO adapters there.

 

[jthtyu]

Dear Arg
Tom at West Drayton has been most helpful. He passed me a contact for the ordering Tesla spare parts.
Tom said the price is 404 pounds but I will see if I can get VAT removed if I ship it to Hong Kong.
Members as the Hong Kong Forum are also considering a group purchase
Thanks, John