WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
In rain/cold/wind even a 300mile range LR Raven X will struggle to hit 150 miles range if your travelling at 70-80mph.
IME that's far too pessimistic. Mine is a 90, and not Raven which adds 15% or so more range. I've driven long distance in filthy / cold weather and never had worse than 20% reduction compared to a nice dry summer day - although likely in foul weather than I am driving somewhat slower than the mythical dry summer day So for me that would be 250 miles ideal, and 200 miles worst case. A Model-S LR Raven would be more than 300 miles "best", and 250 worst.
I've done almost 100K miles in a bit over 3 years, a couple of days a month I am "out of range", it hasn't been a problem. Actually back 3 years go there were a couple of "difficult" journeys, but Supercharger locations have been added since which have improved those for me.
I have a self-imposed rule that I must have enough range to get to Client AND Back to Supercharger. I don't mind if there is an unpredictable-duration delay on the return, but I don't want that uncertainty on the way to client. Whilst charging I usually sit and do emails (which I would otherwise do when i got home, so time-neutral for me)
My lifetime average Supercharging stop-time is about 25 minutes, so a lot of time just having a pee and getting a coffee and the car is charged. Bear in mind that you only need enough juice to get to destination, you don't need "a full tank". 30 minutes charging (assuming "ideal") gets you about 150 miles.
I would definitely have the larger battery for the convenience. its a lot of extra money for "only a few miles range", but over the time I've owned my car it has made a significant difference:
- More journeys where no charging stop is needed
- Faster Supercharging (I think the Model-S LR is about 30% faster charging than the SR)
- Travel further before needing to charge - so on some journeys option to choose more distant Supercharger, which makes a big difference if the nearer one is a 15 minute detour.
- Obviously having driven further the top-up charge to reach destination is less
Avoid Non-Tesla 3rd party charging. I absolutely would not consider owning a non-Tesla EV unless I could do all my miles within range of home. I have spent as much as 20 minutes just getting a charge started at a 3rd party charger. Whereas my logs show the time from selecting Park to Charging started, at Supercharger, has never been more then 1 minute.
I agree with earlier comments about trying your longer-distance journeys into A Better Route Planner and see how each model compares. If you can start the journey at 90% (instead of having to charge to 100%), and you arrive with 20% that will provide enough "contingency" for a road closure and so on. If a journey is a "bit tight" I wouldn't worry about it too much. Slowing down makes a big different to "fuel consumption", and on most motorway journeys I hit traffic / roadworks, which has the same effect and gains me quite a bit of range.