High business mileage - is a Tesla the right choice?

[WannabeOwner]

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

If charging at home cost should be around 3p / mile for Model-S and 2p / mile for Model-3

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.

 

[Pugg5ter]

My Plan for me to go fully EV was no journeys over 200 miles per round trip per day, thus not having to rely on chargers away from home, which all ready in my view are over crowded, and certainly for teslas chargers going to get far worse before it gets better, so I only needed to rely on over night charging at home, BUT I probably over estimated how much a full charge would last in real world especially if it is far more motorway, and winter wet cold, so I guess 180 Real World driving day to day.

The other issue is over night charging has to be at least on a 7.2 KW charger to guarantee a 90% charge for a full day next day, having a 7.2 KW means after a long day drive it is quick to chuck a quick charge if you need to use in the evening etc., and still be charged for next day. Also having a 7.2KW charger means you can charge far more in off peak hours.

So it is then less inconvenient on a day to day, and defiantly doable, So far it is worked well for me, but my furthest journeys for me in a day are like 180 miles so far, but having to rely on a 3.6 KW home charger means after a long day, out in the evening, you will not get back to 90% if going out next day early so restricted. I intend to upgrade home charger to 7.2KW (I so wished I had 7.2 KW installed first off but only had a 30 mile range hybrid so did not need it, just to save £50-00 now will cost me £500 to upgrade.

Can’t you get a second grant on the new car? As long as you owned your hybrid for six months after your charger was fitted...you will qualify (I think).

 

[MaDProFF]

Can’t you get a second grant on the new car? As long as you owned your hybrid for six months after your charger was fitted...you will qualify (I think).

Only if I own 2 EV / Hybrids for 6 months, from install I think, so cannot sell my older car for 6 months which I do not want to do.
I get the VAT back on the charger so makes it a little more bearable, but I am all about an easy life, so will probably do it at some point.

 

[Pugg5ter]

Use the car for business trips all the time. Have to modify some overnight locations to ensure in proximity to (free) chargers. But really is manageable. Got about 250 miles out of the M3Pin one go on a trip to Blackburn. Range extended by some careful driving - does make a massive difference if you sit around 70 on mway.
Funny how things change. I used to groan at petrol costs - 50£ + every time on my bmw330e for about 330 miles. I haven’t managed to spend more than 65£ on my Pod-Point in any month since I.picked up car in August and driven 6.5k miles in that time. Helps that work have chargers etc, but the number of free to charge sites is really quite wide in some locations and happy to always take advantage.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Helps that work have chargers etc, but the number of free to charge sites is really quite wide in some locations and happy to always take advantage.

I have stopped even thinking about it. I do about 30K miles p.a., I have free charging at work, and free Supercharging (10% of my charging) and I used to try to juggle so that I would charge at Work rather than Home. The effort for that soon wore off!

My total Fuel bill for the year is about £800, if half of that is at home then that's £400 I pay and if I manage to shift 10% of that to Work I'll save 40 quid ... I've stopped worry about it

But so much easier having home and work charging. For anyone with on-street parking its a different conundrum.