How not to travel in your Model S - and still survive

[Akikiki]

It really was one self created calamity after another. I promise...no more foolish road trips! My wife dislikes me more than usual this weekend.

No more road trips? What will we have to laugh about then? Please mo' mo' more.

 

[dj905]

Thanks for your great post. I can say with certainty that things are a lot better now than they were when I started driving my roadster in 2010. At that time, there wasn't even L2 charging (other than the 50Amp RV plugs).
Here are a couple of other tips that may be useful:
1. Use the Plugshare app/website if you are concerned about range. Last year I was travelling frequently to Michigan via Sarnia, and I've used SunCountry charger located at the Petro-Canada at Dorchester Road as stop gap charger to give me an extra 10km of charge to de-risk the return trip to Woodstock in cold/windy weather.
2. When leaving my vehicle outside overnight at my destination, particularly in cold weather, I switch it to RANGE mode and also turn power saving on. This seems to reduce vampire drain, and it also improves efficiency while the car is warming at the start of your drive.
3. I hesitate to say this, but I think that Tesla owners still need to have a charging plan for any roundtrip over about 300km (250km in winter). For most trips in southern Ontario, there are superchargers and L2 chargers, but as we know, there are many places in Ontario and throughout Canada with little or no charging infrastructure. Whenever I take a longer trip without a plan, I usually pay the price in either extra charging time, or increased anxiety.
4. Get a CHAdeMO adapter for longer trips. I don't have one yet, but given the increased rollout of these stations, it's on my shopping list.

Cheers,
David

 

[Struja]

Oh man, I feel for you! There’s a learning curve, despite great tips on the forums here, it’s still a bit of an adventure the first few road trips! I’ve got no charger at home (that’ll change when I move in two months). My biggest challenge is I always leave the house with too little charge, end up doing an extra stop at super chargers on the way there, and I end up at the Lawrence SC to get something above 20%. Half the time I’m driving the car between 50 and 150km range. I did find a great charging spot near home that has a great coffee place, so I end up paying the $4 for parking and $4 for coffee a couple of times a month. After months of hunting, I also found a standard plug in the condo garage. I’ll plug it in there when desperate (though it’s in the pay parking part of the garage, so might have to be clever on the timing).

Good times!

When I first got mine, I didn't have a home charger for about a week (maybe 10 days) and I found things more challenging (although I have a free L2 charger less than 5 minutes from my house here... A Greener Tomorrow). It came in handy a few times.

What a fun story (as in, "ah feel yer pain.")... this is why we have a stressful discussion about it every time someone forgets to plug in the car. Plugging in being especially critical if a road trip is planned for the next day.

Some day, DC fast chargers (Tesla SC or otherwise) will be as plentiful as gas stations... but until then, plug in that sucker!

This is so true. Being an EV owner takes a tad more discipline. I am usually pretty good but I love the idea someone wrote above about the Tesla app giving you an evening warning. Mine could text... "hey dummy, I'm not plugged in".

 

[Shock-On-T]

@JSergeant - thank you for the informative response. This was a great learning experience and I was way too careless.

Chademo - this was my first experience where the value in having the adapter was crystal clear!

Port Huron - if we had brought our passports, this one was a no-brainer. I was actually thinking about this one and my responses to the border agent...

Where are you going?

About 3km into the USA to use your supercharger over there (pointing).

On the way back to Canada...

How long have you been in the USA?

About 25 minutes charging my car. (And being fully prepared to go in for secondary inspection). Lol

There are easier ways to get a cavity search, although at least this would be free

 

[PLUS EV]

I was waiting for the part where you told us that you pulled off the highway and let 25 lbs of pressure out of your tires because you didn't yet have enough going against you.

Great story. I laughed so hard, I peed on myself.

Don't forget to set the air suspension to VERY HIGH and open the windows and sunroof for some extra drag!

 

[Drone Flyer]

Aside from my stupidity, I think that is a valid point. My 90% is 425km, so even when I forget to charge, I usually have enough to do everything I need to do.

I do have thoughts of moving up to a 100D, for that reason alone.

I think you are looking at the "Ideal" range and not the other one, the term escapes me at the moment.
You should always set it to the other one. Ideal range is so unRealistic ! Dangerous too!

 

[wayner]

You probably mean rated. The other one would be estimated. But I don't think he is because my car, is current at 82% and I get the following ranges reported:
Estimated 260km, Rated 331km, Ideal 428km.

So his Ideal would be more than 425km at 90%.

 

[mrElbe]

You are doing well. My P85D with 148,000 km is a rated 349km at 90%. But this is nearly spot on of actual km when driving. When I got the car new, 90% was 368km. In my case at least, I think the rated calculation algorithm has changed to more realistic expectations.

 

[Akikiki]

You are doing well. My P85D with 148,000 km is a rated 349km at 90%. But this is nearly spot on of actual km when driving. When I got the car new, 90% was 368km. In my case at least, I think the rated calculation algorithm has changed to more realistic expectations.

Wow.

 

[wayner]

You are doing well. My P85D with 148,000 km is a rated 349km at 90%. But this is nearly spot on of actual km when driving. When I got the car new, 90% was 368km. In my case at least, I think the rated calculation algorithm has changed to more realistic expectations.

You drive a LOT more than I do as I am only at 34500km in about 2.7 years.

 

[Struja]

You probably mean rated. The other one would be estimated. But I don't think he is because my car, is current at 82% and I get the following ranges reported:
Estimated 260km, Rated 331km, Ideal 428km.

So his Ideal would be more than 425km at 90%.

Hey @wayner - when I read your post I wasn't sure what you meant and I wasn't very confident so maybe you can explain it to me.

I went to the car this morning (after charging over night) and I had 425km showing on my dash. So, I went to the setting screen and I believe it was under "units" or something like that, it was "rated". So, I switched it to "ideal" and my batter jumped to 530km.

I then thought, maybe I have inadvertently been charging at 100%, instead of 90%, so I switched the setting from km to % and 90% came up.

Is there something in my settings I am doing wrong to get the actual range of the car? I had assumed it was 425km. Is that incorrect?

 

[wayner]

No - I think you are doing everything correctly. 425km does seem to be your rated range. The numbers that I quoted above are from the Remote S app that shows Estimated, Rated and Ideal ranges - I am not sure where or even if you can find them on the car's screen. But the Rated number is the one that shows up on your dashboard and most other screens.

 

[Struja]

No - I think you are doing everything correctly. 425km does seem to be your rated range. The numbers that I quoted above are from the Remote S app that shows Estimated, Rated and Ideal ranges - I am not sure where or even if you can find them on the car's screen. But the Rated number is the one that shows up on your dashboard and most other screens.

So, does this mean I am doing good, bad or neutral?

I use the evtripping website and I'm not sure it is accurate or not but it says I have 1% battery degradation. My car has about 29,000 km on it.

 

[Struja]

I am also going to thread hijack my own thread...but who cares...

Does anyone have an idea of what we should be striving for in "Average Efficiency" and is the Evtripping "battery metrics" accurate and reliable?

Here are some of my numbers...

Average efficiency: 144 wh/km

Best: 94 wh/km

Worst: 334 wh/km

Unlike my old ICE car, I actually enjoy driving this car really relaxed. I only push it, when I am showing someone the car for the first time and they give me the impression that I am driving a sewing machine.

 

[wayner]

I am just surprised that your 90% range is 425 vs my 90% range of 362. Your battery is a bit bigger than mine at 90 vs 85, but not that much bigger. It would be interesting to see what others get as a 90% charge. My battery hasn't degraded much in the 2.5 years that I have had my car - but I have only driven 34500 km.

 

[Struja]

I am just surprised that your 90% range is 425 vs my 90% range of 362. Your battery is a bit bigger than mine at 90 vs 85, but not that much bigger. It would be interesting to see what others get as a 90% charge. My battery hasn't degraded much in the 2.5 years that I have had my car - but I have only driven 34500 km.

So... there is a thread somewhere here called "whats your 90%". I read it early on when I became a member and I was going through all of the guys that had S90D's like me. Almost all were Americans and I remember many of them said their 90% was 270 miles, which I believe is around 435km. It made me concerned that I had a SEVERELY degraded battery.

 

[TexLaw]

Great story! You write very well, and you also identified a number of things to think about when taking a road trip. Nicely done!

I've found that it's worth a quick call to a hotel if I expect to charge up while staying there. Plugshare isn't always reliable, especially when there's not a lot of traffic at that location. Of course, that doesn't mean that the hotel operators even know the status. We stayed at a Best Western that has 2 HPWCs, but one wasn't working at all, and the hotel folks weren't aware of that.

 

[Struja]

Great story! You write very well, and you also identified a number of things to think about when taking a road trip. Nicely done!

I've found that it's worth a quick call to a hotel if I expect to charge up while staying there. Plugshare isn't always reliable, especially when there's not a lot of traffic at that location. Of course, that doesn't mean that the hotel operators even know the status. We stayed at a Best Western that has 2 HPWCs, but one wasn't working at all, and the hotel folks weren't aware of that.

You are spot on! That's a part of the learning curve for a noob (calling the hotel in advance). The Plugshare app said there were wall outlets but not that they had charged there and it was from December 2016 (so it wasn't current). I assumed too much, which is what I won't do in the future.

 

[PLUS EV]

So... there is a thread somewhere here called "whats your 90%". I read it early on when I became a member and I was going through all of the guys that had S90D's like me. Almost all were Americans and I remember many of them said their 90% was 270 miles, which I believe is around 435km. It made me concerned that I had a SEVERELY degraded battery.

I have a 2016 S90D and my 90% is 253 miles. I have more miles on my car though, approaching 60k miles.

 

[Cyclone]

Well with all this range discussion, my 2013 85 kWh RWD gets 422 km @ 100% with about 102,200 km on the dial. I would say a 90D @ 90% @ 425 km is right about spot on. And yes, the P makes a noticeable difference on range, even when on Sport instead of Insane/Ludicrous mode.