I'm assuming the OP is not an owner or lessee of a Tesla, so for the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with the data available to the operator of a Tesla, I give you a relatively simple case study in why we will very rarely run out of power on the road. . . a little more prosaic than empirical but I think the point is made.
On December 2, I took my wife and two of our kids to Indianapolis from Chicago for the Badgers v. OSU Big Ten Championship. The game did not go as planned. They would nearly make up for missing the playoff by beating Miami in their hostile home stadium in the Orange Bowl, but I digress.
For the first time in 9000 miles, I charged the S90D to 100% the night before our departure to Indy, and left with 293 miles of range in "Range Mode". The onboard Nav told me I'd make it to Lafayette SC with 35% remaining. The entire trip to Indy (including the two stops) was 215 miles. Given that we had lots of battery plus we knew we would hit the supercharger on the way, we had the tunes blasting and I was driving 10-12 over the speed limit. Didn't concern myself with range at all.
On the way down, we had time to stop at Three Floyds Brewery in Munster (highly recommend it), which is slightly out of the way, and arrive at the Lafayette SC with plenty of time and charge to spare. I topped off to around 75%, assuming I'd be able to make the round trip to Indy, take in the game, stop at the Carmel hotel waypoint, and then return to Lafayette on our way home for a full charge, which would give us time to eat breakfast and return to our northern suburb in time for a family event. Everything except the Badgers game that day went according to plan.
We proceeded NE to Carmel, north of Indy, to spend the night around midnight or 12:30 with around 110 miles of range, and that's when things got dicey. First, the nav was not up to date so access to a tucked away Marriott was not available based on the nav. I wasted 12-15 miles and had to be talked into the parking lot by a terrific graveyard shift Marriott employee.
The only Indy SC is on the SE end of town, and Lafeyette and Chicago are northwest of Indy, so if anything negatively impacted my consumption calculations for the return trip to the Lafayette SC, I would have to get up early, go the LaQuinta in SE Indy and charge for a bit to top off for the trip to Lafayette. I had effectively planned my estimated range on the way down, and knew I would have to be very accurate in my estimate to make it back to Lafayette in the morning, where I would need a full charge to make it to Chicago.
There were a couple outside factors that had me concerned about making it back to Lafayette the next morning in spite of the onboard Nav's apparent confidence- citing 88 miles of range for a 60 mile trip. On the way down, it was ~60 deg F. Overnight the temp plummeted to well below freezing and my car was parked outside. I woke up and the vampire drain was massive. Range loss of 10% on the 88 or so miles I went to bed with. I was 60 miles from Lafayette, and now had 70ish miles of range. I knew that with heat, 4 people in the car, a headwind and freezing temps we would be in trouble.
I got up early, bit the bullet, drove to SE Indy and charged it up, headed back to Carmel, picked up the family and headed to Lafayette. On the way to Lafayette I realized that the cold weather, wind and load factors were killing my range. I began to do some conservative math in my head and realized that the 150 miles from Lafayette to Chicago, was actually going to be tough if the conditions remained the same. So we charged to about 95% in Lafayette, and jumped on 65 to start our 150 mile journey.
The onboard Nav indicated I should have 25% remaining when I pulled into the driveway. 13 miles later, it said I would have
18% remaining. Holy crap. The lesson here is that if one monitors the information at one's disposal in the Tesla, one can problem solve before one is SOL. I immediately slowed down, turned down the heat, killed the seat warmers, and turned off the radio.
I moved to the slow lane, and 5 miles later, it was still dropping. . . I was going to run out of power- probably somewhere near Gary IN- not the place you want to park a Tesla with your family inside. I needed to do something. So I did. I found this guy:
then this happened:
hung behind him for about 90 miles, watched estimated remaining battery climb into the 30% range, waved as he headed to Michigan as I hit the Chicago Skyway, and I actually had enough juice to haul ass home the rest of the way.
Any questions?
