How to save a lot of time on long trips

[kavyboy]

I am excited, othrilled beyond words and absolutely cannot wait to get my car and get started but again, I am a bit intimidated, I admit it.

I love your enthusiasm! It's a breath of fresh air.

Don't be intimidated. As with any tech gadget, you can get as deep into it as you want. On an enthusiast site like this people can go pretty deep. What you need to know is easy to pick up. If you enjoy this stuff, though, you can spend a lot of time tinkering.

 

[Hugh Mannity]

Just curious, but how long did it take you to get comfortable with all of this? How low to run the battery, how much to charge when you arrive at the SC, etc. I am no dummy but reading all of these posts with all these calculations etc is making me feel pretty overwhelmed. I ordered my Model S 75 in early Dec. Will take delivery by end of Feb./beginning of March. Won't be making road trips very often but this is almost "information overload" for me! I don't know if I will EVER have this part of driving my Tesla this fine tuned! Thanks for a great post, though. Very interesting and detailed!

I'll throw in my 2 cents, (well I'm Canadian so it's what ? 1.6 cents)

When I was a n00b I and the family did a 6000 km road trip right off the bat when the car was brand spanking new; the first day or so I was nervous but after that - piece of cake; charge the car at each SC until it estimates a 20% or more buffer at arrival at the next SC and she'll be smooth sailing, (granted I did the trip in the summer, allow for more in the winter - I typically let it go to 30% for winter travel).

 

[CBPfromTN]

I love your enthusiasm! It's a breath of fresh air.

Don't be intimidated. As with any tech gadget, you can get as deep into it as you want. On an enthusiast site like this people can go pretty deep. What you need to know is easy to pick up. If you enjoy this stuff, though, you can spend a lot of time tinkering.

Thank you for the positive feedback! I am sure I can but there is just so much.....I have read thru some of the owners' manual and it's just so detailed etc. but I am sure once I get the car I can do some OTJ type training and that will make it easier, I think. I just don't know enough about the EAP and especially the cruise control. That is something I have never used on any of my cars even though I do make a few road trips of 225 miles about once a quarter. I know that the "cruise control" on the Tesla is a whole different animal and from what I have heard, people it in "stop and go" traffic, which is not what cruise control typically is used for in a "regular" or should I say "ordinary" car. Tesla is extraordinary (which is another reason I do so love Tesla) so this is going to be a huge thing to learn in regard to that feature. I must say it sounds weird to use cruise control on city streets....which I guess is what it's used for. That kinda thing...it's just different! But, that being said, I absolutely am so excited about a lot of things but one of my very favorite things (believe it or not,) will be the ability to turn the a/c on when I am shopping on a 100 degree day, and be able to get into a cool car. Cool in many ways and that's one of my favorite (so far) things! So much to look forward to!!

 

[CBPfromTN]

I'll throw in my 2 cents, (well I'm Canadian so it's what ? 1.6 cents)

When I was a n00b I and the family did a 6000 km road trip right off the bat when the car was brand spanking new; the first day or so I was nervous but after that - piece of cake; charge the car at each SC until it estimates a 20% or more buffer at arrival at the next SC and she'll be smooth sailing, (granted I did the trip in the summer, allow for more in the winter - I typically let it go to 30% for winter travel).

Thank you!! What I am seeing is everyone is pretty much figuring this charging business out from mostly experience. I can do that. My first road trip, I will be alone and that's scary as hell to me. I might get my husband to go with me but probably not since I will be visiting family and will stay for a week or so. I don't want to subject him to that 3-4 days is enough for him. But since my first road trip will be driving alone, I am just a little more apprehensive but if I have to, I will hit each SC station on my way. I will leave home, I guess, with a 100% charge, and the first Supercharger I will come to is in Dickson, TN which will be about 65 miles, then the next Supercharger is in Jackson, TN which is about 90 more miles, then Germantown, TN which is about 70 miles. At that point I am at my destination so I will probably SC there as well and drive on to my parents' home and park in their garage until I leave. I guess I can use the 110 adapter while I am there to get it to a full charge before I leave to come home. I wonder....should I try to attain a 100% charge before I leave Memphis to come back to Nashville? Then I guess I'll have SOME experience and I can figure out the stops/charges on the way home at that point. Wow. So much to think about! Thanks for your advice!

 

[Snerruc]

First of all relax. It isn’ rocket science. I hav a 75 and routinely make a trip of 190 miles nonstop on 100% charge with 35 - 40 miles reserve. I used to live in Memphis and even in the wintertime a 100 can make Nashville to Gtown nonstop. With a 75. Stop in Jackson. Any time the trip meter drops below your comfort zone, just slow down for a while or get behind a truck. Always put your trip in the navigation and call up the energy graph. It will tell you everything you need to know. Happy driving!

 

[CBPfromTN]

First of all relax. It isn’ rocket science. I hav a 75 and routinely make a trip of 190 miles nonstop on 100% charge with 35 - 40 miles reserve. I used to live in Memphis and even in the wintertime a 100 can make Nashville to Gtown nonstop. With a 75. Stop in Jackson. Any time the trip meter drops below your comfort zone, just slow down for a while or get behind a truck. Always put your trip in the navigation and call up the energy graph. It will tell you everything you need to know. Happy driving!

Thanks! I grew up in Memphis......glad to live in the Nashville area! We've been here since 1983 so this is definitely "home." I am on the other side of Nashville, (Hendersonville) so I have about a 225 mile drive in total. I appreciate the info, this is pretty exciting even though it's more difficult waiting for this car than it was for the home we're in now which took 2 weeks short of a year to build. I am not quite sure why this is so different but I guess it's because I was at the new house every day and could see the progress and the not knowing aspect of this car ordering business....You don't have a real concrete idea of where it is in the que and then you don't know when to expect it to go into production, consequently you don't know when delivery etc. Totally different experience, of course, but much less frustrating than the home build! Anyhow, I'm anxious just to get the car so I can see, IN PERSON, all these graphs etc, it kinda is "rocket science" to me LOL. Thanks again!

 

[Duffer]

@CBPfromTN First off, I think I need to have you talk to my wife about this "husband doesn't have to visit family thing"

Back on topic. We picked up our S75D after Thanksgiving and have yet to go on any trips over 200 miles, though my wife's after Christmas sale excursion was close. We left at 90% and stopped at one charger on the way home.

Weather, especially cold and wind, will have the largest impact second to elevation so those need to be factored into your plans. Just be aware that cold weather impacts range due to the car trying to keep the battery warm as well as you trying to keep yourself warm.

Regarding the trip you outlined above. I think you will find that you will be able to skip some of the charging stops, unless of course you want/need coffee or to "powder your nose".

Enjoy your car and welcome to the family.

 

[CBPfromTN]

@CBPfromTN First off, I think I need to have you talk to my wife about this "husband doesn't have to visit family thing"

Back on topic. We picked up our S75D after Thanksgiving and have yet to go on any trips over 200 miles, though my wife's after Christmas sale excursion was close. We left at 90% and stopped at one charger on the way home.

Weather, especially cold and wind, will have the largest impact second to elevation so those need to be factored into your plans. Just be aware that cold weather impacts range due to the car trying to keep the battery warm as well as you trying to keep yourself warm.

Regarding the trip you outlined above. I think you will find that you will be able to skip some of the charging stops, unless of course you want/need coffee or to "powder your nose".

Enjoy your car and welcome to the family.

I KNOW I will enjoy this car and thank you for the warm welcome and the chuckle! As for us going to see family, to show off my new Tesla, I may have to just leave hubby here at home because....when we go to Memphis, he spends most of his time during the day running the streets, shopping the woodworking shops, looking at gun stores, just doing fun things and THAT means if he and I go together in my Tesla, he will be driving it the whole time we are there......Hmmmm. I think when WE go together, we will take his Expedition or F150 so he can drive his own vehicle while we are there. When I go and drive myself in my new car, I plan to get to my parents' home, park it in their garage and not drive it at all while I am there. I will probably just judge whether or not I need to charge at the nearby SC when I leave Memphis headed back to Nashville.
I think I've got a lot to learn but I can do this! Thanks for the advice!

 

[eschummer]

LOL! Love the family comment! Luckily my wife's family is in Japan and it's tough to plan road trip there, even in a Tesla..

For what it's worth, I'm now about 20 months into ownership of my S90D, and I barely look at any charge charts or graphs anymore, except perhaps for a trip I have never done before and then mostly for the last few miles, depending on whether my destination has a charger or not.

 

[CBPfromTN]

LOL! Love the family comment! Luckily my wife's family is in Japan and it's tough to plan road trip there, even in a Tesla..

For what it's worth, I'm now about 20 months into ownership of my S90D, and I barely look at any charge charts or graphs anymore, except perhaps for a trip I have never done before and then mostly for the last few miles, depending on whether my destination has a charger or not.

eschummer, I love it! Thank you so much! I think after I finally get my car I will learn but I am kinda intimidated at THIS point. It's nice to have people like you and everyone else on this forum to chat with! I appreciate it and thank you for your advice!

 

[Rocky_H]

I've done several medium length trips in my Tesla in the past four years now, in the range of like 500-700 miles or so, but in about the next week, I am going to be taking the humongous road trip across the country that I've always kind of dreamed about taking. It'll be over 4,000 miles round trip. With routes that are Supercharger covered, it's not even worth planning for them if it fits within a day anymore, since it all kind of solves itself as you go. But with this one, I do need to figure out where to break the trip into pieces since it's a multi-day trip, and I'm not sure if I'm going to leave in a morning or early evening. I'm going from Boise to Monroe, Michigan, but I'm going to go along I-70 instead of I-80, because I do have family in Missouri that I'm going to visit along the way, and I freaking hate trying to drive on I-80 across Wyoming in the Winter--just won't do it anymore.

 

[Graffi]

We LOVE taking our Tesla on long trips. In our first month we already had over 3,000 miles, then took a 2-week, 7,000 mile coast to coast trip. No problems at all. In all but a few we were the only Tesla getting a charge in the Supercharger. In those, only two of them had a single car when we arrived, and none when we left. In a few more someone came while we were there.

As for saving time, we kept a 10% reserve and only got enough charge to get us to the next Supercharger, usually 10 to 15 minutes, and sometimes we were eating and ended up staying over 30 minutes.

 

[Captainvideo]

The Model S and X are the only EVs that can do long distance traveling in a reasonable amount of time. Compared to an ICE car it takes about 20-25% longer for charging on the way. The shorter the trip, the less charging makes a difference. For example on a 300-400 mile trip, you start with a full charge, stop once at a Supercharger and then you can run the battery down to your destination where you (hopefully) have a charger. For 5-6 hours driving you would only have to spend maybe 40 min at a Supercharger.

The longer the trip, thought, the more charging stops you will need and the ratio between drive time and charge time is about 1:4 to 1:5. That's a significant amount of time on long trips. One mistake a lot of new owners make is to charge to a pretty high level mostly out of uncertainty how much they will need to make it to the next Supercharger. While this is safe it slows you down overall significantly.

Superchargers are fast, but the charge speed depends very much on the state of charge. IOW, how much is left in your battery when you arrive has a big impact on how fast it'll charge.

Here are some number that show how big the difference is. Let's say you arrive with 0%.
In the first 10 minutes you will gain 70 miles
in the next 10 minutes you will gain 46 miles
in the next 10 minutes you will gain 36 miles
in the next 10 minutes you will gain 29 miles

In 40 minutes you got 180 miles. The average is 4.5 miles per minute

Now lets see how the numbers look when you arrive at 30% battery left.
In the first 10 minutes you will gain 29 miles
in the next 10 minutes you will gain 27 miles
in the next 10 minutes you will gain 20 miles
in the next 10 minutes you will gain 18 miles

In 40 minutes you got 94 miles. The average is 2.35 miles per minute

The difference is huge! Almost twice the speed when you arrive at 0% vs 30%!

Now of course it's not very good for the battery to run it down to zero. It is also very stressful on you and if anything goes wrong, you have absolutely no buffer. You should always allow yourself a buffer. But just from a time point of view, you should aim to arrive at the next Supercharger at a low state of charge to significantly cut down charge time.

I remember a trip where I met another Model S owner going the same route. I arrived 15 min later than she did at the first Supercharger with almost zero on my battery. I charged just enough to make it to the next Supercharger. It was 100 miles away, but I charged to 150 knowing I was going fast and had head wind. I left the Supercharger before the other driver. I arrived at the next Supercharger with 10 miles left. Again I charged just enough to make it to the next one. As I was done charging and pulled out, I saw the other driver pull in. Not only did she charge much more than she needed at the previous Supercharger, she also arrived at a high state of charge slowing her down again. Over a 200 mile distance I gained aprox one hour over the other driver. Same cars, same driving speed, same conditions. Just by optimizing the charge speed.

Again, I don't advocate to run your battery down too low. My message is: don't add in a big buffer just to be safe and then drive slow on top of it. It'll slow you down a lot. As I said in the beginning, it won't matter much on trips where you only have one or maybe two Supercharger stops. But the longer the trip, the more it makes a difference.

Use the trip energy app. It will predicts (based on your driving and the conditions) how much you will have in your battery when you arrive. Keep an eye on it and use it to aim for a low state of charge without risking anything. It's very useful to optimize your trip.

Very interesting! Thanks!!

 

[NickFie]

I am just a bit overwhelmed with the learning I'm going to have to be doing shortly.

I love very few cars, have only loved one (my 1999 Jaguar XJ8 Vanden Plas that I traded in, in Feb.of 2016 with only 51,000 miles on it.

Congratulations on starting your excellent adventure.

Consider taking a co-driver on the first road trip. Picked up my wife's S100D in Chicago with a friend on a Friday. The next day we drove it to Philadelphia - three SC stops. Great opportunity for the driver to experiment with the various controls, gradually increase cruise speed as confidence grows. On the next shift, as passenger, lots of time to explore all the console options. By the end of the trip, we were both pretty comfortable with the car.

My friend had sterling qualifications. He drives a Volt, his wife a Prius. Also a private pilot, so SuperCharger planning was simply a variation of fuel, time & distance planning for a flight. He also said that working with Tesla Enhanced AutoPilot was like flying with "George" - a private plane's autopilot. It handles routine tasks, the pilot still has to maintain situational awareness and monitor the automation.

My wife's Tesla is beautiful. Nearly hugged it when I first saw it at delivery. A great car to drive, exceeds my previous benchmark - driving a Jaguar XKE several hundred highway miles in my hitch-hiking days. The driver was tired, I was familiar with British cars and manual transmissions.

 

[CBPfromTN]

Congratulations on starting your excellent adventure.

Consider taking a co-driver on the first road trip. Picked up my wife's S100D in Chicago with a friend on a Friday. The next day we drove it to Philadelphia - three SC stops. Great opportunity for the driver to experiment with the various controls, gradually increase cruise speed as confidence grows. On the next shift, as passenger, lots of time to explore all the console options. By the end of the trip, we were both pretty comfortable with the car.

My friend had sterling qualifications. He drives a Volt, his wife a Prius. Also a private pilot, so SuperCharger planning was simply a variation of fuel, time & distance planning for a flight. He also said that working with Tesla Enhanced AutoPilot was like flying with "George" - a private plane's autopilot. It handles routine tasks, the pilot still has to maintain situational awareness and monitor the automation.

My wife's Tesla is beautiful. Nearly hugged it when I first saw it at delivery. A great car to drive, exceeds my previous benchmark - driving a Jaguar XKE several hundred highway miles in my hitch-hiking days. The driver was tired, I was familiar with British cars and manual transmissions.

Oh, thank you so much for the advice! I agree that it would be best to take it on my first road trip with someone (husband) however if I do that, since I am driving to where we grew up, to see family, since he is an only child with both parents deceased, he always likes to run the streets, going to different woodworking shops, gun shops ( we are both NRA members, so he's always shopping and looking etc.) SO, essentially if he goes with me, he will be driving the wheels off of MY car (this IS my car ) so, he may have to go next time and drive his Expedition or F150. I'll go with him but he can drive those vehicles all his heart desires. I know, I am so generous, LOL. Anyhow, when I get to my parents' home in Memphis, I park my car in their garage and don't touch it the whole time I am there. I am thinking of getting a car cover for it before I go to keep the dust off plus anyone who might happen to walk too close to it while entering the house thru the garage. I'm pretty anal about my cars. (My older brother is a retired pilot, USAF for 20 years and FED EX for 19 years so, I've heard what you said before. In fact, he and I both love gadgets and I know he wants to buy a Tesla because we've discussed it many times but neither of us was ready. Well...he doesn't KNOW I am going to show up in a TESLA when I arrive. It's going to be a surprise. I can't wait. I have a feeling I will be getting my first referral soon
Thanks again for the advice. Enjoy that new car and I hope your wife lets you drive it. It sounds wonderful!

 

[NickFie]

[QUOTE="CBPfromTN, post: 2571248, member: Enjoy that new car and I hope your wife lets you drive it. It sounds wonderful![/QUOTE]
The car was my birthday gift to her last November. She hates buying gas, likes cars that handle well, and are well-equipped. First car was Fiat 124 Sport Coupe- their answer to the legendary BMW 2002tii.

I’m the road trip chauffeur, technology wrangler and have access to it when she doesn’t need it.

 

[CBPfromTN]

[QUOTE="CBPfromTN, post: 2571248, member: Enjoy that new car and I hope your wife lets you drive it. It sounds wonderful!

The car was my birthday gift to her last November. She hates buying gas, likes cars that handle well, and are well-equipped. First car was Fiat 124 Sport Coupe- their answer to the legendary BMW 2002tii.

I’m the road trip chauffeur, technology wrangler and have access to it when she doesn’t need it.[/QUOTE]
Awesome! I don't know much about technology but I do know more than most women. I LOVE gadgets so Tesla is right up my alley! That was a SWEET birthday present! My husband would NEVER have done this. First of all, he couldn't risk me saying he should've picked a different color interior or EXTERIOR. I believe he would've done fine on the exterior color but I have picked the Ultra white interior and I KNOW he wouldn't have picked that. In fact, I am surprised that I picked it!
Anyway, I am excited for you and by the way.....I sold my car today! YES!! My trade in. I SOLD IT MYSELF. I am SO excited. I got $2500 more than the CarMax quote from November which would SURELY have been lower now. Plus, who knows what Tesla would've given me. I couldn't take it back to CarMax. I don't think they would do another "appraisal" so I was going to be at the mercy of the bidding/auction people. I was NOT looking forward to that. AT ALL. Now I don't HAVE to!! I get my car Friday.

 

[CBPfromTN]

[QUOTE="CBPfromTN, post: 2571248, member: Enjoy that new car and I hope your wife lets you drive it. It sounds wonderful!

The car was my birthday gift to her last November. She hates buying gas, likes cars that handle well, and are well-equipped. First car was Fiat 124 Sport Coupe- their answer to the legendary BMW 2002tii.

I’m the road trip chauffeur, technology wrangler and have access to it when she doesn’t need it.[/QUOTE]
LOL, You sound so nice! My husband is equally kind and sweet. You are both very fortunate!

 

[Rocky_H]

Whew, just did my 5,332 mile trip in 11 days. Those were some long days. Charging stops felt a little too short in some places with how I wanted to do a couple more Facebook comments and such or look at something on the forum. But I was doing "splash and dash" to hit every Supercharger, so I wasn't trying to stay long enough to skip over any.

 

[Missile Toad]

@Rocky_H what do you suppose was your average RM as you rolled up to each SuperCharger? Did you use a larger buffer when pulling in to a hotel for destination charging (using other than Superchargers)? I tend to have more anxiety about charging overnight at hotels, especially in towns far from where I live.