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How to save a lot of time on long trips

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Hate to break it to ya but many vehicles made after the turn of the century have "event data recorders" or "black boxes" that record multiple parameters during a collision (i.e. were you wearing your seatbelt? were you pressing the accelerator? did the airbags deploy?) so this is nothing proprietary to Tesla. The only difference is that Tesla more than likely collects a TON more data than these devices.
I already knew that but we were talking about Teslas specifically, not any other car brand.
BTW, in case you didn't know, if you wish to access your Tesla log to defend yourself in court, Tesla requires a court order first before releasing the log.
 
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hate to run low and have the gauge not as accurate as i thought and run out of juice before the SC. that would stink. Most like to get to a sc with 30% left.
No way. I get annoyed if I get to the SC with more than 10% left! Starting with a SOC of 30% will take much longer to charge especially if you always plan to retain 30% between SC. I drive away from a SC conservatively and you can get more aggressive the closer you get to the next SC (as the remaining SOC estimate becomes more accurate).
 
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Most like to get to a sc with 30% left.

Some? Sure. Most? Unlikely.

30% is well over 50 miles for all Teslas, even older ones with significant degradation. It is over 100 miles for newer long range variants.

I’d wager that most people are comfortable starting off with 20-25% reserve and landing at the end of a supercharged leg with 15-20% remaining. Before I had a kid I’d regularly land with less than 10%. Now it’s as much as 50%. :confused:
 
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Headed out to Frisco on the Outer Banks of NC. Got to the SC in Sailsbury MD with 29 miles, made it to the VA Supercharge with 39 miles. By the time I got to Harres Teachers ( the SC on the island ) I had about 68 miles. When I travel on vacation I charge to get me to the next SC plus 10%. It does get a little hairy when you miss judge the distance to the next charger. The least number of miles left was 2 before I got to a destination charger a couple of years ago.
 
so going on a trip to wisc from denver this week. What is my best way to get the best efficiency? We will charge at 100% the day we leave and will time so we will leave withing an hour of the 100%. Should we then set the limit back to 80-90% for rest of trip untill we leave to come back? or is it ok to leave at 100% the whole trip?
 
so going on a trip to wisc from denver this week. What is my best way to get the best efficiency? We will charge at 100% the day we leave and will time so we will leave withing an hour of the 100%. Should we then set the limit back to 80-90% for rest of trip untill we leave to come back? or is it ok to leave at 100% the whole trip?
Yeah, obviously do a fill up before leaving. When I am on the trip, though, for the next several days, I don't think it makes any sense to move it down from 100% when you are just jumping from one Supercharger to the next, and you're not going to be charging overnight. It would be really irritating and stupid if you're wrapping up eating, and your car has stopped at 80% and is sitting there racking up idle fees when you're going to be back at the car in another 10 or 15 minutes to leave anyway, and you will use whatever you get for the next leg of the trip anyway. I would just hate for any time of the car still being plugged in and it's not letting the juice flow while I'm on my way back to it. That just doesn't make any sense.

I'm going on a trip next week from Boise to Salt Lake City, and that's what I'll do. It's two Supercharger stops on the way down, and then probably catch up a little to 60-70% in Salt Lake City before heading over to my AirBNB that doesn't have charging. It can sit like that for a few days until I head back. I just wouldn't want to lower it and then I forget that it's lowered for the drive back, and it stops early on a lunch stop or something on the way home.
 
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so going on a trip to wisc from denver this week. What is my best way to get the best efficiency? We will charge at 100% the day we leave and will time so we will leave withing an hour of the 100%. Should we then set the limit back to 80-90% for rest of trip untill we leave to come back? or is it ok to leave at 100% the whole trip?
Setting to 100% cuts down on idle fees should you overstay at a supercharger. You just have to remember to move the charge back to 90% when destination charging or once you get back home.
 
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Try to stay at destination chargers, which makes things a lot easier.
Yes, keeping in mind that you don't have to confine yourself to Tesla branded destination chargers, and also to look for places with a close by charger, it doesn't necessarily have to be right onsite. PlugShare is your friend. The last hotel I stayed at was a 5 minute walk from a free J1772 charger; my hotel later this week just happens to have an onsite J1772 (I wasn't even looking for it, a family member picked the location).

For that matter, if you rent a place on AirBNB or similar, sometimes you can use a standard 120v outlet, I did that earlier this summer. Doesn't get you a full charge, but overnight at 120v is better than overnight at 0v.
 
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thanx....any suggestions with settings to help in the car like range mode or always connected?
I set throttle to “Chill” since hard acceleration drains the battery.

Range mode probably helps.

Enable air suspension to automatically go to Low at 50 Mph and above.

Set cabin temp to reduce energy use. Slightly higher if it’s air conditioning weather, a bit cooler during heating season.

Our S efficiency drops significantly above 3 Mph.
 
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.
ya know what slows me down on long 1000 mile + Tesla drives?
dang Chuck E Cheese's!!!! if i go into the CEC while supercharging, y'all know it's an hour of fun fo sho!!!
 
If I'm on a Business trip I have to account for the charging time so that I arrive at my destination on time. That means you leave a little sooner or you arrive a little later no big deal, a little planning that's all. The other kind of long trip is a vacation trip. RELAX, your on vacation. I don't know about how others look at vacation but my vacation begins the second I leave not the moment I arrive.

If I have to make more then one charging stop then the plan is to stop for breakfast, lunch and dinner and charge. doing that generally gets me about 500 miles of travel before I stop for the night. My longest trip to date was from Philadelphia to New Orleans (two days).