Hi all,
I thought I'd share our road experience from this past weekend. I feel like we encountered some of the inherently "worst" stuff about Teslas (and electric cars) during the trip, but it wasn't too bad so I thought I'd share and let everyone judge for themselves.
The road trip wasn't anything too crazy, we took a weekend trip from the New Hampshire border to New York City (just under 250 miles). Normally this wouldn't be anything special, but 1) we have a 75D with ~225 miles at full charge, 2) The trip included 7 people and lots of baggage, which I feared would impact range, and 3) it was between 9 and 19 degrees F during the weekend, which obviously impacts range a lot as well.
So we went on our way, with the first supercharger about 120 miles away. My average speed was about 70mph and range was very poor, we got to the supercharger with about 25 miles left. It was a bit scary to watch, but in practical terms didn't affect the trip at all. We charged up enough to make it to the next one, then arrived in NYC with about 135 miles left. We did our vacation thing and left Sunday where there was about 120 left after the phantom drain due to cold. Same deal with the range.
The first supercharger went fine, but 12 miles before we got to the second charger, a tire got flat and I had to pull into a rest stop. Luckily we were driving right past the rest stop and pulled in. I was pretty scared at this point because it was 12 miles from the charger, we had 40 miles left, it was ~15 degrees, we needed a tire, and 7 people were just sitting around anxiously. But surprisingly it wasn't too bad. I called the Tesla road service, and they sent someone with a spare tire. Since the network isn't too established in the Northeast yet they said, it took the guy an hour and a half to get to us, but he changed it in a few minutes and we were on our way. For whatever reason, the car's range decreased from 40 miles to 29 miles in that hour and a half. We were all out of the car in the rest stop plaza and the car was off, but they were pinging the car remotely so maybe that took up some charge.
Nevertheless, I got to the charger with about 14 miles of range left and we charged up and went home. There was a lot of anxious feelings, but in practicality this was like any other trip except there was an extra hour and a half added on. At all chargers, we didn't have to wait any longer than what we naturally would have anyway.
So I feel like we dealt with the range-in-cold issue, range in general with lots of people issue, and the lack of spare tire/service network issue, and all things considered it wasn't too bad
Apart from being more mentally aware of projected range etc, and having to sit in a rest stop for a bit, there wasn't much else different from normal. And with an effective range of about 140 per charge, I don't envision much of a worse scenario. Rest at peace Tesla community!
I thought I'd share our road experience from this past weekend. I feel like we encountered some of the inherently "worst" stuff about Teslas (and electric cars) during the trip, but it wasn't too bad so I thought I'd share and let everyone judge for themselves.
The road trip wasn't anything too crazy, we took a weekend trip from the New Hampshire border to New York City (just under 250 miles). Normally this wouldn't be anything special, but 1) we have a 75D with ~225 miles at full charge, 2) The trip included 7 people and lots of baggage, which I feared would impact range, and 3) it was between 9 and 19 degrees F during the weekend, which obviously impacts range a lot as well.
So we went on our way, with the first supercharger about 120 miles away. My average speed was about 70mph and range was very poor, we got to the supercharger with about 25 miles left. It was a bit scary to watch, but in practical terms didn't affect the trip at all. We charged up enough to make it to the next one, then arrived in NYC with about 135 miles left. We did our vacation thing and left Sunday where there was about 120 left after the phantom drain due to cold. Same deal with the range.
The first supercharger went fine, but 12 miles before we got to the second charger, a tire got flat and I had to pull into a rest stop. Luckily we were driving right past the rest stop and pulled in. I was pretty scared at this point because it was 12 miles from the charger, we had 40 miles left, it was ~15 degrees, we needed a tire, and 7 people were just sitting around anxiously. But surprisingly it wasn't too bad. I called the Tesla road service, and they sent someone with a spare tire. Since the network isn't too established in the Northeast yet they said, it took the guy an hour and a half to get to us, but he changed it in a few minutes and we were on our way. For whatever reason, the car's range decreased from 40 miles to 29 miles in that hour and a half. We were all out of the car in the rest stop plaza and the car was off, but they were pinging the car remotely so maybe that took up some charge.
Nevertheless, I got to the charger with about 14 miles of range left and we charged up and went home. There was a lot of anxious feelings, but in practicality this was like any other trip except there was an extra hour and a half added on. At all chargers, we didn't have to wait any longer than what we naturally would have anyway.
So I feel like we dealt with the range-in-cold issue, range in general with lots of people issue, and the lack of spare tire/service network issue, and all things considered it wasn't too bad
Apart from being more mentally aware of projected range etc, and having to sit in a rest stop for a bit, there wasn't much else different from normal. And with an effective range of about 140 per charge, I don't envision much of a worse scenario. Rest at peace Tesla community! 
