Met Dborn charging when I got back on Sunday, Gave him a Bottle of Verdello I picked up, best Verdello I've ever had
I would like to thank him for introducing me to this Forum... Note that David has given me more information about my car than the all the monkeys I've spoken to at Tesla, I will go into detail about that later
Summary of the Trip
Settings
I was forced to drive very efficiently otherwise a tow truck would be the only option back!
We had a great time with my children in the Hunter Valley and the children absolutely love the new car. It was still very stressful and it did take a bit of concentration to drive without using any brakes, paying attention to all terrain approaches etc.
So if you try it Tesla Owners let me know of your success / failure.
Some more advice… don’t Bother asking the people who work for Tesla here in Australia for any advice, they have no idea what its like to own a Tesla or Live with one, so they have no product experience or knowledge. They also have no travel knowledge which I will explain later
– Jake
I would like to thank him for introducing me to this Forum... Note that David has given me more information about my car than the all the monkeys I've spoken to at Tesla, I will go into detail about that later
Summary of the Trip
Settings
- I had 4 people in the car, myself my partner and my two daughters, total mass approx 185kg plus luggage so about 210kg altogether
- Aircon was full on the whole way
- Music was fully pumping the whole way
- Full Charge
- Distance from St Leonards Charging station was 151km, so return 302km as calculated by the GPS
- Driving? As careful as I can, rarely used the brake
- I had the number to a towing company
- I could not make this trip I got stuck in traffic too long
- There was no service station that could help me
- I could not drive around the Hunter Valley. Straight there and back
- I knew I would drive around Hunter Valley anyway and have to stop where the Kids asked to stop, Namely the Famous Hunter Valley Gardens, The Chocolate Factory, Mango side of the road shops, and basically anything that interest the kids
- I assumed that the range prediction was accurate. (I know in my Lexus when I hit 0 km I still have 75km or so left in the tank, I do not think this is the case with the Tesla
- I would not be charging it overnight
- It would be stressful, suicide with the Tesla was not an option as there is no tail pipe to connect my hose to. (joke)
- I drove into Tesla at St Leonards for a full charge
- I asked where to get a coffee, they said whats wrong with the coffee in the Tesla dealership that you can make yourself from a pod. (this is the first indication that Tesla staff in Australia are absolutely clueless)
- I got directed to a cafe down the road, as SBS (sex before soccer) TV station next door was closed
- The cafe which i was directed to by Tesla staff which apparently knew the area, was not only under renovation but was closed on Saturday
- We walked further down and found one that was open and sat down for coffee and drinks.
- I spoke to Sales rep there, told him where I was going. He could not give me an answer if I could make it
- Out came a guy dressed very casual, obviously an Engineer, namely Peter.
- I told him that it was 190km to there (I assumed Air Con would eat up some milage) He told me it is possible if I stuck to 88km per hour. I thought in my head “seriously, what a stupid solution”
- Range said 500km, so I thought I had 200km to spare for this trip. I should be able to make it easy.
- So we left, I ignored his stupid unpractical advice
- Not much traffic, we stopped at the Markets near the service station
- We had to stop at the chocolate factory
- we checked in at Pokobolkin Villiage with a little over half a charge. Great! Looks like I should have no problems Driving back
- Drove to Hunter Valley Gardens that night for the Christmas Lights Spectacular with the Mega Bugs
- It rained out so we had to leave early
- Drove Back to our hotel room
- Left the car overnight
- Drove to Harrigans in the morning for breakfast at 10am
- Stopped at a winery on the way back
- Not much traffic made it back to St Leonards with around 50km left to spare
- Note that I would have probably had to come back in a Tow Truck if the distance was actually 190km as I quoted to Peter the Engineer at Tesla. There were several serious Information Fails by Tesla.
I was forced to drive very efficiently otherwise a tow truck would be the only option back!
We had a great time with my children in the Hunter Valley and the children absolutely love the new car. It was still very stressful and it did take a bit of concentration to drive without using any brakes, paying attention to all terrain approaches etc.
So if you try it Tesla Owners let me know of your success / failure.
Some more advice… don’t Bother asking the people who work for Tesla here in Australia for any advice, they have no idea what its like to own a Tesla or Live with one, so they have no product experience or knowledge. They also have no travel knowledge which I will explain later
– Jake