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Ideal EV range?

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What is everyone's opinion on ideal EV range?

I've decided I want something closer to 300 miles/charge. Even in ideal conditions and driving fairly tame, I only get about 90% of estimated range(takes me about 70 estimated miles to go 60) After you consider only charging to 90%, lack of regen in cold weather, and driving 65-75 I'm using 100 miles to drive 60 and have effectively 120 miles of range on a full charge. Not to mention a lot of times I want to cruise at 80-85.

In the winter our average wh/m was ~320 and it's closer to 380 or 390 with the same commute and driving style. Don't use the heated seats much, preheat the car, and keep the cabin at 69 in 10 degree weather. Most times, I don't get full regen until I have 5miles left on a 30 mile commute.
 
Honestly, I won't seriously consider an EV until the rated miles is 500 or more. I like to drive 78-80 (sometimes 81-82) on the interstate so I guess my range would actually be around 350 (500*.9-100). That's where's I'd feel comfortable that I could go anywhere without worrying about running out of battery. Plus, I want about 10 times more supercharging stations than current so that I don't have to plan trips, or take certain routes. I just want to see my car reach around 100 miles of range and simply decide where I'm going to stop from there (with many choices in that 100 miles). To do that, Tesla needs to offer its supercharging hardware to gas stations so they can install them and charge a fee for power. I don't care if I have to pay as much as gas costs, I just want the same convenience. Basically, get in my car and go on a trip without a bunch of planning, restriction of route, and NO worrying!
 
I have the ~289mi range, and go 100mi from home to foothills, and charge-up at cabin or hotel.

Then go another 50mi to skiing, then 150mi all the way home. With all the elevation & cold factors, I know I can, and just did this.

So it's not ideal, but it's enough now.
 
I have the ~289mi range, and go 100mi from home to foothills, and charge-up at cabin or hotel.

Then go another 50mi to skiing, then 150mi all the way home. With all the elevation & cold factors, I know I can, and just did this.

So it's not ideal, but it's enough now.

Right - I feel like you need about that to make the trip comfortable. That extra 50 miles makes a big difference going from. 240-300
 
Most people need about 25 to 30% more rated range than their trip distance actually requires.

We make the Chicago to Indianapolis trip fairly often for family. 200 miles distance. Our 289 range is more than enough buffer. Even our old MS 85 which had 260 before selling it had enough.

In the winter, despite all the recommendation regarding preheating, etc in both cars we stop by a SC on the way for 15 min to decrease my anxiety
 
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I agree about having extra 50 miles or so buffer. I have 90W Model X and full charge shows 255 miles. My trip to Savannah, GA is around 220 miles and 90% of 255 is 229.5 miles, looks okay on paper, but with real traffic conditions, winds, speed of driving etc. makes it very tight. Savannah supercharger is at it;s worst location, about 3 miles off I-95 and in an airport parking garage. Not convenient at all to charge on the go. Should be around the exit or by the Tanger mall in Pooler. I have made round trips several times with only 10 or so miles left(3% battery life). I have confident, so I drive it that way. But yes, having around 50 to 75 miles extra would make this cars SUPER GREAT, from just great. --my 2 cents.
 
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I agree about having extra 50 miles or so buffer. I have 90W Model X and full charge shows 255 miles. My trip to Savannah, GA is around 220 miles and 90% of 255 is 229.5 miles, looks okay on paper, but with real traffic conditions, winds, speed of driving etc. makes it very tight. Savannah supercharger is at it;s worst location, about 3 miles off I-95 and in an airport parking garage. Not convenient at all to charge on the go. Should be around the exit or by the Tanger mall in Pooler. I have made round trips several times with only 10 or so miles left(3% battery life). I have confident, so I drive it that way. But yes, having around 50 to 75 miles extra would make this cars SUPER GREAT, from just great. --my 2 cents.

I live very close to Pooler so I know what you mean about the Airport location (I don't have a Tesla, but have visited the supercharger many times....go figure). And I totally agree about the Tanger Outlet location. They already have several chargers there, so I can't imagine it would be extremely difficult to add 4 supercharger stalls. I would think the exposure to hundreds of thousands of people stopping yearly at the outlets would be well worth the $100-150 thousand cost to install it. After all, a recent report said that 60% of people in the U.S. don't even know plug-in electric cars exist. I'm willing to bet that 75% of those people are on the East coast. Having those people at the outlets seeing a Model S or X sitting at a charger constantly would have a LOT of people asking, "What kind of car is that?" As it is, those EV charging spots support what most people think about electric cars - NOBODY has one! Because the spots are ALWAYS empty. 2 days before Christmas I bought my wife a gift at the outlets. I literally could not find a place to park. It took 40 minutes to even leave the outlets due to traffic. While I was there, I was curious if among those thousands of cars, how many were EVs. So, I walked all the way to the charging spots and every single one was empty!
 
Honestly, I won't seriously consider an EV until the rated miles is 500 or more...
Since I have a Tesla now I clearly don't entirely agree, but... for mass acceptance in very cold weather, very bad weather and mountainous regions something approaching 500 miles of rated range is required. Similarly much of the Southwest US and the mountain states have speed limits of ~80MPH and Texas has stretches of 85 mph. 100 mph is a not atypical cruising speed in many such areas. For mass acceptance a BEV needs decent range on those speeds. For mass acceptance in germany where substantial stretches of the Autobahn still have no speed limits even more.
These uses also need better motor cooling and more robust drivetrains.
... To do that, Tesla needs to offer its supercharging hardware to gas stations so they can install them and charge a fee for power. I don't care if I have to pay as much as gas costs, I just want the same convenience. Basically, get in my car and go on a trip without a bunch of planning, restriction of route, and NO worrying!
This one, IMHO, is all about education since BEV's also can be filled at teh beginning and end of trips, while not on the road, unlike ICE's. The true solution is ubiquitous Destination chargers and also other alternatives. Those are coming fast.

Still, Germany is a huge market, the cold weather climes are huge markets, the mountains are huge markets. Improved range is crucial to mass acceptance in those places.

Personally I recall a trip on an autobahn during which I had to refill at 180km. Luckily there was a Supercharger at hand.
 
I've thought about this a number of times. The question is how far do most people drive in a day when going on vacation? If they are going really far then how long would they drive until they want a break? I think going 75-80 mph is a fair speed assumption. For duration 5 hours. This means you need 375-400 miles of REAL WORLD range. It would get you from San Francisco to Los Angeles. If Tesla could do this the it would alleviate a lot of congestion at Super Chargers and I think people would not think twice about buying an electric car.
 
I love my model x, 90d with 22's but I drive like a grandma and in sunny so cal and I'm lucky to get 200 miles, That's nothing here or kn a road trip. I couldn't own this vehicle if we didn't have a ice car as well. And to people who think what do most people use etc etc, it's kinda like everyone who has a 4x4 truck here, most of them never not one time use it BUT the time you do your sure glad you had it. For mass acceptance it has to be rated close to 500 so people can drive how they want, pack it heavily and drive the heck out the most badass crossover ever even in the winter...

Wishful thinking but I'll keep buying when the pack size goes up.
 
I've thought about this a number of times. The question is how far do most people drive in a day when going on vacation? .... If Tesla could do this the it would alleviate a lot of congestion at Super Chargers and I think people would not think twice about buying an electric car.

When I bought my X, the one road trip I had in mind was to Mammoth...a 330 mile trek from my home which I often made over the 10+ years I drove a Honda Pilot. I figured a 90D Model X should be able to make it with a single coffee-break length stop at the Lone Pine Supercharger. This seemed entirely fair given that I always stopped at least once during that trip in my old SUV...often for a meal in Lone Pine).

BUT, after having done my first road trip between L.A. and S.F. in my 90D Model X last month, my initial impression is that having a battery that fully charges to 260 miles is definitely not enough. I stopped three-to-four times at Superchargers each way (of which two required a long enough stops for meals). If I could have made the same trip with a single stop for a meal-length charge or with a couple of coffee-break length charges I would have been perfectly happy.

Admittedly, I didn't do a lot of pre-planning. Given that a full charge displays 260 miles on my X, I figured I should only need a single 20 minute long Supercharge to boost my range to accommodate my initially mapped 397 mile drive and actually planned for two (30+ minutes for a meal break, 20 minute coffee break). I made the flawed assumption that, with range mode enabled, this would be more than sufficient to cover the range and any variability my actual driving style might introduce. However, I soon realized that I had not accounted for range loss due to headwinds (which were pretty strong on the drive north), hills (why does driving north on I5 feel like it is all up hill?), heavy stop-and-go holiday traffic (which I thought might actually help my range). I also didn't realize the mileage ratings weren't based on actual highway speeds (I loved being told I would need to keep my speed below 65 miles per hour to reach the next Supercharger...when the posted speed limit was 70).

Now I'm second guessing using the X for Mammoth trips...not just due to range, but other factors ($500 for snow chains seems ridiculous, waiting on the all weather mats for the front seats, need to figure out exactly how I want to transport my snowboards).
 
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