There didn’t seem to be an existing thread for posting random stuff about drives people have done in their Teslas - efficient drives, inefficient drives, long drives, random stats, that sort of stuff. I’ll try to kick this off with an interesting screen shot of the energy graph climbing and descending Barrengarry Mountain last week near Kangaroo Valley, NSW. A very steep and windy road with lots of hairpin bends, Slartibartfast did it with ease. Going down the other side of the mountain added 10km to the battery. Efficiency capped out on the graph for a short period of time at 600 Wh/km, but with long periods of energy generation for an average of 90 Wh/km for the previous 50 km.
Here is my road trip from Brisbane to Canberra (inland). Quite a few interesting drives. 1327km Average 142Wh/km All stats and charging stops recorded on Teslascope Brisbane-Canberra (Inland) | Teslascope
Impressive stuff... I assume you were driving at ‘normal’ speeds? My best result for a 100+ km single trip is 130 Wh/km (no AC). For a proper road trip, freeway/highway speeds, AC etc, I’ve managed 149 Wh/km for 695 km.
Model 3 clearly better than Model S on the open road! I'm top around 170Wh/km!! (Mind you, the difference between 100 and 125km/hr is dramatic)
Yep. Was not speeding. On way there max is 100km/hr. Some roadworks would have lowered average. On way back was pretty much 110km/hr the whole way via Sydney and average only slightly higher 143km for whole trip. Lifetime is 141. Temps to Canberra were very 30-34 during the day. Tyre pressure enroute 42-44C. Winds were light most of the way except 1 leg of strong headwinds. Elevation cancels out over a long road trip. Cabin Temp 21 I am spirited in city traffic much to my wife’s annoyance. Road trip, just overtaking increased Wh/km or Headwinds.
I left for Kyabram (VIC) from the Gold Coast on the 19th of Dec and arrived back on the 29th. Our trip was rushed to get to the VIC border to save Xmas (6 yo would have been devastated, as all presents were at my sister's place) and then back to QLD to avoid any possibility of getting stuck in quarantine. We had planned to spend time in Sydney and Canberra, plus spend more time in some places on the way back. We took the M1 down to Kempsey for the first night. Then to Newcastle and out to Dubbo for the second night. A big drive down through Cowra to Gundagai, over the border at Albury-Wodonga and then through Sheparton to Kyabram. We stuck to Tesla Superchargers on the way down, except for a test of the Chargefox rapid charger at Gundagai that failed after 10 mins, so and I had to switch to the Supercharger anyway. One the way back we went from Kyabram to Wagga Wagga and up to Cowra. A sprint to Dubbo for the zoo and then on to Tamworth via a gravel road and going through Goonoo State Conservation Area to Coonabarabran. Tamworth back to the Gold Coast was on the Hume highway crossing the border at Wallangarra (only 3 cars and about as many minutes wait). I went over the mountain rather than on the toll roads that take you towards Brisbane before coming down on the M1. Anyway, here are the overall stats for the trip with my Model 3 Performance with the boot packed full plus 2 adults and 2 kids, AC on at 22C: At times I could see consumption average over 200 Wh/km, especially on hot days >35C. Unfortunately I was not diligent enough to capture each stop, but here is the worst I captured from Gundagai to Wodonga: On a day that the car was reporting as 39C the tyre pressures were getting high from 42 psi when cold: What's the actual limit before we should get worried? As a comparison, this is what I had returning from Springwood to Helensvale today with just myself in the car. Here is the overall stats for the car: I didn't take the safe and normal routes which meant I ended up on some pretty crappy B and C roads. Getting off the beaten track is great to see some different scenery, but I couldn't risk Autopilot for fear of hitting a rough patch or pothole with low profile tyres. On some A roads I didn't feel comfortable leaving Autopilot on when it came to reasonably sharp bends. It tends to stay too far left and even A roads have a few rough edges in places. Unfortunately I still hit a few things I shouldn't have and ended up with some wheel rim damage and a new tyre. I'm not actually sure when I did this, as it was on the front passenger side, but my step father noticed it when he did an inspection upon arriving at their place. That's 3 tyres in a year . I think I'll get a Model Y LR with standard tyres for the family road trips and keep the Model 3 Performance as a city/highway car. Overall I'm very happy with how the car performed. I'd like the Tesla trip range to be a bit more accurate, as it was always optimistic and I could watch the destination battery charge tick down over the length of the trip. ABRP was much closer to reality, from my experience. Lessons from my first big road trip: Superchargers are faster than family breaks. I'd often be anxious and have to hurry everyone up or go and move the car to avoid idle fees before the family was finished with eating/toilet breaks. I'd target Superchargers for short breaks and 50 KW Chargefox/NRMA/etc. for meals + a look around. A/C seems better now than when I first got the car with no problems even at near 40C temps. Buy a windscreen cleaner (like the ones at service stations) and water spray bottle to clean your windscreen. I did that once in Kyabram and it made the trip back much more pleasant. I keep mine in the frunk. Charge often and more than what you need, even when you think you don't need to. Single NRMA chargers can be in use (Ioniq at Armidale that didn't use the PlugShare app, I'm looking at you!), so it's handy to just move on to the next one if you can. We just went to Glen Innes and had brunch there instead of a late breakfast at Armidale. Disengaging TACC at a "60 km/h Ahead" sign and then turning it on again once the car picked up the 60 km/h sign proved to be fairly accurate for most towns. However, waiting to hit the 100 km/h sign before being able to accelerate is frustrating for me and definitely for the cars behind. It would be nice to automate this a bit better.
Amazing post! I agree about the speed change management. I accelerate by rolling up on the left hand scroll wheel and increase the set speed before the higher speed zone to overcome the problem of irritating the following drivers. The car behaves as per the law - the new speed limit does not apply until you reach the sign - so it may not change.
Great post! Very interesting data. I pumped my tyres up to 50 psi in winter, gave a firmer ride which I liked, as well as slightly better efficiency, didn’t seem to cause any problems. What the heck is that? Normally sidewall damage of any kind results in rapid tyre deflation... I’ve found the range estimates to be pretty good. Without AC on, I regularly do better than what the battery range indicates. With AC on, even at highway speeds, I find it overestimates but not by a lot - maybe 10%. But I tend to drive relatively conservatively, at or below the posted speed limits and not many launches. Good list! Agree with all of that. Re #6, in NSW, I recall there is 400m leeway either side of a speed limit change, but I can’t be bothered traversing the Motor Traffic Act to verify. Also with TACC on, you can accelerate, but you need to push hard on the accelerator and there is a noticeable delay before anything happens.
That works when using TACC, but with Autopilot on you can't go above the predetermined limit you've set, e.g. 62 km/h for a 60 km/h zone. I agree it's unlikely to change. No one tooted in anger and they can't keep up once it starts accelerating anyway . Interesting. I'll have to look at the tyre wall and see if there is a max cold inflation figure and max inflation figure. I couldn't see anything like that on the tyre specifications online after a quick google. The guy at Bob Jane T-mart was also surprised. Given tyre availability I still had to drive from Southport to Springwood to get it fixed immediately. I stayed below the speed limit and sat in the left lane most of the way . I think the car wasn't adjusting for the extra people and luggage in the car. The rain had a big impact on range too. I set my speed at 102/3 km/h and 113 km/h which according to the GPS speed indicator from Google Maps is close to 100 km/h and 110 km/hr respectively. I'm not sure about that 400m rule. In Coonabarabran the police had set up in the middle of the road outside the Visitor Centre and were catching a lot of people as they came into town. Yeah, with TACC there are ways around it. It would just be nice if it was on Autopilot that it followed what the normal person would do, not the letter of the law. That is, slow down from 100 km/h to 60 km/h at the 60 km/h sign, but start accelerating a bit before the next 80 or 100 km/h sign.
No, that would be *sugar*, because driving like that is asking for a ticket. It's also irrational, because it'll save you what, all of three seconds?
I'm not sure where you are driving Cafz, but in country towns I can tell you not a single person I was behind waited until the sign to start accelerating. It may well be irrational and asking for a ticket, but it's how the overwhelming majority drive.
Just back from the longest road trip ever in my Model 3 around regional NSW and VIC. The vast majority of driving was at highway speeds (100/110) with aircon on. 3426 km at 157 Wh/km. I reckon that is extraordinary efficiency from Tesla. Gold star!
The first batch of 2020 model year Model 3s (Oct 2019), Long Range, with 18” wheels and aero covers on. I hate low-profile wheels with a passion.
Excellent stats! How much extra weight, @Vostok? E.g. my trip had 2 adults, 2 kids, 1 car seat, plus the boot and frunk packed. I estimated that was about about 130 kg extra (not including me).
Most of the time it was 1 adult, 2 kids and completely packed boot (including the sub-boot) and froot.
Our last road trip in the model 3 was loaded up with: 2 adults, 2 kids, 1 medium sized dog, full boot, full frunk. And the car deals with it brilliantly.
This is our last trip: For some reason I have never reset trip 'A'. Our X 100D does mainly highways plus some dirt and a small amount of urban when we travel to the big smoke. Also the odd trailer tow. I think 238Wh/km isn't too bad for this car.
I don’t notice any difference in the how the car handles, accelerates, goes up hills, or performs between having just the driver and no luggage, and fully loaded to the gunwales. Very impressive.