Is it possible to get 250 miles on the interstate with a 2022 M3P?

[KenC]

Everyone's experience is different. I find the Tesla planner only useful for short trips, less than 300miles. It's improved over the years, with waypoints, etc., but I haven't found it more accurate than ABRP, which is highly accurate when you subscribe and it uses wind data, etc.

Just look at your example. The Tesla planner shows 12h driving and 3h charging, for a 15h trip. Google Maps shows 11h22m for driving. The two are not even driving the same speed. If you stick 5mph over the speed limit in ABRP or 8% over, then you get a driving time of 11h26m. That's more reasonable for comparison.

The Tesla planner's charging times are all rounded to 5min increments. Plus, it estimates 3hrs of charging. Is that at all accurate for 800 miles of driving? Let's say you're using V2 chargers and getting mostly 500miles added per hour. 3hrs of that would give you 1500miles of charge. Way overshooting the amount of charging time.

I'm just saying that arguing the Tesla is not as good as an ICE for roadtripping, and then using the Tesla planner as the example, is not really a fair comparison.

 

[golfcart]

Everyone's experience is different. I find the Tesla planner only useful for short trips, less than 300miles. It's improved over the years, with waypoints, etc., but I haven't found it more accurate than ABRP, which is highly accurate when you subscribe and it uses wind data, etc.

Just look at your example. The Tesla planner shows 12h driving and 3h charging, for a 15h trip. Google Maps shows 11h22m for driving. The two are not even driving the same speed. If you stick 5mph over the speed limit in ABRP or 8% over, then you get a driving time of 11h26m. That's more reasonable for comparison.

The Tesla planner's charging times are all rounded to 5min increments. Plus, it estimates 3hrs of charging. Is that at all accurate for 800 miles of driving? Let's say you're using V2 chargers and getting mostly 500miles added per hour. 3hrs of that would give you 1500miles of charge. Way overshooting the amount of charging time.

I'm just saying that arguing the Tesla is not as good as an ICE for roadtripping, and then using the Tesla planner as the example, is not really a fair comparison.

Fair points. I would imagine that some of the difference in driving time is related to the distance from the highway to the supercharger but it does make you wonder. Just for kicks I went in my car and navigated to Disney World and got 13h 40m with 5 stops and just under 2 hours of total charging so you probably have a point about the website planner being suboptimal. I had never actually used the website planner before this thread so I can't vouch for it's accuracy personally... I just get in the car and go and the in-car nav has never done me wrong.

I stand by my other points though. If my family is with me I am taking the gas car on a long winter trip. Way less variables with refueling (limited locations, occupied chargers, throttled charging speeds, heat use reducing range, limited food options at supercharger), shorter total trip time, and I don't have to worry about having a charging option at/near my destination. That is not to say the Tesla is terrible for long trips, I just think it is less convenient than gas still, especially in the winter where your waste heat from the engine warms the cabin for you.

For around town I take the Tesla hands down, charge at home and you're good to go.

 

[Evpowerdan]

If you're getting 267 average on an M3P, you are doing way better than most. I typically drive 85-90mph on highways where I live but thats typical speed on the left lane in so-cal at certain times. Couple that with fast take offs and spirited canyon driving and its pretty easy to get 340wh/mi. The big surprise was when I switched wheels to an arachnid style 18 inch variant from T-sportline. I thought it shouldn't make much of a difference but its about 10-15% better which was surprising to me.

Efficiency at 85-90mph will always be terrible - no different than a ICE vehicle at that speed. Dang you drive fast.

270-290 is reasonable at 5mph over the posted speed and best at 70mph, tires inflated correctly and all the windows ceramic tinted + windshield to reduce HVAC energy consumption. Also, a clean slick vehicle will allow you to maximize aerodynamics - which plays a huge part in efficiency. The turbine wheels may be a little heavy, but once you get the mass moving they are very aero efficient.

 

[Mr. Nuke]

That better route planner is fine but it cuts things a little close for my taste with the wife and kids in the car. I have no intention of running my battery down to ~10% consistently with my family with me.

Your scenario is actually a very good use case for something like ABRP. If you don't want to arrive to chargers or your destination at 10% you can tell it what your margin of comfort/desired arrival is and it will plan the trip to those specifications. For this trip specifically, bumping up the arrival levels at chargers and destination from 10% to 25% is going from 1:03 of charging to 1:20, still way off of the Tesla planner's 3 hours (which it seems you may be coming around to acknowledging in your later posts).

It’s not ”my” 3 hours of charging, it is what the Tesla website says… i didn’t just pull it out of my ass . The stops between the two are almost identical but the charging times differ significantly. Not sure why, but if I have to pick I’m gonna trust the website for the company that made the car and the chargers.

It is "your" in the sense that you chose to you use that method to present the case that this trip would take 15 hours in a P3D when it clearly wouldn't. With that said, I wouldn't argue that said site does Tesla any marketing favors for potential buyers in instances like this. At this point though had I responded to you last night I would've told you given your location to run this trip in your car and see what it said, which you obviously later did...

If I use the better route plannerI get 13h 45m with 5 charges (1h 23m) not sure what numbers you’re using.

Using the default values I show 13h 22 m with 4 charges (1h 7m), again quite a bit quicker than "your" or the Tesla website's 15 hours.

Just for kicks I went in my car and navigated to Disney World and got 13h 40m with 5 stops and just under 2 hours of total charging so you probably have a point about the website planner being suboptimal. I had never actually used the website planner before this thread so I can't vouch for it's accuracy personally... I just get in the car and go and the in-car nav has never done me wrong.

Which is why people on here recommend not trip planning using Tesla's website.

 

[golfcart]

Which is why people on here recommend not trip planning using Tesla's website.

Yeah I guess lesson learned on that one. I assumed the website for the company that makes the cars and chargers would be at least ballpark. Doesn't change my overall assessment of winter road trips in my model 3 vs our PHEV but it is good to use accurate numbers to make comparisons. The model 3 taking 8-10% longer than gas in ideal conditions is probably closer to reality, 20% seems like an overestimate.

 

[KenC]

The funny thing is, the more stops you make, like if you're with family or friends, the more likely to not have any time penalty driving an EV vs an ICE. It's the people driving solo with 300mile bladders that will find a significant time difference between the two.

Personally, I find the Tesla's rock solid ability to auto steer on the highway to be very relaxing. Enough so, that I find it no problem to drive 800 miles in a day, day after day. With an ICE, I'd be exhausted. To me, that's what makes roadtripping a Tesla infinitely better.

 

[SC BeachGuy]

I honestly want to just fly as opposed to 12-14 hours of driving/charging. lol. It will take me 4 charges to get there and it's not like I have multiple chances as there aren't many SCs south of IL on the way down. You have to hit every charger and get decent efficiency to make it. The good thing is there is a supercharger 20 min from where I will stay so I can charge up down there. And yes I don't want to give rides with it being slow. lol. They are all car guys. One has a camaro that runs 9s and the other a Z06 that runs 10s.

But yes it's still a bit of a headached/anxiety not being able to just take off and not worry being able to be able to peal off and get gas at every exit. The car is great for local driving and not going real far. it's ok for trips just takes thinking.

Just picked up a M3P last month and I'm leaning towards agreeing with you. Jumping from SC to SC isn't nearly as convenient as gas and I'm always wondering if I'm going to get stuck waiting an hour or so because all the stalls are full. As more and more people purchase Tesla's I'm wondering if this is going to become a problem.

It's a really fun car but I wish I'd done a bit more research on what the actual range is versus what they list on the website.

 

[SC BeachGuy]

Because you can fill up in 2 minutes at almost every exit in the interstate with gas. They also don’t recommend that you keep your gas car between 20% and 80% full. Hence people worry more about their EV range… I don’t find it irrational at all.

My P3D- has a 300mi “range” but the usable range on a road trip is realistically 200-225 miles. If the one supercharger on my route is full, broken, or throttling charge speed because it’s crowded then it adds considerable time to my trip.

"Throttling charge speed" Didn't know that was a thing. Are you saying it will only let you charge to a certain point and then slows down so you'll move on?

 

[ElectricIAC]

"Throttling charge speed" Didn't know that was a thing. Are you saying it will only let you charge to a certain point and then slows down so you'll move on?

V2 superchargers split power down the middle when two are plugged into the same cabinet.

 

[nate704]

Just picked up a M3P last month and I'm leaning towards agreeing with you. Jumping from SC to SC isn't nearly as convenient as gas and I'm always wondering if I'm going to get stuck waiting an hour or so because all the stalls are full. As more and more people purchase Tesla's I'm wondering if this is going to become a problem.

It's a really fun car but I wish I'd done a bit more research on what the actual range is versus what they list on the website.

You just picked up your car, so you are still "learning" because the range concern for longer trip is overblown. You don't charge 0-100% at every stop. You only top it enough to get to the next charger which takes 5-15 mins depending on your route/destination.

 

[ElectricIAC]

You just picked up your car, so you are still "learning" because the range concern for longer trip is overblown. You don't charge 0-100% at every stop. You only top it enough to get to the next charger which takes 5-15 mins depending on your route/destination.

I think they understand that, but they’re not a fan of the puddle jumping method of optimizing road trips.

 

[nate704]

I think they understand that, but they’re not a fan of the puddle jumping method of optimizing road trips.

I guess so. I actually enjoy planning charging stops and actual charging when I can relax and take a short break in relatively quite area. You can't really do that at the gas pumps. Also, plugshare app shows you the actual user pictures and feedback/information, so you know what you are getting into.

 

[gtg465x]

I'm surprised the performance model is so much less efficient than the RWD. I've owned a 2023 RWD for about a month and a half, and my overall average so far is 225 Wh/mi, which equates to 255 miles from the 57.5 kW of usable battery. Not that far off the EPA rated 272 miles, and this is during winter temps of 30-60 F, probably around 45 F average (Georgia, so admittedly much warmer winter temps than most other places, but still colder than Florida and California). The other day I went 80 miles round trip on the highway going 70 mph, 52 F average outside temp, interior temp set to 68 F, and averaged 213 Wh/mi, which would be 270 miles if I went down to 0%... only 2 miles less than the EPA rated range. I'm sure I can beat EPA range going 70 mph on the highway once it warms up a little more. It might also help that I keep my car in a garage that's usually 10-20 degrees warmer than outside during the winter.

 

[SC BeachGuy]

I think they understand that, but they’re not a fan of the puddle jumping method of optimizing road trips.

Correct. It's not that it isn't doable, just that I've been driving for 25 years with a gas and go mentality and a range of about 400 mi with a 5-minute refill at every other ramp.

If the car actually got anywhere close to the 315 mi range they advertise it wouldn't be that big a deal. My bad for not doing more in-depth research.

 

[golfcart]

V2 superchargers split power down the middle when two are plugged into the same cabinet.

Yes. This is not really common knowledge or I assume the lady wouldn’t have parked right next to me (there were plenty of open stalls at this particular spot).

I mostly charge at home so these kinds of things are rarely issues. I just get frustrated when an “idealized” version of supercharging is put forth as a guaranteed outcome. In my experience there are a lot more uncertainties involved than a typical ICE vehicle owner is accustomed to with abundant gas stations that refill your car in a minute two.

 

[golfcart]

If the car actually got anywhere close to the 315 mi range they advertise it wouldn't be that big a deal. My bad for not doing more in-depth research.

I think the #1 thing people have a hard time with is realizing that usable range for an EV (in the practical sense) is maybe 70% of the advertised range. What the 300 mile range allows you to do is go about 200 miles between chargers then charge very efficiently before doing it again. Under no circumstances have I ever come close to driving 300 miles on a single charge because it just isn’t practical to do so.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

I think the #1 thing people have a hard time with is realizing that usable range for an EV (in the practical sense) is maybe 70% of the advertised range. What the 300 mile range allows you to do is go about 200 miles between chargers then charge very efficiently before doing it again. Under no circumstances have I ever come close to driving 300 miles on a single charge because it just isn’t practical to do so.

Or more simply, the EPA range only happens if you drive the car like the EPA does which means going less than 65 MPH on the highway

Rolling around town, it's trivial to get 300+ miles range.

 

[golfcart]

Or more simply, the EPA range only happens if you drive the car like the EPA does which means going less than 65 MPH on the highway

Rolling around town, it's trivial to get 300+ miles range.

I disagree with this assessment, that is not the point I am making at all. You can drive 65 on the highway all day and it still isn’t practical to try and go 300 miles between chargers because it causes you to charge inefficiently. Charging speed is not constant as you fill up the battery so keeping it between 5-50% will often be the fastest way to get places even though that means stopping every 120 miles or so.

 

[ThomasD]

I forget who it was but there are a few people on here that claim their cars get 400 miles of range

 

[ElectricIAC]

I forget who it was but there are a few people on here that claim their cars get 400 miles of range