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Hi all,

Taking the model 3 out for a long weekend tomorrow but I could really do with advice.

We are going from the Northwest to London with a slight detour stop.
I have planned the trip on both the car and also the Tesla Go Anywhere thingy on their website, both are telling me to stop at the supercharger below before continuing on our journey.

Northampton, UK - Grange Park
Northampton
M1 Loake Close, Grange Park
Northampton, NN4 5EZ


The car is showing I will reach the supercharger with 6%!
I think this is extremely risky, especially my first time out.

Is there a way for the Tesla in car navigation system to pick another supercharger? I've tried but it doesnt let me :(
I guess the workaround is finding a closer supercharger and drive there, charge up and input the final destination?
So the next question is where is the supercharger before Northampton on the M6 southbound?

Thanks in advance
 
I treat battery capacity just like fuel tank capacity. I'd not want to run a 50 litre tank down to just 3 litres remaining (6%), any more than I'd want to run a 75 kWh battery down to 4.5 kWh remaining. I used to always aim to refuel ICE cars at between 10% to 20% fuel remaining, and do pretty much the same with the Tesla.

The variability in energy consumption and its effect on remaining battery capacity is pretty similar to my last few ICE cars. Fuel consumption typically varied by up to 25% or so in those, depending on weather, speed, load in the car, etc. The Tesla seems to vary slightly less, maybe 20%, for exactly the same reasons, but it's broadly similar, so I route plan in much the same way as I've always done, just with a bit more attention as to where to stop and charge.
 
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So the next question is where is the supercharger before Northampton on the M6 southbound?

Last time I came down the M6 I went to the new SuperChargers at Hilton Park, just after the turn off to the M6Toll. By the time we charged there was congestion on the rest of the M6 so we took the exit from the services labelled M6North, which takes you out and you can rejoin the toll. It's a bit odd, you aren't normally allowed to take service roads, but this one was signposted.

If you don't fancy that, then the previous SuperChargers are at Keele, however there are only 4 bays so there a reasonable change you'll end up sharing or even queuing.

To add, nope, I wouldn't aim to make it with 6%. Just navigate to the SuperCharger you want then plan the next step.
 
Hi all,

Taking the model 3 out for a long weekend tomorrow but I could really do with advice.

We are going from the Northwest to London with a slight detour stop.
I have planned the trip on both the car and also the Tesla Go Anywhere thingy on their website, both are telling me to stop at the supercharger below before continuing on our journey.

Northampton, UK - Grange Park
Northampton
M1 Loake Close, Grange Park
Northampton, NN4 5EZ


The car is showing I will reach the supercharger with 6%!
I think this is extremely risky, especially my first time out.

Is there a way for the Tesla in car navigation system to pick another supercharger? I've tried but it doesnt let me :(
I guess the workaround is finding a closer supercharger and drive there, charge up and input the final destination?
So the next question is where is the supercharger before Northampton on the M6 southbound?

Thanks in advance
As mentioned above, my advice would be to have a look at the journey using A Better Routeplanner. For long journeys I look at this in conjunction with Google maps as the latter is better for traffic, especially if you want an idea of typical traffic a few days/weeks into the future (ABRP uses live data if any at all I think).

Tesla Go Anywhere is a fairly blunt tool and not all the details about Superchargers are correct. Also, as far as I can tell it is making assumptions about your battery state of charge (SOC) % when you leave and arrive, and it doesn't tell you what these are.

The car's prediction is pretty reliable once you're on the road (it updates as you go) but it doesn't know about headwinds or rain so if you sit in it to plan a route it is making assumptions as well (I think it does take ambient temperature into account though). It will also use the current SOC so if you're going to charge up before setting off it will need to recalculate. It seems strange that it proposes a route where you arrive at a Supercharger at 6%, for my MS I don't think it will choose a route that gets you there with less than 10%, and again as stated above I would agree that 10% is a sensible minimum.

Neither the car or Go Anywhere allow waypoints/detours, and I don't think the car will calculate a return trip once a charge stop is included. For both of these things ABRP is much better. Can you charge at your destination? If not then you can use ABRP to see how much % you'll need to get back to a Supercharger. ABRP lets you plan what % you want to arrive with so you can add a buffer (plus a bit extra for overnight losses) to make sure you've got enough when starting the trip home.

It looks like you'll have two options: M40 or M1; both have a few Superchargers although be aware that Newport Pagnell is southbound only. Given that you have options another thing to consider is how many bays the different Superchargers have and how busy they are likely to be so you can avoid possible queues. And also how nice the service areas are.

That said you can just get in and drive - the car will re-calculate and warn you if you need to conserve energy (slow down a bit) or make a detour. In this case the only tricky parts are adding extra for a detour (it doesn't do waypoints) and when you're stopping to charge, making sure you have enough % for the return trip.
 
If you click on the navigation pane on the map so it expands to show all the turns, it gives you a live battery estimate for the destination at the bottom. I’ve made trips before where it showed 5% to start, but then with a bit of careful driving will creep up to 10, 15% and remove the stress. You could navigate to Northampton and keep your eye on the number. If it gets better, stick to it, if it doesn’t, reroute enroute.
 
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As mentioned above, my advice would be to have a look at the journey using A Better Routeplanner. For long journeys I look at this in conjunction with Google maps as the latter is better for traffic, especially if you want an idea of typical traffic a few days/weeks into the future (ABRP uses live data if any at all I think).

Tesla Go Anywhere is a fairly blunt tool and not all the details about Superchargers are correct. Also, as far as I can tell it is making assumptions about your battery state of charge (SOC) % when you leave and arrive, and it doesn't tell you what these are.

The car's prediction is pretty reliable once you're on the road (it updates as you go) but it doesn't know about headwinds or rain so if you sit in it to plan a route it is making assumptions as well (I think it does take ambient temperature into account though). It will also use the current SOC so if you're going to charge up before setting off it will need to recalculate. It seems strange that it proposes a route where you arrive at a Supercharger at 6%, for my MS I don't think it will choose a route that gets you there with less than 10%, and again as stated above I would agree that 10% is a sensible minimum.

Neither the car or Go Anywhere allow waypoints/detours, and I don't think the car will calculate a return trip once a charge stop is included. For both of these things ABRP is much better. Can you charge at your destination? If not then you can use ABRP to see how much % you'll need to get back to a Supercharger. ABRP lets you plan what % you want to arrive with so you can add a buffer (plus a bit extra for overnight losses) to make sure you've got enough when starting the trip home.

It looks like you'll have two options: M40 or M1; both have a few Superchargers although be aware that Newport Pagnell is southbound only. Given that you have options another thing to consider is how many bays the different Superchargers have and how busy they are likely to be so you can avoid possible queues. And also how nice the service areas are.

That said you can just get in and drive - the car will re-calculate and warn you if you need to conserve energy (slow down a bit) or make a detour. In this case the only tricky parts are adding extra for a detour (it doesn't do waypoints) and when you're stopping to charge, making sure you have enough % for the return trip.

I would go M40 and use the junction 8a services (Northbound but easy to reach and good amenities) to top up for driving around London..Recently came down M74,M6,M42,M40 and you are spoiled for chargers.

Have a good one and best wishes.
 
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I feel your pain.

Northampton is *always* best avoided if you can- for charging I mean. It’s a Tesla magnet for Northbound & Southbound traffic so often busy. Northbound there are no other chargers at Pagnell. Southbound everyone is running low because Tesla still have no LFE/Rugby. If you must, as others have said, register your car.

Heading South (and I know it means you don’t get to do the M6 Toll) but consider Hilton Park + Newport Pagnell, both good options.

Northbound, Keele Northbound is good for a final short top-up.
 
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Not sure on exactly where you are coming from but if M40 is an alternative you have Warwick Superchargers, or Oxford if you can get to it, alternatively if you use WattsUp you can have a look but you should have plenty of Polar options that are just off motorway junctions, or Ecotricity if you fancy chancing a working one!
 
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Left with 99% in the morning, stopped at Newport Pagnell, I think 35% on the way down which was great tbh,
Starbucks/KFC/Subway - good range
Managed to get to the hotel which was right in the centre of London with 75% charge left

2 day stay and the battery was on 65% (So lost 5% per night)

On the way up, we did a detour to Leicester so stopped at the Northampton charger (outside Campanile?), got there with around 24%
Did register but spent atleast 30 minutes charging (probably longer) and left with 97%

Got home with 14% :)

Happy with the trip and my supercharging experience - no waits but we did stick on netflix at the Northampton charger.

The only thing, I left the car with the hotel valet with both sentry mode and valet mode on,
When i received the car back, valet mode was still on but sentry mode was off? There were no recordings.
I'm fairly certain the valet's werent driving it around as the miles only went up by one.
Could they have pulled the USB harddrive out? :/
 
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