I had my car from September last year but only used it for short daily trips. Last Sunday I did my first 340 miles round trip from London to Sheffield and back. Here are my experiences.
Motorway driving - smooth and comfortable, cruise control – fine, wipers - fine, Spotify – fine, maps - excellent, even the wife was satisfied(!). Overall, all was very fine and enjoyable, except for the battery. After night home charging I started with 99% showing 306 battery miles (not 329 as specs say and not 313 as Zap App suggested but ok anyway). To point out – the car was already at 80% and I charged it up overnight to the max using 10A plug-in charger supplied with Tesla. Return trip from London to Sheffield is 170 real miles each way. The Zap App calculated a single stop in Leicester on a way back – looked good to me. Started my journey: early morning, motorways empty so driving at normal legal limits (no racing or hard acceleration), weather 15C, one light passenger, no luggage, normal aircon, no heated seats, nothing else, just Spotify.
After 10-20 minutes on the motorway I could see the battery life was disappearing fast. After 140 real miles from home I got close to Mansfield at 24% showing remaining 73 battery miles (i.e. as if I used up 231 battery miles). Since I had another 30 miles to go and Mansfield was the last supercharger on my way, so I decided not to risk and pulled to a charger at the Outlet. When arrived 4 bays occupied and 4 empty. Price 0.29/kw not 0.26 as advertised on Zap. Forgot to take a note of my trip stats. Topped up 9% (8kW) increasing battery mileage to 103, which I thought should be plenty enough to my destination and then back to the same Outlet. When leaving charging station only 1 empty bay remaining (half hour before Outlet opens on Sunday!).
Got to Sheffield, short stop for an hour, battery lost 3% while idle with no sentry and started driving back to Mansfield with 50 battery miles remaining. When setting home destination Tesla calculated charging stop at the nearest supercharge at Mansfield (as was my plan). On the motorway I got really nervous arriving to Mansfield with just 4% and 15 battery miles. So the short round trip of 60 real miles happened to be 90 battery miles (I took the reading: 58.6 mi; 18 kWh; 308 Wh/mi). Charged 25 minutes to 80% (251 battery miles) and headed back to London. Arrived home at exactly 20% (61 battery miles). The reading: 142.4 mi; 44 kWh; 306Wh/mi. In summary, my day return journey was 340 real miles, started with 99%, topped up 69kW (8 + 61), finished with 20%. Total damage £20.01 (supercharger).
I was surprised with the overall consumption, and consequently the cost. In my last petrol Merc I would probably spend under £19 for the same journey (at the old petrol prices). Obviously supercharger rates are much more expensive than charging at home but what other options did I have? Waiting in Tesco for 10 hours at the POD charger? Also, the £20 I spent does not include that I started at 99% and finished at 20%. Overall, I am concerned abt the difference between the projected battery miles and actual miles.
Questions:
How can I calculate the total kW consumption for the whole trip? Is it possible to find this stats somewhere (I can only see data from the last charge and I did not note the data from my first part of the trip)? Is it stored somewhere that I can access (for free)? Or can I calculate this manually using the data above?
Was my first long drive battery experience normal or should I start worrying (I am already!)
I heard that I can check the battery health (depletion?) somehow somewhere. Where can I check it?
Efficiency on my return journey was better than on outward journey. I do not recall any significant changes on both trips (apart from the car was an extra passenger heavier on a way back). Could charging at slow speed at home result in a low battery trip life compared to charging at Supercharger? If relevant, my lifetime data: 3,888 miles; 1,542 kWh; 397 Wh/mi
Motorway driving - smooth and comfortable, cruise control – fine, wipers - fine, Spotify – fine, maps - excellent, even the wife was satisfied(!). Overall, all was very fine and enjoyable, except for the battery. After night home charging I started with 99% showing 306 battery miles (not 329 as specs say and not 313 as Zap App suggested but ok anyway). To point out – the car was already at 80% and I charged it up overnight to the max using 10A plug-in charger supplied with Tesla. Return trip from London to Sheffield is 170 real miles each way. The Zap App calculated a single stop in Leicester on a way back – looked good to me. Started my journey: early morning, motorways empty so driving at normal legal limits (no racing or hard acceleration), weather 15C, one light passenger, no luggage, normal aircon, no heated seats, nothing else, just Spotify.
After 10-20 minutes on the motorway I could see the battery life was disappearing fast. After 140 real miles from home I got close to Mansfield at 24% showing remaining 73 battery miles (i.e. as if I used up 231 battery miles). Since I had another 30 miles to go and Mansfield was the last supercharger on my way, so I decided not to risk and pulled to a charger at the Outlet. When arrived 4 bays occupied and 4 empty. Price 0.29/kw not 0.26 as advertised on Zap. Forgot to take a note of my trip stats. Topped up 9% (8kW) increasing battery mileage to 103, which I thought should be plenty enough to my destination and then back to the same Outlet. When leaving charging station only 1 empty bay remaining (half hour before Outlet opens on Sunday!).
Got to Sheffield, short stop for an hour, battery lost 3% while idle with no sentry and started driving back to Mansfield with 50 battery miles remaining. When setting home destination Tesla calculated charging stop at the nearest supercharge at Mansfield (as was my plan). On the motorway I got really nervous arriving to Mansfield with just 4% and 15 battery miles. So the short round trip of 60 real miles happened to be 90 battery miles (I took the reading: 58.6 mi; 18 kWh; 308 Wh/mi). Charged 25 minutes to 80% (251 battery miles) and headed back to London. Arrived home at exactly 20% (61 battery miles). The reading: 142.4 mi; 44 kWh; 306Wh/mi. In summary, my day return journey was 340 real miles, started with 99%, topped up 69kW (8 + 61), finished with 20%. Total damage £20.01 (supercharger).
I was surprised with the overall consumption, and consequently the cost. In my last petrol Merc I would probably spend under £19 for the same journey (at the old petrol prices). Obviously supercharger rates are much more expensive than charging at home but what other options did I have? Waiting in Tesco for 10 hours at the POD charger? Also, the £20 I spent does not include that I started at 99% and finished at 20%. Overall, I am concerned abt the difference between the projected battery miles and actual miles.
Questions:
How can I calculate the total kW consumption for the whole trip? Is it possible to find this stats somewhere (I can only see data from the last charge and I did not note the data from my first part of the trip)? Is it stored somewhere that I can access (for free)? Or can I calculate this manually using the data above?
Was my first long drive battery experience normal or should I start worrying (I am already!)
I heard that I can check the battery health (depletion?) somehow somewhere. Where can I check it?
Efficiency on my return journey was better than on outward journey. I do not recall any significant changes on both trips (apart from the car was an extra passenger heavier on a way back). Could charging at slow speed at home result in a low battery trip life compared to charging at Supercharger? If relevant, my lifetime data: 3,888 miles; 1,542 kWh; 397 Wh/mi
) for some of the journey I can't really see this being what we would expect, your average speed will be lower due to the roadworks, traffic etc. Given all this excess loss was on the first segment, that's pretty extreme.