MY 188 mile commute -or- can we make it home without charging?

[Marks321]

MY is almost 16 months old and has over 70,000 miles. I'm fortunate it still charges to almost 300 miles
It gets driven about a 1,000 miles a week for work. and also a lot of driving on vacations(3,000 MILES last week off)
Yesterday I left home with about 97%288miles and got home with 0% 0miles. It was near freezing with lots of heavy rain.

I acknowledge that charging to 100% is not preferable with the nickel based pack in this 2020 MY LR
That being said, its nice to get to work and back without charging,
I normally charge to 90% and now that we are in the winter when I wakeup I'll slide up to 95 or 98% to get some extra charge before I leave for work and precondition the car if its cold. I had my first close call running out of energy a month ago and had to turtle crawl the last mile or two home. I would like to avoid this in the future, it may well have put strain on the battery getting to such a low state of charge.

When I bought the car I accepted that there would be some days with extreme weather where a charge on the way home may be necessary.
I also expected that after 4 or 5 years the pack would reach a level of degradation where I may need to charge every day in the winter...

I'm considering charging to 95% now for winter days where freezing temps are expected...
and 100% if extreme cold or precipitation expected.
Looking for more input and tips - I'd rather not have to follow the weather as closely and adjust my charging day to day hehe
I should add I leave for work around 2AM on the average day and get home around 1:30-2PM M-F
I should also add it is no longer on stock tires, and the tire switch did have an impact on efficiency, loosing a decent 5-10% with the Michelin Pilot sport all season 4, this loss in efficiency on top of winter losses are definitely stacking against me.

​

 

[Puma2020]

You seem to have a good grasp of what you are doing. The weather does play a big role for your commute. Up here, today, while the temps will be in the low 20's, the wind chill is in the single digits or below zero. That kind of wind matters especially if it is a head wind. Cold winter air is more dense than warmer air, requiring more energy to push through it. The speed also factors in. Slowing down just a few mph can make a difference. I saw this chart which shows what speed can do to range. That is for a model 3, so the impact to the Y is likely a bit greater. However, the difference of 5 mph is roughly 9% until you get above 70.



You mentioned that you will likely have to start charging at some point. If there is a charger close enough on your route, I, myself, would set the navigation to the charger (to precondition the battery) and grab 5% or 10% as it only takes a few minutes and thus will prevent having to turtle it home. I also like a heated cabin and seat, so that naturally pulls more energy than in the summer. Plus, control the urges for acceleration on the colder days. That might be the hardest thing.

 

[jcanoe]

You can add an additional 9% to 18% to the range of your Tesla Model Y if you lower your highway speed by 5 to 10 MPH.

 

[Marks321]

Excellent tips on the speed reduction, I did end up lowering my speed to 65 ish and following a large truck for a while which helped a lot.
most of my commute is 65MPH garden state parkway and Turnpike, where I try to go 75ish and average 72MPH. I may want to allocate some extra time and limit my speed a bit for both ways if the flow of traffic permits.
I left with 300 miles showing today, its at 150 miles now in the middle of my lunch break. losing about a mile per hour sentry mode runs I should have 146 miles to get home

 

[LoneStarEve]

I’d rather forgo sentry mode in cold weather, drive at the speed limit or even 5 below and charge to 90 or 95% than 100% daily.
Short term “pain” for long term gain.

 

[Marks321]

yes perhaps it may be worth turning sentry off if I'm dangerously low, though I do have to park on public streets in Manhattan, so higher chance of someone damaging the car while I'm at work...

 

[dogmodes]

yes perhaps it may be worth turning sentry off if I'm dangerously low, though I do have to park on public streets in Manhattan, so higher chance of someone damaging the car while I'm at work...

That’s a rough trade off, I don’t know that I’d want to be cutting it so close every day. Do you have ample supercharging on the way home if you needed it? Not sure about NY, but assume like MI a bad afternoon snow storm can easily add an hour and half to your commute.

I’m going through the range hit from swapping to Cross Climate 2’s right now too. What’s your PSI? I’m going to try goosing mine a little bit to see if that helps, it should. I want to say when it’s under 25 it drops to about 38PSI.

 

[Marks321]

PSI sitting around 40, was close to 44 in warm weather.
I am fortunate to have a number of superchargers available One very close to my house, and several in the middle, a couple minutes off the route but not bad. the Woodbridge wawa supercharger is nicely located where I get off Turnpike and onto Garden state parkway on my way home, have charged there before, though its only a 150kw so when busy its not great, hoping this one gets upgraded to 16 250kw stations sooner than later hehe.

 

[boulder.dude]

Can you use PlugShare to see if there is a Level 2 charger walking distance to your work? Hopefully more will crop up over time. Until then I would reduce speed a tad to avoid a charging stop.

 

[Pianewman]

What brand tires/size were OEM?

 

[jpy1980]

Not sure if this is worth it, but if you can buy this, you can use this as your final mile gas can if anything.

Buy EcoFlow DELTA Pro Portable Power Station - EcoFlow

Official EcoFlow DELTA Pro: ✓ Capacity：3600Wh ✓ Battery Cell Type: ‎Lithium Ion (LFP). Click to learn more!

ecoflow.com

 

[Madsen203]

Not sure if this is worth it, but if you can buy this, you can use this as your final mile gas can if anything.

Buy EcoFlow DELTA Pro Portable Power Station - EcoFlow

Official EcoFlow DELTA Pro: ✓ Capacity：3600Wh ✓ Battery Cell Type: ‎Lithium Ion (LFP). Click to learn more!

ecoflow.com

This is cool. Didn’t know about this. 3kwh would really only give you 6-10 miles of range. That’s pretty expensive all considered.

 

[jpy1980]

This is cool. Didn’t know about this. 3kwh would really only give you 6-10 miles of range. That’s pretty expensive all considered.

Totally right but for the OP who commutes a ton, it could be worth the peace of mind.

 

[Pianewman]

$3500 ????????

 

[Marks321]

That is a pretty cool device, but definitely some sticker shock on the price hehe.

The stock tires were replaced around 50,000 miles with Michelin Pilot sport all season 4. I wanted an all season for the winter snow though they definitely come with the penalty of some added watt/mile consumption perhaps as much as 10%

 

[Pianewman]

Marks321: Still wondering what your stock tires were, that you're comparing with the Michelin Pilot 4.

 

[Rocky_H]

I am fortunate to have a number of superchargers available One very close to my house, and several in the middle, a couple minutes off the route but not bad. the Woodbridge wawa supercharger is nicely located where I get off Turnpike and onto Garden state parkway on my way home, have charged there before,

Yeah, I wouldn't even be thinking about trying to white knuckle and skip charging to arrive home with 0% like you have been doing. You have a 150 miles commute each way to work in the New York / New Jersey area. I would definitely count on Supercharging for a little bit on your way home.

 

[Madsen203]

OP: I’m in camp to charge to 95-98% and get it done. If the battery degrades,
It’s under warranty. If warranty doesn’t cover it, sell it in a year and get the new model with better range/battery/etc?

 

[Marks321]

Marks321: Still wondering what your stock tires were, that you're comparing with the Michelin Pilot 4.

Stock 19” tires that the car came with, I suppose I could look for old picture and zoom in on tire
Hmm

 

[jcanoe]

Stock 19” tires that the car came with, I suppose I could look for old picture and zoom in on tire
Hmm

Continental ProContact RX 255/45R-19 grand touring all-season tires