My first out of town trip on an MS85, charging was a lot easier than I thought

[howardc64]

Just a short trip from Redmond WA to Beaverton OR to visit the inlaws and some college campus visits for our son. Wife was stressed out about our first EV car out of town trip. I planned out things in advance and it turned out much much easier than I thought.

Original Plan

Redmond (Actually Sammamish, WA) -> Centralia Supercharger
Centralia -> Beaverton (Actually Hillsboro OR)... stay over night
Beaverton -> Portland (University of Portland, Lewis and Clark College) -> Woodburn Supercharger
Woodburn -> Hillsboro... stay over night
Hillisboro -> Portland (Reed College) -> Centralia Supercharger
Centralia -> Sammamish

I figure I should have at least 50 mile spare at all points using this itinerary. But the reality turn out a lot easier than I thought

Actual Itinerary

Sammamish (195mi range at start) -> Centralia (~85mi range, charged to 255mi range)
Centralia -> Hillsboro (142 mi range)
Dinner at Beaverton (+50 miles, 190mi range) googled the restaurant and saw Nissan dealership across the street. Called Nissan and they said to come down to use their J1772 charger. +50 miles or so during dinner.
Hillsboro overnight (+40 miles, 230mi range) Inlaws dryer is indoor and too far to outside so I used the 110V from garage overnight
Hillsboro (230mi range) to college visits in Portland (+50 miles, 230mi range after finished). Lewis and Clark College had a single J1772 charger that was hooked up to the zipcar EV Honda Fit parked in the zipcar parking next to the EV parking. I figure people just always leave it on the zipcar so the etiquette is probably to use the plug and put it back on the zipcar when done. +50miles during my college visit at Lewis and Clark.

Now back at the inlaws and going to add about 30 miles or so over night on 110V and should have 240mi range in the morning.
Stop at Reed College tomorrow and then head back to Sammamish via Centralia Supercharger. Only need 100mi range or so from Portland to Centralia so plenty to spare.

I used cruise control set at 64mph on most of I5 travel. Climate set to 68F and blower set on 1 for windshield (to stop fogging up) and footwell (to keep toes warm). Average use is about 315Whr/mile. Real miles traveled seems to be about 10% less than projected range given this usage. 4 people in the car and minimal luggage.

Anyway, I found this trip a lot easier than anticipated. Never bothered to take a 40 mile round trip detour to Woodburn to Supercharge. Was able to locate J1772 on each of the local trips by googling/plugshare/chargepoint/blink/Chad's Tesla highway map in advance. 2+ hour stops at J1772s nets +50mi each time. Even 110V overnight got +40mi each night and very useful to help reduce/eliminate range anxiety.

Now I'm pretty confident to sell our Prius. Wife wanted to hold onto it unsure of Tesla's ease of use on out of town visits once we get to where we are going. I think we are now convinced after this first trip Need to do a little search/planning but charging opportunities seems quite abundant.

 

[Sgt Barone]

Excellent write up! Glad to hear the trip is going so well.

 

[MiddKid]

I used cruise control set at 64mph on most of I5 travel. Climate set to 68F and blower set on 1 for windshield (to stop fogging up) and footwell (to keep toes warm). Average use is about 315Whr/mile. Real miles traveled seems to be about 10% less than projected range given this usage. 4 people in the car and minimal luggage.

Great report. I made the trip from Eugene to Seattle on the same day in our ICE SUV and being that I'm a few weeks away from placing my order for a Model S I had my eyes peeled for any on the road. Superchargers in Centralia and Woodburn were both empty. I did see a red MS right around Olympia/Tacoma in the late afternoon/evening...love seeing those headlights in my rear-view. Your post was good context for me as we recently moved to the Seattle area, still rent a home in the Portland area, have relatives in Eugene, and spend a lot of time in Central Oregon.

I was curious about your comment regarding your speed and climate. As we know, the majority of the drive is a 70MPH limit. Did you feel it was a necessity to go 64MPH? How much extra battery life would it have taken to be around 70MPH? During this buying process I've factored in the time to Supercharge while driving back and forth but hadn't put any thought around needing to go slower than the speed limit.

Thanks again for your thoughts. This is a big purchase and I'm trying to cover all my bases.

 

[PhilBa]

I've done a similar trip but from Seattle to Yamill area. Used Woodburn and Centralia SCs. J1772 at a hotel overnight. Drove 75-80 on the freeways, heat all the way up with the stereo blasting! Wahoo! Averaged a bit under 400 wh/mi. Didn't even range charge at the SCs cause it was takin' too long. But then I do have a -B battery so the SCs pumped like the dickens. Life is too short for range anxiety, especially when you have Superchargers!

 

[howardc64]

Great report. I made the trip from Eugene to Seattle on the same day in our ICE SUV and being that I'm a few weeks away from placing my order for a Model S I had my eyes peeled for any on the road. Superchargers in Centralia and Woodburn were both empty. I did see a red MS right around Olympia/Tacoma in the late afternoon/evening...love seeing those headlights in my rear-view. Your post was good context for me as we recently moved to the Seattle area, still rent a home in the Portland area, have relatives in Eugene, and spend a lot of time in Central Oregon.

I was curious about your comment regarding your speed and climate. As we know, the majority of the drive is a 70MPH limit. Did you feel it was a necessity to go 64MPH? How much extra battery life would it have taken to be around 70MPH? During this buying process I've factored in the time to Supercharge while driving back and forth but hadn't put any thought around needing to go slower than the speed limit.

Thanks again for your thoughts. This is a big purchase and I'm trying to cover all my bases.

On the return northbound trip, I did 65-70. Doesn't appear to have too much range loss. But I did figure out how to set the climate control system better which might have yielded slightly better range

- Set cabin temp to say 67F or 68F
- Set fan on 1 (lowest) with AC off (I didn't know and had AC on during the outbound trip) blowing on the windshield and footwell. I think this is probably the minimum power usage to keep windows clear and cabin warm
- Use cruise control when you can

I think this yielded about 325WHr/mile. On my return trip, I charged up to 224mi range at Centralia, drove 100 miles home to Sammamish with about 110 mile range left. So 114 mile range for 100 mile travel. Just about 10% below rated range given the settings above.

Anyhow, overnight 110V charging while slow is a good at reducing range anxiety when a faster charging can't be found. +40 mile every night helps with local travel at your destination. I was probably between 150-200+ mile rated range during most of the time in Portland... but I did find a couple of J1772s on my 2-3 hour stops during the local trips

Superchargers are FAST! You get to 200 mile rated range pretty quick just while grabbing a bite to eat.

On supercharger occupancy, I traveled during the holidays just after the new year so not sure if this is high/low/average use. On my south outbound trip on Wednesday 1/1/2014 around noon, There was 2 Model S at Centralia when I got there. Another one pulled in just before I left. Centralia has 10 charging stations so it seems plenty. On the northbound today 1/3/2014 Friday around 1pm, Centralia Supercharger was empty. A Red MS pulled up just as I left.

Oh and preheat the cabin using smartphone apps is totally cool while plugged in. Start your journey nice and toasty no matter how long the car has been parked outside in the cold Another good reason to plug it into 110V at night wherever you are.

- - - Updated - - -

But then I do have a -B battery so the SCs pumped like the dickens. Life is too short for range anxiety, especially when you have Superchargers!

What is a -B battery? I did get nearly 120kWhr charge rate when I started charging at Centralia starting with 80 mile range.

And yes, Superchargers are well... superfast getting to 200 rated miles. Slows down quite a bit after as we all know

 

[Ugliest1]

What is a -B battery?

see thread: Older Tesla's limited to 90kW super charging

Thanks for the trip descriptions. I'm trying to do some comparison costs vs flying and ICEing (to find a decent argument for mortgaging my future to make the S purchase:biggrin, and a big part of that will be the different way of travelling because of the new time-factor for energy replenishing. So your posts give me lots of info to think about. Cheers!

 

[howardc64]

see thread: Older Tesla's limited to 90kW super charging

Thanks for the trip descriptions. I'm trying to do some comparison costs vs flying and ICEing (to find a decent argument for mortgaging my future to make the S purchase:biggrin, and a big part of that will be the different way of travelling because of the new time-factor for energy replenishing. So your posts give me lots of info to think about. Cheers!

Cool, just took a look and I've got a B pack (VIN 9919)

On cost comparison, I personally wonder what the out of pocket maintenance cost will be after warranty. Currently there are lots of little factory bulletin repairs being a brand newly designed car by a newish car company. Tesla is very proactive. I've had several factory bulletin updates every time I've brought the car in. I'm at 10k VIN so probably about a spring 2013 production. Hope all these bulletins are done prior to out of warranty and car remains relatively maintenance free.

I'd say if you were planning to get a $50-60k ICE vehicle, you surely will come out ahead on a Model S. Not sure where the cross over will be below that. Do check your electric rates to see what your savings will be. I'm east of Seattle and rates are about $0.09-$0.11/kWhr tiered on amount of use. I'm probably paying mostly $0.11/kWhr for the Tesla charging (I think some loss on the charging as well but fairly low). Based on an average of 350Whr/mile for my first 9k miles, probably can use nearly 3 mile/kWhr for cost estimates. So $3.50 gets about 80-90 miles in city or highway. So about 3-4x latest fuel efficient ICE vehicles and 2x a Prius hybrid. Best part is... never go to gas stations again. We use to go to Costco for lowest price gas and end up buying more junk we don't need

 

[DouglasR]

Great report. I made the trip from Eugene to Seattle on the same day in our ICE SUV and being that I'm a few weeks away from placing my order for a Model S I had my eyes peeled for any on the road. Superchargers in Centralia and Woodburn were both empty. I did see a red MS right around Olympia/Tacoma in the late afternoon/evening...love seeing those headlights in my rear-view. Your post was good context for me as we recently moved to the Seattle area, still rent a home in the Portland area, have relatives in Eugene, and spend a lot of time in Central Oregon.

I was curious about your comment regarding your speed and climate. As we know, the majority of the drive is a 70MPH limit. Did you feel it was a necessity to go 64MPH? How much extra battery life would it have taken to be around 70MPH? During this buying process I've factored in the time to Supercharge while driving back and forth but hadn't put any thought around needing to go slower than the speed limit.

Thanks again for your thoughts. This is a big purchase and I'm trying to cover all my bases.

I've made three trips from Seattle to the SF Bay Area and back in my Model S. The first time there were no superchargers, and because of the long charging times, I had to drive slower to arrive sooner. On the second trip I had superchargers for about half the trip, and while I had them, I could drive as fast as I wanted (I typically don't drive that fast, however). The third trip was superchargers all the way. Only once or twice did I finish eating before I finished charging, and on those occasions, I was happy to have a few minutes to take a cat nap. On my way home, I drove the entire distance (800 miles) in a single day, leaving about 6 a.m. and arriving about midnight. It is possible to do it faster, but at my age, I appreciated having a few breaks. Speed restrictions and charging times were simply not an issue.

 

[adiggs]

Congratulations on the road trip howard - it's this personal experience with getting out on the road and learning what your EV can really do that leads me to recommend to all new EV drivers; find an excuse and go for a drive. Make it a minimum of a single charge, but multiple charges away from your garage is really what you want to plan for. You learn so much about some of the current practicalities of being away from home in an EV - stuff that you can read about all day long, but it isn't quite real somehow until you do it for yourself.

My personal experience, and it looks like its been yours, is that taking the Model S for a longer road trip is no longer a mental hurdle for you. You might even find yourself preferring the Model S, and making a point of driving to some nearer destinations that you might otherwise fly to today

I like that 50 mile spare capacity on arrival metric - that's what I planned for on my road trip, with the additional realization that I could make adjustments on the fly and take that down to 20 miles on arrival without stress. That's one reason I'm a fan of having a big battery capacity - I don't want to drive my car down under 5 miles of range remaining routinely. Heck with the battery - that's too much stress for me!


EDIT: An additional benefit is that you'll be able to talk about that experience now when people ask questions about range, charging time, and other practical realities of what living with an EV is like. It's way better to have a personal trip of your own to talk about - the good, the bad, and the indifferent.