my first real road trip in my model X

[Rocky_H]

This is a really interesting point, thanks Dansblum! I had not thought of the idea of driving more conservatively *first*, then speeding up once I got comfortable with the arrival estimate. I'll have to try this.

Yeah, that's an important tip from some experienced people. It will help your stress level. I've seen it referred to as "putting miles in the bank", if you can take it easy during the earlier part of the trip to get ahead of the curve. Then, it's way more comfortable and fun to be able to speed up later to use up those miles, rather than the other way, where you used up too many miles early on, and you switch into the desperate mode of trying to claw back miles out of nothing to try to make it stretch--not as fun.

 

[aesculus]

I sometimes do the combo thing. Start off aggressively and see where it looks like I am going. Then if the Trip Planner starts calculating a a negative difference more than a few points I start to back off the speed until it stabilizes. That gives me an idea of what reality is. Then I can inch up a few mph and monitor the arrival SOC. If it climbs back up again I increase the speed or if decreasing, I back off a few.

Then when I get to the point where I am sure I can make it, it's all holds off. Speed and temp come back and just as long as I can make the last 50 miles with a 8% or so arrival SOC, I am good.

 

[Quesder]

I just thought I'd post me experience. I previously posted about driving from Sacramento to Sunnyvale and back, so I needed to stop at a supercharger - but that was one stop. The last few days I made my first "real" roadtrip depending on the supercharger network. I have an X 90D - usually 254 miles fully charged.

Because of various family member commitments, our family was getting together on Friday instead of Thursday, down in Calimesa, CA. So we drove on Thursday. And decided to skip traffic on Sunday by driving back overnight on Saturday night. I was also worried about congestion at superchargers.

From Sacramento, I range-charged, except I forgot the night before to change to 100% - so starting charging when I remembered, and only started out with about 240 miles. We had me, my wife, my mom, and two kids, plus luggage - let's call it 1000 lbs total (the kids aren't that big, and it wasn't a lot of luggage for just a couple nights).

We went to Harris Ranch - I know it might be close (198 miles), so initially set the AP at 67. Once I was over halfway, I sped up to 70, and then when I got closer I went 75. I ended up arriving with 19 miles of range.

We charged for about 30 minutes while eating, planning to go to Tejon, and then wife and kids had to do one more thing...so ending up charging more than needed. Did 75 to 80 all the way to Tejon, and arrived with 50 or 60 miles of range. Was heading to my sister's place in Yucaipa, and wasn't sure how going up over the grapevine would impact range, so figured we'd get to at least 170 - and worst case stop in Rancho Cucamonga. Again, everyone took longer at Startbucks, so ended up leaving with almost 210 miles.

No issues, went about 75 to 80 - arrived around 5:30 (left Sac at 8 am). 468 miles, no real traffic, just two stops - and arrived with 65 miles of range.

Only plug-in was a 110v - their dryer is on the 2nd floor. But had about 110 to start Friday - ran around, went to dinner, etc., and plugged back in with around 75. Charged @ 110v again, started Saturday with 120 or so. Went to see more family over in Riverside (37 miles), went out, then left around 7:30 to go top off at Rancho Cucamonga (22 miles away). Arrived with 25 miles, started charging...wife and kids (Mom only rode sound with us) were cold so we went to Johnny Rockets for hot chocolate (coffee for me).

Again took longer than needed - original plan was to go to Tejon, but when I got there I still had 60 miles, so kept going to Buttonwillow - arrived around 11. Got a refill on coffee, youngest was sleeping....just before we had enough charge, oldest (17) and spouse decide they need to go across the street for snacks...so charge a bit extra.

Good thing, as rain hurt my range - I made it to Anderson's with 13 or 14 miles, but would have preferred not to have to keep it at 70. Without the extra few minutes I might have had to slow down to 60 or 65.

Charged for about 30 minutes at Andersons, and made it home fine.

Lessons:

I'm much more comfortable getting down to 10-20 miles than I was in the previous 8500 miles I've driven since June. I basically drove how I wanted, but kept an eye on remaining range....if it got down to 5%, I slowed down, kept it at 65 or so until it moved back to 6%. I liked to charge to where it was showing about a 15% buffer, then drive how I wanted until it go down to the 5% range. Which was almost never, except in the rain.

The closer I got, I kept an eye on the difference between the remaining miles to go and the remaining range - by the time I had only 50 miles to go, anything more than a 25 mile buffer felt wasted, so I sped up.

The planning router in the car wanted me to make more, shorter stops - but with my family, the more efficient use of time is to make fewer longer stops. There was only one stop where everyone was ready to go before the car was - every other time, stopping to supercharge didn't cost us any time at all.

I'll definitely be doing more trips - likely to southern CA again around Christmas or new years. I'll probably drive at night again. There were NO waits for charging - I think only one location even had close to half the stalls being used - most times there were 3 to 4 cars at most.

AP worked great.

I know there've been a lot of posts like this. I've personally found them some of the most helpful posts I've read, so hopefully this is helpful to someone else.

Dan

Thanks for your post. I ordered an X 75 and am really anxious now, either the cancel the order or upgrade to 90D. Do you think with 75D's range this trip will be doable with the same driving speed? A 5 mile buffer will really makes me anxious.

 

[Cellsaver]

I too took my first road trip, about 12 hours after getting my P90D. It was a trip I've made a million times (in a BMW X3 or a 4 door Jeep Wrangler), from Cincinnati to Gatlinburg.

It's 238 miles, silly me thought I could maybe make it without charging if I took it easy. In reality had to stop at the Lexington supercharger for 15 minutes, and the London KY supercharger for 40 minutes. Still despite charging twice made it with only 25 miles. Used autopilot the entire way, worked great for me.

Trace

 

[muleferg]

Which autopilot?

 

[andrewket]

I too took my first road trip, about 12 hours after getting my P90D. It was a trip I've made a million times (in a BMW X3 or a 4 door Jeep Wrangler), from Cincinnati to Gatlinburg.

It's 238 miles, silly me thought I could maybe make it without charging if I took it easy. In reality had to stop at the Lexington supercharger for 15 minutes, and the London KY supercharger for 40 minutes. Still despite charging twice made it with only 25 miles. Used autopilot the entire way, worked great for me.

Trace

Get rid of those energy robbing 22" wheels

We can get 238 real miles out of our X, assuming we're not climbing a mountain.

 

[Ormond]

I too took my first road trip, about 12 hours after getting my P90D. It was a trip I've made a million times (in a BMW X3 or a 4 door Jeep Wrangler), from Cincinnati to Gatlinburg.

Trace

What was your average speed? Was it cold? I've yet to take a long trip. BTW, your Model X looks terrific in red!

 

[Cellsaver]

AP1

Average speed was 85, outside temp around 40. Would it have been better to skip the first supercharger? I think I could've barely made it to the 2nd one.

 

[aesculus]

Average speed was 85, outside temp around 40

Enough said. The EPA rating was done around 65 mph or lower with a temp at around 75F. Big difference.

You can either drive fast and wait at superchargers or drive slower and wait in the car. There probably is a happy medium somewhere but it will take some time to figure out what it is in your car and then the temp and wind will screw with you.

In the non winter at 70 mph with little or no wind and temps around 80, I can easily get rated miles (~320 Wh/m). Last night it was 40F and had higher humidity and my efficiency took a hit into the 370 Wh/mi range. I like to be warm when I drive and had my heat at 78F and my seat heater on too.

 

[Rocky_H]

It's 238 miles, silly me thought I could maybe make it without charging if I took it easy. In reality [...] Average speed was 85

Ummm, most people would not consider eighty-freaking-five miles per hour as "taking it easy".

 

[Cellsaver]

Ummm, most people would not consider eighty-freaking-five miles per hour as "taking it easy".

Yeah well once I saw I was going to have to stop at 2 superchargers anyways I hit the pedal lol...

 

[FlyF4]

"I'm much more comfortable getting down to 10-20 miles than I was in the previous 8500 miles I've driven since June.
Dan

Uh oh Dan, you know the old adage.... "Familiarity breeds contempt" or something like that. I wonder if about this time next year, you will be saying " I'm much more comfortable getting down to the last 10-20 feet......"
Ha

Actually, I'm learning something here, it seems that the more time in an EV car, the less range anxiety people have.