Nav OK to get to next SC ?

[ElectricTundra]

Will be on a 620 mile journey with 7 supercharger stops along the way in -5f temps. Used EVTripPlanner to plan the SC stops. Does Tesla Nav work well enough that at each SC I can plug in the next and it will get me there the best route possible? Would you recommend this?

Thanks,

 

[stevezzzz]

Don't let the Nav pick your charging stops: just navigate directly to the next supercharger from the one you're charging at. With temperatures that low, you will want to charge until the Trip graph in the Energy app shows that you'll arrive with at least 30% battery remaining (it doesn't take into account the weather). If there is snow on the road or strong headwinds/crosswinds, make that 50%. If you reach full charge before you have the desired buffer, drive really slowly (no more than 55mph) until you have a sense for how things are going.

Another thing that will help your range is to pre-heat the interior of the car to much warmer than you would ordinarily, while attached to the Supercharger. Then you can take advantage of the thermal energy stored in the interior of the car without using a lot of battery power to keep you warm during the first stretch after you leave the charger. Bundle up, and try using the seat heaters and the steering wheel heater (if so equipped), and turn the climate control off completely for the first miles.

 

[mmccord]

I haven't had trouble with its routing. Sometimes it doesn't choose the most efficient route, sending me on a road that saves 2 minutes, but burns an extra 50 miles of range going over a mountain or something, but it's rare.

Don't trust its range estimates in that kind of weather though. Evtripplanner is much more accurate in my experience. With my Snow tires on i select 21" wheels instead of 19 and have found it to be very accurate.

 

[Polly Wog]

Will be on a 620 mile journey with 7 supercharger stops along the way in -5f temps. Used EVTripPlanner to plan the SC stops. Does Tesla Nav work well enough that at each SC I can plug in the next and it will get me there the best route possible? Would you recommend this?

Thanks,

ElectricTundra, in my opinion, the navigation isn't bad - it's the trip planner that sucks. For that reason, doing what you suggest should work very well (I've done it that way myself). The important thing to remember is to DISABLE the beta Trip planner, if you haven't already. If it is enabled, it could end up really messing with you when you wouldn't normally have anything to worry about. If you don't already know how, you disable it from the apps section of the controls screen.

 

[mspohr]

Good advice to charge with a 30% buffer at the end. The navigation is good from one supercharger to the next. It's just that the trip planner doesn't do a good job with multiple supercharger stops. I found the best to use the energy graph which is on the top menu bar. Once you set a route in the nav system, it will give you your projected percent remaining for the trip. I keep this open when I'm concerned about range it will continuously update based on your current usage. If you find you are getting to a low yellow or red Reserve at the end of your trip, just slow down. It's amazing how much slowing down improves your range.

 

[jerry33]

You pick the route you want and then navigate to the next SC. I've found that works pretty well, even on the longer trips (over 5000 miles). Like everyone says, in winter you don't skip any SC and you charge far more than the system indicates. The bare minimum is charging until the trip graph is all green. If the weather is bad, charge more.

 

[ElectricTundra]

Thanks All! Very comforting. Hopefully EVTripPlanner is fairly accurate (or even conservative). Weather Underground is now predicting +5f for the high so hopefully not use quite as much battery with each hop.