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New England Road Trip Report

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Sharing our experience and stats from a just-completed a 2700 mile roadtrip through New England in our May '21 MYLR. Worth noting that this was a lazy vacation so we were fine staying at or near the posted speed limits on two-lane roads and interstates.

Mileage: 2686 miles
Energy Usage: 251 Wh/mi
Weather: >90F first 7 days, 70s last 7 days
Interior Temp: 72F

Charging Miles:
-From Home/Family: 800 ($24, assumes $.12 per kWh)
-From Destination Chargers: 1100 ($0, Free)
-From Tesla Superchargers: 785 ($57, assumes $.29 per kWh)
Total Cost: $81 or $.03/mi

Highs:
-Space is nearly equivalent to the '15 Forester which this replaces. Frunk was our daughter's personal storage spot and fit a roller bag and charger bag perfectly. No issues with space for three adults and their things.
-Seat comfort was great. Way better than the Forester.
-Navigation and access to Superchargers was good. Never had to wait to charge. Freeport Maine was only location with some inoperable chargers.
-Destination charging is definitely something we'll continue to use. Found hotels/B&Bs on Tesla site and chose them when it was convenient.
-Ride comfort was very good, which surprised me given the various comments. We have the stock 19" Gemini wheels and Continental ProContact tires. Vehicle is very quiet on smooth roads, and about like our Forester on other road surfaces.
-Ability to control vehicle remotely and employ that large battery to keep vehicle cool or pre-warm is awesome on a road trip. This was the most unexpected feature that really makes this a great vehicle for us.

Lows:
-TACC (camera only) is still buggy. Generally works well when tracking a vehicle in front of you, but we had at least 6 phantom braking events, most of which occurred on completely clear (no shadows) roadways. Really weird, but my assumption is the engineers will overcome this issue.
-Autosteer worked fine, but TACC issue made me hesitant to use it. Did not employ either TACC or Autosteer at night.
-Navigation needs ability to search for destinations, e.g. restaurants, along the current route. Also, as noted by others, ability to selected specific supercharging locations along a route.
-Auto Wipers were fine, but I needed to occasionally force a cleaning. A dedicated sensor would be a better approach, but hopefully they can improve on the performance. Sunny skies with drizzle are hard for the current algorithms to interpret.
-Auto High Beams were a mixed bag. They sometimes come on when cars (in same direction) were too close for me to feel comfortable. For one stretch of roadway I turned them off.
-Wife still wishes there were above-door handles like every other crossover/SUV.

Road Trip Recommendations:
-Tesla mudflaps did their job. No paint damage on the rear doors.
-Tesla rear bins/covers were very helpful. Rubber liners are great.
-Definitely invest in charger adapters and extension cords if homes you visit have electric outlets. We used a family's drier outlet that happened to be near a garage.

Overall:
-We were pleasantly surprised at how comfortable the car was on a long road trip. Very happy with purchase and will definitely be taking more road trips with our Model Y. Next we add the roof rack and do this again with a rooftop box.
 
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As promised, data on a similar road trip with a Thule Ascent 1500 roof top box. First thing to note is that the Tesla roof rack rails are 38" outside to outside, which means this older box does NOT fit on a Model Y. The "claws" on the box won't slide far enough apart to mount on the roof rails. I had to secure rear of box in a non-standard way using some 180 lb zip ties. Works, but far from ideal.

Mileage: 452 miles
Energy Usage: 270 Wh/mi vs 251 Wh/mi without box on similar trip
Weather: 80-85F
Interior Temp: 72F
Noise: Definitely hear significant wind noise from box.

Very surprised but happy with the energy consumption and mileage. Wondering if box blocking the Sun could be reducing solar heating enough to lower A/C consumption, which would offset some of the increase in drag.
 

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