Just thought I'd log what for many is not a big deal at all, but for me was my first trip outside my "comfort zone" where I was entirely dependent upon public charging (or at least a fellow Tesla owner in a pinch (thanks K Hall for the offer)).
To summarize, I was looking for an excuse for a solo trip to KC, Tulsa, or St.Louis, locations near the edge of a single charge for my 85kWh S. My state emergency medicine organization was having a meeting at the Missouri State Medical Association meeting at the Westin and I had no other major plans for the day so I though I'd give it a go.
I set the charge timer to start at 3:30am with a planned 5:30am departure, I needed to add about 70 miles of range and at 60 amps I figured that would be enough time. As it turns out I was nearly fully charged at 270 miles rated range at 5:30 when I was ready to go, but a full is usually 1-2 miles more, but the charge rate gets so slow near max capacity that I had not completely topped up...but close enough and I knew it was about a 3 hour drive so I left with the 270.
At that hour I did very well getting through Springfield with minimal traffic or unnecessary stops and before I hit the 65mph zone I was showing an average 240Wh/mi. I stayed right to the posted speed limits the entire trip (65, then 70 the last 30 miles or so before KC). I didn't need climate control b/c it was cool but not cold and a jacket sufficed. and I did quite well upon arrival at the unoccupied Union Station charger (took a little driving around to find the parking garage entrance). I was pleased to still have 95 rated miles left since my meeting was only scheduled for 6 hours and I'd arrived at 8:45am, so I knew that at 30amps/6.8kW (18mph) there was no way I'd be topped off before it was time to go home.
My calculations (and luck) seemed to be pretty good, when I returned to my car at about 3:20 this afternoon the charger showed that I'd been charging for 6:25 and the rated range was 215 miles. Knowing I'd only used 175 miles of rated on the way up I was feeling pretty cocky and decided to defer K Hall's offer of a top up and to head straight home. Turns out that was a little bit rash. The temperature had come up and it was bright and sunny, so I needed to run AC. There's a modest elevation gain heading to Nixa, and the winds had really picked up and I had a quartering head wind to deal with all the way home. I ended up using 5.8kWh more battery pack (still staying at the speed limit) on the way home and arrived at my garage with just 17 rated miles left.
While I can't say I wasn't a little bit nervous and was thinking of "Plan Bs" just in case conditions worsened, it was very reassuring that at all times both my projected range based upon a 30 mile rolling average and my rated range were greater than the distance shown on the Nav. I think that had the numbers flipped or threatened to do so I could easily have adjusted my speed, killed the AC, and or stopped in Springfield for a short top up.
So, all in all, I can say that my confidence in doing the one way trip to KC, St.Louis, or Tulsa is MUCH higher. But until I can be sure of spending more time charging or having a faster charger to access this short day turn around isn't for the meek, but it is certainly doable.
