Just did this trip. My first “long“ trip since getting my M3P in early 2020. Thought I would provide some notes for anyone looking to do this in the future. Went with the entire family (wife, 3 teenage kids).
On the way there, we took it easy, with autopilot/TACC set for max speed of 75 mph. Started with 100% charge. Planned the route using a better route planner app. Stopped at Indio, Quartsite, and Wickenberg (Roughly 1.5-2 hours between each leg, and we typically switched drivers). At each site, getting food, bathroom breaks for 5 people took way longer than the amount of time needed to charge to get to the next stop. So, we always had plenty of charge. In some cases, got to 90% charge by the time we were all ready to go. In Sedona, we stopped at the Sedona supercharger to charge up to 100% while we had desert, relaxed. During the rest of the trip, we were able to trickle charge at our airBnB, since we stayed local.
Spent a few lovely (though hot) days in Sedona hiking the major spots. Also took a guided tour of Grand Canyon (sans Model 3- though we could have easily made the trip in the Tesla).
On the way back, we stopped at Buckeye, Quartzsite, and Indio. Same as above, but max speed on autopilot was 80 mph, always had more charge than needed due to food/bathroom breaks. We did have to wait about a minute at Buckeye and 5 minutes at Indio for a charger.
Overall, over about 1050 miles, averaged 282 Wh/mi. Should note that I replaced the original 20” wheels with Tsportline 19” TS5 wheels. Im pretty sure the average Wh/mi were lower on the way there than on the way back (forgot to record the number), maybe due to faster autopilot limit?
Glitches: On the way back, about an hour before getting to Indio, the screen reset itself while my daughter was taking a turn at the wheel. Was a little disconcerting, but OK. Then, about 10 minutes later, we had a phantom braking incident in autopilot. Luckily there was no one behind us at the time. When we got to Indio, I did a two button reset and haven’t had any issues since.
Not necessarily a glitch, but the Navigation in Sedona was off. Sedona has a bunch of roundabouts, and Nav kept telling us to take the wrong exit out of the roundabout (I.e., Nav tells us to take the first exit out of the roundabout, when it clearly shows on the map that it should be the second exit).
Also note that 3 teenagers in the back seat is tight. Since we took turns driving, they were able to get breaks, but a wider car would have been more comfortable. Told my wife maybe we should consider a Model S Plaid…
Other than that, everything was great, and Sedona is a beautiful place to visit. Would definitely recommend, and hope to do it again sometime in the future.
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