I can drive just about anywhere in the US with my 3 with no range issue and no inconvenience. I simply don't see any issue. I know many people that do not own a home EVSE and they have no issues. I drive in all conditions, over mountains, state parks and in winter, no concerns. For a person with an S there is a bonus 70 miles. I think the range issue is nonsense now.
Do you have a long range model 3? With the SR+ I’ve already mapped out one route in my home state that would be REALLY tight in range. It’s to a national park/recreation area just a couple hours from me. I would have enough battery (charging to 100%) to get there and then getting home would have me hit at like 9-11%. If the estimate is off a little bit at all, there is more wind than expected, or more AC/heat use I probably wouldn’t make it. There IS one DC fast charger in between, but it would be limited to 50kW max AND require the $450 Chademo adapter, which I don’t have. In addition, it’s in a horrible spot in a really small town and is about 2 to 3 blocks from the closest food place, which looks to be a family owned place that might be closed on Sundays.
My Model 3 is my primary car, a family member has a gas car, but it’s going on 10 years old. Obviously I would want to road trip with the newest, safest, most reliable car. I made the jump to electric because these kind of road trips aren’t a huge thing for me, but I know some families that do camping, national parks, beach, etc many times a year... maybe five or six times just in a summer. That’s a lot to give up or not use your expensive new car and instead you old less reliable one. $40k for an SR+ can still be expensive for many families, $50k for a long range is probably not even on the radar for them. If this retrofit was “cheap” at $2k to $3k then it might suddenly make the Tesla an option. It’s all about removing any obstacles from your existing life.
The range is there for day to day, it’s there for highway travel from city to city, and the supercharger network is fast.... but national parks and other hiking/recreation areas haven’t been built out with charging infrastructure as much, ironically these are possibly some of the must see places that people that care about the environment would want to travel to.
(and before people point out that there are usually 120v plugs you can plug into for a few hours while you’re there, I’m not taking a couple questionable reports on PlugShare as enough to plan the trip. This location I’m talking about had three or four people report there was a 120v or 240v that you could plug into near a remote unnamed ranger station. However, there were other people that reported signs specifically saying NO PARKING! and that it was for rangers only and if the ranger was there they were told to move and they couldn’t use the plug. I’m not about to roll the dice and I certainly wouldn’t if I was going with kids or something...)
