Planning to rent 70D for road trip. Will range be enough?

[Gerasimental]

Hi all.

My family are planning to rent a 70D for our annual Christmas trip to see relatives in France, but we are fretting over its range.
The longest stretch we will have to do without a supercharger is 167 miles, but the car will contain 4 adults and their luggage, and the temperature will be around freezing. This leg on the journey is en route to catch a flight, so is quite time sensitive. There is a destination charger along the way, or alternatively another route that takes 30 minutes longer, but has a SuperCharger along the way.

Would S owners recommend taking this, or does it seem like we would be cutting it a bit fine?

 

[Gerasimental]

One more question: If we set off on a full range charge and then stop at a SpC at around 70% remaining, how long will it take to get back up to 100%? I know the general charging characteristic but also that it is dffierent for each battery, so was wondering what people's experience with the 70D is.

 

[callmesam]

Having driven across the U.S. Using Superchargers only in an S60, you will have more than sufficient range for your travels. Remember that speeds kills range. When in doubt just drop your speed.

On the longest leg of 167 miles, drop your average speed from 120 km/h to 100 and you'll achieve ~30 more miles of range.

As for charging from 70% to 100%: it generally takes 40 minutes to charge 80%. And take 40 minutes for the last 20%

Bon chance.

 

[Saghost]

One more question: If we set off on a full range charge and then stop at a SpC at around 70% remaining, how long will it take to get back up to 100%? I know the general charging characteristic but also that it is dffierent for each battery, so was wondering what people's experience with the 70D is.

This is a very inefficient way to go about it. It takes much longer to charge near the top of the battery, so normally you should be arriving at Superchargers with 20% of the charge or a little less - at which point adding 30% will take maybe 20 minutes, vs nearly an hour at the top from 70-100% as you mentioned.

 

[ig_epower]

Unlike ICE rentals, does the rental car company expect you to return the Tesla with a full charge in the tank?

 

[brkaus]

Spend some time on abetterrouteplanner.com or evetripplanner.com or even better, both.

 

[jwilf]

I don't think you'll have any problems. We rented a 70D back in July from Salzburg for a trip around southern Germany and Switzerland. Our longest leg was 209km over 4 Alpine mountain passes, so we charged up to almost full at Beckenried, which showed 351km. We arrived with 70km left.

No experience of cold temperatures but the car will warn you if it thinks you won't make it, and will tell you what speed to drive at to make it. 167 miles is 268 km which is well within the range of the 70D so even allowing for cold weather you should be fine.

If you haven't driven a Tesla before, you'll love it! We had a blast on our trip, and I'd highly recommend hiring one. You can read about our trip on my blog - Electric Road Trip – 4 days in a Tesla Model S – jwilf.uk

And videos from the trip are here -

Enjoy your drive!

 

[brkaus]

Spend some time on abetterrouteplanner.com or evetripplanner.com or even better, both.

Oops - evtripplanner.com

Looks like spelling correction took over.

 

[mrElbe]

Unlike ICE rentals, does the rental car company expect you to return the Tesla with a full charge in the tank?

Yes, they expect about 75% charge upon return.
Based on jwilf's videos, I also rented a 70D for 27 days this September from the outfit at Vienna. I drove over 8,000 km and had a blast. Only range anxiety I had was starting from Toulouse to Lyon. After 20 km of driving the prediction at the destination was -1%. I re-routed to take a triangular Supercharger path with no worries.
Europe 2016

 

[jwilf]

Yes, they expect about 75% charge upon return.
Based on jwilf's videos, I also rented a 70D for 27 days this September from the outfit at Vienna. I drove over 8,000 km and had a blast. Only range anxiety I had was starting from Toulouse to Lyon. After 20 km of driving the prediction at the destination was -1%. I re-routed to take a triangular Supercharger path with no worries.
Europe 2016

Great to hear that my videos inspired your trip! Some great pictures on your site, very nice

 

[Gerasimental]

OK, looks like we're getting it, thanks all! We know that charging near the top is inefficient, but the locations of SuperChargers along our route don't allow us to do it any other way unfortunately. All but one of us have driven Model S before, but mostly very early versions and never on a long trip. Very excited to see how far they've come since 2013!
I will be flying direct from the road trip to a two week holiday in Iceland, but I will try to remember and report back about how it went. Thanks for all your input!

 

[AndrewGreen]

Spend some time on abetterrouteplanner.com or evetripplanner.com or even better, both.

Thanks.