Planning trip with abetterrouteplanner.com

[Cleex024]

How do you know you won't make it there without putting it into your navigation? Because for me it seems that is the most accurate... If it says I'll make it there with 5% but I have to drive under 70mph... Then that is almost exactly what happens whatever the temps are as I suppose it takes that into consideration.

I commute about 240 miles per day... Sometimes a little more like yesterday I drove 265 miles and it was 38 degrees on average yesterday. I was able to make the round trip on a single charge in my x100d but the last 50 miles I had to drive under 60mph to make it home with 1 percent... When I got home I had 1 percent or 2 miles left lol... But I do charge every night to 98 percent or about 287 miles.

If I drove the normal average speed of about 70mph with mix of 78mph I normally get about 240 miles off of 287 in temps of 45 degrees so it's really not that bad. Again I would suggest you use the navigation more than anything else as it seems very accurate.

If you charge to 87 percent then you are essentially starting with a range of 250 miles with low temps and rain with average speed of 55mph I don't see why you would not make it there with plenty of miles remaining unless you are driving up a mountain. I know in my x100d I would probably have something like 30 miles remaining

 

[ajdelange]

A couple of things I've learned in the last day or so (only had the car 2 weeks)
•The heater draws at most 5 kW and that very briefly when a temperature change is requested. For the steady state and for modest rise 1.5 kW seems to be the average.
•The energy monitoring software gives you estimates of remaining range based on the car's rated performance and its average performance over the time window you select. Thus if you select the 30 mi window it will estimate remaining range based on the last 30 miles you drove. If that was all down hill with a tail wind and you are next coming to level or uphill terrain and the wind has shifted around to a head wind the estimate will be grossly optimistic. If the last 30 miles was uphill into a head wind and you are now going down hill with a tail wind the estimate will be grossly pessimistic. If conditions change use the shortest window (5 miles) to see what the effects of the change are going to be as quickly as possible. As those conditions persist for a while use the longer windows for more accurate estimates.
•A 30 °C change in temperature changes the air density by about 12%. This will decrease (colder) or increase (warmer) your range by about 12%
•The elephant in the room is airspeed (your driving speed plus or minus the wind speed). Power required per mile depends on the square of this speed. If you are sailing along on a calm day at 60 mph using 400 Wh/mi and then drive into a 10 mpH head wind that means your air speed is now 70 mpH, an increase of 17%. But your energy use will increase to 554 Whr/mi, a 36% increase with a commensurate loss in range.
•The motor is least efficient at high torque and low speed. Keep an eye on the energy meter when you accelerate.

 

[Whisky]

This is the part of using the Tesla I find frustrating. I bought a car with 289 miles of range and I can't even use 190 of that without charging along the way. I actually have no idea if I can make it to Nashville without charging or not, but I don't plan to take a chance on it without stopping.

I've done a similar business trip that's about 300 miles long and with a return the same day. This, unfortunately, sucks in a Tesla especially if you can't charge the car to full at your destination. In my case, I have a choice of either parking the car at a Level 2 charger and taking a cab to the meeting (expensive on time, etc..) or charging up before driving into the city to a reasonable charge, so I can make it there beforehand. Anyway, it sucks, it's the one weakness of an electric car compared to a gas car because not all destinations have chargers and not all trips fit within the mileage of the car.

I do find it frustrating (and this is a problem with me, not you) that people expect the rated range on their car to be accurate. I never got the rated mileage range on any of my ICE cars. I think we all generally understand that the range is an estimate, and in the case of Tesla, it's based on EPA testing which typically varies dramatically from how people actually drive. I realize you only have a 120V charger at home, but planning ahead the day before so you could start at 100% would make the trip easier. Also your car could probably do that 190mile drive without charging, assuming you have a charger at the destination.

Mostly, though, it seems like in your case this could have been resolved with a 100% charge for your trip. Without it, there's an understanding that you'll lose some time the next day. I've been through this myself, without having a charger at home, and doing trips like this. I learned to bite the bullet the day before, 120V charge the car up to 100% so I left with a fully charged car in the morning. I could have made it to the destination without charging, but I charged outside of the city where there was a supercharger to give me enough juice to get back. Shrug. You learn. The car drives itself, that's infinitely better.

 

[Rocky_H]

Starting with 87% charge [...] I bought a car with 289 miles of range

...that you're not charging all the way. Yes, I know you are charging until your departure time, and that's a far as you can get, but you relinquished your right to gripe about the full 289 rated miles, when you won't start off with 289 miles. Your creativity in coming up with a neverending supply of complaints is fascinating, but also frustrating and tiring. You're way off base here to start off without a full charge and then whine that your trip requires a very small charge stop from the fastest charging on Earth.

it is telling me I need a 10 minute charge [...] This is the part of using the Tesla I find frustrating.

Again, this is fascinating how you have the immaturity to be so upset by 10 minutes.

 

[Whisky]

I bought a car with 289 miles of range and I can't even use 190 of that without charging along the way. I actually have no idea if I can make it to Nashville without charging or not, but I don't plan to take a chance on it without stopping. I'm sure the car will tell me to stop, so it won't be of much use. I guess I can tell it to remove charging stops... then it will give me a % charge remaining when I arrive which seems to be fairly accurate so far. This is a business trip so I want to be able to plan when I arrive. It's also over three hours of driving, so I'll need to leave durn early to get there. Maybe I should go down tonight and get a room.

I’m just going to add some more math to this. 289 miles rated, but you’re only going 190 miles. You’ve already lowered yourself down to 250 miles EPA rated by charging to 87%. Add to that you want to arrive with a 10% margin (I think that’s what the car defaults at, but you don’t need to choose to arrive with 10%), you’re looking at another 29 miles off your mileage, so now yo’re down to 221 usable miles. Fair, right? Because who plans to drive exactly 289 miles down to zero.

So we’re at 221 miles, and you want to 190 miles, but you’re doing full-on highway driving instead of a mix of slow highway driving and roads (what the EPA rating is based on), and so you’re essentially noting a 30 mile discrepancy? A discrepancy rectified had you charged to 100%. Assuming you have a destination charger at your final destination, you’d be fine at 100%, the recommended charge for road trips.

That is one disadvantage with electric vs gas car, you could actually arrive with a near empty tank at your destination and do meetings, and not fill-up until you’re on the way out (assuming there’s a gas station nearby, which chances are there is). It’s something one accounts for when driving an EV.

 

[suwaneedad]

Much of this year has been wet here. I hadn't really considered that the rain itself would reduce the mileage. I saw the tool had a setting for rain and it shows a number 10%. Is it bumping up the consumption by 10% I wonder? That sure seems excessive.

Although I haven't had much heavy rain driving experience yet, the one time I did (summer afternoon deluge on a Florida interstate) it looked to me like there was a further ~20% degradation in range during the rain if I maintained speed. Of course rarely will I maintain speed (~80mph) in the rain, so there is some range compensation there. That could splain why ABRP just slaps a general 10% factor for rainy roads.

Anyway, given today's weather I'm sure by now you have ample experience and good feedback to share with us once you're back home and able to give an update on the range impacts of wet roads.

 

[gnuarm]

How do you know you won't make it there without putting it into your navigation? Because for me it seems that is the most accurate... If it says I'll make it there with 5% but I have to drive under 70mph... Then that is almost exactly what happens whatever the temps are as I suppose it takes that into consideration.

I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty confident the navigator doesn't know what time I am leaving, so it would have no idea how cold the battery would be. That seems to be the biggest factor for range. abetterrouteplanner is a highly recommended tool for planning a trip on your computer or phone rather than relying on your car. It allows a lot of parameters to be adjusted. Unfortunately the range of the car is so limited that rather than just being able to expect to travel some distance, some sort of tool is required. I was trying to get a handle on when I would arrive so I could give a heads up to the people I was visiting.

I commute about 240 miles per day... Sometimes a little more like yesterday I drove 265 miles and it was 38 degrees on average yesterday. I was able to make the round trip on a single charge in my x100d but the last 50 miles I had to drive under 60mph to make it home with 1 percent... When I got home I had 1 percent or 2 miles left lol... But I do charge every night to 98 percent or about 287 miles.

If I drove the normal average speed of about 70mph with mix of 78mph I normally get about 240 miles off of 287 in temps of 45 degrees so it's really not that bad. Again I would suggest you use the navigation more than anything else as it seems very accurate.

45 degrees is not a big deal. Also, on longer trips the battery warms up and most of the trip is not compromised. The trick is in knowing the details. This trip was starting with an outside temp of a few degrees above freezing. The last charger is about 100 miles from the destination, so if I mess up on the estimate at that point my only other option would be to turn around before reaching the point of no return.

If you charge to 87 percent then you are essentially starting with a range of 250 miles with low temps and rain with average speed of 55mph I don't see why you would not make it there with plenty of miles remaining unless you are driving up a mountain. I know in my x100d I would probably have something like 30 miles remaining

The first reason is that I would not survive a trip of 200 miles on Rt 95 driving at 55 mph. Someone would rear end me. But what everyone seems to be missing is this thread wasn't supposed to be about just the range of the car. It is about the tool for planning the trip. That morning the car actually predicted an arrival charge of 2% which is too low to be an acceptable target. I had about 100 miles of driving before reaching the last charging point and by then the remaining charge estimate had risen to over 10%. After reaching my destination I would have to drive another 5% to reach the local Supercharger, so you can see how marginal the whole thing was.

Even driving at the speed limit or slightly over, the remaining percentage went up slightly, letting me feel better about making it to the charger, so I did make the trip ok. But the issue is the poor tools including the tools in the car.

 

[gnuarm]

A couple of things I've learned in the last day or so (only had the car 2 weeks)
•The heater draws at most 5 kW and that very briefly when a temperature change is requested. For the steady state and for modest rise 1.5 kW seems to be the average.

How did you arrive at the 1.5 kW number? Do you have a way to measure this?

•The energy monitoring software gives you estimates of remaining range based on the car's rated performance and its average performance over the time window you select. Thus if you select the 30 mi window it will estimate remaining range based on the last 30 miles you drove. If that was all down hill with a tail wind and you are next coming to level or uphill terrain and the wind has shifted around to a head wind the estimate will be grossly optimistic. If the last 30 miles was uphill into a head wind and you are now going down hill with a tail wind the estimate will be grossly pessimistic. If conditions change use the shortest window (5 miles) to see what the effects of the change are going to be as quickly as possible. As those conditions persist for a while use the longer windows for more accurate estimates.

I've never been able to get much utility from the wildly varying average the energy window typically displays. Others have recommended using the % remaining in the navigator and indeed, that appears to be the only useful number anywhere in the car. My experience is it typically underestimates the range to start and gradually gets closer to a reasonably valid number.

•A 30 °C change in temperature changes the air density by about 12%. This will decrease (colder) or increase (warmer) your range by about 12%
•The elephant in the room is airspeed (your driving speed plus or minus the wind speed). Power required per mile depends on the square of this speed. If you are sailing along on a calm day at 60 mph using 400 Wh/mi and then drive into a 10 mpH head wind that means your air speed is now 70 mpH, an increase of 17%. But your energy use will increase to 554 Whr/mi, a 36% increase with a commensurate loss in range.
•The motor is least efficient at high torque and low speed. Keep an eye on the energy meter when you accelerate.

And all this is exactly why there are trip planning tools.

 

[gnuarm]

I've done a similar business trip that's about 300 miles long and with a return the same day. This, unfortunately, sucks in a Tesla especially if you can't charge the car to full at your destination. In my case, I have a choice of either parking the car at a Level 2 charger and taking a cab to the meeting (expensive on time, etc..) or charging up before driving into the city to a reasonable charge, so I can make it there beforehand. Anyway, it sucks, it's the one weakness of an electric car compared to a gas car because not all destinations have chargers and not all trips fit within the mileage of the car.

I'm glad someone is willing to be honest about their experiences. Yes, I find a similar problem with simply charging on trips. The charger is at a Sheetz or other location which is not really walking distance to a place where I could usefully spend the time charging. I've considered getting a cab or something. Also, when the weather is bad it can be a PITA just walking from the charger to one of the places that are nearby. I recall being drenched walking to a Panera Bread on the other side of the parking lot. I've had to walk through what was largely an ice lot since the plowing was done to facilitate the guests of the hotel and not so much the charging. Lots of black ice on the way to the back of the parking lot where the chargers were.

I do find it frustrating (and this is a problem with me, not you) that people expect the rated range on their car to be accurate. I never got the rated mileage range on any of my ICE cars. I think we all generally understand that the range is an estimate, and in the case of Tesla, it's based on EPA testing which typically varies dramatically from how people actually drive. I realize you only have a 120V charger at home, but planning ahead the day before so you could start at 100% would make the trip easier. Also your car could probably do that 190mile drive without charging, assuming you have a charger at the destination.

Trust me, I understand the rated range is not the actual range. My issue is two fold. One is that the actual range is so far from the rated. In an ICE car you may see a 10% variation. In the Tesla I've seen 30% or more. For many people living in colder climes it will be much worse. In fact, in the far north you will need to keep your battery plugged in all night to keep it from being damaged by the cold. I expect they will be "late adopters". lol

I planned ahead as much as possible. This was one of those times when I was in Maryland so technically my trip started in Frederick, MD with a stop in VA on my way to NC. Given the timing it was not possible to get more than 87% charge.

But again, this thread was supposed to be about the planning tools. Knowing I only needed to go 190 miles (and had done this trip before) I didn't give much thought to it. When I found the temp the next morning would be 36 °F and realizing I could only expect 87% charge, I plugged it into the tool on the web site. Surprise!

Mostly, though, it seems like in your case this could have been resolved with a 100% charge for your trip. Without it, there's an understanding that you'll lose some time the next day. I've been through this myself, without having a charger at home, and doing trips like this. I learned to bite the bullet the day before, 120V charge the car up to 100% so I left with a fully charged car in the morning. I could have made it to the destination without charging, but I charged outside of the city where there was a supercharger to give me enough juice to get back. Shrug. You learn. The car drives itself, that's infinitely better.

In general I don't charge to 100% anyway. Even if the impact is not large, it does cause accelerated wear to the battery. This wear would exacerbate the extend of the problem in the future. So no, 100% charging is not the panacea to every range issue.

I will be installing an HPWC at some point exactly for this reason. I just need a couple of referrals, lol Seriously, I want to put it outside and need to do some other work first.

 

[gnuarm]

...that you're not charging all the way. Yes, I know you are charging until your departure time, and that's a far as you can get, but you relinquished your right to gripe about the full 289 rated miles, when you won't start off with 289 miles. Your creativity in coming up with a neverending supply of complaints is fascinating, but also frustrating and tiring. You're way off base here to start off without a full charge and then whine that your trip requires a very small charge stop from the fastest charging on Earth.


Again, this is fascinating how you have the immaturity to be so upset by 10 minutes.

It is fascinating that some posters are all about the drama. I posted about a trip planning tool and you want to turn the thread into your personal drama page. Could I ask that you either post on topic or not at all? I actually haven't relinquished any rights at all. I am still able to post here. You are free to not read them as well.

 

[gnuarm]

Although I haven't had much heavy rain driving experience yet, the one time I did (summer afternoon deluge on a Florida interstate) it looked to me like there was a further ~20% degradation in range during the rain if I maintained speed. Of course rarely will I maintain speed (~80mph) in the rain, so there is some range compensation there. That could splain why ABRP just slaps a general 10% factor for rainy roads.

Anyway, given today's weather I'm sure by now you have ample experience and good feedback to share with us once you're back home and able to give an update on the range impacts of wet roads.

I didn't take notes at every 40 miles of the trip. The car doesn't record any data for me. So what would I have to report other than that I made it to my destination? I had used the trip planning tool to see what to expect and it failed to give me an accurate estimate of the trip. On entering the trip into the navigator it said I would have 2% reserve on reaching the destination. To me that is not acceptable since it can't be trusted for accuracy. It could end up at -2%.

The trip involves about 30 miles of local roads followed by 155 miles of highway. Both trip planners are fully aware of this. The one in the car is capable of adjusting the estimate on the road so with time the remaining charge rose as high as 12%, but ultimately I arrived with 10%. That was enough to get me to the Supercharger at the end of the day. I wouldn't want to have passed the last charging station with that estimate, so I'm glad it was at 12% at that point. Stopping to charge would have added 20 or 25 minutes to the trip even for a 10 minute charge. Someone in this thread seemed to indicate I should be happy running the battery down to 0%. Heck, even at 10% the car starts limiting what you can do. I saw a video where the guy was on his last few miles and the car wouldn't drive over 25 mph or so. No, I'm not interested in running it down that low.

 

[ajdelange]

How did you arrive at the 1.5 kW number? Do you have a way to measure this?

See Obserations on Cabin Heat

I've never been able to get much utility from the wildly varying average the energy window typically displays. Others have recommended using the % remaining in the navigator and indeed, that appears to be the only useful number anywhere in the car. My experience is it typically underestimates the range to start and gradually gets closer to a reasonably valid number.

There is quite a bit of data available to you from the car and eventually, we hope, you will learn how to interpret it.

Whether the range estimate over or under estimates what you achieve on a given trip depends on whether your average actual energy use per mile is less than or greater than the rated wh/mi the display uses to calculate remaining range.

And all this is exactly why there are trip planning tools.

The list of things I gave is a partial list of the things that can influence range. Altitude and humidity would be a couple of other factors that will effect it through their relationships to air density. Many of the things that effect the energy consumption on your trip tomorrow such as the component of wind velocity along your route and whether it is going to be raining or not are not things knowable by a planning program you are running today. But you can, of course, look at the weather forecast and get some idea about these things in order to supply estimated to ABRP and you should know about the load you are carrying. One thing that ABRP does know about (and I don'y know whether the Tesla Nav package does) is elevation changes. So it can give you estimates but only rough ones tonight. Tomorrow when you get into your car and bring up ABRP on you touch screen it can get the actual SOC of your battery and perhaps current weather data (not sure about that one) so the predictions are better. Furthermore, it will display projected SOC vs distance to your destination or the first scheduled charge point so you have at each point along the way an up to date picture of your status. Again you will learn how to interpret this data.

If you bought an EV thinking that the advertised EPA range meant you could just jump in the car and drive that far every time you were extremely naive. Planning a trip in an EV is more like planing a trip in an airplane than a road trip in an ICE vehicle. That's part of the adventure IMO. Hope you eventually come to feel the same way.

 

[gnuarm]

See Obserations on Cabin Heat


There is quite a bit of data available to you from the car and eventually, we hope, you will learn how to interpret it.

Not really. Most of the data presented is of little value. This car is not an airplane or a ship at sea. Drivers are not given any training other than what is required to obtain a drivers license. What is needed in the car is a simple and yet accurate indication of charge (which is available) like a gas gauge and plenty of charging locations so the car can be recharged on trips or even when driving locally after arriving at a destination. Anything else is actually just noise and will not contribute to the wide acceptance of EVs.

In the mean time, the car needs to accurately estimate the range available. The ONLY way this car does that is in the remaining charge estimate at your destination in the navigator. Everything else I've seen in the car is inaccurate and varies wildly on a trip. I've never seen a post anywhere in these forums that contradicts that. In fact, I have been explicitly told a number of times I should only value the remaining charge in the navigator. One data point.

Whether the range estimate over or under estimates what you achieve on a given trip depends on whether your average actual energy use per mile is less than or greater than the rated wh/mi the display uses to calculate remaining range.

That is a truely amazing understatement. So my actual range will depend on my actual usage of energy compared to the energy usage estimate by the tools. Amazing!

The list of things I gave is a partial list of the things that can influence range. Altitude and humidity would be a couple of other factors that will effect it through their relationships to air density. Many of the things that effect the energy consumption on your trip tomorrow such as the component of wind velocity along your route and whether it is going to be raining or not are not things knowable by a planning program you are running today. But you can, of course, look at the weather forecast and get some idea about these things in order to supply estimated to ABRP and you should know about the load you are carrying. One thing that ABRP does know about (and I don'y know whether the Tesla Nav package does) is elevation changes. So it can give you estimates but only rough ones tonight. Tomorrow when you get into your car and bring up ABRP on you touch screen it can get the actual SOC of your battery and perhaps current weather data (not sure about that one) so the predictions are better. Furthermore, it will display projected SOC vs distance to your destination or the first scheduled charge point so you have at each point along the way an up to date picture of your status. Again you will learn how to interpret this data.

And yet, in spite of all that data available it gave a result that was not really accurate. Maybe the forecasted humidity was lower... or higher... than what I encountered.

If you bought an EV thinking that the advertised EPA range meant you could just jump in the car and drive that far every time you were extremely naive. Planning a trip in an EV is more like planing a trip in an airplane than a road trip in an ICE vehicle. That's part of the adventure IMO. Hope you eventually come to feel the same way.

Lol! That is what I am saying. With an EV there are no good planning tools. As someone said in reply to one of my posts... ABC, Always Be Charging! People don't want "adventures" in the context of never being sure they will make it to the destination. People want transportation. There are a number of types of early adopters, geeks, fashionistas, thrill seekers... But once the 1% (or whatever the number is) of early adopters have been tapped, EVs will need to be more mainstream to attract the mainstream.

 

[ajdelange]

I would strongly advise anyone who only wants transportation, even the most passionate Birkenstock wearing tree hugger, not to buy an electric vehicle. EV's are just coming up over the hill. They are not there for the hoi polloi yet.

 

[suwaneedad]

I didn't take notes at every 40 miles of the trip. The car doesn't record any data for me. So what would I have to report other than that I made it to my destination? I had used the trip planning tool to see what to expect and it failed to give me an accurate estimate of the trip. On entering the trip into the navigator it said I would have 2% reserve on reaching the destination. To me that is not acceptable since it can't be trusted for accuracy. It could end up at -2%.

The trip involves about 30 miles of local roads followed by 155 miles of highway. Both trip planners are fully aware of this. The one in the car is capable of adjusting the estimate on the road so with time the remaining charge rose as high as 12%, but ultimately I arrived with 10%. That was enough to get me to the Supercharger at the end of the day. I wouldn't want to have passed the last charging station with that estimate, so I'm glad it was at 12% at that point. Stopping to charge would have added 20 or 25 minutes to the trip even for a 10 minute charge. Someone in this thread seemed to indicate I should be happy running the battery down to 0%. Heck, even at 10% the car starts limiting what you can do. I saw a video where the guy was on his last few miles and the car wouldn't drive over 25 mph or so. No, I'm not interested in running it down that low.

OK sounds like it all went great! Car predicted 12% arrival, actual was 10%. Voila!
Seriously, my son (23) gave me great advice after he roadtripping ATL-MEM and then ATL-MIA back in May...
He said "Don't plan. Just get in and go. The car will tell you what you need to do."
He's right.
I still plan. But it is just to reduce my own fear of the unknown. And I've already conditioned myself w/r/t range anxiety through 7yrs and 75k miles with a LEAF. Those whose first EV is their Model 3 are going to go through similar learnings, but with higher stakes since road trips generally involve rural highway where charging optionality is reduced vs urban areas.
I suspect by the time I've had the 3 a full year, I'll no longer plan. The software has gotten continually better during my 9+ months of ownership; the pace of improvement is really impressive (to me).

Cheers.

 

[Cleex024]

So I'm really confused with op here... Did you just get the car yesterday? I've bought the x100d 2 weeks ago and have driven 4k miles on it...I have already installed a hpwc because I knew I would be doing a lot of driving... And I have already figured out everything with driving. I live in VA and drive on 95 everyday... Again I drive 80k miles per year and I see no problems with this car doing it unless the battery degrades more than 15 percent.

It took me 2 days to get used to the mileage and figuring out how far the car will go on charges and how to calculate using the tools and navigation in the car...I don't understand what is so difficult unless I suppose you are 80 and brain function is a bit slow. Also why is it a problem to show up to charging stations with less than 10 percent ? I have arrived home on many occasions with 1 to 4 miles left and have never felt anxious except after the first time.

Either way here is how you can make sure your miles remaining is actually going to be miles driven.... Just make sure your wh/mile is 320... Anything more you will get less miles than what computed.

I don't know why you would want to use anything other than what's on your car to plan this as it will tell you exactly what you need to do. Again I drive 240 miles per day and in the 2 weeks I've had the hpwc not once have I had to charge at a supercharger. Obviously if you drive more than that and don't ever want to stop at a charger then I don't know why you even got this car as I'm sure any smart person would have done some research before buying this car.

 

[gnuarm]

OK sounds like it all went great! Car predicted 12% arrival, actual was 10%. Voila!
Seriously, my son (23) gave me great advice after he roadtripping ATL-MEM and then ATL-MIA back in May...
He said "Don't plan. Just get in and go. The car will tell you what you need to do."
He's right.
I still plan. But it is just to reduce my own fear of the unknown. And I've already conditioned myself w/r/t range anxiety through 7yrs and 75k miles with a LEAF. Those whose first EV is their Model 3 are going to go through similar learnings, but with higher stakes since road trips generally involve rural highway where charging optionality is reduced vs urban areas.
I suspect by the time I've had the 3 a full year, I'll no longer plan. The software has gotten continually better during my 9+ months of ownership; the pace of improvement is really impressive (to me).

Cheers.

"Don't plan. Just get in and go." doesn't work when you have a schedule to meet or to set. Another poster has already confirmed this is an issue for him as well. Most of my trips are personal, but even those have time requirements and I need to get a estimate for the time it will take.

The issue was not can I make it to the destination without running out of charge. The issue was do I need to get up an extra half hour earlier to charge mid way or not? A question you never need to ask with an ICE auto.

Even the car was rather pessimistic when the trip started. So trusting the car is not the solution really.

 

[gnuarm]

I would strongly advise anyone who only wants transportation, even the most passionate Birkenstock wearing tree hugger, not to buy an electric vehicle. EV's are just coming up over the hill. They are not there for the hoi polloi yet.

Lol, your use of the term "hoi polloi" is rather funny. That is the issue. Tesla needs to mature it's product a bit more and make even more advances on the charging network before it becomes acceptable to "hoi polloi". BTW, the term translated is "the people" or "the many" so you don't need a redundant "the" in front of hoi polloi.

 

[gnuarm]

So I'm really confused with op here... Did you just get the car yesterday? I've bought the x100d 2 weeks ago and have driven 4k miles on it...I have already installed a hpwc because I knew I would be doing a lot of driving... And I have already figured out everything with driving. I live in VA and drive on 95 everyday... Again I drive 80k miles per year and I see no problems with this car doing it unless the battery degrades more than 15 percent.

It took me 2 days to get used to the mileage and figuring out how far the car will go on charges and how to calculate using the tools and navigation in the car...I don't understand what is so difficult unless I suppose you are 80 and brain function is a bit slow. Also why is it a problem to show up to charging stations with less than 10 percent ? I have arrived home on many occasions with 1 to 4 miles left and have never felt anxious except after the first time.

Either way here is how you can make sure your miles remaining is actually going to be miles driven.... Just make sure your wh/mile is 320... Anything more you will get less miles than what computed.

I don't know why you would want to use anything other than what's on your car to plan this as it will tell you exactly what you need to do. Again I drive 240 miles per day and in the 2 weeks I've had the hpwc not once have I had to charge at a supercharger. Obviously if you drive more than that and don't ever want to stop at a charger then I don't know why you even got this car as I'm sure any smart person would have done some research before buying this car.

Wow! I'm not sure you understood any of the real issues in this thread at all.

I will say you are lucky to have bought the car in the winter. So all your future experiences will be much improved as the weather warms. I don't have any idea how you can say you arrived at your destination with 1 mile left and feel good about that. Good luck.

 

[ajdelange]

Lol, your use of the term "hoi polloi" is rather funny. That is the issue. Tesla needs to mature it's product a bit more and make even more advances on the charging network before it becomes acceptable to "hoi polloi". BTW, the term translated is "the people" or "the many" so you don't need a redundant "the" in front of hoi polloi.

I guess the term is new to you. When used in English the additional article is quite correct as in this example from Iolanthe:

'Twould fill with joy,
And madness stark
The oι πoλλoί!
(pi is the Greek p and the upside down y things are pronouned as L in English)

A redundant article is often used with borrowings. We speak of the algebras, the algorithms, the alcohols etc. "al" also means "the".

Anyway, what Tesla (and other EV manufacturers need) is a battery with 2 - 4 times the energy density, 2- 4 times the charging stations and a computer that doesn't crash every 20 minutes. Right now the cars are for tecchies. Not poets.