Potential Model 3 buyer with 164-180 mile daily commute

[Dave EV]

have LR-RWD - drive SD to LA (120 each way) and come back with 75 miles left after 90% charge.... Temecula is no issue at all

That's really good - how fast do you drive and what's your Wh/mi?

 

[Silver Ghost]

Speed makes a huge difference. I have a 80+ mile commute but the average speed in TX can be 90 +. Legal speed limit is 85mph, in some parts. At that speed you are using the full 90 to 10% useable charge in a P3D+ for about 180 miles.

 

[gaswalla]

That's really good - how fast do you drive and what's your Wh/mi?

I have AP do the drive - set speed at 79 mph

 

[BrokerDon]

Most houses out here are 200amp service, and many have 2 air conditioner condenser units. In general, homes out here would likely have no issue with a load calc to add a 60amp circuit, but adding a 100 amp circuit would be problematic for load calculations for most.

Also as I mentioned most homes out here would have garages, with the electrical coming in right on the one side. Putting the HPWC on the interior garage wall of the electrical means that the cable run is likely less than 10 feet. Swapping out that cable would be a very small expense, if one got a second EV down the road and wanted to upgrade charging. Everyones situation is different, but this is how most houses out here are.

Our 2009 built coastal SoCal single family home has a standard 200A Main Service Panel ("MSP") with 2 central HVAC units, 2 split system AC units, and a myriad of other circuits including a 100A subpanel. Every breaker space in both the MSP and subpanel were completely filled in our MSP before we got our 2015 Tesla Model S P85D with dual 40A chargers (80A max charge).

I had Tesla's recommended licensed electrician install a gen1 High Power Wall Connector ("HPWC") on a 100A breaker using the easy to complete "load calc" on our building permit and "doubling" some breakers to make space for the 100A HPWC breaker. This has worked great for ~ 4 years although I did reduce our home charging to 60A to keep the HPWC plug and adjoining end cooler to lengthen the life of our HPWC cable and Tesla charging port (heat kills electronics). Also a 60A (~ 41 MPH) charge rate will refill our P85D's completely empty battery to 90% in ~ 6 hours... plenty of time during our 10¢ / kWh SCE TOU-D-B "Super Off-Peak) rate between 10 PM and 8AM since we rarely never run our battery down to 0%.

Since Model 3's can only charge at 48A max, a gen 2 Tesla Wall Connector on a 60A circuit is probably the best choice because installing a bigger breaker requires significantly more expensive / much harder to work with thicker wire. Also, most city / county building departments usually only allow their simple expedited EV charger permit application & load calc for EV circuits < = 60A . Installing EV charging > = 60A can significantly increase the Tesla Wall Connector installation cost and permit complication time & expense.

 

[Nocturnal]

Yup. As long as you don't get an SR you will be golden.

Autopilot makes long commutes in traffic so much more bearable. I'd second that if this is your only car getting a wall charger makes sense. You won't need the speed for your nightly charging, but if you wanted to get home, charge a little and then go out, the extra speed will help greatly.

Wow, you better be getting a VERY good paycheck to tolerate a ride to work like that! I'd be insisting on a good L2 charger at work!

I asked my boss to let me plug in the car at work, which on a 5-20 would get me 70 miles of charge on a 12 hour shift to cover my 50 mile round trip to work, but he said no.

It's called California, DC, or NYC. Lots of traffic and no reasonable housing prices anywhere close.

 

[devilmountain]

I commonly drive to my family's house on the weekend which is 184 miles round trip with an LR RWD. We make the trip with four people in the car. In the summer when we leave at 90% and we return home with 23%-28%. During we arrive home with 12%-14%. Typically driving about 70 with the heater or a/c on.

 

[Jgee]

Guys,

Thank you for all your input. You all as a group have made it so much easier for me to settle my range anxiety about this car. I’m very happy to see my fellow Road Warriors doing that commute with the Tesla. Hoping that we can as a consumer see how we can really stress this car out and squeeze every dime out of it.

Keep driving safe out there!

Jay

 

[Dave EV]

I have AP do the drive - set speed at 79 mph

Seems better than my 3 LR RWD aeros - Drove up north from San Diego this weekend - lots of AP/NAP mostly 75-80 mph max with some traffic, 205 mi, 90% charge 246 Wh/mi, got home with 43 miles left, or about 13-14%, temperatures 75-85 F. Feel like I could do better efficiency wise driving myself, AP makes too many unnecessary speed adjustments.

To drive 240 miles and have 75 miles left on a 90% charge, implies getting around 200 Wh/mi which seems incredible at 75-79 mph unless traffic is limiting your speeds to 65 mph or so.

 

[Nocturnal]

Speed makes a huge difference. I have a 80+ mile commute but the average speed in TX can be 90 +. Legal speed limit is 85mph, in some parts. At that speed you are using the full 90 to 10% useable charge in a P3D+ for about 180 miles.

That seems a little high. What whms are you getting doing that?

 

[StellarRat]

I'd get at least an MR if not an LR. Even if your work doesn't have a L2 charger, do you have access to a 120v plug on the outside of the building that you can use? That would get you probably 40-50 miles back on an average work day. If you can do that an SR would probably work fine.

 

[StellarRat]

Speed makes a huge difference. I have a 80+ mile commute but the average speed in TX can be 90 +. Legal speed limit is 85mph, in some parts. At that speed you are using the full 90 to 10% useable charge in a P3D+ for about 180 miles.

I can believe that. Visited my friend in Austin last month lots of 90 to 100 mph driving on their tollways. She has an LR RWD, but even with that we used a lot power everyday. I was surprised by how quickly it went even from a full charge on our road trips, but we never got into any trouble.

 

[Silver Ghost]

That seems a little high. What whms are you getting doing that?

I did think my long term average is about 305 wh/mile