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[WannabeOwner]

the Model 'S' 70D has such punch out of the corners and off the line, on the motorway

I'll add one: arrive at a roundabout, with lights at red, and take the first exit ramp onto a dual carriageway. The bend will be (YMMV!!) close to limit for the acceleration, and merging speed will be "more than enough" up to you whether you announce intentions to passengers, or not! I now dawdle in the approach to roundabouts with lights on green ...

But in practice that sort of behaviour, in normal driving, means that all your cabin accessories and junk will jettison into the boot!

I hope the 75D's battery will be enough

The interval between Superchargers is shrinking month-by-month. Still areas where its a challenge, but nothing like what it was, and increasingly less so, thus I doubt you need to worry.

I'm sure your research turned up these points, but just in case not (presumably still within the 14 days, or whatever it is, change-your-mind period):

Larger battery has a few more miles at daily 90% charge. (I found that very hard to justify, the cost "per mile" is horrific, and I have had very very few journeys where it was critical and, on those, if my battery was smaller I would have Supercharged).

However, the rate at which a bigger batter Supercharges is worth taking into account:

Charge from 80% to 100% is significantly slower than 10% - 80%. Thus at a Supercharger stop ideally you would not charge more than 80%.

The charge time from 10% - 80% is the same-ish, regardless of battery size, so my 90 will add 20% more miles than a 75 in the time (and a 100 would be 33% more)

You are unlikely to want to arrive anywhere with less than 20 miles "safety-net"

Thus on a long journey the useful supercharger interval is your 80%-range less 20 "safety-net" miles. In my 90D that's 156 miles (that's my real-world figure ...), so maybe 127 miles in a 75, and I'm guessing 176 in a 100

In practice I find:

A 100% charge in my 90 gives me 220 real-word miles in normal weather. I allow 20 miles as safety-net, thus 200 mile range.
So maybe 180/160 in 75, and 245/225 in 100

On days I drive more than 200 miles (unless I'm driving to South of France in "one go") I am doing < 320 miles. I can get the extra 120 miles at a Supercharger, provided I arrive below, say, 20%, at 10-miles-per-minute (in my 90). so I guess 75 @ 8.3 m/min and a 100 at 11 m/min.

If a 100 does a 225 mile journey (with 20 miles spare)
a 90 needs 25 miles supercharging (2m30s)
and a 75 needs 65 miles supercharging (7m50s)

so the upshot of that is that in a 75 the amount of time you will spend on journeys that are 180-245 miles long is likely to add up to 20 minutes to the journey. Not a problem once a year, but once a week and that's significant, and once a month ... that's your call

If the Superchargers are not well placed I will stop at the first and charge no more than 80% (probably nearer 70% is better for max charge-rate), and then charge at the second, nearer destination, to get whatever I need to complete the journey.

Often, in UK, I get stuck in roadworks or heavy traffic, doing 50 MPH for tens-of-minutes, and then when I get to Supercharger I either have a shorter stop or I can drive faster to my destination. Hence best to aim for the longest charge at the Supercharger nearest to destination, when battery SoC is lowest, plus also the actual charge needed to reach destination will benefit from any delays already encountered.

Given that my useful range is 200 miles, at 100%, I always charge to 100% if my journey is 160+ miles. I have, on one occasion, used 99% of charge on a 160 mile journey (speeding because late outbound and arrived at 50%, < 70MPH on return leg but torrential rain)

For days when I drive 160+ miles I start with 100% charge, and the only additional charge I need is enough to get me to destination. Adding 100 miles takes less time than having a pee and getting a coffee ...

So my advice is that it will be rare, in practical terms, that you will have a range issue that you have to need to make careful planning for.

 

[aphile]

WannabeOwner: Thank you for the detailed break down on charging calculations. It's interesting to hear real world examples from experienced drivers. I think I'll stick with your 20% reserve rule, I know that the couple of long distance sites I have do have Superchargers within 40 miles or so of my destination, so I know if I go to those charge points before the last push I'll be fine. Fortunately I do not have clients in the wilds of Scotland, but I still have an ICE vehicle in case work takes me up there.

Love your idea at dual carriageways, I do have visions of all kinds of cabin detritus flying backwards. Will have to discipline myself not to keep so mujch junk in the cabin. At least I won't need to worry about fuel receipts

I had to draw the line at the 75D. If I'd have gone further up the range the cost would have quickly escalated, and the temptation to have gone for something with 'P' in front of it would have grown very strong, I'd have felt I was going over the even horizon of a black hole, 'I must have 2.8sec 0 to 60, I must be able to embarass a Veyron'. I have no will power where such performance is possible.

Best wishes,

David

 

[arg]

I was really shocked to see the range on the 75D, so I think 300 miles should be enough to keep range anxiety at bay.

The NEDC range figure is hugely optimistic - you will struggle to ever achieve that in anything other than deliberate hypermiling.

The "typical" range that UK models show is achievable in real life under favourable conditions; cruising on a free-flowing motorway you will do slightly worse (bombing down the motorway at licence-risking speeds will do a lot worse!).

I can't find the 'typical' range figure for the 75D off-hand, but I think it's similar to my old-school S85 (243 when it was new; 239 now at 3+ years old). So you will be scraping to reach your 260 mile client on a single charge, and even your 230 mile client won't be quite comfortable. But if there's a convenient supercharger en-route then you're laughing.

Personally, I find that long one-way trips like that are easy - you almost certainly want at least a coffee stop en-route in 5 hours of driving, and can usually contrive for it to be at a charge point. More tricky are out-and-back day trips of similar distance, (or triangular journeys to multiple clients who have already plied you with coffee!). These sort of trips with shorter legs are less likely to pass a supercharger without significant diversion, and having the CHAdeMO adapter is key to making them easy - while slower than supercharging, a single 30min CHAdeMO stop adds ~120 miles, taking the total range to more than I'm likely to drive in a single day anyhow given that I have to be stopping at the destination for a while else there's no point going there!

Note you can set the "fuel gauge" to show either range in the optimistic NEDC units, the achievable-if-you try 'typical' units, or simple percentage. It's fairly universally accepted that the NEDC number is unhelpful. Many people here argue that the percentage is better than a possibly misleading range number; personally I like having the range (in 'typical' units). In either case, the fuel gauge range isn't usually what you want to look at - by far more useful is putting the destination into the navigation which will automatically calculate the expected range at destination, taking into account the terrain and expected speeds on the roads in question - if it's showing green, you relax; if showing yellow you need to have an eye on it, and if showing red you'd best be thinking about an alternative charge stop.

 

[WannabeOwner]

I think I'll stick with your 20% reserve rule

I work with 20 miles reserve, rather than 20% - but in Winter, when cold, or high winds, or torrential rain you need a different calculation, at the outset, as to Range

As @arg said; once you put a destination in SatNav you get a Trip graph of energy vs. distance, with a journey-so-far line superimposed which shows if you are over/under. If that is looking bad you can slow down, draught an HGV (you don't have to be that close), or plan a charging-stop. If you have spare then ... Ahem! ... put your foot down

 

[arg]

a single 30min CHAdeMO stop adds ~120 miles,

Sorry, wrong maths here. More like a single 40min CHAdeMO stop adds ~80 miles.

The point about how it works in practice is still valid however.

 

[paso904]

I am about to order a new Tesla Model S. I spent a lot of time trying to work out whether the Premium Upgrade Package is a sensible add-on or not. I am still none the wiser after lots of reading. It seems a lot of people complain about the standard audio and others are fine with it. I am not sure I need bioweapon defense...

I believe that the most significant part of the Premium package is the HEPA filter. London is notorious for illegal levels of air quality and the Tesla's cabin filtration system is (for me) one of it's most important features.

 

[Peteski]

I believe that the most significant part of the Premium package is the HEPA filter. London is notorious for illegal levels of air quality and the Tesla's cabin filtration system is (for me) one of it's most important features.

I believe there is nothing stopping you from installing a HEPA filter (third party or original) in a non-PUP car, although you can't use the bio-defense software mode with it. If that was the main reason for choosing PUP, it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than £5.7K! After quite a lot of thought I decided to pay for the PUP as I did want some of the other upgrades too, but it was a very close call.

 

[aphile]

Hello,

Just wanted to mention that I've just taken deliery of my Model 'S with the Premium package. I can say that I feel the extra was worth it (though it was an inventory car so I got a substantial discount on the overall price including the Premium package). The air filter system is amazing, though I am fortunate to almost never go into major cities, most of my clients are on the coast or in the countryside, but even so my wife has hayfever so having the HEPA filtration is helpful. The Premium audio bundle is superb, very, very impressed. The only systems I've heard better (factory fitted) are the Burmester in the Porsche Cayenne and the Meridian Reference system in the Range Rover. The sound is superb, and because the car is so quiet you really appreciate how good it is. my speakers are nowhere near run in, they really need a couple of hundred hours to settle down and show their true performance, but even now the system is excellent.

I London I can believe you would want to run the bioweapon mode, btu I should point out it is a bit noisy, the fans work harder to generate a positive pressure in the cabin, so you will have a slightly noisier cabin as a result, but the air will be much cleaner.

On the charging front, I went with a 32A 'Commando' blue charger outlet at home and a Tesla charger at a clients premises. The 32A charges at 7 kW/h, so from empty it would be around 10 hours at home. My clients premises has 3 phase so the charge time from empty would be around 3 - 4 hours I understand.

The power delivery of the 75D is something else, it really makes almost every other GT out there seem broken in day to day use, I still cannot believe just how fast this car is, and how effortless it makes it when conditions allow. The almost silent, smooth power delivery is an absolute joy, it even makes commuter, rush hour traffic more bearable. The location sensitive air suspension is amazing, it's already larned the location of some of the areas with speed bumps I go over and now raises on it's own, after a few weeks I suspect I won't need to touch the suspension settings, the car will know when to raise and lower itself.

The monster touch screen is really superb, and makes controlling all the cars systems easy, I ten to use the media controller and the rear view camera on sharing the screen. I should mention the view from the rear view mirror is a bit limited, but the camera more than makes up for it.

The one foot driving using regen is incredibly easy to get used to, but be warned, I switched back to my wife's 14 year old Golf today, and found myself wondering why the brakes were so terrible, I was expecting regen to retard my speed!

Hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Dave