Range Anxiety how close do you cut it - and have you been bit?

[KenMast3rs]

Do you guys buy an extra mobile connector and leave it in the car?

 

[C141medic]

Good points.
So what's the optimal highway speed?

How about windows down @ say 30mph vs AC?

As fast as you want. Who cares with superchargers all over the place.

Seriously though, I usually drive around 75MPH and haven’t had any range anxiety whatsoever. I also have the LR so that helps. There are plenty of strategically placed superchargers where the majority of owners wouldn’t have to be concerned with range anxiety. I think with other EV’s, that’s more of a concern than with a Tesla.

 

[Ragnarkov]

I did a road trip this summer from vancouver, bc to edmonton, ab. On the way back, decided to take a detour and show kids the dinosaur museum in drumheller.

Didn't sit long enough at the SC in Red Deer, and rolled into the north Calgary SC with a whopping 7km range left. And I drove most of the way from drumheller to calgary at a reduced 85km/h (lots of people honking and passing).

I had only sat at the charger long enough to get the range I calculated I needed (about 85-90%). And I opted to just charge that high cause I had whiney kids in the car. I figured I would be fine, but did want to sit longer.

It's the one time I didn't stick to my 20% buffer (or in this case, a full charge like I wanted) and I will NEVER push it like that again. Even if the kids are whining.

 

[MountainRatMat]

Good points.
So what's the optimal highway speed?

How about windows down @ say 30mph vs AC?

Windows up and AC is more efficient than windows down and no AC because of the wind resistance hit.

Model 3 is most efficient around 30MPH +/-.

Anything over 30MPH will take an efficiency hit at the square of the speed (aka, twice as fast is four times as bad for range)

Driving at 30MPH on a flat road with no headwind and you can get over 600 miles per charge on a LR Model 3.

 

[C141medic]

Driving at 30MPH on a flat road with no headwind and you can get over 600 miles per charge on a LR Model 3.

....and a whole bunch of pissed off people behind you.

 

[Swampgator]

I did a road trip this summer from vancouver, bc to edmonton, ab. On the way back, decided to take a detour and show kids the dinosaur museum in drumheller.

Didn't sit long enough at the SC in Red Deer, and rolled into the north Calgary SC with a whopping 7km range left. And I drove most of the way from drumheller to calgary at a reduced 85km/h (lots of people honking and passing).

I had only sat at the charger long enough to get the range I calculated I needed (about 85-90%). And I opted to just charge that high cause I had whiney kids in the car. I figured I would be fine, but did want to sit longer.

It's the one time I didn't stick to my 20% buffer (or in this case, a full charge like I wanted) and I will NEVER push it like that again. Even if the kids are whining.

Bro don't embarrass us Tesla owners like that. Plan better. Drive faster.

 

[RonFTW]

What actually helped me was interesting -

I have a model 3 performance. I rented a 2018 model X p100D with 22 inch rims for a 400 mile road trip.

Good lord the range on that thing was atrociously bad. Maybe the battery and range was screwed up to all the people renting the car and mashing away at the pedal. But I felt like true range on that car was about 150.

Driving the car down the freeway and just watching the % drop every 30 seconds or so was insane.

After I got back in my car, I felt like it could last forever, and haven’t been worried about range ever since.

My range anxiety literally disappeared after this experience.

So if I had a suggestion - to drive a car with extremely low range for a week and get back into the model 3.

 

[Dan203]

Do you guys buy an extra mobile connector and leave it in the car?

Been trying to decide what to do about this. Should I get a wall charger for home so I could leave the mobile connector in the car? Or should I get a second mobile connector and leave one in the car. Probably not a ton of situations where I'll actually need the mobile connector in the car, but I'd hate to need it and not have it.

 

[Tron 3]

On a trip, we got a message - (navigating to the next supercharger) "stay below 70 MPH to reach your destination." a few minutes later we got another "stay below 65MPH to reach..." Point being the car is monitoring the operational environment. It knows it's destination and SOC, and will alert you to what's required to make it.
In that case, we just opted for a closer SC, because 'm not driving highway below 65.

 

[eustachio]

Been trying to decide what to do about this. Should I get a wall charger for home so I could leave the mobile connector in the car? Or should I get a second mobile connector and leave one in the car. Probably not a ton of situations where I'll actually need the mobile connector in the car, but I'd hate to need it and not have it.

Just pack up your UMC for long trips? That's what I do.

 

[DopeGhoti]

I've seen a video where someone ignored that warning, and when the car determined they would not make it to the supercharger, automagically rerouted them to the next closest station on their route. Nifty!

 

[eustachio]

En route yesterday, map indicated we'd arrive with 21% SOC. It was very windy on our route, they an hour that had dropped to 10% projected SOC. I diverted to a SC and 5 mins of charge added about 20%. I probably would have been fine, but was worth it to me to stop.

Would be great to easily forecast wind en route.

 

[KenC]

Good points.
So what's the optimal highway speed?

How about windows down @ say 30mph vs AC?

Optimal is driving with the traffic flow, since that's the safest speed. Now, if there's no traffic, then around 70mph is a fairly good trade-off between time and efficiency. If you are on battery vapors, the best way to stretch your miles is to use a surface road parallel to the interstate that allows you to drive at 45mph or less.

 

[Big Earl]

Is that why they call you "Big Earl"?

Buffer*

 

[Petermcg]

The lowest I’ve ever gotten was 6%. I try to keep 15% my goal for recharging.

 

[Rottenapplr]

I usually added more I need when charging on a road than than cutting it close. For example if my car suggest I should charge for 35min I’m gonna charge for 45min.

The situation above is when a mapping app like waze becomes vital when road tripping. It will tell you to turn around much quicker than other mapping solutions.

 

[SammichLover]

Bologna.

With an ICE you can throw a rock and find a place to refill the gas tank in about 5 minutes. With an EV if you are really screwed you are charging on 120V and have to sit around spending hours just putting 10 miles of range back on the car.

LOL, on the former I’ve packed -and needed use of- jerry cans on road trips through Western US.

On the later, as the OP demonstrated, that often isn’t actually the case.

 

[SammichLover]

Yesterday I got bit...

I was driving to the Ardmore, OK supercharger (on US 70 between Waurika and Ringling OK if you want to see on map), it was about 40 miles away and I had 70 miles on the battery. Seems like an fine margin, but do not really have a choice since there are not any other superchargers near. Well I got turned around on the highway. A tanker truck had overturned and the road was going to be closed for the rest of the day while they cleaned up an oil spill... With the required U turn and new route it would add about 60 miles to the trip... So, I turned around and started on the new route. The map of course kept wanting me to do uturns. Eventually the map changed to the new way and it was already flashing that I would have negative battery. Used search on the cell phone and found an RV park. Had to pay $20 to rent a stall and charge for about 2 hours using the 15-40 plug. So, it took about 3 hours longer (hour driving and 2 hour charging).

Lesson learned: when they finally get the Wichita Falls superstation built (still says 2018 estimate, hopefully next year), I will always stop for 10-15 minutes to get an extra 50-60 miles added. My driving route is Norman, OK -> Wichita Falls, TX-> Ardmore OK about 230 miles in an AWD model 3, usually gives me 25-30 spare miles range (highways speed limits from 65 to 75 on route). When winter comes I will probably have to slow charge at one of my businesses for a while (have a 14-50 plug) in Wichita Falls.

No flatbed tow truck was involved. That’s not a bite, that’s just a friendly nibble.

I’ve been down to 1 mile nominal a few times. Never hit 0 though, and one time I hit 1 mile it actually climbed back to 2 by the time I backed up to the SC pedestal.

Once I had to go to Plan B, incidentally an RV park like you. For the Custer Rally earlier this year when I quite consciously pushed the raggedy edge, in the spirit of the history of the rally, and ran into heavy rain that wasn’t on the radar (clouds were too low, basically fog that was raining).

They only charged me $5, though. Not ICE money like you got charged.

 

[SammichLover]

Have lived in CO my entire adult life and have driven in rural Utah in the dead of night too. Still easier to find a gas station or even someone who will pull over and offer to give you a few gallons of gas than to find a place to charge electric car at anything better than a snail's pace.

Pack better travel gear. Wire & a 14-50 outlet.

 

[SammichLover]

I did a road trip this summer from vancouver, bc to edmonton, ab. On the way back, decided to take a detour and show kids the dinosaur museum in drumheller.

Didn't sit long enough at the SC in Red Deer, and rolled into the north Calgary SC with a whopping 7km range left. And I drove most of the way from drumheller to calgary at a reduced 85km/h (lots of people honking and passing).

I had only sat at the charger long enough to get the range I calculated I needed (about 85-90%). And I opted to just charge that high cause I had whiney kids in the car. I figured I would be fine, but did want to sit longer.

It's the one time I didn't stick to my 20% buffer (or in this case, a full charge like I wanted) and I will NEVER push it like that again. Even if the kids are whining.

Did you try use the L2 in Drumheller? There’s supposed to be one there. I didn’t bother, just stayed long enough at Hanna, but Drumheller was my plan B if Hanna didn’t work.