Range anxiety.......I don't want the stress

[Canuck]

I am used to driving my Prius for 450 miles on a tank of fuel. When I'm asked to configure my M3, I'll be ordering the largest battery pack available. This option is first on my list.

I agree completelty about ordering the biggest battery available. That's what I did at the time I ordered my Telsa. But I don't see the correlation to that with your Prius comment of 450 miles on a tank of gas. Don't you drive a lot with 1/2 of a tank of gas just fine? You can't always be driving around with a full tank of gas. What if every day you left in the morning with a half tank of gas in your Prius but you couldn't fill it more than that. Would you be concerned about running out of gas that day? Do you need more than that for one day?

 

[Sharkbait]

Mine's a 2007 Prius and I rarely get over 350 before filling up. I guess LA is much warmer than Indiana.

My fuel tank is 11.9 gallons, and the car reliably gets 50 mpg or better. I do notice the car gets a bit better mpg in warm weather but it's negligible at best.

 

[JeffK]

I only get 50mpg mid summer. Prius has a stupid bladder on the fuel tank which prevents full fill ups in the winter due to the cold. I also tend to be a rather aggressive driver. It has to be pretty sad when a Prius beats you off the line, although I doubt anyone else is racing haha.

Because of the Prius bladder thing in cold winters and typical winter energy losses, I actually think my difference between summer and winter MPG in a Prius might be larger than the difference between summer and winter in a proper BEV (at least in Indiana).

 

[Sharkbait]

That's what I did at the time I ordered my Telsa. But I don't see the correlation to that with your Prius comment of 450 miles on a tank of gas. Don't you drive a lot with 1/2 of a tank of gas just fine? You can't always be driving around with a full tank of gas. What if every day you left in the morning with a half tank of gas in your Prius but you couldn't fill it more than that. Would you be concerned about running out of gas that day? Do you need more than that for one day?

I was simply responding to the question of 'range anxiety and stress'. When you have a range of 450 miles, irrespectively of how far you will drive on any given day, for short drives or long drives, to places where no supercharges are available, you simply don't worry about 'range anxiety or stress' when there's a gas station a few miles down the road.

Try doing a southwest loop from Los Angeles through southern Arizona, through New Mexico, up through southern Utah, back into Arizona, and then into Nevada. You'll soon learn what 'range anxiety and stress' is about when you don't see any superchargers. I'm not advocating ICE vehicles or even hybrids. I'm simply stating the facts. I guess that's a good reason for having one ICE vehicle for such trips.

 

[JeffK]

I get range anxiety all the time in my Prius all the time because the gauge is not known to be very accurate with one bar or a blinking bar left. I don't feel like a Tesla would be any different heck even a numerical estimation of miles remaining is better than what I have now.

As far as road trips one could always rent an ICE if need be. For those who only travel on holiday why keep an ICE sitting around idle 95% of the year. You'd still have to do maintenance on it (oil or adding a stabilizer to the gasoline since you don't drive it for long periods).

It's like when people make an excuse that they need a pickup truck because they want to haul something once.

 

[Canuck]

Try doing a southwest loop from Los Angeles through southern Arizona, through New Mexico, up through southern Utah, back into Arizona, and then into Nevada. You'll soon learn what 'range anxiety and stress' is about when you don't see any superchargers.

No thanks. I plan my trips along a Supercharger/EVSE route. I've driven an EV for over two years so I don't need to "soon learn what range anxiety and stress is about". I've learned all about it, but more importantly, how to avoid it. My trips are planned around SC's and EVSE's, which is one of the reasons I picked up a Chademo adapter recently for a planned trip, since we have very few SC's in Canada, unlike all those down south.

It's like when people make an excuse that they need a pickup truck because they want to haul something once.

Tell me about it. I had to get topsoil and manure for my vegetable garden last weekend but I just couldn't bring myself to drive my Tahoe Hybrid, even to the garden center only a few miles away. So I fit 10 packaged bags of manure in the frunk, and 6 large hand shoveled bags of topsoil in the back. The funny thing is that it was Art Knapps Plantland in South Surrey and they were really busy, with nearly no parking, but they have four EV parking spaces, two SunCountry J1772, and two Tesla HPWC's -- at a garden center! So I got to a bit of charge since I needed the close parking!

Art Knapp Plantland | Surrey, BC | Electric Car Charging Station | PlugShare

 

[Booga]

Any range anxiety will disappear once you've had the car for a bit. As mentioned above, you simply plug in when you get home and you're good to go whenever.

Our house in Florida has a 120v/15a outlet in the garage so only delivers 11a or about 4 mph of charge (or about 50 miles in 12 hrs). I'd planned to install a 240v/50a outlet for the car but found it un-necessary. We got enough charge while home to cover our driving. We ride bicycles for everything less than about 3 miles each way so that might have made some difference.

At our primary house we have a 240v/80a HPWC. We've really only needed it 2 or 3 times the past couple of years such as a lot of driving during the day, home briefly to change clothes, and then off to some evening event. The faster charging came in handy. Otherwise we'd be fine with even just a 120v/20a.

Trips w/ superchargers are wonderful. Instead of standing by a pump while it fills you plug in and go grab a cappuccino in whatever coffee café is by the charger. Even doing 600-800 miles per day most stops only need 20-30 minutes of charge and often the car is ready before we are. As a mileage hog who focuses on getting in the miles and stopping as little as necessary I was extremely surprised how much more enjoyable each leg is when it's limited to 2 - 3 hrs instead of 4 - 5 hrs.

I was thinking through my regular use and I have a feeling that this would be fine for me on a daily basis too. I'm at home for 8-12 hours during the weekdays and that should cover my regular use adequately.

The only time this might be a challenge is when I complete a long trip over the weekend and have potentially little charge when I get back. In that case, a little more than 50 miles of range would be helpful, but is easily resolved by stopping at the last supercharger as I approach my home.

Depending on whether I'm in the condo I own now when I take delivery of the car or not, I may just get by with a 120v outlet initially. I don't know if I will necessarily want to pay about $2k to have a line run to my reserved parking spot if I intend on selling. It's a benefit to another EV owner, but I won't otherwise get my money back just yet.

 

[MSEV]

I am used to driving my Prius for 450 miles on a tank of fuel. When I'm asked to configure my M3, I'll be ordering the largest battery pack available. This option is first on my list.

My brother has been driving EVs for a long time (factory made EV Mercury Lynx from way back, adding a Model S more recently). He told me to always get the biggest battery you can. My Model S is an 85, the largest at that time. Never regretted it; someday may upgrade to a 110 or 120.
My Model 3 will have the largest battery they make. (My brother is a smart dude.)

 

[Cebe]

Range anxiety is something you have when you're thinking about getting an EV, or when you first get it. And you charge to 90% overnight, and you stay at the supercharger extra 15 minutes to get to 100%. And then you realize then you never had less than 100 miles "in the tank" on road trips, and never had less than 150 miles "in the tank" even on heavy driving days at home, so you start charging at home to 70%, and leaving the supercharger at 85%, or just enough to get to the next one.

And the ICE question of "how long can I drive before I have to stop and refill" becomes the EV version "do I have enough to get to where I'm going at the speed that I want". The ICE version of the question is always with you - maybe it isn't an anxiety, but you have to keep thinking about it. You keep checking the gauge. The EV version is with you when you go on a new road trip, the one you haven't done before. I've stopped paying attention to the state of battery charge on weekdays. Don't care.

 

[ForeverFree]

Bottom Line
Because of the ability to fill up overnight at home, you will devote far fewer minutes over the course of a year to en route charging than you now do to gas station stops. Not even close.

And most Supercharger stops are bathroom length ... with the rest fast food length.

That said, do go for the biggest battery you can afford. I drive an S85D and really hope that Uncle Elon is able to offer a 300-mile option on the M3 that I have reserved.

 

[LectrikPower]

Really, what is he percentage of people that drive more than say a 100 mile radius every day? Anyone that does less than that (I'd say 95% of drivers) should never have range anxiety. It should only pop up if you are driving long distance and that should be largely gone when the country is full of supercharges.

We drive a ton of small trips every day, shopping, driving two kids to and from two different schools ect. It makes no sense to burn gas for that. Can't wait for my Tesla!!

Our typical long trip is a three hour drive is three hours/210 miles between Milwaukee and La Cross WI. Should be able to make it on one charge no problem if I get a larger than base battery 3 or a used S. There is a Supercharger in Madison and I just checked the SC map and there are three between Milwaukee and La Cross now, all along our route

My father in law is a fox "news" republican car guy with a new Mustang in his garage. Can't wait to leave him n the dust and brag about not burning a single drop of gas on the way to his house, LOL.

 

[eisbock]

Have you seen the Teslabj0rn videos on youtube? What do you think of his approach to only charging to 100% when he is going on a long trip that needs it?

This is actually what Tesla recommends. Heck, the charging gauge even tells you this. There is an extra "daily driving" slider that you can set to tell the car only to charge to certain percents. Musk used to say 80%, but nowadays he's leaning more toward 90%. The 100% is designated as "trip".

 

[Chopr147]

Yea, i'll play it by ear once I actually have an EV. I'm not really worried,in fact I am only 8 miles from work and may plug it in once a week It's the longer trips I will have to get used to. For the immediate future my wife will have an ICE anyway and could use that if I felt a need. But once she drives the M3 I may have to fight her off and remind her it's MY CAR!

 

[brianman]

The very worst my S85 has ever done on a full charge would be about 195, I went 165 and had 30 projected.

The math doesn't work like that. You're assuming your efficiency for the last 30 will be better than it was for the first 195.

 

[brianman]

My entire point here was to say: "I didn't buy an EV to dick around with how much to charge the battery"
and so far after 20k miles, I do not think I need to start. Time will tell.
I've read the science, and have no qualms with it. But I also believe (maybe naively) that battery management has improved considerably in EV's.

Some of us.... well ok...at least one of us (me) leaves the car at the default (originally 92-93% 'standard', now 90% 'daily') and never touches the dial. Elon told me that I can do that and I do.

 

[Evbwcaer]

The math doesn't work like that. You're assuming your efficiency for the last 30 will be better than it was for the first 195.

It does work like that if you are looking at the graph. I had the last 30 miles selected, so the projection was based on my last 30 mile's consumption, pretty fair and accurate method.

 

[brianman]

It does work like that if you are looking at the graph. I had the last 30 miles selected, so the projection was based on my last 30 mile's consumption, pretty fair and accurate method.

And the last 30 is the same as the first 135?

 

[LectrikPower]

I get range anxiety all the time in my Prius all the time because the gauge is not known to be very accurate with one bar or a blinking bar left.

Does it have a low fuel warning light or is it just a blinking bar? Check your manual and see if it tells you how much gas remains with the bar blinking.

What I have always done with my ICE cars is this:

Always zero the trip meter when the tank is full. Then I can check average mileage next time I fill up. When the gas light comes on I zero my second trip meter. My manual says I have 2 gallons at low fuel light. I know I get 26mpg around town so I know I can go 40 miles conservatively when the light comes on.

I drive deep into the reserve tank and it drives my wife and friends crazy. Have not run out of gas yet!

 

[Evbwcaer]

And the last 30 is the same as the first 135?

Maybe. Probably close. But that is not the point anyways. The assumption would be that if consumption from the last thirty miles was extrapolated to the remaining battery capacity, the car had another 30 miles remaining.

I could just do the math too and extrapolate all the miles of the trip, would have been more work and less accurate.

Is there some point you're trying to make? These concepts are legit and work in the real world.
I may have gotten 2 miles less or more but these calculations/projections are useable and meaningful.

 

[JeffK]

...Check your manual and see if it tells you how much gas remains with the bar blinking...

It only has the blinking bar... the manual won't help in this situation as the the bladder makes it variable. It should be 1.6 gallons according to the manual, but owners will testify that it's not always the case. Supposedly Toyota ditched the bladders in models after 2010. I always error on the side of caution and fill up early.