Recent Turo rental of a 2020 MX Long Range Plus

[yachtbroker]

FWIW, I recently completed a 1 day Turo rental of a 2020 MX Long Range Plus. Pretty seamless experience and never even met the renter face to face. The MX was Black/White with 22" wheels and 22k miles and looked to be in great overall shape.

After a brief rundown over the phone on operating the car (never driven a Tesla before) I exited the vehicle that brought me to the pickup location and entered the MX and was off....sort of. Upon pressing the brake only the center screen lit up. Car on, A/C blowing, could shift to reverse or drive and operate the vehicle, but the gauges behind the steering wheel were not turning on. Quick call back to the renter, he stated "these things happen occasionally, it's a giant computer," instructed me to exit, lock vehicle, and re enter. Same result, black gauge cluster. After a ~3 minute reboot by holding down both scroll wheels, I was actually off and running, silently. This blank gauge cluster incident did repeat itself once more the next day. Unfortunately as I had heard with other Turo Tesla rentals, the MX was locked in "CHILL" mode, so no opportunity to sense the true power and acceleration. Not a big deal, that was not one of the reasons for renting it.

I was fairly concerned about getting cooked in the SFLA heat with the gigantic windshield. I have a pano roof in my Ram that has the shade closed 100% of the time in the daytime, unless the sunroof is open. With it's shade open and sunroof closed, it lets in a lot of heat and glare. I'm glad to have observed the Tesla lets in very little, so I think it's livable even without installing sunscreens, which BTW does anyone know if they are still included with the car?

Seat comfort and driving position also not an issue for my large size. I didn't bother to mess with seat memory or driver profile but I assume I can set up my own MX to raise the steering wheel and slide the seat back upon exit.

Overall the car was fun to drive, really feels like you are driving the future. And everything about it felt substantial enough to justify the pricetag IMO. For example the stalks on the steering column, which are obviously MB sourced, operated very solidly. The jury is still out on how it will be living without them on the refreshed MX, and I'm fairly convinced I won't like the lack of stalks and the yoke. The question will be how well I'm able to adapt to it ultimately. I did not notice any glaring fit/finish issues, but who knows what kind of work the car has had by Tesla since first being sold. I used autopilot extensively during my rental and came away very impressed with it.

The last issue, which I didn't expect was predicted range remaining vs. how far I actually drove. The photos below show how I started and finished after 24 hours, driving 64.6 miles, I consumed a whopping 133 miles of indicated range. Being new to Tesla, I'm sure I buried the accelerator more frequently than your average owner, but by no means did I beat on the car. Being in CHILL mode seems to discourage that. In an unofficial, counting in the head, 0-60 had to be close to 7 seconds. Is it possible that being in CHILL mode and not driving in a CHILL manner could have me consuming more energy than in standard mode? I detected very little range loss from the car being parked overnight. In my day to day 24 mile roundtrip work commute, this is a non-issue. But, I would like to have more comfort with the real world range as I will travel with the car occasionally 200-500ish miles. Full disclosure I have zero experience or understanding of kilowat hours or anything like that.

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to provide comments or feedback.

While I am still on the fence of going with the MX or the redesigned 2 row Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve, which coincidentally just debuted yesterday, I logged in today to find I still have a January EDD.

 

[Harvey Danger]

Thanks for the report. Maybe not entirely relevant to the 'plaid waiting room', but always fun to read first-time-driving-a-Tesla observations. That consumption of 444 Wh/mi is not especially high, I wouldn't say you were mashing the go pedal too much there. The other numbers you reported (133 rated-miles of battery indicator to go 65 real miles of distance) weren't so great however. You'll get a feel for that as you drive your own X for awhile. Generally rated miles exceed real miles, but not by a factor of 2 to 1? Maybe the vampire drain while not-driving was more than you thought. Anyway, glad you enjoyed your test drive!

 

[KidsEyeDr]

FWIW, I recently completed a 1 day Turo rental of a 2020 MX Long Range Plus. Pretty seamless experience and never even met the renter face to face. The MX was Black/White with 22" wheels and 22k miles and looked to be in great overall shape.

After a brief rundown over the phone on operating the car (never driven a Tesla before) I exited the vehicle that brought me to the pickup location and entered the MX and was off....sort of. Upon pressing the brake only the center screen lit up. Car on, A/C blowing, could shift to reverse or drive and operate the vehicle, but the gauges behind the steering wheel were not turning on. Quick call back to the renter, he stated "these things happen occasionally, it's a giant computer," instructed me to exit, lock vehicle, and re enter. Same result, black gauge cluster. After a ~3 minute reboot by holding down both scroll wheels, I was actually off and running, silently. This blank gauge cluster incident did repeat itself once more the next day. Unfortunately as I had heard with other Turo Tesla rentals, the MX was locked in "CHILL" mode, so no opportunity to sense the true power and acceleration. Not a big deal, that was not one of the reasons for renting it.

I was fairly concerned about getting cooked in the SFLA heat with the gigantic windshield. I have a pano roof in my Ram that has the shade closed 100% of the time in the daytime, unless the sunroof is open. With it's shade open and sunroof closed, it lets in a lot of heat and glare. I'm glad to have observed the Tesla lets in very little, so I think it's livable even without installing sunscreens, which BTW does anyone know if they are still included with the car?

Seat comfort and driving position also not an issue for my large size. I didn't bother to mess with seat memory or driver profile but I assume I can set up my own MX to raise the steering wheel and slide the seat back upon exit.

Overall the car was fun to drive, really feels like you are driving the future. And everything about it felt substantial enough to justify the pricetag IMO. For example the stalks on the steering column, which are obviously MB sourced, operated very solidly. The jury is still out on how it will be living without them on the refreshed MX, and I'm fairly convinced I won't like the lack of stalks and the yoke. The question will be how well I'm able to adapt to it ultimately. I did not notice any glaring fit/finish issues, but who knows what kind of work the car has had by Tesla since first being sold. I used autopilot extensively during my rental and came away very impressed with it.

The last issue, which I didn't expect was predicted range remaining vs. how far I actually drove. The photos below show how I started and finished after 24 hours, driving 64.6 miles, I consumed a whopping 133 miles of indicated range. Being new to Tesla, I'm sure I buried the accelerator more frequently than your average owner, but by no means did I beat on the car. Being in CHILL mode seems to discourage that. In an unofficial, counting in the head, 0-60 had to be close to 7 seconds. Is it possible that being in CHILL mode and not driving in a CHILL manner could have me consuming more energy than in standard mode? I detected very little range loss from the car being parked overnight. In my day to day 24 mile roundtrip work commute, this is a non-issue. But, I would like to have more comfort with the real world range as I will travel with the car occasionally 200-500ish miles. Full disclosure I have zero experience or understanding of kilowat hours or anything like that.

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to provide comments or feedback.

While I am still on the fence of going with the MX or the redesigned 2 row Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve, which coincidentally just debuted yesterday, I logged in today to find I still have a January EDD.

View attachment 716298View attachment 716299View attachment 716300

@yachtbroker, first of all welcome. And, thank you for a thoughtful post. Glad to hear you’ve reserved the Model X… it’s an incredible vehicle!

I didn’t think sunscreens ever were included but someone may correct me. In any case they are available aftermarket.

As far as range, I would anticipate you should be able to get at *least* 200 miles (not towing) on a full charge on the long range version. More likely at highway speeds you’ll get 250+ miles.

There is also the possibility of increased range in the production vehicles especially because of the delay (and with Tesla, the passage of time consistently means improved tech), though of course one can’t bank on anything beyond what you ordered.

Edit: that glitching computer is not the typical Tesla. Yes, rarely occurs but that’s a minority of the vehicles.
Edit #2: the new model X is going to have very fast supercharging speeds. Even in our current Model Y, supercharging is almost like a gas refill.

 

[jboy210]

@yachtbroker, first of all welcome. And, thank you for a thoughtful post. Glad to hear you’ve reserved the Model X… it’s an incredible vehicle!

I didn’t think sunscreens ever were included but someone may correct me. In any case they are available aftermarket.

As far as range, I would anticipate you should be able to get at *least* 200 miles (not towing) on a full charge on the long range version. More likely at highway speeds you’ll get 250+ miles.

There is also the possibility of increased range in the production vehicles especially because of the delay (and with Tesla, the passage of time consistently means improved tech), though of course one can’t bank on anything beyond what you ordered.

Edit: that glitching computer is not the typical Tesla. Yes, rarely occurs but that’s a minority of the vehicles.
Edit #2: the new model X is going to have very fast supercharging speeds. Even in our current Model Y, supercharging is almost like a gas refill.

I got sunscreens with my 2018 X75. Never used them. I turned them in with the rest of the car accessories. Still in the original packaging.

 

[ammulder]

Thanks for the report. Maybe not entirely relevant to the 'plaid waiting room', but always fun to read first-time-driving-a-Tesla observations. That consumption of 444 Wh/mi is not especially high, I wouldn't say you were mashing the go pedal too much there. The other numbers you reported (133 rated-miles of battery indicator to go 65 real miles of distance) weren't so great however. You'll get a feel for that as you drive your own X for awhile. Generally rated miles exceed real miles, but not by a factor of 2 to 1? Maybe the vampire drain while not-driving was more than you thought. Anyway, glad you enjoyed your test drive!

For what it’s worth, I think the LR+ had about a 100 kWh battery, so consuming 0.444 kWh/mile would give you about 225 miles of range. You’d want to average more like 333 Wh/mi to get 300 miles of range. I don’t know why chill would make your efficiency worse, but a lower brake regeneration setting definitely would (just a possibility for a setting that could account for a discrepancy).

The refresh cars are rumored to get more miles out of a similar or smaller battery, which suggests efficiency should be better, FWIW. I don’t know of any definitive battery size numbers but someone has probably done a thorough range test on the S refresh by now to see if that holds true.

 

[Richbot]

For what it’s worth, I think the LR+ had about a 100 kWh battery, so consuming 0.444 kWh/mile would give you about 225 miles of range. You’d want to average more like 333 Wh/mi to get 300 miles of range. I don’t know why chill would make your efficiency worse, but a lower brake regeneration setting definitely would (just a possibility for a setting that could account for a discrepancy).

The refresh cars are rumored to get more miles out of a similar or smaller battery, which suggests efficiency should be better, FWIW. I don’t know of any definitive battery size numbers but someone has probably done a thorough range test on the S refresh by now to see if that holds true.

There's no regen setting on the Long Range Plus IIRC

 

[yachtbroker]

Thank you for all the replies and candid feedback. There was a regen setting on the Turo MX I had and IIRC the choices were "standard" and "reduced." It seemed to default to standard and that's where I kept it aside from a few minutes of trying reduced, and the difference I noted was minor, so I switched back to standard. The theory behind CHILL mode getting worse consumption is an apples-oranges comparison to my industry of power boating in that people are surprised that in many cases the same boat with a higher horsepower option can sometimes return better fuel economy than a lower powered options. Example the same 25ft boat with twin 200 hp outboards vs. twin 150's. The idea is standard, not chill mode gives me more available power and thus the powertrain doesn't have to work as hard to do what I need it to do. Again my background is ICE vehicles so the theory may not apply.

 

[croman]

I've never used chill in my S and almost always (outside is winter below 35F) get better than rated. X is harder but chill can make it harder. You can fully modulate the power with an EV so chill is merely a crutch.

The key to efficiency is not using the friction brakes if possible and keeping power output to less than 50kW. No fun though.

 

[Richbot]

For some reason my reply to this got nerfed by the forum.

Long story short, your consumption is way, way, way high compared to what I see on my LR+. Like, 50% more, and I'm not shy with the accelerator. Lifetime average on mine is 304 wh/mi starting last December, and we had several cold spells well below 20 degress for a while, and have taken the car on multiple long 80+mph highway road trips. In good weather commuting on my 70 mph, 75% highway commute, with AC on, I averaged 273 wh/mi for August and Sept. The 22" wheels might account for a 5% increase in consumption, but not 50%. So yeah, your mileage varied, a lot.

If you were using the brake pedal a lot, that probably explains a lot of it. The loud pedal explains the rest. There's no reason chill mode would use significantly more battery than standard, but even Chill mode will allow ~200kw (~375kw is the max combined front/rear drive unit output, give or take, maybe you might get close to 400 with high SoC) and that's plenty to generate a lot of heat in the motors which is just wasted energy. More power flowing through the same wire = more heat losses, it's pretty much linear, and that's where the losses come from, so Chill ought to be significantly more efficient than not-chill. Same for friction losses, more load = more friction. It's not like an ICE car where a lazy low-revving engine can be more efficient than a high-strung, short-geared one. Chill mode on the X is still the entire output of a Model 3 SR+...which still has radiators and a cooling circuit in its motor even at 3600lb, so I assume it still needs heat management heh

If you have a Long Range on order, you can expect A) much faster charging at fast chargers than the LR+ and B) better, more "representative" range estimates, if the S real-world reports are any guide. So I wouldn't sweat your consumption. You'll get used to using regen and the loud pedal's novelty will wear off after a while and you'll get consumption right in line with expectations eventually. The first month won't be efficient though, guaranteed, especially with how much faster the Long Range will be than the old car you rented

Also, it looks like it was on 2021.24 software. My car was glitchy on that software, and the software build before that. All of those issues (which I didn't have on the 2021.4 software or previous software) went away on 2021.32. That's probably not a great indicator for a refresh X which will have a totally different UI, but, they do seem to get the software mostly right, eventually.

 

[croman]

304wh/mi for a model X is insane. I get 317wh/mi with my S (rated is 289wh/mi for my S). I believe my 317 is considered pretty low for an S especially in cold climate. Stl def warmer than Chicago but X is way less efficient and aerodynamic.

 

[Richbot]

With the same basic "capacity" of battery, the 2020 X Long Range went from a ~328 mile rating to the Long Range Plus with 351? I think? eventually, a 371 mile rating. I don't think those were just improvements on paper, I think this trim really was the most efficient X ever built and unless they do a "range-package" on the refresh, that will be built anytime soon unless the heat pump makes a much bigger difference in cold weather. I do not drive this thing slowly. I sit in the left lane at whatever speed it will allow without having to be a b-hole passing people on the right on my commute, and smash the giggle pedal pretty often.

With the AC off now in the perfect weather we have lately, it's dropping a lot. October is averaging 260 so far.

I'm sure a good chunk of the excellent results is my parking situation. Car is garaged at home in an insulated garage, and at work it's in an underground structure with free 120v 20amp outlets so I can pre-condition etc. It's pretty much best-case in that regard.

Chicago winters are a lot worse, and the wind is a lot worse there too. I've spent a lot of time in Chicago, family lived there most of my life - STL winters aren't even close. We barely get snow anymore.

Anyway, bodes well for the new cars. Though they'll have a lot bigger rear motor which won't help

 

[Ormond]

Thank you for all the replies and candid feedback. There was a regen setting on the Turo MX I had and IIRC the choices were "standard" and "reduced." It seemed to default to standard and that's where I kept it aside from a few minutes of trying reduced, and the difference I noted was minor, so I switched back to standard. The theory behind CHILL mode getting worse consumption is an apples-oranges comparison to my industry of power boating in that people are surprised that in many cases the same boat with a higher horsepower option can sometimes return better fuel economy than a lower powered options. Example the same 25ft boat with twin 200 hp outboards vs. twin 150's. The idea is standard, not chill mode gives me more available power and thus the powertrain doesn't have to work as hard to do what I need it to do. Again my background is ICE vehicles so the theory may not apply.

If you’re concerned about range, the 20” wheels are a better choice. I kept my sunshade installed in my 2016, but it was for glare prevention.

 

[ElectricIAC]

I’d be asking for a refund if I got a Turo rental stuck in Chill mode. Just saying.