Road Trip from Seattle to Bozeman Mountain Drive Habits

[Captain Doug]

Hi Folks-

First significant road trip in my 2021 Model 3 SR+. Curious about the community thoughts on efficient mountain driving. Say I want to average 70 - 75 while driving (not counting supercharger stops). While driving during significant mountain climbs and descents; am I better maintaining a constant speed of 70 - 75 or should I lower my speed uphill and increase it downhill?

Looking forward to comments. Thanks!

 

[TM3blu]

Stop worrying. "Drive it like you stole it" The car will tell you if your doing it wrong.

 

[animorph]

Your best efficiency gain will be by slowing down, up or down. Downhill is particularly easy using regen since you won't need to tap the brakes to keep your speed in check.

Plan ahead with ABetterRoutePlanner to get an idea of what to expect. Enter either your final destination or the next Supercharger recommended by ABRP into the in-car nav and the car will tell you the charge remaining at that destination. That number will change as you drive, so continuously monitor it. As long as you are comfortable with that number (I like to start with 15% - 20% extra and end with at least 10% if possible), you can just drive normally. If it is trending downward, slow down. Usually 3 MPH is plenty to stop the decline.

At each Supercharger only charge to the point where the car says it is OK to make the next planned charger (or wait a little longer to reach your comfortable margin). The battery charges faster at lower charge levels, and filling to 100% is super slow. ABRP optimizes your charging for the fastest total trip time so I generally follow it's plan.