Hello all,
Just completed a trip from Maryland to Hamilton, Ontario over the holidays in my 70D. Bottom line - We need a supercharger in Erie, PA.
This trip took us through Hagerstown, MD, Somerset, PA, Cranberry Township, PA, and Buffalo, NY superchargers. All the superchargers are within a reasonable distance from each other except Cranberry to Buffalo. That distance is 205 miles.
On the way up, the temperature was 65 degrees in Maryland and about 55 in Buffalo, so there were no significant issues. We drove the speed limit or slightly above the entire time and arrived in Buffalo with 12 miles on the clock. We used the heat sparingly, depended more on the seat warmers.
On the way back, we charged up in Buffalo to 235 miles, and did great out of the gate. at about 50 miles our of Buffalo heading west to Erie, our energy meter was averaging 290 Wh/mile and the target was to keep it to less than 318 Wh/mile average to make it to Cranberry. Then the temperature dropped from about 33 to 31 and started raining pretty hard. In a short time, the average usage climbed to 320Wh/mile, and then 330 Wh/mile. We slowed down at this point from 56 mph to 50 mph and the speed limit went up to 65 mph. The autopilot mostly drove the car, but got confused once in a while when the rain was too heavy to "see" the lane markings clearly. We turned off the heat for the most part and the interior temperature was down to about 50. The trip indicator was showing -12 charge left at destination.
Once the rain stopped, the consumption started going down slowly to 320 wh/mile average, and then 309 wh/mile aveage. The remaining range at destination also went to -5 and -1 and finally to 1%; at which point we accelerated to 55 mph. As we got closer and we knew we were going to make it, we came up to the the 65 speed limit and made it to the Cranberry supercharger with 3 miles left.
Overall, we're glad we made the trip. We were going to stop in Erie and find a charger but decided against it thinking we can stop further south if we needed to charge some. But with only 19 mile per hour charge, we figured we would be ahead driving at 50 mph and make it to the supercharger. We anticipated this, so the kids had blankets and such - so it wasn't a big deal.
The alternative routing through Newark, Binghamton, and Syracuse would have added another 111 miles. That is about 1/5th of the whole trip.
So a supercharger in Erie, PA would have made this trip nicer and we would have had some heat in the car. Hopefully Tesla would put it up for our trip next Christmas.
Happy new year everyone!
Just completed a trip from Maryland to Hamilton, Ontario over the holidays in my 70D. Bottom line - We need a supercharger in Erie, PA.
This trip took us through Hagerstown, MD, Somerset, PA, Cranberry Township, PA, and Buffalo, NY superchargers. All the superchargers are within a reasonable distance from each other except Cranberry to Buffalo. That distance is 205 miles.
On the way up, the temperature was 65 degrees in Maryland and about 55 in Buffalo, so there were no significant issues. We drove the speed limit or slightly above the entire time and arrived in Buffalo with 12 miles on the clock. We used the heat sparingly, depended more on the seat warmers.
On the way back, we charged up in Buffalo to 235 miles, and did great out of the gate. at about 50 miles our of Buffalo heading west to Erie, our energy meter was averaging 290 Wh/mile and the target was to keep it to less than 318 Wh/mile average to make it to Cranberry. Then the temperature dropped from about 33 to 31 and started raining pretty hard. In a short time, the average usage climbed to 320Wh/mile, and then 330 Wh/mile. We slowed down at this point from 56 mph to 50 mph and the speed limit went up to 65 mph. The autopilot mostly drove the car, but got confused once in a while when the rain was too heavy to "see" the lane markings clearly. We turned off the heat for the most part and the interior temperature was down to about 50. The trip indicator was showing -12 charge left at destination.
Once the rain stopped, the consumption started going down slowly to 320 wh/mile average, and then 309 wh/mile aveage. The remaining range at destination also went to -5 and -1 and finally to 1%; at which point we accelerated to 55 mph. As we got closer and we knew we were going to make it, we came up to the the 65 speed limit and made it to the Cranberry supercharger with 3 miles left.
Overall, we're glad we made the trip. We were going to stop in Erie and find a charger but decided against it thinking we can stop further south if we needed to charge some. But with only 19 mile per hour charge, we figured we would be ahead driving at 50 mph and make it to the supercharger. We anticipated this, so the kids had blankets and such - so it wasn't a big deal.
The alternative routing through Newark, Binghamton, and Syracuse would have added another 111 miles. That is about 1/5th of the whole trip.
So a supercharger in Erie, PA would have made this trip nicer and we would have had some heat in the car. Hopefully Tesla would put it up for our trip next Christmas.
Happy new year everyone!
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