Road trip planning tools [ABetterRoutePlanner and EV Trip Optimizer]

[ewoodrick]

Get in car and say "Navigate to Niagra Falls"

But take a look and familiarize yourself with the Superchargers along your route, there are probably a number of options. Don't assume that the car's recommendation is the only one.
Look for places where you will be taking a break, meal, or whatever. Try to schedule this with a charging stop to minimize your time.
Make sure that you have your UMC with you
Make sure that your aero covers are on, if applicable.
Look for hotels with charging options
Most all of the route planners will get you there, but you need to think about how full you want to be when you get there.

Mostly, enjoy the trip.

 

[CharleyBC]

As others have said, we've been happier making more frequent stops than the car recommends. Frankly, the car has more range than my bladder anyway. I tend to look for chargers about 100-150 miles apart, and take only enough charge at each one to get to the next , plus a comfy buffer.

Two biggies to factor in: cabin heat is a big hit on range in cold weather, so allow for that. Elevation change is another, but you get that back going the other direction. Oh, third biggie: speed. The faster you go, the more air resistance is a factor, and it's exponential.

Enjoy your trip! You'll find this stuff becomes second nature after a bit.

 

[smartino]

Get in car and say "Navigate to Niagra Falls"

But take a look and familiarize yourself with the Superchargers along your route, there are probably a number of options. Don't assume that the car's recommendation is the only one.
Look for places where you will be taking a break, meal, or whatever. Try to schedule this with a charging stop to minimize your time.
Make sure that you have your UMC with you
Make sure that your aero covers are on, if applicable.
Look for hotels with charging options
Most all of the route planners will get you there, but you need to think about how full you want to be when you get there.

Mostly, enjoy the trip.

We just completed a trip from Indiana to New England and back a few weeks ago and we stopped at Niagra Falls on our way to New England. I totally agree with all the above recommendations. Basically I used abetterrouteplanner.com to find the most desirable route to a destination. Then in the car I used the navigation to navigate to the supercharger that was identified by abetterrouteplanner.com. We also did use hotels that had charging options and would navigate to them too. I didn't just use the in car navigation to say navigate to Niagra Falls because the in car navigation will show one route and one route only and not provide alternatives. So I just planned by route ahead of time and then used the in-car navigation to navigate to the supercharger on that route or the hotel we were staying at. Definitely takes a little more planning, but well worth the time. We had a great time on our trip and never had any issues with range anxiety for the 2 weeks we were on the road. I am sure you will have a great time.

 

[KetchupKilla]

Thanks for the advice. I looked at those sites and they seemed like they took the same route just more stops. I definitely didn't like the idea of stopping at a charger with an estimated 10% battery left. A little too low for my liking. Even in my Corolla I use to refill with around a quarter of a tank at the lowest.

 

[Saghost]

Thanks for the advice. I looked at those sites and they seemed like they took the same route just more stops. I definitely didn't like the idea of stopping at a charger with an estimated 10% battery left. A little too low for my liking. Even in my Corolla I use to refill with around a quarter of a tank at the lowest.

The lower you go, the faster you charge, but at some point the angst becomes not worth the few seconds gained. That point varies from person to person, and is also related to how well you know the car and the route.

 

[Cerebralblue]

Tomorrow I will be leaving Massachusetts and heading to Niagara falls in Canada. This will be my first real trip in my model 3. How does planning a trip work with Tesla. Do I need to plan out the path with the super chargers or will it automatically set up a planned route like the online route planner. Any help would be great

I’ve done a couple long trips and Tesla does pretty good but they don’t show you all the SuperChargers along the way.

You may want to use this as a secondary option to help reduce range anxiety.
A Better Routeplanner

 

[hydro 481]

Also keep in mind that weather will play a huge role in how much actual range you will have. Cold weather will take a sizable chunk out of your range. I haven’t taken any road trips in my Tesla yet so I have no experience with the system’s trip planner. I doubt it would take into account things like weather or elevation though.

 

[Saghost]

Also keep in mind that weather will play a huge role in how much actual range you will have. Cold weather will take a sizable chunk out of your range. I haven’t taken any road trips in my Tesla yet so I have no experience with the system’s trip planner. I doubt it would take into account things like weather or elevation though.

It does account for both. More than that, the estimate at arrival is updated in real time based on actual usage, so after ten or fifteen minutes of driving, you should have a pretty accurate understanding of what you’ll have when you get to the next stop.

Cold weather actually doesn’t have much effect on road trips - most of the impact is in local driving, because hearing a cold pack and cold cabin is expensive.

Once they are warm, though, it’s only 10-15% more energy to keep them warm and push through the denser air.

 

[Ciaopec]

Tomorrow I will be leaving Massachusetts and heading to Niagara falls in Canada. This will be my first real trip in my model 3. How does planning a trip work with Tesla. Do I need to plan out the path with the super chargers or will it automatically set up a planned route like the online route planner. Any help would be great

Also, read your owner's manual.

 

[Gwgan]

Get in car and say "Navigate to Niagra Falls"

works well now with plenty of chargers on that route.
Personally like EV Trip Optimizer app for trying out different plans. Be sure to use your actual weight and efficiency numbers when using apps.
Plan for 10% on arrival, charge until the charge rate/power drops (60%-70%, 15-20 min) and move on. Only charge to 90%-100% when sleeping and 100% only if needed (not likely on this trip) and when ready to leave soon after so as not to leave the battery at that level.
Supercharge near or on arrival at your destination while the battery is warm and not in the morning if slow AC destination charging is not available.

 

[toolman335]

Does the Tesla Navigation system have an option where you can find destination chargers? I only seem to be able to do it through my phone on the Tesla website. The Tesla App only shows the 4 closest destination chargers, which doesn't help when mapping out a big trip?

The point of my question is that I don't want to use my phone while driving.

 

[Saghost]

Does the Tesla Navigation system have an option where you can find destination chargers? I only seem to be able to do it through my phone on the Tesla website. The Tesla App only shows the 4 closest destination chargers, which doesn't help when mapping out a big trip?

The point of my question is that I don't want to use my phone while driving.

The lightning bolt icon on the map area brings up chargers.

At the top of the list are nearby Superchargers, but when you scroll it down it has Tesla destination chargers in range as well. They are shown in grey on the map when the icon is clicked - or with a grey icon in the center of a region with a number it there are a bunch near each other (zoom in and they’ll separate.)

You can also use the web browser to pull up Plugshare in the car, which gets you all the non-Tesla charging options (the included J1772 adapter will let you use most of these.)

 

[ewoodrick]

Thanks for the advice. I looked at those sites and they seemed like they took the same route just more stops. I definitely didn't like the idea of stopping at a charger with an estimated 10% battery left. A little too low for my liking. Even in my Corolla I use to refill with around a quarter of a tank at the lowest.

And as your first trip, that's absolutely an okay thing to do. Heck, just plan your trip to stop at every Supercharger along the way. No, I'm not joking, I'm being serious. It helps to decrease your range anxiety significantly.

After you stop at every charger a few times, you will start to realize that maybe it's easier and safe to skip one.
And then you may start to realize that starting charging at 50% takes a long time to add 40%.
And then you start to understand that going from 10% to 50% is a lot faster than going 50% to 90%
And along the way you realize that Tesla chargers are pretty reliable. Use PlugShare to see if there may be any issues.

It's a journey that you have to take yourself through. Do it at your own pace, don't let people push you. You have to feel comfortable.

After 5 years driving EVs, and currently an all EV family, when I started with an 88 mile Leaf, you tend to hit your limits a lot quicker. At 20%, you have to start worrying, not because it's 20%, but because it's 17 miles. And you can easily use your battery up in 2 hours.

Most important thing, this is an adventure for you, have fun, learn a little, enjoy the trip.
If the car is pointing to your destination, it will tell you to slow down if it thinks that it can't reach the destination, but that's conservative, you may learn that you can take it with a grain of salt.

Start your trip at 100%. Charge on the road to about 80-90%. Going high just takes a lot longer. (unless you are eating, then be careful about idle fees).

Range Anxiety, everyone's been there.

Maybe you'll eventually get to my point where Niagara Falls? I'm in Atlanta, I'm happy with just jumping in the car right now and heading out. I know there's enough charging options to get me there.

 

[Trevor B]

I didn't just use the in car navigation to say navigate to Niagra Falls because the in car navigation will show one route and one route only and not provide alternatives.

Huh?

 

[hydro 481]

It does account for both. More than that, the estimate at arrival is updated in real time based on actual usage, so after ten or fifteen minutes of driving, you should have a pretty accurate understanding of what you’ll have when you get to the next stop.

Cold weather actually doesn’t have much effect on road trips - most of the impact is in local driving, because hearing a cold pack and cold cabin is expensive.

Once they are warm, though, it’s only 10-15% more energy to keep them warm and push through the denser air.

I can understand it accounting for weather and terrain in "real-time" but what I mean is can it account for those things beforehand? Like before I even start driving? For example, if I'm taking a 600 mile road trip to another state, will it accurately predict the entire terrain and weather throughout the trip? Or will it just update as I go along? Reason I bring this up is I like to pre-plan all my stops in advance whenever I take a long road trip. Maybe I'll want to stop at a certain charging station to eat at a restaurant, visit a mall, ect.

15% more energy is 47 miles for a P3D? That still seems like a sizable amount to me.

 

[Saghost]

I can understand it accounting for weather and terrain in "real-time" but what I mean is can it account for those things beforehand? Like before I even start driving? For example, if I'm taking a 600 mile road trip to another state, will it accurately predict the entire terrain and weather throughout the trip? Or will it just update as I go along? Reason I bring this up is I like to pre-plan all my stops in advance whenever I take a long road trip. Maybe I'll want to stop at a certain charging station to eat at a restaurant, visit a mall, ect.

15% more energy is 47 miles for a P3D? That still seems like a sizable amount to me.

It predicts all the terrain currently. I’m not aware of it projecting weather ahead for the route, though I think it does use the car’s outside temp in planning.

Under normal conditions, the car is handing the destination to the mothership and routing is done on a server there, so they could add current or forecasted weather at the server in the future relatively easily.

 

[hridge2020]

You might need these too!!

 

[hydro 481]

It predicts all the terrain currently. I’m not aware of it projecting weather ahead for the route, though I think it does use the car’s outside temp in planning.

Under normal conditions, the car is handing the destination to the mothership and routing is done on a server there, so they could add current or forecasted weather at the server in the future relatively easily.

I think for shorter road trips it wouldn't be an issue. But for longer road trips that could prove rather challenging to accurate predict. Weather is obviously dynamic and can fluctuate quite a bit from region to region. Also for certain areas there can be a big difference in temperature from day to night. The system would have to predict what time of the day you arrive in that area as well. I don't know...maybe I'm just overthinking it

 

[Saghost]

I think for shorter road trips it wouldn't be an issue. But for longer road trips that could prove rather challenging to accurate predict. Weather is obviously dynamic and can fluctuate quite a bit from region to region. Also for certain areas there can be a big difference in temperature from day to night. The system would have to predict what time of the day you arrive in that area as well. I don't know...maybe I'm just overthinking it

The system is already predicting what time of day you’ll arrive and how long you’ll stay as part of the normal trip plan.

More than that, they have data on what almost a million Teslas are doing every day, so if they put some effort into data analysis, they’ll quickly get not only how accurate the predictions are for any given leg, but also how people prefer to drive the legs - how fast are they taking each road, where do they skip a charger, where do they sit down for a meal or go shopping.

In principle they could even build a profile for you - this person likes sit down meals, but usually isn’t shopping in malls, that one prefers to drive straight through, and then personalize the navigation plan to match what you usually choose.

Obviously the plan won’t be more accurate than the weather forecast it is based on - but all they really need from that is “you might need another 20% for this leg” and if they overshoot it won’t matter much.

 

[John G Upstate]

Tomorrow I will be leaving Massachusetts and heading to Niagara falls in Canada. This will be my first real trip in my model 3. How does planning a trip work with Tesla. Do I need to plan out the path with the super chargers or will it automatically set up a planned route like the online route planner. Any help would be great

Assuming that you take I-90 (Mass Pike, NY Thruway), the Syracuse supercharger is super-convenient. It is a couple hundred feet from the Thruway toll gate at that exit - you can see the toll gate while you are charging. The Victor (Rochester) supercharger will take 5-10 minutes to get to from the Thruway. It's located at a large shopping mall with multiple restaurants, bathrooms etc. Also, if you happen to have a Nexus card, crossing into Canada is really fast at the Whirlpool Bridge as it is Nexus only. Otherwise, call the Niagara crossing 800 number for information on delays to decide which bridge to use: 800-715-6722. If you want to pull over to make the call, stop at the Clarence service area before you reach Buffalo.