My first long drive, to Port Macquarie and on to Byron. A few things really stood out:
1. Sydney to Port Macquarie in a P85D is a stretch until the Superchargers are operational. It was lucky I charged up at the Stockland Glendale Chargepoint. In the 2 hours I spent there, I added around 14 kWh or around 60 km. I arrived at The Observatory with 40 km remaining on the display. This was driving at or below 110 km/h on TACC, A/C on & autosteer almost the entire trip. So if you have a P85D and want to make it all the way, until the Superchargers appear, either top up in Newcastle or drive conservatively.
2. The Observatory is very good. Be sure to check & double check that one of the 2 HPWC's is available for use and not occupied because they're located in mobility access car spaces and one was occupied by a Mercedes when I arrived. Also don't expect to be able to monitor charging via any app. The car park is underground. Probably best to schedule the charging to start around midnight and it should be at 100% by about 8.30am. Alternatively charge to 90% on arrival then to 100% for around an hour in the morning.
3. Autopilot is one of the greatest advances in motoring and I definitely agree with all that have commented that it becomes so apparent during & after a long drive. Under/oversteer is evident during a long trip but I was certainly guiding it to a more correct line at any opportunity so that I might be able to detect any local learning along the same route next time. AP doesn't seem to cope with new sections of road, judging that I was going way too fast in a dead-end street and auto braking from 110 km/h to 70km/h. I accelerated back to cruise in about a second but would have been a real concern if somebody had been tailgating as was the case at various times during the drive.
4. Arrived at the Macadamia Castle with around 30 km remaining. I started charging with the intention of topping up around 15 kWh or a couple of hours charge time. Within a few minutes, a storm cell hit. Not unusual here but this was big. The J1772 adaptor was on the ground under the car to protect it from the rain. Within 5 minutes, there was a torrent of water. I disconnected with the app and ran to unplug it. Got drenched with a crowd of about 50 people watching intently. Somebody told me they were talking about my imminent electrocution. It was a serious deluge but the evnomics J1772 adaptor survived a real drenching.
1. Sydney to Port Macquarie in a P85D is a stretch until the Superchargers are operational. It was lucky I charged up at the Stockland Glendale Chargepoint. In the 2 hours I spent there, I added around 14 kWh or around 60 km. I arrived at The Observatory with 40 km remaining on the display. This was driving at or below 110 km/h on TACC, A/C on & autosteer almost the entire trip. So if you have a P85D and want to make it all the way, until the Superchargers appear, either top up in Newcastle or drive conservatively.
2. The Observatory is very good. Be sure to check & double check that one of the 2 HPWC's is available for use and not occupied because they're located in mobility access car spaces and one was occupied by a Mercedes when I arrived. Also don't expect to be able to monitor charging via any app. The car park is underground. Probably best to schedule the charging to start around midnight and it should be at 100% by about 8.30am. Alternatively charge to 90% on arrival then to 100% for around an hour in the morning.
3. Autopilot is one of the greatest advances in motoring and I definitely agree with all that have commented that it becomes so apparent during & after a long drive. Under/oversteer is evident during a long trip but I was certainly guiding it to a more correct line at any opportunity so that I might be able to detect any local learning along the same route next time. AP doesn't seem to cope with new sections of road, judging that I was going way too fast in a dead-end street and auto braking from 110 km/h to 70km/h. I accelerated back to cruise in about a second but would have been a real concern if somebody had been tailgating as was the case at various times during the drive.
4. Arrived at the Macadamia Castle with around 30 km remaining. I started charging with the intention of topping up around 15 kWh or a couple of hours charge time. Within a few minutes, a storm cell hit. Not unusual here but this was big. The J1772 adaptor was on the ground under the car to protect it from the rain. Within 5 minutes, there was a torrent of water. I disconnected with the app and ran to unplug it. Got drenched with a crowd of about 50 people watching intently. Somebody told me they were talking about my imminent electrocution. It was a serious deluge but the evnomics J1772 adaptor survived a real drenching.
