Sydney to the Southern Highlands questions

[HollowKnight]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum. Sorry if this has been asked before. I've just placed an order for a Model 3 standard as petrol prices are staying really high and I drive everyday from Sydney to the Southern Highlands.
Basically I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this drive and if the standard version would be comfortable to do this drive back and forth on a daily basis? It is approximately 100km each way for a total of 200km at approximately 110km/hr cruising speed. I was thinking of ordering the long range version but did not want to spend the extra unless necessary as this is a cost saving exercise.
Thanks in advance for any input/help!

 

[meloccom]

The extra energy that you use on the way up you gain back on the way back down to Sydney. In addition there are now really good charging and facilities at the Pheasants Nest roadhouse.
I don’t think you will have an issue if your return distance is 200Km and Pheasants Nest is available if you have an issue.

 

[moa999]

200km even at highway speeds is easy achieved by the base model.

The main consideration is you will need to replenish about 35kWh of battery every night to remain at the same level.

Which probably means you want at least 7kW (32A single phase) charging at home, assuming you don't want to add 20min at a supercharger regularly.

Can be done with either the wall charger or mobile charger (with a third party tail) but will require a dedicated circuit to your garage or equivalent.

 

[Thirteen]

It's about 30%ish one way to do that trip. So 60% round trip give or take. Campbelltown is easy stop along the way and will add 20 to 30 minutes to your trip. Ideally you'd want fast home charging, ideally 11kw but even 7kw is good enough.

 

[Midnight Man]

If it puts your mind at ease, I bought the Model Y RWD - which is listed as having 455km range on the website - your Model 3 has 513km.

I drive from the Hunter Valley to Sydney return once or twice a week - it's 175km each way for a 350km return trip. I will freely admit I pop about 20% into the car at a supercharger in Sydney, because in real-world driving, I would otherwise either just squeak home with a few percent left, or maybe just fall a touch short.

Your trip should never require a top-up, but if you ever do, you have a few options along the route you travel as noted above, together with a supercharger at Campbelltown.

 

[donmac]

As you indicated that the "fuel" cost is a consideration, note that charging at home can be considerably cheaper.
With a Supercharger cost of, say 70c/kwh, it is going to be much more expensive than home charging. (For example, My home charging is 22c/kwh, so slightly less than 1/3 the cost!).
You would have to consider any costs with setting up charging at home, though.

 

[HollowKnight]

Hi everyone, thank you so much for your input! That actually helps a lot. Not having to have a top up would be ideal and yes as donmac mentioned I would want to charge at home and have it all set up there.
Hopefully in the winters when it gets cold I could still go back and forth without stopping. Might just stick with the standard version then...

 

[Max Spaghetti]

Standard (RWD) version. Keep in mind that the long range (LR) version is only recommended to be charged to 80% on a daily basis, and since this is your daily drive it effectively has the same daily range as the RWD version. The LR can be charged to 100% but this is not recommended every day.

 

[Nevyn72]

.....The LR can be charged to 100% but this is not recommended every day.

Actually it's fine to charge it to 100% every day, just don't leave it at that state of charge for long periods of time.

In other words charge it to full just before your estimated departure, it's got a scheduling feature just for this purpose...

 

[Vostok]

Actually it's fine to charge it to 100% every day, just don't leave it at that state of charge for long periods of time.

“Long periods of time” being a number of months. No damage would be done charging to 100% then not driving the car for a number of weeks. In fact the battery would not stay at 100% for long anyway due to background energy use. This is pretty much a non-issue.

 

[Max Spaghetti]

“Long periods of time” being a number of months. No damage would be done charging to 100% then not driving the car for a number of weeks. In fact the battery would not stay at 100% for long anyway due to background energy use. This is pretty much a non-issue.

If you charge to 100% every night, and it sits at 100% for 4 hours every morning before being driven, then it's sitting at 100% for the equivalent of 2 months per year. If you also charge to 100% on Friday night and don't drive again until Monday morning, that's an additional 3.4 months per year.

That's a total of 5.4 months per year the vehicle is sitting at 100%. That degrades even an LFP battery.

Battery calendar degradation is a thing. Many don't care about it, either because they turn their vehicle over every few years, or that they are just not interested in whether the vehicle has 90% or 95% usable capacity after X number of years.

There is data elsewhere on this site that covers this.

Whether it's a "non-issue" will depend upon personal perspective. For some people, a dirty car is an issue and they choose to look after their car and wash it regularly. Others will not. For some people, an extra 5% battery degradation after a few years may be an issue, and they will choose to look after their battery health on a daily basis. Others will not. All good, but I like to share the information and let the end-user decide rather than dismissing it as a "non-issue"

 

[Vostok]

If you charge to 100% every night, and it sits at 100% for 4 hours every morning before being driven…

But those scenarios aren’t realistic are they… how many people would do that?

My point is the occasional charge to 100% is fine, even if it stays at that level for a few days or even weeks (and even that scenario is very unlikely). I usually add to my posts on this topic “having said that, don’t charge to 100% unless you need to”. Clearly I need to remember to do that in every post on this topic.

What I’m trying to counter is the hysteria around charging to 100% then not driving the car immediately after. The way some people carry on, it’s like the battery will be destroyed if it‘s left at 100% for more than a few minutes .

Having said that, don’t charge to 100% unless you need to. ™

 

[Thirteen]

i do the highlands to sydney usually once or twice a week and i can go down and back on a full charge absolutely no problems. I often throw in a fast charge at certain sites sometimes and just put in 20-30% which doesnt take long and i can getanother whole trip going again (as one way is down hill and other isnt!)

Interestingly i did Macquarie pass last night, the whole trip which is around 60km, used 5% the whole way as its all down hill then 25% back up

 

[Quickst]

if the standard version would be comfortable to do this drive back and forth on a daily basis?

Have you sat in one?. If not suggest going to Tesla to experience sitting in one

I was thinking of ordering the long range version

Won't make it more comfortable (maybe the sound system is nicer in the LR but not a gamechanger)
Won't be necessary for the proposed daily driving.
Range is not going to be a problem - you wont even need to charge to 100% in the RWD to make the roundtrip distance
The only issue might be regenerative braking - it is less effective in cold temps (near or sub zero temps) for a RWD until the battery heats up. LR is better but overall that is an edge case.


Lets say the M3 RWD will use about 15kWh/100km . Compare that to a petrol car using about 8L/100km
1kWh costs 20C if charging at home or 70C if charging at a supercharger
Petrol is $2.2 per L

Lets say 30kWh for the round trip
If charging at home the electricity cost will be $6 for 200km if charging at home or $21 if using the supercharger
While the petrol - $35 for the 200km

In other words it is as though your petrol consumption is 1.3L/100km if charging from home or 5L/100km of using a supercharger. Tweak the numbers to suit