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Tesla Cross-Country Trip

hobbes

Active Member
Feb 11, 2013
2,598
12,705
Germany
Anyone know what the current world record is they are trying to beat ?
Well, officially (see Cross Country Rally | Blog | Tesla Motors) they only want to "set a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS achievement for lowest charge time for an electric vehicle traveling across the United States". Was kind of disappointed with this, not really that cool a record, if it even already exists at all.

But according to the tesla twitter feed they had covered 557 mi at 11:47 am today. Official start was at 12:40 am, that is they did about 50mph on average including charging! Assuming the trip is 3500mi, they would make it in 70h if they keep that speed up. The record I found for coast to coast for EVs was set by an electric motorcyle in June 2013: 85h - don´t know if anyone was faster after that though. So for now, it looks like they could comfortably beat that :smile:!
 

stevezzzz

R;SigS;P85D;SigX;S90D;XP100D;3LR;YLR
Nov 13, 2009
6,100
121
Colorado
I think you are missing my point. road miles do not really count if they are going for the lowest charging times. 2 or 3 fast charges would be less charging time than 1 range would it not ? But you are also correct that eliminating miles will eventually eliminate charges.

I'm finally on the same page, Kevin: I missed the part of TM's blog post saying they were shooting for a minimum charging time record. That seems odd to me: an arcane measure and much less accessible to non-EV enthusiasts than shortest time from A to B.
 

lorih

Member
May 12, 2013
709
46
I'm finally on the same page, Kevin: I missed the part of TM's blog post saying they were shooting for a minimum charging time record. That seems odd to me: an arcane measure and much less accessible to non-EV enthusiasts than shortest time from A to B.


My guess is:
1) they can't claim the first coast to coast Supercharger only road trip, as that was done last week by John and Jill
2) they are addressing the two main worries- range anxiety, and how long it takes EV's to charge
3) it removes the risk of failure due to unexpected and/or things out of their control (traffic, road closure, weather, flat tire)
if they made a big deal in the media about "fastest cross country EV road trip" and were delayed because of something beyond their control they would be stuck defending themselves again fom media FUD (ie "well, it took them 4.5 days, buy they were sitting on the side of the road for 15 hrs"...somebody would leave that out and just quote total time)
 

stevezzzz

R;SigS;P85D;SigX;S90D;XP100D;3LR;YLR
Nov 13, 2009
6,100
121
Colorado
My guess is:
1) they can't claim the first coast to coast Supercharger only road trip, as that was done last week by John and Jill
2) they are addressing the two main worries- range anxiety, and how long it takes EV's to charge
3) it removes the risk of failure due to unexpected and/or things out of their control (traffic, road closure, weather, flat tire)
if they made a big deal in the media about "fastest cross country EV road trip" and were delayed because of something beyond their control they would be stuck defending themselves again fom media FUD (ie "well, it took them 4.5 days, buy they were sitting on the side of the road for 15 hrs"...somebody would leave that out and just quote total time)

That's too darn logical, Lorih. But it makes perfect sense.
 

JST

Active Member
May 23, 2013
1,560
222
Also, it avoids the accusation that they were breaking the speed limit, and avoids calling unwanted law enforcement attention.
 

Zaxxon

Supporting Member
Dec 11, 2012
4,620
21,174
Colorado
Yeah, they are pretty much guaranteed to be stopped due to weather in Colorado, so I think their choice of metric was wise.
 

lorih

Member
May 12, 2013
709
46
That's too darn logical, Lorih. But it makes perfect sense.

Sorry, I have been accused of being 'too logical before', but those that have met me in person know I am not Data or Spock. I do reason like a scientist, but i also 'feel' like a human.

;)

old school emoticon, new ones don't seem to be showing up using iPad
 

andrewket

Well-Known Member
Dec 20, 2012
5,704
1,525
"The team began the rally expecting fine weather. The forecast had said as much. But now they were hearing that there could be as much as 15 inches of snow near Grand Junction that evening. Portions of I-70 were reportedly being closed and other roads might follow suit. Chains would be a necessity.Well, no one thought traversing the country in mid-winter conditions in the space of three days would be easy."

Except that it was known that a huge storm was approaching. Storms make for a better story.

A
 

Bradleybang

Member
Apr 14, 2008
391
130
Oakland, CA
Road Conditions, Speeds, Travel Times, Traffic Cameras, Live Streaming Traffic Cameras, Road Closures and Road Work Information provided by Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) a branch of Colorado Department of Transportation
Road Closure alert. Impact is Severe Closed
I-70 Eastbound Vail - Frisco (Milemarker 180-203)
Closed because of numerous accidents. No estimated time of reopening. Road closure began January 30th, 2014 at 5:05pm.

Well I think they might get to Glenwood Springs and wait until morning.
 

Kipernicus

Model S Res#P1440
Dec 2, 2009
1,255
135
Belmont, CA
They mention support vehicles. Where drivers sleep.
How many cars in total? Model S? Obviously more than 2?
yeah, and how many drivers?
From one of the pics it looked like 4, so I thought the passenger seat was laid down for sleep while the other drove. Having "support vehicles" seems less sporting.
 

johnnyS

Member
Sep 8, 2011
583
188
I spoke with a couple of drivers at the Hawthorne event. It was a little hard to hear with the loud DJ music, but I think I heard that there are 19 drivers or 19 in the crew. Of course the vans need drivers and there is a film crew traveling with the group. Only two people are in the car at a time and the rest are in the chase vehicles. John and Jill's more modest trip is probably more of an accomplishment. The drivers I spoke with did not seem to know all the details.
 

ecarfan

Well-Known Member
Sep 21, 2013
19,186
13,841
San Mateo, CA
So the Teslas have to have ICEs travelling with them for support? I was hoping it was just two Model S's and some drivers and the person who wasn't driving would sleep. But maybe they decided that wouldn't be safe and they might get too tired.
 
Yeah, I think John and his daughter's trip was a bit more bold - no support vehicles. We going from Chicago to 'All Roads lead to DC' without support vehicles. I like what TM is doing but without support vehicles seems to give more credibility. Anyway, there have been many cross country trips in Teslas. I can think of at least 1/2 dozen that I know of (earlier ones of course used J-plugs and Nemas and took a lot longer).
 

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