Tesla's Charging Woes: Why I'm Ditching It for Long-Distance Travel

[Greg29]

The total opposite. I've driven from Niagara Falls, NY to Albany, NY at least a dozen times. I also recently came back from a trip from Buffalo, NY to Nashville, TN. Many other road trips in my Model 3 as well.

Each and every time, I charge to 100% the night before, then just get in the car and set the navigation to my destination. Absolutely ZERO planning beforehand.

Your post reminds me of a question re: Tesla nav. Is there a way to tell it to reserve a higher SOC at my destination if I'm traveling to a location without charging infrastructure?

 

[Bigriver]

Wow, model S forum. You guys are brutal over here. Before you add me to the luncheon menu, let me preface that I am very pro-Tesla, that is all that is in my garage now and probably forever more. I agree that the OP did some things to shoot himself in the foot. But I am surprised at the vigor of the attacks and the seeming insistence that all Teslas are great for long distance traveling.

@cmaster, I agree that a 2017 with a rated range of 220 miles (15% degradation on a model 75D?) is not going to be the best road warrior vehicle for long distance travel. That low rated range and the slow charging curve of a 2017 does necessitate more and longer stops than most Tesla owners are used to. I wouldn’t want to borrow your car for long distance travel.

I agree that it is good to ride the bottom half of the battery, but 20% to 50% is too extreme. I have experience with long distance travel in a 2013 model S 85 and a 2017 model X 100D and I found the sweet spot for them is 10% to 70%. For 2 to 2.5 hours of driving, that results in charging stops of about 30 min for the 2017 (with rated range of about 265) and 45 min for the 2013 (with rated range around 245). Your car would have even a worse drive/charge time ratio if I am understanding correctly that your current rated range is 220 miles.

For trips under 400 miles, I can find the charging stops refreshing no matter what Tesla I am in. For longer trips (I do up to 700 miles a day), the charging stops can turn a long day into an unacceptably long day. Thus I recently got a 2023 model S. The rated range of 400 miles and the fast charging does break the barrier such that charging is NO issue, immense flexibility on which superchargers to use, and adds zero extra time to long distance travel.

Here is some data on how the charging time varies with the Teslas I have owned. They are vastly different long distance experiences.

 

[jankratochvil]

As long as you/OP is fine speeding (or it is in Germany on no limit freeways) it is optimal to arrive to SC with 5% SoC (that is the lowest SoC where it starts charging 250kW). So I maintain such a speed that the car estimate for SC arrival is 5%. The trick is to always to choose a SC which will provide a reasonable driving speed.

 

[father_of_6]

@Greg29...

"Your post reminds me of a question re: Tesla nav. Is there a way to tell it to reserve a higher SOC at my destination if I'm traveling to a location without charging infrastructure?"

No, unfortunately not. The nav doesn't know if your destination has charging or not, so it doesn't concern itself with whether or not you'll have enough juice to get out of there. That's understandable, so as the drivers we need to be aware of it. I try to stay at places that have or are near charging.

 

[Park2670]

My favorite and fastest method of road tripping is drive for two hours, charge for <20 minutes. Repeat until you reach your destination.

 

[3sr+buyer]

The nav doesn't know if your destination has charging or not, so it doesn't concern itself with whether or not you'll have enough juice to get out of there. That's understandable, so as the drivers we need to be aware of it. I try to stay at places that have or are near charging.

It would help if the navigation offered a setting for target charge level at destination, and whether to try for shortest trip (like ABRP's default) or fewer charging stops (current method).

If I am driving home (with overnight charging in the garage), arriving at 1% is fine, but when the destination does not have charging, I would want more.

 

[beatle]

It would help if the navigation offered a setting for target charge level at destination, and whether to try for shortest trip (like ABRP's default) or fewer charging stops (current method).

If I am driving home (with overnight charging in the garage), arriving at 1% is fine, but when the destination does not have charging, I would want more.

You may know this already, but ABRP has a setting for both destination and charging stop minimums. As you said, this is useful if you don't have destination charging. I don't think I've ever bothered using the built in navigation to plan my charging stops since ABRP does such a good job.

 

[Leftlane22]

Just downloaded ABRP - in choosing my car there is no option to pick anything past 2021 for the Model S?

 

[GHammer]

Just downloaded ABRP - in choosing my car there is no option to pick anything past 2021 for the Model S?

2021 to current are all Palladium series cars so 2021 will include newer cars.

 

[Leftlane22]

Okay thanks

 

[Eric33432]

Maybe once in a while I have to wait 5 or 10 or 15 minutes when super charging, but most of the time my Tessies are charged before I am ready to leave the SuC site. Any time that I do have to wait is made up many times by the time I do not spend charging for daily driving, oil changes, and other ICE car maintenance.

I just got back from a trip from Boca Raton > Tuscaloosa > Asheville > Boca Raton in my MX Tessie, way over 1500 miles, and it was a great trip, and I mostly follow the Tesla nav system's SuC advise.

 

[sublimejackman]

This thread is awesome. And maybe someone else alredy pointed this out but this thread is why regular people are turned off by Tesla. Well that and the CEO spouts off his mouth like an angry teenager on a 2006 episode of Dr. Phil.

The best part is his experience is the same as mine in my 2017 Model S these days. At 75-80mph, you can really only go 80-110mi between charges while also keeping the timing fairly optimal. Also, lines in the NE US are real these days, esp around cities.

 

[WARP 10]

charging to 100% takes longer to charge from 90%-100%. You will wait 30 minutes more to charge fro 95% to 100%.

Charging from 20% to 50% gets you 100 miles or so for 20 minutes of charging....but higher than that, it slows the rate of charge.

Charge to 100% overnight at home and that's not a problem. We have a 2016 S75 that has at least 20k miles of long distance trips. Just following the navigation charging stops, I've never had to charge 6 times a day. Latest was San Diego to Dallas (1360m) in April. Charged 8 times in each direction. I can easily go 500 miles with 2 stops, each 30-40 minutes. With a new S, you could easily to it with only one stop, unless you're looking at a big elevation change into a 30mph wind.

 

[WARP 10]

At best this is one of the most blatant and obvious cases of operator error I've ever seen. Not Tesla's fault.

At worst, this is yet another attempt to get people all riled up about something so obviously wrong that it's clearly inflammatory.

Either way, this is dumb and isn't even worth the keystrokes.

Our Teslas have been the BEST vehicles for road trips we've ever owned. Period. It's become one of our summertime hobbies as a direct result of owning Teslas, in fact. We have well over 100k miles logged in Teslas now and nothing you can say will lead me to believe that there's a better option currently available for our needs. If there was, we'd own that instead.

I'm not brand loyal to Tesla nor do I have any allegiance or political affiliation with Tesla or it's vision. All I car about is driving the best driving experience at the best price available that's also fun and super advanced. It does everything and does it well.

People like the OP of this thread are clearly the ones with an agenda. You should just sell and get like a BMW or a Ford or something. Lots of people do. Lots of people drove a Ford Taurus too... doesn't make them any good. Buncha lemmings driving garbage with the best marketing.

Good thing nobody is forcing you to own a Tesla. Sounds like you're a born Prius owner. Enjoy!

Excellent summation.

 

[MidBaz]

On my 400 mile trip to Scotland (my parents) my typical process is:

• Charge the car to 100% at home
• Stop around lunchtime. Probably about midway. Charge up to circa 80%. It doesn't take long and I've actually found myself having to slide the max charge up a bit higher just so we have enough time to finish our lunch
• My parents don't have a charger so I tend to drop into the last SC on route. Not so much to allow me to get to my destination, but to ensure the car is charged when I get there. More often than not I can do all my driving for the few days we are there, and get back to that same SC on the way home again

I played with ABRP last time and it certainly has some functionality that is missing on the Tesla Nav but to be honest, I tend to just go with the Nav.

So it may take a bit more thought than the same trip in an ICE, but just two stops on a 400 mile trip. I actually have to stop 3 times but one of those is more about my middle-aged bladder than it is about charge levels. I'm not sure we can blame that on Elon

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Have you had the CCS retrofit done?

There are CCS chargers at the service plazas along the Thruway.

 

[Darmie]

I think the OP needs to adjust their charging strategy.

I think they did...

 

[philander]

Being able to leave at 100% makes a huge difference to a curve-challenged MS on a long drive, and it's why destination charging is such a huge bonus for the next leg or a return trip. I've started gifting HPWC's to distant friends that don't have EVs for future trips.

Another factor on long trips is how far a given Supercharger is from the highway. Even if it's a half-mile away, if it's left turns in strip mall hell it can take 15-20 minutes just to get there(I'm looking at you, Rossford OH). Exiting and starting a charge in under a minute at a tollway oasis, though, is a different story- if I'm alone and it's that easy, I don't mind stopping every 30-45 minutes or so and repeatedly charging for 6-8 minutes from 1-25% to keep the rate above 100kW.

 

[Eric33432]

Being able to leave at 100% makes a huge difference to a curve-challenged MS on a long drive, and it's why destination charging is such a huge bonus for the next leg or a return trip. I've started gifting HPWC's to distant friends that don't have EVs for future trips.

Another factor on long trips is how far a given Supercharger is from the highway. Even if it's a half-mile away, if it's left turns in strip mall hell it can take 15-20 minutes just to get there(I'm looking at you, Rossford OH). Exiting and starting a charge in under a minute at a tollway oasis, though, is a different story- if I'm alone and it's that easy, I don't mind stopping every 30-45 minutes or so and repeatedly charging for 6-8 minutes from 1-25% to keep the rate above 100kW.

Do you also pay to have an electrician install the high power wall connector?

 

[philander]

Do you also pay to have an electrician install the high power wall connector?

If I know they don't have the ability to install it themselves or an electrician friend that will do it for the cost of materials, yes, but in those cases I don't typically offer it up because it seems like an imposition rather than an overall home improvement.