Thoughts after 650 mile one-day Tesla drive

[rachelhikes]

I actually like the Grants Pass Supercharger for the Dining options.

It’s not bad in a fast food sort of way. But you don’t have the sort of interesting locally owned restaurants you have downtown. And my observation applies to a number of towns in southern Oregon and northern California: they have fun options not within walking distances of any Supercharger/Destination charger.

I know that the network is a work in progress. I just wanted to point and say, “Progress to here!”

 

[ModelNforNerd]

(4) The trip planner works too hard to minimize the number of stops. It planned the drive with only two. I manually targeted additional (but shorter) charge stops just to give me opportunities to get out of the car (see 1 above). It would be nice to be able to tell the planner that I don’t really want 4 to 5 hours of driving between stops. More stops is often better than fewer stops.

Currently my only pet peeve of taking a long Tesla road trip. Our Christmas trip is 620 miles, similar to what you just did. TP has me driving until I'm down to 12%, then stopping for nearly 90 minutes to get back up to 90%.

Instead, I make a stop at around 30% SoC, charge for 30 minutes, drive another 200 or so miles, then charge again, with a stop about 100 miles from our destination to top off.

My 3 stops amount to about 25 minutes less time than Trip Planner's 2......besides......New Jersey Turnpike rest stops aren't interesting enough to keep me there for an hour and a half.


EDIT:

My 3,000th post!!!!

 

[rachelhikes]

Many CA SCs have 15-30 min wait times. Most of those are full of people that live a mile away and charge from 70-90%. The SC network was originally designed for travel but some are congested with these folks and Uber drivers, etc.

I have found that the chargers in the SF Bay area are crowded and waiting to charge does happen. I did not find crowding a problem on I5 away from the bay. On my drive, none of those stations were even at 50% usage. It may be, of course, that during summer tourist season crowding at those stations could be an issue.

 

[Saghost]

Currently my only pet peeve of taking a long Tesla road trip. Our Christmas trip is 620 miles, similar to what you just did. TP has me driving until I'm down to 12%, then stopping for nearly 90 minutes to get back up to 90%.

Instead, I make a stop at around 30% SoC, charge for 30 minutes, drive another 200 or so miles, then charge again, with a stop about 100 miles from our destination to top off.

My 3 stops amount to about 25 minutes less time than Trip Planner's 2......besides......New Jersey Turnpike rest stops aren't interesting enough to keep me there for an hour and a half.


EDIT:

My 3,000th post!!!!

Yeah, it's frustrating. I think it's a Nav function - two stops is a slightly shorter route. If/when we get routing overhauls that include options for time/distance/easiest route/least energy use or whatever else they come up with, this will hopefully go away. We had to get to the new maps first, and that's happened now. We were supposed to get waypoints somewhere in here, and I'm expecting/hoping we'll get smarter routing options with it.

 

[Candleflame]

That does make me miss having gears. Even in the US some of the highways in the midwest are limited at 75mph, with most going well above that. It would be nice to have a gear kick in at 70 and gain some efficiency back at high speeds. (I know most of the loss is due to wind resistance but that would have to help)

dont think so, if I put the car from 6th gear into 4 th gear on the motorway you do use more fuel but it is not really that much. Perhaps half a litre or so.

 

[RayK]

I have found that the chargers in the SF Bay area are crowded and waiting to charge does happen. I did not find crowding a problem on I5 away from the bay. On my drive, none of those stations were even at 50% usage. It may be, of course, that during summer tourist season crowding at those stations could be an issue.

My relatively few sessions at a Supercharger, almost evenly split between "in town" and "road trip", have been done in Mountain View (Sunday afternoon in January where I had to wait about 30 minutes), Cupertino (mall parking lot; Wednesday 1AM no waiting and Saturday 12noon, a couple of minutes waiting), twice in Kettleman City (5 other cars 2PM a couple of Wednesdays ago and 1 car about 7PM Saturday), three or four times in the Glendale Galleria in the early morning and late evening (no waiting at all) and twice in Los Gatos (Sunday evening about 1/2 full and another Sunday in the afternoon where I got the last stall).

I've tried to hit the Bay Area chargers, with the exception of the Mountain View one, on off-peak times. The Mountain View session was when I was renting a 3 so I really had to fill the battery before returning it. The first Cupertino charge was to verify that my car was capable of Supercharging; the second session was because I ran low and I wanted some range real fast. Those were really the only times I've had to wait for a charge. Since my main charging is done at work, I really haven't had the need to rely on Superchargers in town but I'm happy that the Almaden Ranch location will be open soon as it's another place I can get a quick charge if needed. I will eventually install the HPWC in my garage...

 

[clostridium]

No time for charging? Do you not eat? Or go to the bathroom? Or stop for the night? It just takes a little planning.

Agreed - taking the charging plan that the trip planner chooses doesn't always optimize this stuff but I've found using a 3rd party app (EVTO-Tesla - I'm sure other options could help with this too but this is what I've used) and adapting the plan on the fly a bit that I can have longer charge times (> 15 minutes) every other charge that coincide with meals and shorter ones in between that around around 10 minutes or so. The trip planner likes to minimize stops which isn't necessarily the best for time since the car charges considerably faster below ~50%. If the chargers are pretty close to the road and are the full 120 kW chargers and also you don't have to charge in a shared circuit then extra charging stops for shorter times can really pay off.

If you have a trip where you need some power naps for safety then falling back to allowing a longer stop is a good idea. I've been gradually figuring this stuff out over a few years of Tesla ownership. The 3 charges so fast and tapers later so I feel it is a better road trip car in terms of charging.

I just did a 650 mile each way road trip from OH->NC this past weekend and found that it was way more pleasant with the stops inserted. It cost me an extra 1-1.5 hours over just an ICE trip with minimal stops (but still would need at least one gas stop thus only 1-1.5 hour difference). And this was in mountainous terrain, wind, temps in mid 30's, and moderate precipitation all of which contribute to need for more energy usage and more charging. The payoff was that I wasn't as miserable. And I am a super type A person that is constantly in a major hurry all the time.

 

[Sw0rdf1sh]

For the past 20 years I have typically driven 600-700 miles a week about two to three times a month.
Sometimes I would arrive home stressed out, white knuckled, and feeling beat up. I would drive 4-5 hours sometimes without stopping at all or once. Getting the Model 3 was dual fold for me, try to alleviate driving stress and save some money.

Since 9-30 I've driven about 5K miles, a little more than usual. I was worried about how much time this would add to my travels and it is very slight. Typically 30 minutes and no more than an hour depending on if I have to adjust trip to Supercharger location.

I have also found the brief 20 minute stops are more advantageous than running battery real low and back to fully charged.

Different from earlier poster I prefer easy access to SC, I don't want to drive 10 miles to town to use it, but I'm not a casual driver, I'm going somewhere for work or going home. Now would I like both options, absolutely, but I until we can have both I would want easy access.

On the East Coast I have not seen any full SC's on my travels. I did experience one heavily ICED SC in Florence SC (c'mon South Cack) but usually all open. Sometimes the SC is just at a Hotel, a WAWA (that's crazy charging at a gas station), or often a great little shopping center.

I'm really pleased with my decision because my fear of long trips due to charging isn't really a thing anymore.

 

[BKSquasher]

Drove from Salt Lake City to Kansas City in our 2016 P90D X. Not a pleasant experience for me. I generally like to drive as far and fast as I can when in an ICE car. The Tesla limited me to 100-150 miles between stops. Not great by my standards. Problems caused by 9a0+ degree heat, strong winds on the plains which increased our consumption significantly. Had to keep the AC around an uncomfortable 72degrees, and speed below 75. The route planner was way optimistic about our range and instructed us to slow below 65 mph to reach the planned charger. Thank goodness there was one closer where we had to stop to charge. Also, many of the chargers were not working or working very slowly. At almost every stop I had to change to a different charger and notified Tesla that the charger was either not working or working very slowly. All in all, I ended up charging longer than suggested at every stop as I learned not to trusts the route planner and overall the trip took 4-5 hours longer than previous trips in an ICE car. So even though I love my X, I don't consider it a great traveling car yet. And don't even get me started about winter driving. Going to a ski camp this February in Colorado and I'm taking my 2013 VW Golf R, no way repeating my Tesla experience in
Colorado winter conditions. Batteries don't like cold and after sitting outside all night in winter cold, the battery doesn't even begin to charge for 25-30 minutes and then it charges really really slowly. So I think we are a long way before ICE cars are history.
Just traded in my leased P90D X for a 2018 100D (both leased) which has a bit more range and smaller tires, so we'll see if long distance and winter driving improve.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Drove from Salt Lake City to Kansas City in our 2016 P90D X. Not a pleasant experience for me. I generally like to drive as far and fast as I can when in an ICE car. The Tesla limited me to 100-150 miles between stops. Not great by my standards. Problems caused by 9a0+ degree heat, strong winds on the plains which increased our consumption significantly. Had to keep the AC around an uncomfortable 72degrees, and speed below 75. The route planner was way optimistic about our range and instructed us to slow below 65 mph to reach the planned charger. Thank goodness there was one closer where we had to stop to charge. Also, many of the chargers were not working or working very slowly. At almost every stop I had to change to a different charger and notified Tesla that the charger was either not working or working very slowly. All in all, I ended up charging longer than suggested at every stop as I learned not to trusts the route planner and overall the trip took 4-5 hours longer than previous trips in an ICE car. So even though I love my X, I don't consider it a great traveling car yet. And don't even get me started about winter driving. Going to a ski camp this February in Colorado and I'm taking my 2013 VW Golf R, no way repeating my Tesla experience in
Colorado winter conditions. Batteries don't like cold and after sitting outside all night in winter cold, the battery doesn't even begin to charge for 25-30 minutes and then it charges really really slowly. So I think we are a long way before ICE cars are history.
Just traded in my leased P90D X for a 2018 100D (both leased) which has a bit more range and smaller tires, so we'll see if long distance and winter driving improve.

I've used every charger along I-80 from Truckee, CA to Gothenburg, NE and along I-70 from Green River, UT to Topeka, KS and never had problems like you. I think there was one day when we had a slow charger in Silverthorne, CO but I moved to another one and it worked fine. Also, normally the winds would be helpful when heading east, especially when going downhill across eastern Colorado and western Kansas. I always get great Wh/mile numbers when heading east. Heading west (and back uphill), they are always higher. I sold my last gas car a year and a half ago...and drove it from Denver to Hays, KS. My Model S showed up minutes after I got there (driven by a friend). He would've beat me there but missed the exit in Hays and had to backtrack to pick me up. We took it to up to Nebraska before I realized I didn't have my UMC but it wasn't a problem and I was able to charge in Kearney before heading back west to Colorado the next day. I'll never own a gas car again.

Also, it's best to charge the car up the night before, while the battery is still warm instead of trying to do it in the morning. Then you don't have to wait for it to warm up.

 

[Effopec]

I'm making a trip from Dallas to Denver, then on to Vail over Christmas. It looks like there is a severe penalty to do this trip on superchargers, so we will likely take my Wife's Explorer. The direct route is through Amarillo, Pueblo, and up to Denver, 796 miles and 12 hrs 10 minutes according to Google. With the Tesla that route has two long stretches where I'd need to slow down to ~60, so the better path is up through Oklahoma city & Wichita before getting on I70. 892 miles and 14 hrs according to ABRP. Add on that it will be cold and I would need to get a ski rack, both further reducing range, and the Tesla trip would likely be even longer. I wasn't that thrilled with the idea of taking my new baby through the snow and ice anyway, so it's probably for the better.

 

[Kichwas]

One day this will be true, but for now, long road trips I am still better off in an ICE. I am a bit of road warrior, and will cover off 900miles in a day easily. With maybe 30min of total not driving time.

We are not far off from the EV being the better road trip option for most people, just not there yet.

For some reason the mental image in my head right now is the Family Guy skit where 8 out of 10 doctors recommend your family smoke a certain brand of cigarettes...

Then again that would actually be safer advice than telling me to drive 900 miles in a day...

I doubt even Mad Max would be willing to do 900 miles in the Outback in one day.

 

[deltajent]

I actually like the Grants Pass Supercharger for the Dining options.

There is a Black Bear Diner right next to it.
There is an In-and-Out within a block or two.

That beats the Centralia Supercharger where you get a Denny's.

And there's a great little tavern across the street from the Grass Pants SC with excellent food (for a tavern) called Ric's Corvette. I'm not particularly enamored with the Black Bear cuisine so I look for alternatives when available. Overall I think Tesla has done a pretty good job of locating SCs next to convenient food and I'm sure more alternatives will become available as the network is expanded.

 

[deltajent]

Yeah, it's frustrating. I think it's a Nav function - two stops is a slightly shorter route. If/when we get routing overhauls that include options for time/distance/easiest route/least energy use or whatever else they come up with, this will hopefully go away. We had to get to the new maps first, and that's happened now. We were supposed to get waypoints somewhere in here, and I'm expecting/hoping we'll get smarter routing options with it.

The lack of options when route selecting is definitely frustrating, which is why I'm sure an upgrade will be coming out before too much longer. There certainly are a number of improvements that could be made, e.g., it would be nice to be able to select alternate routes and stops instead of having to enter and calculate each leg separately for off-route places. And a distance scale on the map would be helpful.

 

[SMAlset]

Well the criticism of range anxiety is true for many EVs out there. Only a few have a decent range of over 200. And the Model 3 LR with over 300 (or 100Ds MS/Xs) make it almost a non-issue except for maybe way off the beaten path locales (where maybe only slow charging would be available).

Personally I can’t see buying something with a small battery. Nor can I see buying a PHEV and dealing with a small battery and the cost and maintenance of a gas engine vehicle. Granted we have a garage we have charging in so that makes charging much easier.

 

[ecarfan]

I am a bit of road warrior, and will cover off 900miles in a day easily. With maybe 30min of total not driving time

That sounds like torture to me. And unsafe. Humans cannot maintain the proper level of alertness to drive safely for that many miles in a day.

 

[Candleflame]

That sounds like torture to me. And unsafe. Humans cannot maintain the proper level of alertness to drive safely for that many miles in a day.

depends. I.e. in Europe it is much easier to drive because we have proper road rules (i.e. no undertaking) and people stick to the right lanes. Makes a huge difference for driving fatigue. And then we also drive faster. I have done 900 miles in europe before and that is definitely ok.

Same in Australia's outback - you are often the only car on a reasonably good road and dont need to pay much attention to anything apart from the odd wildlife. And again, you can drive much faster.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

That sounds like torture to me. And unsafe. Humans cannot maintain the proper level of alertness to drive safely for that many miles in a day.

I've found that 700 miles or so is probably the limit for me, mostly thanks to the stops required for charging, and the slightly lessened intensity needed when you're on AP.

 

[JG T3SLA]

Furthest trip I’ve taken in a Tesla so far is SF to Palm Springs and back. Unfortunately I was in a loaner model S 75D with no autopilot. You get spoiled to autopilot real quick. Especially for drives like this. Really did feel the range difference between my model 3 and the 75D. Benefit was I got comfortable on this trip arriving to superchargers or my hotel with destination charging with 20 miles left of remaining range. Before this trip I was uneasy getting this low on a % basis. Learned that I shouldn’t be this way since I routinely pulled into gas stations in prior cars with this amount of miles remaining.

In my 3 I have done SF to LA and back. No range anxiety at all and autopilot dominated the bulk of miles driven during that trip.

I agree with OP. Once people try for themselves or have a trusted friend/relative have a positive Tesla experience, the mental EV hurdle for people will disappear. Dominoes are going to start falling quicker as more Teslas are sold.

 

[roblab]

One day this will be true, but for now, long road trips I am still better off in an ICE.

Uh, O--kay. Maybe for some of us it's not all about how fast or how far we can go in a day, and some of us think of how much pollution we leave in the air, and we count the much larger cost of gasoline and the absolutely necessary service requirements and their time and money factors. I wouldn't be surprised that the Tesla will last longer with so very few moving parts, while a gas car might grind out 250,000 or 300,000 miles. I have had two Teslas that fill up in my garage, both had about 80,000 miles on them at 3 years.

But, you're right. Long road trips at 900 miles in a day with 30 min to refuel are great while you're young. My butt gets tired before then.