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In our first ever "longer" roadtrip in our 22 Tesla M3P I have to admit, despite all the encouragement to the contrary that I have gotten from this board and other long time Tesla vehicle owners, I had quite a bit of anxiety about the road even though it was a simple trip from San Francisco to LA along the WELL travelled corridor of Interstate 5 with its plethora of superchargers along the way.

It projected two stops, each about a third of the way along the almost 400 mile journey. At the first stop at a place called Firebaugh. We were the only ones at what looked to be a 70+ stall supercharger LoL! Frankly, it was a bit eerie to be the only ones there in the middle of the day when at the gas stations that were within easy eyesight range, cars were very busily coming and going at the pumps.

A 13 minute charge (which in my nervousness I made a 25 minute stop LoL) and then we were on our way again; My wife grabbing two McDonald's egg mcMuffins and tea and coffee for the road while I monitored the car.

The next stop in Bakersfield and the car arrived at exactly the predicted state of charge that it originally projected in Firebaugh. Nervousness lessening to a great degree :)

At the Bakerfield Supercharger I decided to completely trust the car's prediction and gave it exactly what it needed in order to arrive at our hotel in Huntington Beach with 20% charge.

,,,and off we went..

My first evidence of things maybe going amiss is as we were getting back onto Highway 5 we were suddenly hit with a tremendous headwind. There wasn't much wind while we were charging and so it was never something I considered in my own mental range calculations, but this wind was severe! I could tell the direction because tumble weeds were actually on direct collision courses with us as we sped down the road, and we, as well as many other cars driving, were doing our best to dodge them :)

But the worse part was that I looked over at the charge level and noticed that in just 10 miles of driving it had dropped almost 7%! A mini panic started to build inside as I was also considering that we were approaching the Grapevine, a long and steady climb of considerable altitude.

I quickly flicked over to the energy consumption screen and was horrified to see that at the 75mph we were travelling into the headwind (which at times gusted so hard you could literally feel the car significantly decelerate) our instant Wh/Mile was hovering around 600! I tried to hide my growing concern from my wife who was happily looking for songs she wanted to stream from her phone to the car, and who was also mightily disappointed that she couldn't watch White Lotus while we were actually driving.

I considered severely curtailing our speed to save energy, but the wife HATES to drive slowly, and rather than listen to what would have been her constant frustrations with my freeway speed, I decided to just maintain and hit the unscheduled Castaic Supercharger at the summit of the climb since SURELY we would never make it all the way to Huntington Beach as I was literally watching the percentage tick down each minute almost in realtime :(

At the same moment I noticed though that the predicted arrival charge still said 20% and would fluctuate slightly; sometimes going down to 18% and then even popping back up to 20. This confused me to no end since even though I knew there was a descent into LA on the other side of the Grapevine, it could NEVER recover the almost 30% of the charge we lost before even getting to the start of the climb!

Up and up we went, and thankfully the wind died down, but the steady decline in charge was replaced by the ascent. Then a weird thing happened. The predicted arrival charge slowly climbed higher as we continued to climb. It went from 20 to then 27% and the rapid loss of current charge slowed down to a more reasonable rate.

By the time we actually got to the Castaic Supercharger it still seemed like it would not nearly have enough to get all the way to our destination, but since it wasn't in the single digits like I was fearing, given how fast it was depleting before and during the climb, I decided to press on and maybe just hit a supercharger at the base of the descent, since, of course, it could never make it to the destination with 20% left like it clearly stated on screen!

Over the top we went... and down... The charge level at 25%. Halfway down it was still at 25%. We arrived at the base of the mountains where I was certain I would have had to recharge and still it was stuck at 25% heading toward LA proper and going miles and miles and still 25%. It was like it was actually stuck. Then the 405 and we hit some moderate traffic that transitioned from slow and go to stop, to slow and go again and the charge crept up to 26%! What the hell?!

We were in traffic for probably a good hour and a half and it "finally" went down to 24%... Then a few transition freeways where we were at the speed limit, and consumption was back down to normal levels and I was starting to think that this damn car is smarter than me! LoL! Another 40 minutes or so later and we rolled into the Hilton Parking lot in Huntington Beach with 21% LOL!!!

I thought back at all the unnecessary sweating and anxiety I had suffered thru in the last 3 hours behind the wheel, and literally burst out laughing; Much to the confusion of the wife who was still upset that we couldn't watch movies while driving.

So I say now... Just trust the damn car and as long as there isn't something significantly wrong with it. You'll be freakin' fine! LoL! Thank you Tess! (My wife's name for her car)

p.s. The topper to all this? All the destination chargers at the Hilton were out of order so the Valet couldn't hook it up LoL! Always arrive to your destination with some juice just in case!


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"Tesla Supercharger" by Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine is marked with CC0 1.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog feed thumbnail.
 
Years ago I was in Hilo and was headed home to Kona. I had 108 miles in the battery and the car said I would get home with 34 miles left. Of course, I was going via the Saddle Road, which peaks at 6600 feet. A half mile before the crest, I was at 6 miles charge remaining and 40+ miles to home and my passengers were sweating bullets. When I got home, I had 34 miles as predicted. However, I never did that again.
 
REGEN is an amazing thing. I’ve had similar experience with NOBODY at Firebaugh - which is a NICE FAST 250 kWH V3 station with a nice bathroom (thank you Chevron!) and McD’s if you’re into that.

What I think happens is more people have condioned to stop at Kettleman Ranch, either the OG location up the hill with the LOUNGE or the quicker access station across the street- and near the INANDOUT joint. Those stations combined are ~ 90 SC’s? That’s a lot and so usually ZERO wait anywhere other than the holiday travel peaks.

Csstaic is one of my new favorite on that route, I just wish the Starbucks was closer (it’s like 8/10ths a mile, so not really an simple round trip walk, and then becomes a 10-12 minute all in detour AFTER or BEFORE Charging. That location could certainly use more SC’s though.

From San Francisco ( Menlo Park, I usually make the entire drive to Kettleman, starting at 100% from home and get there with something like 30-50 miles remaining.. driving 83, averaging 75, headwinds sometimes too.

Then, I used to hit Tejon Ranch (another Starbucks location too) to make it up and over and into Santa Monica, sometimes Laguna or east to Palm Springs. Now, I just do Castaic and get enough to get to basically either place.

Coming down from the grapevine/high mesa into Burbank on the 5, I usually ADD about 10-16 miles to whatever I have at the top.

The only nice thing about 405 stop and go traffic is you’re getting about 7 miles per kWH, not 3, so it makes a huge difference. If one just drove 30-35 mph, the cars would go about 450 miles. I’ve nursed 5% remaining nearly 36 miles once before, hypermiling, drafting, coasting and regen as much as possible during the 2019 Snowpoclaypse. It’s doable. Not fun, but doable.
 
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must be nice to have such short charging times at so few stations. when i go from Barstow to the bay area or back i stop at Mojave, Bakersfield IHOP, kettleman city, Firebaugh, Hollister, and then once more in San Jose or Dublin before i get to where I'm going since i cant charge at any of my families houses.
And going south its very similar i have to make several stops. I could stop less but i already stop for about 30 min at each one and if i was to make less stops it'd be more than an hour at any stop.

I've only gone through the grapevine once and i stopped at the top for a spartan race but like any hill i made up mad power on the way back down the hill.

Also I've arrived at many chargers at 1-7% many many times its fine. i ran out of juice one time in 160k miles and that was 1/4 mile from the SC and there was a mad headwind and the damn thing died at 2% just to piss me off. 🤣
 
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Years ago I was in Hilo and was headed home to Kona. I had 108 miles in the battery and the car said I would get home with 34 miles left. Of course, I was going via the Saddle Road, which peaks at 6600 feet. A half mile before the crest, I was at 6 miles charge remaining and 40+ miles to home and my passengers were sweating bullets. When I got home, I had 34 miles as predicted. However, I never did that again.
I’m from Hilo and completely understand this situation. Glad you made it fine. I would have been telling the passengers prepare to push (Big Island joke. I realize this won’t be appropriate for a Tesla).
 
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I also took delivery of a '22 M3 and was excited. We did this with the knowledge that we were taking off on a 1600 mile road trip in 2 months. Most of the route was on I-65 (Indiana to Florida) and it looked like Superchargers were available where we would need them. But who knows if they work or were actually there. All went extremely well. Don't recall that we ever got much under 100mi of charge left. The problem came when we got to the beach front destination. The only Supercharges in the area were 50 miles away. So I figured I could use some of the nearby L2 destination chargers. These were about useless since I did not want to spend 3-4 hours of my vacation sitting at a restaurant. After one trip to the distant charger, it occurred to me that maybe I could use my charge cable and just plug into a 120v outlet. Asked the front desk at the condo if they had outdoor AC outlets that I could use. No problem, they had them out there for various maintenance uses. There was no charge to use them. On vacation, I was not doing a lot of distance driving....maybe 50 or so miles a day. Plugging into the outdoor outlets worked wonderfully. We drove as we wanted during the day. Once I was down 50-100mi, I just plugged in overnight and had a full charge in the morning. Problem solved. I always carry my AC charge cable now. I seem to have forgotten what a gas stations looks like.
 
We had great experience driving our model 3 down SF to LA before.

Now my wife tried for the first time to take our most recently private party purchased 2020 Model X Plus the same route. It was cold in the morning, we had charged up to 100% the evening before, and while still connected to the charger we set it to defrost. We ended up opening and loading the car with luggage while it was preheating which probably wasn't the most efficient use of energy but I thought shouldn't matter too much.

The right side mirror had recently stopped properly adjusting back up after driving backwards but she figured she can deal with that if that is the only problem and address that in a service appointment when she gets back.

So she leaves with 340 mile range and the car navigation said she will stop 15 minutes down the road to do a little supercharging. Which she didn't want to do obviously, so she ignores that one and it again tries to route her to a soon upcoming sc. At that point she was frustrated with it and ended up missing her exit to the 580 and found herself on route for the 101. she ended up disabling navigation and using her phone navigation for a while.

On top of that; there were several v3 chargers the navigation said were temporarily closed. Seems to be a think this month ? Are they upgrading anything ?

Severe fog kicked in and she missed one exit for a Charger, but eventually got to one that worked.

The first stop she charged at for 20min, and as she was en route to the next SC she got a message on the screen 'add payment method, SC not available' which increased her anxiety. after adding one, the message still remained. It eventually did go away and she was able to charge.

She had recently created her tesla account and had gotten the Model x transferred to that instead of using my account that was already set up payment wise, maybe that caused some of the issues.

I hope her trip back will be less caotic and confusing as this really ruffled her confidence in the car.
 
I believe the very high consumption right after supercharging, as you drive the first few miles, is because the battery is pretty hot from supercharging and the car needs to cool it down quite a bit. That takes some energy. Once it has cooled down, consumption should reduce back to normal.
 
Yes the range estimation is getting more and more accurate. I will push to the 1% limit on the roads I know of. But to places I'm not familiar, I usually ask for a 10% charge "error" range on long road trips. I do a lot between WI and IL. The more you drive, the more confident you will be with the car, Supercharge network is unbeatable.
 
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Years ago I was in Hilo and was headed home to Kona. I had 108 miles in the battery and the car said I would get home with 34 miles left. Of course, I was going via the Saddle Road, which peaks at 6600 feet. A half mile before the crest, I was at 6 miles charge remaining and 40+ miles to home and my passengers were sweating bullets. When I got home, I had 34 miles as predicted. However, I never did that again.
Ever go up Mauna Kea? That would be interesting.
 
Ever go up Mauna Kea? That would be interesting.
I was there for a job interview. The company said about a dozen times, DO NOT TAKE OUT INSURANCE it's against our policy. Then I pulled off the road to Hilo for a sec to enjoy some scenery, and you know that volcanic rock can be a little sharp...shredded my tire severely. No spare, had to call rental co for rescue. When the rental company presented the extra $700 bill or whatever to the company, they wanted to charge me. BUT YOU SAID....

TLDR ... One time working in Waimea I had a few hours before a meeting and went to some pretty small beach near Kawaihae. Drove back up to Wiamea, DANG I forgot my sunglasses. Now I HATE to lose my sunglasses, so I got up early the next AM like a crazy idiot and drove all the way back for em. THEY WERE STILL THERE ON THE SAME ROCK I LEFT THEM ON!!! Well, as long as I'm here... so I jumped in the water and I swear I heard some weird sounds, maybe... maybe I'm crazy but it sounds like whales??? None to be seen anywhere. I dive under, this time about 10 feet under, and there is a bit of cold water, and then, the classic whale soundtrack starts playing ... only LIKE TEN TIMES LOUDER THAN SOMEONE TALKING RIGHT AT YOU FACING YOU. Just like recordings you hear here and there. I come back up a few feet and I can barely hear it again. I surface, look and look and look...nothing.

When you get a cold, dense layer of water, it reflects the sound back down away from the surface, making what's called a "sound channel" which can keep all the sound energy in a limited volume. Apparently whales can be heard for hundreds and hundreds of miles in this way. That's why it was so loud, but no whales around I could see. It was the most amazing, astounding, wonderous thing I've ever heard. That beautiful haunting alien sad song I will never forget for as long as I live.

May you have as beautiful experiences in nature.

-TPC