Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Will ABRP recommend best speed to reduce total time on long road trip?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Sorry if this has been discussed already. I'm not quite sure what the search term should be ....

Driving from Fort Worth to north Georgia via i20 through Atlanta. Plenty of SCs so it's an easy trip, but playing with ABRP and different speeds yields different total trip times. Obviously higher speed means having to get more charge at the SC, and I'm just trying to figure out if I can press an easy button somewhere to tell me how fast to drive between each SC to optimize total trip time.

Thanks.
 
Thanks.

It did appear that I'd save time if I drove slower and was able to skip one of the stations. The one in Shreveport, Louisiana, is an example. It's a bit of a hike south of i20 so stopping there isn't the best for time.

ABRP adds in a bit of overhead for every stop. By default, 5 minutes. So yes, it is entirely possible that an off-route Supercharger, combined with the extra five minutes of overhead, and if you are stretching your range, it certainly could be a little faster to slow down a bit and skip the stop.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AlanSubie4Life
I think the 5 minute overhead is a little too much for Tesla owners since we don't have to fumble around with apps or fobs to initiate the charge.

However, if you usually feel a bit anxious in unfamiliar territory, it doesn't hurt to factor in the extra time it may take to locate the station.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: Rocky_H
I think the 5 minute overhead is a little too much for Tesla owners since we don't have to fumble around with apps or fobs to initiate the charge.
You think 5 minutes is too much? I'm not sure you're thinking of this properly. That's the overhead of the entire round trip off the highway instead of just zipping by the exit. So that includes taking the exit ramp off the highway, waiting at stop lights, driving for some distance through town (sometimes a few miles), finding the Supercharger, getting backed into the spot, getting out of the car and hooking up, etc. in only 2 and a half minutes!! (because you have to do all that in reverse in the other 2 and a half minutes to make it a 5 minute round trip detour)
 
  • Like
Reactions: AlanSubie4Life
This question comes up a lot. You can modify the equation herein with whatever new parameters you want (this predates 250kW charging, which is SO awesome). Calculus FTW. (It's not quite right, because the consumption doesn't actually scale with the square of speed until you get to very high speeds, due to a more or less static 100Wh/mi-130Wh/mi (in that ballpark) "constant" consumption (there's also a fixed consumption which goes down with speed due to electronics, AC/heat, etc.) )

Road trip math - how fast to drive, how long to charge

As others have said, the short answer is "as fast as possible." But there are caveats to that, as outlined above. Unless you are in a Supercharger sparse location, it would be pretty rare for a Supercharger to be so far off route for it to make sense to go slower to make it between two other Superchargers instead and skip the off-route one entirely. But I'm sure it happens!

So that includes taking the exit ramp off the highway, waiting at stop lights, driving for some distance through town (sometimes a few miles),

To be fair, this portion of the time would be included by ABRP in navigation time, right? Not included in overhead...

I try to keep my overhead on road trips to less than 2 minutes! I back in like a maniac! It always feels so rushed!
 
Last edited:
I know I'm being redundant, but when I mapped out a trip between Maine and LA, I tested a whole bunch of speeds, and yes, faster speeds, result in lower overall trip time. YMMV. So, unless you have some unusual SC situation, in general, drive as fast as you like, make your stops at low SOC, ~15%, in order to get the fastest recharges. ABRP works very well, if you put in good inputs.
 
Sorry if this has been discussed already. I'm not quite sure what the search term should be ....

Driving from Fort Worth to north Georgia via i20 through Atlanta. Plenty of SCs so it's an easy trip, but playing with ABRP and different speeds yields different total trip times. Obviously higher speed means having to get more charge at the SC, and I'm just trying to figure out if I can press an easy button somewhere to tell me how fast to drive between each SC to optimize total trip time.

Thanks.

if its about adding trip time by going off the planned route to drive to a chargers and then plugging, you can set that in the menu. by default its 5min to plug in and the off-route time is included anyway.

Charging time is also included but generally you always charge faster than you can drive.

Average speeds for charging bjorn has calculated before but even if you only have access to 50kw charging the optimum speed is like 140km/h.

If you have only access to 11kw charging then the optimum speed depends on AC/heating use but its around 85-90km/h.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: ElectricIAC
You think 5 minutes is too much? I'm not sure you're thinking of this properly. That's the overhead of the entire round trip off the highway instead of just zipping by the exit. So that includes taking the exit ramp off the highway, waiting at stop lights, driving for some distance through town (sometimes a few miles), finding the Supercharger, getting backed into the spot, getting out of the car and hooking up, etc. in only 2 and a half minutes!! (because you have to do all that in reverse in the other 2 and a half minutes to make it a 5 minute round trip detour)
The Charge Overhead feature is all about time between stopping at the station & initiating the charge session. Getting off the highway & driving to the station is calculated within the route plan itself.
 
  • Love
Reactions: ElectricIAC
You think 5 minutes is too much? I'm not sure you're thinking of this properly. That's the overhead of the entire round trip off the highway instead of just zipping by the exit. So that includes taking the exit ramp off the highway, waiting at stop lights, driving for some distance through town (sometimes a few miles), finding the Supercharger, getting backed into the spot, getting out of the car and hooking up, etc. in only 2 and a half minutes!! (because you have to do all that in reverse in the other 2 and a half minutes to make it a 5 minute round trip detour)
ahh, did not know that.
 
why do you need to get your phone out? Is that at a charge point or some other non Tesla charger?

outside the usa superchargers arent very common and also expensive, i usually charge at third party chargers. nearest supercharger for me is 1500km away.
you activate them via an rfid or via an app as those chargers dont have VIN reconition with automatic billing.
 
outside the usa superchargers arent very common and also expensive, i usually charge at third party chargers. nearest supercharger for me is 1500km away.
you activate them via an rfid or via an app as those chargers dont have VIN reconition with automatic billing.
Ok, I had no idea. I guess I take the free super charging for granted. I've been pretty happy with the network or super chargers here in the states and won't have to start paying for that until the TSLA releases the truck (assuming no free charging offers on that).
 
Ok, I had no idea. I guess I take the free super charging for granted. I've been pretty happy with the network or super chargers here in the states and won't have to start paying for that until the TSLA releases the truck (assuming no free charging offers on that).

unless you excessively use the supercharging network it is not worth the cost you (used to) pay to have this included with the price of the car. a discount of i.e. 5000USD on a new tesla is way more valuable than free supercharging unless you i.e. supercharge more than maybe 30k km in a year.
You could literally buy some stock with those 5000 USD. I.e. shell pays 6%, thats good enough to supercharge 6000km a year...