Will the superchargers be complete in time for Elon's planned transcontinental trip?

[ratsbew]

Elon stated that he wanted to make a trip across the USA on the Supercharger network before the end of the year. It is looking increasingly unlikely that the network will be finished in time for this journey to happen. Does anyone have information on Supercharger construction status?

 

[Lump]

Trip was pushed back untill spring & it looks very doable by then. Superchargers

 

[MarkR]

Do-able? Yes, but one delayed permit by one overworked bureaucrat could completely screw up the trip. Hope not!

 

[EnergyMax]

Construction needs to start on less than 6 new sites to complete the transcontinental corridor. Which will probably be done in less than 2 months.
http://teslawiki.net/supercharger/

After that, it will be great to watch multiple corridors open up, and see what plans they have for Level 2 (HPWC) backups at strategic locations along the way.

 

[montgom626]

Best to do the trip when air temps are >60 F.

 

[Doug_G]

Best to do the trip when air temps are >60 F.

Why? If temperatures are at least in the 40's the range won't be significantly affected.

As for the original question... by definition, the trip will happen after the Supercharger corridor is ready. They haven't said when he's doing the trip, so he can just move the goalposts and claim victory!

 

[PhilBa]

Based on existing and confirmed sites under construction, the trip really only needs 4 more SCs: 1 in SD, 1 in MN and 2 in PA (all locations are guesses but are equidistant between chargers. I am taking this from the map that was put up during one of Elon's talks. This was posted a while ago and has been extremely accurate in predicting SC locations. It even predicted the weird route through AZ and NM (ok, it looks like a wonderful trip, just not exactly a direct route). Except for the one near Pittsburg, I think the lack of reports is due more to their relative remoteness more than anything else.

Even though Tesla won't say it, it looks like they have put a priority on SCs for Elon's trip. I'll take any SCs they want to put up but would have preferred a more direct route.

 

[roblab]

Why? If temperatures are at least in the 40's the range won't be significantly affected.

IF the sun is shining (with simultaneous infrared heating of the car) AND you don't have the temp up at all, you can have the fan on the front window with COLD dry air and might keep the fog off. But at 40 degrees, it gets COLD. If you turn the temp up, the car starts using resistant heat. And that DOES affect the range.

Try it!

 

[montgom626]

But at 40 degrees, it gets COLD. If you turn the temp up, the car starts using resistant heat. And that DOES affect the range.

Try it!

You are so right!

 

[ZBB]

Based on existing and confirmed sites under construction, the trip really only needs 4 more SCs: 1 in SD, 1 in MN and 2 in PA (all locations are guesses but are equidistant between chargers. I am taking this from the map that was put up during one of Elon's talks. This was posted a while ago and has been extremely accurate in predicting SC locations. It even predicted the weird route through AZ and NM (ok, it looks like a wonderful trip, just not exactly a direct route). Except for the one near Pittsburg, I think the lack of reports is due more to their relative remoteness more than anything else.

Even though Tesla won't say it, it looks like they have put a priority on SCs for Elon's trip. I'll take any SCs they want to put up but would have preferred a more direct route.

You must be assuming he'll take I-15 to I-40 -- with stops in Barstow, Kingman and Flagstaff. The only problem is that Barstow-Kingman is 206 miles, but evtripper.com estimates it would use 245 miles of rated range -- which leaves very little reserve...

I think I-10 to I-17 is more likely -- LA to Phoenix to Flagstaff. But that would require 2 additional Superchargers -- Indio CA (east of Palm Springs) and Buckeye AZ (west side of Phoenix area) would still be needed in addition to the 4 you mention...

 

[Doug_G]

IF the sun is shining (with simultaneous infrared heating of the car) AND you don't have the temp up at all, you can have the fan on the front window with COLD dry air and might keep the fog off. But at 40 degrees, it gets COLD. If you turn the temp up, the car starts using resistant heat. And that DOES affect the range.

Try it!

I have, and in far colder conditions than you have ever encountered! As long as the drive train is warm, the heat pump kicks in and the heater power consumption plummets. On long trips in extreme cold (-20C) I am able to get 78% of rated range with the heat on at a comfortable temperature (in Range mode).

 

[paulkva]

Except for the one near Pittsburg, I think the lack of reports is due more to their relative remoteness more than anything else.

Even though Tesla won't say it, it looks like they have put a priority on SCs for Elon's trip. I'll take any SCs they want to put up but would have preferred a more direct route.

I think Tesla has for the most part been pretty clear about their US supercharger priorities -- if not always accurate about timing. They focused first on the west coast, and now their top priorities are the east coast and at least one coast-to-coast route. While they might not have said it explicitly, it's pretty clear from the map that the first cross-country connection will be the route for Elon's trip.

There are specific rumors floating around regarding the PA superchargers required for the coast-to-coast route. One is almost certainly in Somerset, but as far as I know, nobody on TMC has found it yet, either in public records or in physical signs of construction. The other one is most likely near the intersection of I-76 and I-79, roughly 20 miles north of Pittsburgh. I've heard rumors (posted on TMC at various times) about Cranberry, Marshall, and Wexford. Again, I'm not aware of anyone here finding hard evidence of permits or construction. I've searched online somewhat extensively for both, and I believe others here have done so as well. If anyone is going to find them before they're officially announced, I'm guessing it'll have to be someone physically spotting a construction site, or (less likely) someone walking into the appropriate city/county permit office and asking the right questions.

Interesting note about that map, by the way - Harrisburg PA is shown as a "visited supercharger" - but it's not currently on Tesla's own "coming soon" map right now. With Hagerstown MD already in progress and Newark DE already in service, Harrisburg technically wouldn't be necessary to complete the first cross-country connection, although I know a lot of people are eager to see it built to link Philly/NJ with Pittsburgh.

 

[PhilBa]

Yeah, the official Tesla SC map has always lagged reality. For example, they didn't change the I5 locations in N Cal or Oregon until the SCs were almost done and the AZ/NM sites didn't show up until late, too.

 

[ratsbew]

IF the sun is shining (with simultaneous infrared heating of the car) AND you don't have the temp up at all, you can have the fan on the front window with COLD dry air and might keep the fog off. But at 40 degrees, it gets COLD. If you turn the temp up, the car starts using resistant heat. And that DOES affect the range.

Try it!

On a sunny day, you can easily heat with solar only at 40º, especially with the pano roof. 60º and sunny would likely be too hot without the AC.

 

[montgom626]

On a sunny day, you can easily heat with solar only at 40º, especially with the pano roof. 60º and sunny would likely be too hot without the AC.

You are right, if it is real sunny. I just crack the window a bit.

 

[derekt75]

Cold air reduces range even without heater use because cold air is denser than warm air.
evtripplanner.com doesn't seem to account for that, but I think teslamotors.com/goelectric does.
Air at 0°C/32°F is about 7% more dense than air at 20°C/68°F. I'm not sure exactly how that affects range, but I imagine it's around 5% less range at 0°C. (hot air has higher viscosity, and not all energy usage is to overcome air resistance).

I'm not going to choose a fantasy football kicker this week that's kicking outside in the North.

 

[Cliff Hannel]

@derekt75 - good point about air density...I hadn't thought about that (for EVTripPlanner.com) but when I checked it is a significant potential source of error. I developed the site with my son (15 when he started it) and he's now updating to compensate for both altitude and ambient temperature (air density) but not humidity (yet). Of course, Tesla has a huge amount of data from telemetry of millions of miles of TMS use under all conditions and I suspect they'd use a "big data machine learning" type algorithm to fit all that data to some equations with many variables. I'm assuming they'll integrate Nav and Energy Apps with their data-driven-algorithms to do a better job than we're able to - but for now I think our tool is about the best out there. Traffic is up a LOT over the last few months (thousands of visits/plans per week) - my son keeps all donations toward his college education.

 

[Reykjavik]

It may be worthwhile to take into account the fact that increased air density causes more drag at high speed. Driving around in soup at 5 mph isn't a big deal, but even a minor change in density makes a big difference at 70 mph.

If I were designing a range prediction algorithm, I would output two numbers, a city driving number and a highway driving number. Not only are these going to be different, but the ratio will change depending on driving conditions.

 

[Grendal]

Keep in mind that Elon will have his entire family with him. That's one girlfriend/ex-wife and five boys. He probably won't need a heater too often but he will need lots of entertainment.

It looks like he will travel through Phoenix to Flagstaff, go east on 40 to Gallup then go north on 491 through New Mexico, Colorado, to 191 in Utah, then back to Colorado at Grand Junction to link up with Interstate 70. They are still installing a lot of the Superchargers for this leg of the trip.