Winter driving observations

[mnx]

Ditto. You really want to have that extra capacity if you live somewhere with extreme cold. I don't think a 40 kWh battery would have been practical here.

I still think the 40kWh would still be fine of the majority of my driving. The 85kWh Model S however spoils you, you never have to think about charging away from home or have range anxiety unless you're on a roadtrip.

 

[B.TSLA]

Ditto. You really want to have that extra capacity if you live somewhere with extreme cold. I don't think a 40 kWh battery would have been practical here.

Agree. Just relative to the Km's I drive Mon-Fri the 60 KwH battery charged to 80% would have yielded a starting range of about 260Km which would not have worked for me. The good news here is that I've had my MS for about 19-days now, driven a total of 3159 Km's. If I were using gas that would have been about $360 in Gas for the 19-days.

My electricity usage based on Time of Use appears to be an estimated average of about $4.00 per day. If I extrapolate this out to 30-days that would be around $167 Monthly or $5.56 Daily of electricity including Delivery/Regulatory/Debt Retirement/HST based on my actual daily usage.

Contrast this with around $500 saved in gas for the vehicle the Model S replaced (2004 Mazda3) +$80 monthly Oil Change. In addition to the 3-tanks of gas saved by not driving my Minivan (2004 Honda Odyssey) is around $270 +$40 Oil Change. The total of monthly gas and oil changes not spent is $890. Final monthly savings is $723 when looking at gas to electricity comparisons for me.

To put the argument another way. My daily electricity cost to charge the Model S would have to be $20.40 for the Model S not to make sense from a break even in Gas + Oil Change perspective. I only need 1 tank of Gas in my minivan now per month.

This math doesn't include:
* Single Occupant HOV Cost Savings relative to Highway 407 Toll Savings of around $270 per month
* Commute Time savings of around 35-40 minutes per day
* Continual I.C.E. troubles and repair shop time
* One time $8500 EV rebate
* etc... etc... etc...

The MS represents well over $1000 in monthly savings to me effectively making the MS a 70K vehicle over 7 Years. The game has been changed!

 

[Doug_G]

I still think the 40kWh would still be fine of the majority of my driving. The 85kWh Model S however spoils you, you never have to think about charging away from home or have range anxiety unless you're on a roadtrip.

Last year when I went Xmas shopping at below -20C, the repeated short trip / cold soak / short trip / cold soak was really draining the battery. I would definitely have run out with a 40, and I didn't drive all that far. It's the worst-case situation for power draw, since the pack heater and cabin heater are running constantly. That's equivalent to going 80 kph / 50 mph without even moving. With the 85, though, it was completely impossible to run out of juice before the stores closed!

 

[William13]

I drove in very slick conditions today. The TC firmware has been changed from last year. The car slides more withTC off. There is better ability to go uphill on snow, with and without TC engaged. The cruise control disengages when the car starts to slip.

 

[PatP]

I drove in very slick conditions today. The TC firmware has been changed from last year. The car slides more withTC off. There is better ability to go uphill on snow, with and without TC engaged. The cruise control disengages when the car starts to slip.

Are you 100% sure? Climbing hills was my main concerns last winter. That would be great.