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Worst Case Scenario?

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I see mostly these lessons from this trip:

- In the cold, a 110V plug does not gain range. (Possibly firmware updates might improve this.)

- For the cold, you need to replace any old J1772 adapter with a new one

- The existing charging apps are not good enough for finding usable 30+ amp chargers or Nema 14-50 plugs. Or for determining that a trip on that route is not (yet) advisable!

- In order to get a better understanding of the range at various temperatures, I think it would be beneficial if the writers of such reports would add info about the outside temperature, and the Wh/mile consumption they were getting at those temperatures. (Or a calculation of the resulting range with a full charge.)

The lesson I do *not* see *here* is that a Model S would not be usable, in general, for a road trip in the cold (merely a question of additional time needed when charging sufficiently to be able to use good heating). (Especially for the NYT trip, a much more positive outcome was achievable with the Superchargers, had the car been charged sufficiently).

A quote form the other thread of someone making more positive experiences:

I have riven over 3,500 miles in (really) cold weather, including over 1200 miles in mountains far from any superchargers. With just a little forethought and a basic understanding of the car's abilities, such an outcome as this New York Times journalist experienced would never happen. Enjoy -

- - - Updated - - -

After writing the above, I started wondering about this part of the report:

What happened instead is that it was negative four degrees outside (-25*F windchill) and I lost a LOT more range on my way to Dixon than I should have -- I arrived with about 80 miles of range, versus the 170 that I was hoping for. Granted I did drop my fiance off at the airport and run to the bank as well, which likely ate about 30-40 miles.

Are you saying you have never driven at those temperatures before, and/or that you were unaware of the range at those temperatures? That wouldn't seem to require making a road trip. (Aside from the oddness of comparing 170 to 80, and then adding the info that it was actually 120 vs 170, only in the next sentence.)
 
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- The existing charging apps are not good enough for finding usable 30+ amp chargers or Nema 14-50 plugs. Or for determining that a trip on that route is not (yet) advisable!

Using Plugshare and RV Park(y) effectively would have allowed a much better route to be planned. I would not have stopped in Dixon at all as RV Park tells me there is no 50A service there. The Kwik stops according to plugshare all have 120V service only. I would not have gone to or even tried those locations.

There are many RV 50A sites between Dixon and your destination according to RV Park(y) (Android App). Those would have been better choices than Nissan or Chevy dealers with 30A service.

Lastly, I would not have gone 40 miles out of the way to begin with to drop off someone at the airport.

With the current infrastructure, you've got to be all business route planning and execution until more chargers are available. The other EV (Leaf) blocking that occurred can't be avoided due limited sites for charging. While I still sympathize with the OP, I do feel that good planning and careful attention to app details would in my opinion have made for a much better trip.

Range driving across the country is possible with proper planning, and I believe cold weather range driving across short distances is also very doable too.
 
The lesson I do *not* see *here* is that a Model S would not be usable, in general, for a road trip in the cold

I agree. I just took a 3,000-mile road trip in the cold, and it went perfectly. Of course as I mentioned above, I had the benefit of having taken a 3,000-mile road trip in the cold three years ago that did not go as well, so I had learned THESE tips that I put in another thread last night. There is a lot of detail in that thread, but all you have to know is:

· Plan charging stops no more than 177 miles apart (assuming 85kWh car).
· Plan to have your range reduced by 150% of the actual miles while driving (it won’t always be that bad, but plan for worst case)
· Charge until your car shows enough rated miles to cover 150% of the actual distance to the next charger, plus 25 miles


It's too bad Tesla (or any other EV maker) doesn't tell owners these things.
 
I agree. I just took a 3,000-mile road trip in the cold, and it went perfectly. Of course as I mentioned above, I had the benefit of having taken a 3,000-mile road trip in the cold three years ago that did not go as well, so I had learned THESE tips that I put in another thread last night. There is a lot of detail in that thread, but all you have to know is:

· Plan charging stops no more than 177 miles apart (assuming 85kWh car).
· Plan to have your range reduced by 150% of the actual miles while driving (it won’t always be that bad, but plan for worst case)
· Charge until your car shows enough rated miles to cover 150% of the actual distance to the next charger, plus 25 miles


It's too bad Tesla (or any other EV maker) doesn't tell owners these things.

Great reference text! ("THESE")

Your other one should be helpful here as well: Putting some numbers on the factors that affect range
 
Yes, as I said it was a learning experience for my first road trip and there were plenty of areas for lessons to be learned, albeit the hard way. Although, I can't say avoiding Dixon or the airport would have been an option, less I want to leave my fiance and friend and travel alone (perhaps more successful, but less fun). The Allstay and RVPark suggestions will be very helpful in the future, although a quick search right now reveals that the RV hook-up sites along my route were all closed for the season. Does anyone know -- when RV parks say they have 30-amp service, it is most always a NEMA-TT-30 (for which we don't have an adapter)?
 
Yes, as I said it was a learning experience for my first road trip and there were plenty of areas for lessons to be learned, albeit the hard way. Although, I can't say avoiding Dixon or the airport would have been an option, less I want to leave my fiance and friend and travel alone (perhaps more successful, but less fun). The Allstay and RVPark suggestions will be very helpful in the future, although a quick search right now reveals that the RV hook-up sites along my route were all closed for the season. Does anyone know -- when RV parks say they have 30-amp service, it is most always a NEMA-TT-30 (for which we don't have an adapter)?

In addition to just using the apps, you should definitely call ahead to any RV Park for several reasons...

1. Do they even allow EVs to charge there. Some of them only allow RVs so they should be avoided.
2. Verify they can accommodate you during the time period you expect to pass through. Even if they are EV friendly they simply may not have an available 50 amp plug for you to use.
3. Ask if their 50-amp plugs have NEMA 14-50 connectors. You aren't guaranteed to get an accurate answer, but at least you can get a warm and fuzzy about whether they should be able to accommodate a Tesla.

For my 510 mile road trip here in Texas (Houston to Dallas and back) I called ahead and verified that there were several RV parks I could stop at along my route. Ultimately I only stopped once on the way up and once on the way back, but I was prepared to stop multiple times if necessary.
 
Yes, as I said it was a learning experience for my first road trip and there were plenty of areas for lessons to be learned, albeit the hard way. Although, I can't say avoiding Dixon or the airport would have been an option, less I want to leave my fiance and friend and travel alone (perhaps more successful, but less fun). The Allstay and RVPark suggestions will be very helpful in the future, although a quick search right now reveals that the RV hook-up sites along my route were all closed for the season. Does anyone know -- when RV parks say they have 30-amp service, it is most always a NEMA-TT-30 (for which we don't have an adapter)?

That's 120V anyway, so it's not practical. You need a RV park with 50 amp.
 
The "old" adapters are matte colored. The new replacement adapters are glossy. Many of the matte adapters have no problems and after more inquiries, I don't think it's really weather related. As far as I know, they will replace your old one with a glossy one for free though. The glossy one is considered the 'final version' now and all of the current production vehicles are getting it.
 
In very cold conditions you can expect to get about 200 miles range, if you take it easy and use Range Mode heating.

Don't trust the charge map applications. Always verify first - call ahead, ask people here, whatever it takes to get confirmation that there is a charge point, that it works, and is actually accessible.

I had a few bumps on my own recent winter driving experience, but it turned out rather better. See Winter Ice Adventure
 
3. Ask if their 50-amp plugs have NEMA 14-50 connectors. You aren't guaranteed to get an accurate answer, but at least you can get a warm and fuzzy about whether they should be able to accommodate a Tesla.

I found that bringing the work NEMA into the conversation confused things greatly. Instead I simply asked if they have a "50 Amp hookup". I also used the database in the RV ParkFinder to check ahead of this and never found it to be wrong (sample set of about 20). I don't believe that there is an RV plug for 50 Amps that isn't a NEMA 14-50 connector.

Peter
 
I found that bringing the work NEMA into the conversation confused things greatly. Instead I simply asked if they have a "50 Amp hookup". I also used the database in the RV ParkFinder to check ahead of this and never found it to be wrong (sample set of about 20). I don't believe that there is an RV plug for 50 Amps that isn't a NEMA 14-50 connector.

Peter

Your right. I think I ended up asking if they had the regular 50 amp RV hookup plug / wall outlet after confusion about NEMA and 14-50 terminology.
 
That does sound painful, but I wouldn't say they hit ALL of the gotchas...on my first EV road trip (driving a Roadster from Seattle to San Diego and back 3 years ago) in addition to finding 110V "charging stations" and campgrounds confused about what kind of outlets they had (hint: ask for "50 amp service"; that is the terminology they are used to) I hit a power outage, a freak snowstorm that closed the pass, my third-party charging cable melted, Tesla didn't have replacement cables, and when Tesla finally got me a replacement cable that they said they had tested...it didn't work when I tried it, which of course was in a campground in Shingletown, CA with about 6 miles of range left at midnight in light snow.
OK, I want to hear the full story. Did you write it up anywhere? A *power outage* is a prettty spectacular problem for charging an EV!
But I've taken 5 long trips since then and never had any of those issues...thank goodness.