We are planning a short trip. The place is only 60 miles away so so a total trip will be about 150 miles. Planning to stay overnight there. The car will not be charged at night. The tricky part is the destination is 3,500' higher in elevation and and the temperature will be about 30f overnight.
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Would you make this trip on a single charge?
- Thread starter MY-user
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Your elevation gain will be accompanied the next day with an elevation loss. Because of that, the elevation difference shouldn't make a huge difference in total consumption. 30F overnight just means the battery will get cooler. Your first few miles going down will unfortunately not regenerate as much unless you preheat the cabin, which will heat the battery to gain some regen back.
If you have access to a 120V plug, that could be enough to keep the battery warm for the next morning.
If you have access to a 120V plug, that could be enough to keep the battery warm for the next morning.
Silicon Desert
Well-Known Member
There will be no way to plug in even a 120 V. My main concern is that 3500' elevation hike combined with the cold battery might not get me far next day. Also from what I read on this forum preheating the battery using battery power will not increase mileage. It's all spent energy and will decrease the total mileage.
roblab
Active Member
You don't say what you're driving. We are all assuming it's a Model 3, but there are Teslas with 400 miles range (my Model S LR) or 250 miles range (my daughter's Model X). Even then, 150 miles is not scary at all. You don't need to charge to keep the battery warm: you have plenty of extra power, and 30 degrees is not that cold. It will not take much juice to keep the battery warm and ready to go, and your battery will have enough power to do that. I live at 1500', but my gains driving down the hill are negated by driving up. It's a balanced equation.
It takes a while to gain the faith in your car and know what it can do, but you will. The next trip will be worry free.
It takes a while to gain the faith in your car and know what it can do, but you will. The next trip will be worry free.
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Charge the car to 90% before your trip and you will be fine.
Terminator857
Active Member
You will be fine. 20K miles on my MYLR, my 100% charge is under 295 miles now, and I still regularly make 165-175 mile 60% highway trips in the winter and arrive with around 100 miles range remaining when I charge to 100% before heading out. In the summer, I've arrived with as high as 115 miles remaining.
Remember to turn off Sentry Mode when you park overnight. Sentry mode will use 6% of the battery per 24 hours so there is no need to lose 3 or 4% overnight when you have no way to charge. This is one of those longer road trips where it makes sense to charge to 100% before you leave.
This isn't even going to be a challenge. But yes, turn off Sentry mode and Summon Standby mode. Those can be some ridiculous idle energy draw while the car is sitting.
andaconda
Active Member
And let the car go to sleep. IE: don’t be checking on it with the app several times on your stay.
All of these questions can be answered pretty accurately with the ABRP app. It's a free download and a very nice tool.
I think ABRP would not be able to handle the specific case of going up -> cooling the battery -> going back down. It would assume going down has regen whereas the first few miles won't, unless the car is preconditioned. For everything else, it's absolutely true and ABRP is a great tool. I found it excellent and preventing range anxiety in my case.
I don't think I've experienced regen so low that it cannot maintain highway speed down a big hill. Slow to stop at traffic lights? Sure. Cold and 50% SoC not being able to hold the car back going down a mountain? I think little or no friction brakes will be needed.
MY-user, please report back to us on how this goes for you.
MY-user, please report back to us on how this goes for you.
have you tried planning it out in plugshare? do your destination, then look on the elevation, that will level out your confidence. That 3500 feet of gain is going to make you sweat at first, but I think if you look at it a few times, and drive normal, no GO SPEED RACER, you'll get there and back with a good level of charge, Colorado really does make you play that catch the range game!
I've had my battery colder than that with > 50% regen unless it has a SoC over 85%.
As others have suggested, ABRP is a great tool for getting your confidence up that you have the range you'll need.
FYI, it takes about 7 kWh to raise 2.5 tons (your car) up 3,500 feet. And you will re-coup some of this on the trip home.
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