I took my first road trip yesterday through some wintery roads and here are some stats and what I learned.
255 miles round trip
Ready to Go!
Started charging with 30A Aerovironment charger; sad that a commercial charger is slower than my home. Switched to standard charge for faster charging
Completed Charging. Charged from 98 to 151 miles in 2 hours 40 minutes. Charge rate was 20 miles per hour
Family was watching Mission Impossible on the iPad with sound sent to MS sound system via Bluetooth - the sound surround worked well and added extra suspense to the drive home as the car power supply dwindled down!
Fahrvergnügen
More Tesla Grins
Beautiful Leavenworth
A Hearty German Platter for Dinner
Hopefully this is helpful for folks and not the modern day equivalent of making your neighbors watch the slideshow of your vacation!
Overview
Total Trip
255 miles round trip
Ready to Go!
Outbound (I-90 E and US-97 N, 129 miles)
- Bellevue to Hyak Sno Park - 45 miles
- Sno Park to Leavenworth - 84 miles
Return (US-97 S and I-90 W, 127 miles)
- Leavenworth to Bellevue
Timeline
- 12:45 pm: Departed with range charge of 303 miles
- 1:30 pm: Arrived at Hyak
- 4:10 pm: Arrived at Leavenworth
- 4:20 pm: Started charging at Leavenworth
- 7 pm: Finished charging
- 7:10 pm: Departed Leavenworth
- 9:50 pm: Arrived home
Key Findings
Cabin Heating and Defrosting
- Range Drive option where it limits the climate system does not work for winter conditions in terms of heating the cabin and defrosting
- Even with regular mode, my MS fogs up badly on driver side. Something is wrong here and I have seen other TMC reports of this. See pics below
- I could not figure out a way to get heat out the rear vents - tried all permutations of settings. Anyone getting heated air out the rear vents?
Maps
- Google Map and Nav worked well
- Losing 3G loses Google Maps but Nav still works
Cold Temperature Handling
- MS handles well in icy roads and temperatures - even on trip back where Blewett Pass had 18F temperatures; I was going at 45-50 MPH. However, roads were dry and bare.
- On this trip, I did not have to drive in snow
Key Power Stats
Arrived at Leavenworth
- Drove 128 miles
- Consumed 48.7 kWh
- Averaged 380 Wh/mile
- Rated range of 98 miles left
- Average projected range 156 miles left. Last 15 miles were largely downhill
Started Charging
Started charging with 30A Aerovironment charger; sad that a commercial charger is slower than my home. Switched to standard charge for faster charging
Finished Charging
Completed Charging. Charged from 98 to 151 miles in 2 hours 40 minutes. Charge rate was 20 miles per hour
Return Trip
- Got home with 4 miles rated range left. Power bar on speedometer turns yellow at 50 miles rated and then to red at 10 miles rated
- In last hour of driving, I was on cruise control set at 50 miles per hour and I was confident I get home because: triangulation between Nav showing distance left and both rated and projected numbers being higher. For example, a dozen or so miles after clearing the Snoqualmie summit - I had Nav showing 20 miles to home, 26 miles projected, 22 miles rated. in hindsight, I just had a lot of faith in these 3 numbers and it panned out as expected because I got home with 4 miles left!!
Total Trip Stats
- Drove 255 miles
- Consumed 91.2 kWh
- Averaged 358 Wh/mile. 380 Wh/mile outbound, 336 Wh/mile return. Difference is careful driving with return trip with 50 MPH cruise control
- Got home with both rated range and average projected range of 4 miles left. Regen down Blewett Pass and Snoqualmie Pass saved me!
My MS stallion drinking heartily!
You can send movie sound from iPad to Sound System
Family was watching Mission Impossible on the iPad with sound sent to MS sound system via Bluetooth - the sound surround worked well and added extra suspense to the drive home as the car power supply dwindled down!
Miscellaneous Tips
- Get all your charging network fobs and charge cards handy - Blink, Aerovironment and Chargepoint. Install their smart phone apps too. Have a co-pilot that knows how to use these apps. Some of the charging stations are not accessible to the public
- Don't forget to turn off your AC system when parked and have your doors and trunk opened. We were hanging out around the car drinking hot chocolate at the sledding hill with doors and trunk opened and I did not realize that the climate system was blaring away until I got back in the driver's seat. It a waste of precious energy.
- Creating an "easy to access" trip wiki page is extremely helpful. Know your route and where you can charge
Miscellaneous Pics
Fahrvergnügen
More Tesla Grins
Beautiful Leavenworth
A Hearty German Platter for Dinner
Hopefully this is helpful for folks and not the modern day equivalent of making your neighbors watch the slideshow of your vacation!
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