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Driving up to Lake Tahoe

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I would like to hear from anyone who has made the trip to North Shore, Lake Tahoe up either highway 80 or 50. Wondering what the real world loss of mileage will be going up either of these roads. If I do a range charge at the
Folsom sc and have around 200 miles, it is 105 miles from there to Carnelian Bay. I know I will use more than the 105, I would normally get there with 95 miles left, but know that will not be the case. I'm going in August so it will be warm and probable use lots of A/C. Any input would be appreciated.
 
From the logs from my winter trip, I left Folsom with about 205 rated (don't know exactly since this was the buggy firmware for 60kWh rated miles), had about 75 rated at Truckee, and 55 rated at Incline Village. I took 80 and had the cruise control set for the speed limit basically the entire way.

Looks like it was in the 40s-50s most of the way up, so not too cold. I'd guess that you'd beat those numbers during the summer even with A/C, though probably only by few miles.

Coming back down is a piece of cake - only takes about 70 rated miles back to Folsom from North Tahoe.

Do be sure to post your numbers once you're back :)
 
Now that there is a SC at Vacaville, you can charge up enough there and make it to North Shore or even Reno skipping Folsom all together. You would need approx 213+30 for safety from Vacaville to reach Reno. If you stop in Folsom I'd make sure you have 140+30 for safety to make it over the top. Do not leave Folsom without 170 miles. I found elevation taking about 50 miles off battery and more if you are passing underperforming ICE motors at elevation. Was able to do a 12 car pass on the last passing lane before the summit on US50. Amazing performance at 7000ft
Now going home you can fully charge up at Harrahs and Harvey's. They have Chargepoint stations for free. I was able to drive to east bay and have 100 miles left on battery
 
I found elevation taking about 50 miles off battery and more if you are passing underperforming ICE motors at elevation. Was able to do a 12 car pass on the last passing lane before the summit on US50. Amazing performance at 7000ft

Off topic, but beware when passing cars like that if this was on a two-lane highway. Last summer, I received a ticket for "careless driving" when I passed a group of about 10 cars that were all driving way under the speed limit in the Rocky Mountain National Park. I didn't even break the speed limit to pass the cars within the marked passing zone. The park ranger said it was "illegal to pass more than a single car at a time in a passing zone". Of course it was really because he just wanted to write a ticket to the out-of-state driver in an Ariel Atom (basically a race car). I almost made the 1000 mile round trip to contest the ticket, but since my GoPro ran out of space that morning and didn't have any video of the "incident", it would have been a simple case of "who do you believe?" and I would have lost, so I ended up and just paid the ticket.
 
Off topic, but beware when passing cars like that if this was on a two-lane highway. Last summer, I received a ticket for "careless driving" when I passed a group of about 10 cars that were all driving way under the speed limit in the Rocky Mountain National Park. I didn't even break the speed limit to pass the cars within the marked passing zone. The park ranger said it was "illegal to pass more than a single car at a time in a passing zone". Of course it was really because he just wanted to write a ticket to the out-of-state driver in an Ariel Atom (basically a race car). I almost made the 1000 mile round trip to contest the ticket, but since my GoPro ran out of space that morning and didn't have any video of the "incident", it would have been a simple case of "who do you believe?" and I would have lost, so I ended up and just paid the ticket.

If I had another space in my garage, an Ariel Atom would be there! I would have paid a local lawyer to represent me and contest it, save me the trouble of traveling 1000 miles.
 
I drove to the South shore from the Bay Area. I charged up in Folsom and got a nice lunch at a nearby burger place. It was around 106F outside when I drove up. My destination was my parents timeshare next to Heavenly at around 7200 feet. I had plenty of range left though I also was able to charge there since the timeshare (The Ridge Tahoe) has a nice NEMA 14-50 outlet installed for EVs. Also, remember that you use a lot less energy going back down than you do going up. Going up 80 will be a lot easier once the Roseville supercharger is finished. I plan to drive over to Reno at the end of next month and will be staying at a place that has an RV park I can charge at. I don't remember how much range I had left when I got up there but I also wasn't taking it easy.

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There's a supercharger being built in Roseville along 80 that will be even better for Tahoe. Also, The Ridge Tahoe has a NEMA 14-50 outlet available for EVs. It's up Kingsbury grade next door to Heavenly. I had no problem driving like a bat out of hell up Kingsbury Grade or up highway 50.
 
I drove to the South shore from the Bay Area. I charged up in Folsom and got a nice lunch at a nearby burger place. It was around 106F outside when I drove up. My destination was my parents timeshare next to Heavenly at around 7200 feet. I had plenty of range left though I also was able to charge there since the timeshare (The Ridge Tahoe) has a nice NEMA 14-50 outlet installed for EVs. Also, remember that you use a lot less energy going back down than you do going up. Going up 80 will be a lot easier once the Roseville supercharger is finished. I plan to drive over to Reno at the end of next month and will be staying at a place that has an RV park I can charge at. I don't remember how much range I had left when I got up there but I also wasn't taking it easy.

- - - Updated - - -

There's a supercharger being built in Roseville along 80 that will be even better for Tahoe. Also, The Ridge Tahoe has a NEMA 14-50 outlet available for EVs. It's up Kingsbury grade next door to Heavenly. I had no problem driving like a bat out of hell up Kingsbury Grade or up highway 50.

I'm staying at the Ridge Tahoe this weekend/next week and counting on that 14-50!
 
I brought a NEMA 14-50 extension cord and am glad I did. The spot at The Ridge with the outlet is quite narrow and very difficult to back in to since it's right against the wall. The extension cord helped a lot in this case. If you park normally the UMC will not reach. If you back in it will be almost impossible to get in and out of the driver's side of the car since you'll be up against the wall.

Amazon.com: Camco 55194 50 AMP 15 RV PowerGrip Extension Cord: Automotive
 
Until Tesla integrates Nav and Energy Apps with their huge telemetry database and internal models, I hope you've tried the EVTripPlanner.com Planner. It is quite accurate at predicting usage along a specific route if you put in the payload/speed/car/temp parameters accurately. You should allow 5% margin at minimum, though (or just slow down a bit).


Planner at EVTripPlanner


Unreleased version with a few more tweaks at EVTripPlanner


There are thousands of drivers using it now and we're planning hundreds of routes per day. Pretty exciting. To see where drivers are planning routes you can see the interactive map at Where The Teslas Go
 
^^
reasonably accurate. Just did Coastal CA to grants pass up to Salem and back
#'s match almost perfect (well, trying to account for how fast I was going in some parts vs the speed limit in others) for the Arcata -Grants pass area
other parts were so cold and snowy + I was parked on I-5 for >2hours so I didn't check the #'s.

water and road surface make a difference that might be hard to quantify properly and add to the trip calcs (along with the extreme low temps of course)

cool program.


..one comment about the program/car. For some trips my rated #'s seem to match what they are 'supposed to be' and others they will be off by up to 15%. The trips that seem to be off are usually shorter trips or when the car/battery hasn't been warmed up yet.

this might make the program seem off but I think it is the car
 
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Until Tesla integrates Nav and Energy Apps with their huge telemetry database and internal models, I hope you've tried the EVTripPlanner.com Planner. It is quite accurate at predicting usage along a specific route if you put in the payload/speed/car/temp parameters accurately. You should allow 5% margin at minimum, though (or just slow down a bit).


Planner at EVTripPlanner


Unreleased version with a few more tweaks at EVTripPlanner


There are thousands of drivers using it now and we're planning hundreds of routes per day. Pretty exciting. To see where drivers are planning routes you can see the interactive map at Where The Teslas Go

I noticed evtripper.com come online hosting the same thing. It is a new domain or a ripoff?
 
Left Folsom with about 182 and got up here, 95 miles, with 35 remaining.

The parking spot at the Ridge Tahoe is pretty tight, it actually doesn't look like a real parking spot at all. More of an access area for facilities. Ideally I would back in to the spot next to it and the UMC would reach easily.

uploadfromtaptalk1392536628935.jpg


I brought the extension cord, but ended up not using it because
1. there is a cover on the outlet and the way the extension cord is oriented it cannot plug in flush. UMC plugs in ok because it sticks out and clears the edge of the cover assembly.

uploadfromtaptalk1392536594861.jpg


2. I draped the UMC cord over the car and it reached fine. I realize this won't work for people who are meticulous about paint, but I tried to be careful.
uploadfromtaptalk1392536550673.jpg


uploadfromtaptalk1392536570771.jpg


PS - Watch out for this red curb.
uploadfromtaptalk1392536526612.jpg


On the plus side, they were good about putting cones in front of the spot to prevent ice-ing