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Portland, OR to Bay Area, CA in a 60kWh Model S

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Hi.

Posted this in the California forum as well, but hoping to get insight from Oregonians or washinton folks who have made similar journeys.

contemplating using the model s60 for a road trip to Portland this summer from San Jose, CA.
from the supercharger map it looks doable, but there is one spot that i recall to be very mountainous and i wonder if there is risk of not making it supercharger to supercharger at that point.

will be a fairly straightforward trip of just up and downI-5, no real deviation for touristy things. Open to stopping quite frequently and may not even try to do it all in one day.

anyone done it? anything to worry about? can be done with S/C only or are there spots that require public chargers to fill in the gaps?

thanks,
Jeff
 
I'm driving from Portland to Santa Clara in two weeks in my MS60! I've already driven as far down as Grants Pass. Lots of mountains towards the end, but there were no problems. I might range charge if the weather is really bad, but the standard charge should be enough between all legs. Others that have done this in their MS60s also have had no problems.

When I've mapped this out, I used EV Trip Planner. Assuming I drive 10% over the speed limit, the longest leg is Springfield to Grants Pass at just under 50kWh. All other legs use less power, so no problems driving faster or dealing with bad weather. Total driving time including charging should take about 13.5 hours. But that's estimating charging based on usage from the previous leg and the charging rates I've had in the past. Even if I'm off by several hours, doing this in a single day should still be no problem.

I'm really looking forward to this trip!
 
We're doing a road trip from AZ up to BC in July in our S60.

Similar to Chris's answer -- I used EV Trip Planner, and the Springfield to Grants Pass stretch will take the most energy. I tend to look at the Rated Miles estimate, and also use 1.1 for the speed setting (i.e. 10% over the posted limit). That stretch should be 168 rated miles southbound and 161 rated miles northbound, so should not be an issue. I plan to range charge before that stretch each way just to be safe...
 
Hi Chris....

i will look into EV trip planner.

could i ask you to let me know how it goes? it sounds like you are doing exactly what i will be doing and i'd love to hear how it goes for you.

i am a little surprised to hear that range charging isnt needed in the 60. i guess i will see what EV trip planner says.

thank you both for the information.

Jeff
 
Hi Chris....

i will look into EV trip planner.

could i ask you to let me know how it goes? it sounds like you are doing exactly what i will be doing and i'd love to hear how it goes for you.

i am a little surprised to hear that range charging isnt needed in the 60. i guess i will see what EV trip planner says.

thank you both for the information.

Jeff
Will be doing this in my 60 on July 16/17 returning July 22/23. Will also try to log and post.

The only nervous part for me is the Grants Pass, but based on posts/EV Tripp that'll be the one I'll be most paying attention. Otherwise I'm going to drive it like I would any other car with the added fun of supercharging while taking breaks.
 
Well, I did the trip yesterday! The good news is, even in 100+ degree weather, there's no problem getting down there in an MS60. I spent 1 hour charging in both Springfield and Grants Pass. When leaving Springfield, I did half a range charge and left with 192 miles and arrived in Grants Pass with 34 miles. So range charge is still not required, but probably a good idea if the weather is bad or you want to drive really fast (I was usually around 70 for most of it). Rest of the time I never even fully charged and got to the next SC with around 40 miles to spare. I could have probably shaved an hour off the whole trip by charging less, but I'm glad I had the buffer.

Only real issue I had was Vacaville. Since I got there in the evening, it was filled with mostly locals. This resulted in a very slow charge rate until one of them unplugged from the other charger I was paired with.

I've logged all the trip info in detail and will post it all after I return home this coming weekend.
 
I was in my P85, but I did Portland<->Sonoma a couple weeks ago and you can make it in about 12 hours. I went 75mph most of the way and spent 15-20 minutes per stop, choosing to always leave with ~150% of necessary range.

Add another hour to get to San Francisco itself, plus another 30-45 maybe in total charge time for a P60 at the more tapered end of the charge and it should certainly be feasible in 14 hours or less.
 
EV trip planner is showing me 14 hours and 45 minutes gilroy to Salem, and that is assuming 1 hour charging at each SC along the way (skipping fremont becasue you can get to vacaville easily).

exited to hear that no one is coming close to having an issue.

i'm curious, is it best to range charge overnight before leaving or only range charge at teh super charger that it will be needed at?

thanks,
jeff



- - - Updated - - -

ps- what was your energy consumption for the trip, or do you ahve it by segment in the log you will post? im curious to see how it compares to ev trip planner assumptions.
 
EV trip planner is showing me 14 hours and 45 minutes gilroy to Salem, and that is assuming 1 hour charging at each SC along the way (skipping fremont becasue you can get to vacaville easily).
exited to hear that no one is coming close to having an issue.
i'm curious, is it best to range charge overnight before leaving or only range charge at teh super charger that it will be needed at?
- - - Updated - - -
ps- what was your energy consumption for the trip, or do you ahve it by segment in the log you will post? im curious to see how it compares to ev trip planner assumptions.
I don't have the logs, but it was around 350 Wh/mile overall. Again, I was generally zooming along at the speed limit + 10% (so, 77 in the 70 zones). Given the quickness of the Superchargers, I saved more overall time driving faster. The previous year, without Superchargers, was the opposite. Trailing big rigs at 60mph so that I wouldn't have to spend as long charging at public chargers.

The full sequence, roughly, was:
* Leave Sonoma with a full Range charge
* Stop in Corning (150 miles, so I could skip Vacaville). Arrived with ~50 miles of range if I recall. Charged for probably 40 minutes since we had breakfast there. Don't recall my range when leaving other than it was well over the 160 miles or so I wanted as cushion to get to Mt Shasta
* Charged in Mt Shasta City for about 25 minutes (hit the Grocery store across the street). Left with 180 miles of range. Surprisingly low Wh/mile usage from here to Grants Pass, less than 300 Wh/mile.
* Charged in Grants Pass, OR for maybe 30-40 minutes while having lunch. Left with 180 miles of range...this was a little tight. It's 136 for this leg, about 20 miles longer than most legs, and I think I had less than 20 range left. Again though, I was going well over 70 most of the time.
* Charged in Springfield, OR for about 30-40 minutes....I needed to reach Portland, OR and get home. There's a SC in Woodburn though, which is only about 80 miles, you'd short charge at Springfield for maybe 15 minutes if Woodburn was your next stop.

So, all told, maybe 2-2.5 hours of charging and ~10 hours of driving. Of that though, a decent chunk was at breakfast, lunch, and the grocery store run, so the "wait for charge" time was mostly limited to Springfield, OR and a slight wait at Mt. Shasta to get to the desired range as it only took about 15 minutes to visit the grocery store across the street.
 
I don't have my EV trip numbers handy at the moment, but I recall noting during the trip I was coming out better then what it said. I think it may have been I was unable to maintain an average of 10% over the limit. Between construction and some occasional slow cars, I went slightly slower then 10% over for the whole length.

After I return on Friday, I'll post all my numbers for both directions, including the original EV Trip Planner numbers.
 
I've done the trip from Springfield to Grants Pass and back couple of times now, and found that I got about 70% efficiency (including rain, speed, and elevation).
That means if you have 200 rated miles shown on the dash, you can make this route of about 140 actual miles easily in the clear weather.
 
I've done the trip from Springfield to Grants Pass and back couple of times now, and found that I got about 70% efficiency (including rain, speed, and elevation).
That means if you have 200 rated miles shown on the dash, you can make this route of about 140 actual miles easily in the clear weather.

wow, that's actually quite concerning... ev trip planner assumes about 90% efficiency for that leg (using your definition of actual miles/rated miles).
 
Unless I'm not following correctly that would mean that a 60 could barely do the Springfield to grants pass leg in the winter.
Yep, it it's a case where a 60 will want a full charge and might have to manage the drive. Stay at 60-65 in the slow lane for the leg.

Now, the 425 Wh/mile is my Portland freeway commute driving, with 21" tires. You'll do better than that on the Springfield-Grants Pass leg and better still with 19" tires. Still, I'd want ~190 miles of range before setting out in winter on that leg. Rain is a big factor. Wet roads add a surprisingly large amount of rolling resistance.

In the summer, you'd probably be fine with 175 in charge and going 75 mph :)