Planning a Trip in a Tesla

talhas3 said:

So I'm planning a trip in a loaner Tesla from NJ to Rochester NY. I will stop at the Albany supercharger from Short Hills NJ which is 157 miles. So that part is not a problem.

Going to Rochester NY from there will be 219 miles. So this means, based on what I have read... at the Albany supercharger, I will need to make sure that I have at least 280 miles charged? Since I will arrive there with about 130 miles or so remaining (my estimate), I will have to charge 150 miles. This will take about half hour is my estimate.. Am I correct there?

Once I get to Rochester NY... I will be there for a few hours... Now thats where the trouble comes in. I have to come back another 219 miles to the Albany Supercharger. Since there is no supercharger there, I have to figure out if the trip is even possible. There is a Tesla owner there who I can contact to charge at his HWPC at his house but wondering how long that will take to charge 219 miles... Any ideas? Based on that number, I will see if the trip is even possible. I have to come back on the same day.

Any ideas or suggestions?

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Dual chargers or single?
The HPWC is it 100 Amp or less?
My HPWC charges at 79 Amp continuous which averages 50-52 miles per hour.

talhas3 - I live in Rochester, NY and in late September I will become Tesla owner number 20 in this area, so I have looked into this a bit. Not an owner yet, so take what I have to say with that in mind. Chipper is right, you need to know if the loaner has a dual charger. Rochester NY seems to be in an "underserved" location with respect to superchargers, with the Albany location being the closest but it could be a stretch in cold weather. There is talk of a Syracuse SC, which would help a great deal. The terrain east of Rochester on the thruway is quite hilly, and in the winter it is in a snow belt. Energy use will be high. Moreover, once you make it to Rochester, you will have little range left. Yes, a 100 amp HPWC can get you 50/hour charge and you might need 4 or more hours on that charger to get back to Albany. You could also hit one of the local L2 chargers (look at chargepoint) for 20-30/hour but that might be impractical. There is a SunCountry high amp charger at the Best Western in Syracuse (~ 80 miles east of Rochester) that others have mentioned. This could also be useful for you.
I tried to map out your trip with evtripplanner.com, but the web site can't access the supercharger locations at the moment.
My best advice - hope that your loaner has a dual charger, connect with the local HPWC, charge there for at least 4 hours, maybe 5, (perhaps you can conduct your business in Rochester during that time) get to Albany SC and you are all set for return trip to Short Hills, NJ. Or, if you had to leave Rochester in a few hours, get only enough charge to get to Syracuse (probably 2 hours on a 100 amp HPWC), then spend another couple of hours on that charger to get to Albany SC.
This endeavor seems impractical for a same day trip, in my opinion.
However, I must confess that I haven't used the chargers yet, and actual users need to chime in here. I eagerly wait to hear what others say about this trip -- has implications for my NYC area travel from Rochester.

The trip may be possible - but challenging.

On a flat road, at constant speeds, in ideal conditions - you should be able to get 250-260 miles of range if you drive between 55 to 65 MPH. To do that, you would need to be monitoring your energy consumption - and if you're projected range drops below the distance remaining to your next charger, you'll have to slow down. If temperatures are high or low, you will consume more energy. Hilly terrain will eat into the range. And if there's rain on the road or if you can't maintain constant speed - that can also affect range. But if you're willing to drive slow enough - you should be able to make it. Using the "Range Mode" on the heating/air conditioning system can provide some improvement on range. And don't turn the HVAC system off and open the windows, because the extra drag may actually lose more range than running the air conditioning...

The superchargers charge much faster between 0-80% of charge than between 80-100%. It could take 30 minutes to get the last 20% of charge - and you'll probably want to leave the supercharger at 100% charge - to give you as much range as possible. Plus, if there are other cars at the supercharger, charging could take longer if you share a charger.

Even though this is a loaner, you should plan to have at least 20-30 miles of range left when you hit the charger. When on trips and planning for them, I always plan to have a 20-30 mile range cushion, just in case conditions are not as expected. You should try to avoid, if at all possible, allowing the car to get down to 0...

As for charging at a destination without a supercharger - that's going to take quite a while to get back to 100% charge. If you use a 30A (dryer) or J1772 charger, plan to get 15-18 miles of range per hour. If you can find a 14-50, you might get up to 30 miles per hour. And if you're lucky enough to find someone with a 100A HPWC and the car has dual chargers, you may be able to get up to 60 miles per hour. If the battery is almost depleted - that means getting back to 100% charge could take 4 to 15 hours.

One of the great features of the Model S is your ability to monitor energy usage. Display the energy graph in half of the center console display. Set it to 5 miles of display and use the average (not instant) setting. On the right side of the display the projected range will be displayed, based on usage over the last 5 miles. You'll find that by lowering your speed you can have a pretty significant impact on range. If the posted highway speeds are 70 and above, driving at 60 to 65 (or lower) can help considerably.

Especially if you are planning to drive over 200 miles in one hop, frequent energy management will be important. Because if you burn up to much energy early on - it may be difficult to drive slow enough to recover later in the trip.

Also recommend that you have Telsa's assistance number on your cell phone - so you can contact them during the trip if you have any concerns. They have been super to work with - and can remotely review your car's status.

Good luck...

talhas3 said:

Car will have Dual chargers.
The Tesla owner there has HPWC and gets about 25-30 miles/hour charging.

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Looks like the HPWC is NOT 100 Amp so you will need to plan accordingly. Dual chargers will not do you any good if the HPWC is not able to give you the extra oomph.

What MS can charge to 280 miles? If that's "ideal" miles, it's never going to make it. Use "rated" miles instead for better accuracy.

You can go 219 miles on a range charge, but as said above, it's going to take some effort/monitoring/prayer during the trip. That is, praying for flat roads, cool weather, and no rain.

Good luck!

It's a stretch from Albany to Rochester. I would plan on a brief stop in Syracuse for some added miles--there are a number of public chargers including the Best Western. If you get near Syracuse and find your energy usage is tracking well then you can simply press on.

Do the math for your charge in Rochester based on the charger amperage you can access. Only you can say whether the extra time is worth driving the S.

If you're not doing this drive until October I can let you know the energy usage; I'll be doing that drive the third week of September.

I cant help with the destination charging but I went through some similar thinking here:
Planning for the first road trip in the Model S | Tesla Living
The trip to NJ from MA and back was uneventful. I then tried to figure out how to get to Pittsburgh and back and it wasnt feasible.

Just because there are superchargers covering 80% of the US doesnt mean they're at all convenient to get from point A to point B.