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4250 miles, 29 Superchargers, 0 problems

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David99

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Jan 31, 2014
5,508
9,333
Nomad (mostly US)
Yesterday I returned from a 4250 mile road trip from Los Angeles to north Minnesota and back. I stopped 29 times at various Superchargers. My 85 performed flawless. Not a single problem. I'm pretty impressed! What I find even more impressive and reassuring is that all these 29 stops went without any problems as well. I plugged in and it charged, not a single time were there any problems. For the most part I was always the only one charging. No spot was ICEd, I never had to wait. Having such a reliable charging network is pretty impressive and gives me faith in Tesla.

A few things I have learned: I'm so happy I got the 85 and not the 60. Some of the legs between Superchargers are pushing it by requiring 50 kWh or more in dry and moderately warm weather. That's the limit for the 60. If you have cold weather and rain or even snow, you have to be rather careful in a 60. Which made me think, the Model 3 has the same range as the S60 so we might see some people in trouble once they start selling.

One night I made the mistake to charge only 50% and then doing the rest in the morning before leaving. The battery got cold and as a result it only accepted a rather low charge rate of 30 kW. So it took much longer to charge than it would have taken, had I done it the night before.

Wind makes a huge difference. If blowing the wrong way, it can seriously impact energy consumption.

Arriving at low state of charge will result in higher charge rates, thus reducing your total travel time. I always gave myself a 30 mile buffer and I ended up arriving at 10 to 50 miles left on the battery.

Keeping a close eye on energy consumption. Some roads seemed to suck out energy like crazy while others seem to make the car "fly".

I was also positively surprised how comfortable the seat was even after sitting in the car for such a long time.

Overall I'm very happy and impressed with Tesla and my S. It truly is a reliable car that has no problems with long trips and constant use of Superchargers and high speed driving.
 
Yesterday I returned from a 4250 mile road trip from Los Angeles to north Minnesota and back. I stopped 29 times at various Superchargers. My 85 performed flawless. Not a single problem. I'm pretty impressed! What I find even more impressive and reassuring is that all these 29 stops went without any problems as well. I plugged in and it charged, not a single time were there any problems. For the most part I was always the only one charging. No spot was ICEd, I never had to wait. Having such a reliable charging network is pretty impressive and gives me faith in Tesla.

A few things I have learned: I'm so happy I got the 85 and not the 60. Some of the legs between Superchargers are pushing it by requiring 50 kWh or more in dry and moderately warm weather. That's the limit for the 60. If you have cold weather and rain or even snow, you have to be rather careful in a 60. Which made me think, the Model 3 has the same range as the S60 so we might see some people in trouble once they start selling.

One night I made the mistake to charge only 50% and then doing the rest in the morning before leaving. The battery got cold and as a result it only accepted a rather low charge rate of 30 kW. So it took much longer to charge than it would have taken, had I done it the night before.

Wind makes a huge difference. If blowing the wrong way, it can seriously impact energy consumption.

Arriving at low state of charge will result in higher charge rates, thus reducing your total travel time. I always gave myself a 30 mile buffer and I ended up arriving at 10 to 50 miles left on the battery.

Keeping a close eye on energy consumption. Some roads seemed to suck out energy like crazy while others seem to make the car "fly".

I was also positively surprised how comfortable the seat was even after sitting in the car for such a long time.

Overall I'm very happy and impressed with Tesla and my S. It truly is a reliable car that has no problems with long trips and constant use of Superchargers and high speed driving.

Cool! :cool:

Hope that the SC network will be fully installed soon also in Italy.
 
I had the same experiences on my long supercharger journey.

I made many notes (in my blog), but I hadn't thought that I really never had a problem with any actual supercharger, always could get juice.

I totally agree, if your going to road trip more than now and then, get an 85.
 
I took notes as well. Mostly writing down how much energy I used between Superchargers so that in the future I can plan better. I wish there was an easy way we could share energy usage between Superchargers. It also made me realize that using 'rated miles' as a measure for battery capacity or energy usage is not a good idea.
 
I took notes as well. Mostly writing down how much energy I used between Superchargers so that in the future I can plan better. I wish there was an easy way we could share energy usage between Superchargers. It also made me realize that using 'rated miles' as a measure for battery capacity or energy usage is not a good idea.

And more reason evtripplanner.com should be integrated into the Nav. It should be required for any trip between superchargers.
 
YEAH!! Someone eTripping it to Minnesota.
As a resident of Minnesota, what interstates/roads did you use to and from L.A. and which superchargers?

I had not many options but to pick the route that Tesla built to do the coast to coast connection which luckily leads through Minnesota. Only at the end I had to go off the SC route and charge at a public charger which took way too long.

The fact that I hardly saw any other cars at any of the Superchargers shows that outside the major cities there is very little EV traffic so far. Here is a screen shot from the Supertrip app I used to plan. It's a neat little app to plan.

image.jpg
 
Is that the "Supercharger Map Road Trip Planner" for $49.99? Cursorless released it.

I had not many options but to pick the route that Tesla built to do the coast to coast connection which luckily leads through Minnesota. Only at the end I had to go off the SC route and charge at a public charger which took way too long.

The fact that I hardly saw any other cars at any of the Superchargers shows that outside the major cities there is very little EV traffic so far. Here is a screen shot from the Supertrip app I used to plan. It's a neat little app to plan.
 
I have a Fiat 500 which also came with no spare and initially I was worried but then I thought about it... When was the last time you ever had a flat out on the road?... never.
Also, the Fiat comes with an air compressor which also squirts a sealant into the tire so that if you do get a flat on the road, you can get it back up to pressure and drive on it (they recommend low speed driving until it can be fixed properly).
In short... not a problem.
 
We are 9,000 miles in to an 11,000-miles trip. We also have been able to Supercharge right away at every stop. No waiting, no ICEing, nothing. Superchargers are awesome. This trip is not just possible, I really like it better than a gas trip.Many people we encounter know about Tesla's cars. But very few know much, if anything about superchargers They are impressed when we explain them. I think EVs could take off without a great DC charging network, but having one is going to remove a lot of friction from the process. Tesla is doing a great job with the Supercharging network.Not perfect; I can come up with some niggles. But it is far better than anything else being done, and completely different from what has been done in the past. Our only real complaints - having to sometimes take a different or longer route than we desired, or the much more intricate planning required to reach destinations that don't have Superchargers - are only because the network is still being built.
 
I got my Model S 85 last week. I am having trouble with EVtripplanner on my car's dashboard on the web browser. Is this common? I don't have trouble on my laptop.

Same with me. I plan it out beforehand on a computer, print each leg out and bring that with me. In the car it just doesnt seem to work well.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks, yes it looks like they've upped the price by quite a bit. Still it's probably a very good app to have.

I do t see any reason why that is a good app. It simply shows distance between superchargers. This is exactly what's will get newbie tesla owners in trouble. For example " it tells me it is 150 miles between 2 superchargers, and I charge to just a bit more to have a small reserve, so let's say 170 miles rated range. Now I do the trip yet it is all hills and I really need 230 miles range to make it." Using this app people will end up,shirt of the next charger quite often. I just drove from socal to oregon and back. And almost every leg would have had me short of energy if I used this app as my guide.
Evtripplanner.com is the answer not this app.
 
Not to turn this into an EVtripplanner discussion but I relied on it pretty heavily yesterday driving from Detroit to CT through Southern, ON. Since I was on Level 2s for quite a while I wanted to be as time efficient as possible in my charging approach. I found that EVTP was about 10% overstated relative to actual range used. It was perfect conditions, no wind, 72F and easy traffic. That's not too bad, especially now that I know what the approximate error rate is. I can take guidance from EVTP and adjust based on my real world experience. I drove 2-3 mph above the speed limit and pulled into chargers with between 6 and 10 miles of remaining range.

BTW, the charger at Lake Onondaga State Park outside of Syracuse is a great place to stop, especially if you bring your bike to ride a few laps.
 
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