I am sure it has been discussed. But I am a VERY tech savvy individual. I took the car to northern Utah. It normally resides in Vegas. I was trying to make fast time home and DIDN'T take into account how much the car and battery heater eats up your battery! I stopped at Nephi supercharger - used the nav to see the next one. It was Beaver utah approx 100 miles. So being in a hurry - first mistake I made - I figured that charging to 155 should be MORE than sufficient. HAHAHA Little did I know!
I was watching the ratio deplete as I was heading south. It was 50% extra then 40% extra and soon it was near my nav destination number. I am also a private pilot, so I was starting to prepare for the worst. The numbers were depleting way faster than mileage to destination. At one point I was 14 miles shy of destination in the dash vs. nav. I decided it would be a great idea to draft behind a Semi truck doing 60 (the speed limit was 80!) I called Tesla - I usually enjoy a nice tech conversation with the boys. This one wasn't good. I asked him what the max travel after 0 on the dash was - because I was approaching zero VERY QUICKLY! He replied that that it varies but you can't actually count on ANYTHING!
I was climbing the last hill before the slight downgrade to the city. At this point my car said 0 - soon after - it said CHARGE NOW. While discussing with the Tech - I turned on range mode - I turned off all climate control and I was essentially 14 miles away from the supercharger. This is about as close to running out of gas in a plane as I have every been! I was advised by a friend that coasting is more efficient than regen - so coast I did. (I was doing 40 approx in an 80 MPH freeway section - with my hazzard lights on of course!) Keep in mind 14 miles to go. I babied that thing as much as humanly possible thinking every mile I saved was a little less tow bill. I was keeping my average watts per mile near 100! I took a bunch of pictures along the way - because that's what tech nerds do. Longer story short - I MADE IT!
I plugged in and it was charging like a bat out of hell! I wish someone would have warned me that in colder weather the vehicle heater and battery heaters take A LOT OF POWER! So my words to the wise! Stay a little longer at the charging stations in colder weather! If you plan on driving higher speed limits especially! I had fellow tesla owners praying for me. To this day I don't know how I made it! The ironic thing was - I was sitting there charging in station 1b and someone pulled up in 1a - I explained that I was VERY dead and it would help both them and I to charge faster. To which he replied - my car is dead - I coasted in to the charging station! His was COMPLETELY dead! I helped him push it in to 1a and it BARELY had enough juice to start charging and release the maglock on the charge port. His battery was so dead it only charged at 3 amps for about 10 mins! Although it made me feel a little better I wasn't the only one that underestimated - I feel an obligation to help people understand. Especially because if you run out in severe cold it could be REALLY bad! Needless to say since his car BARELY started charging - I moved to station 2.
My new rule of thumb is if its cold outside and you don't want to drive like a grandma - HAVE DOUBLE THE RANGE YOU THINK YOU NEED!
If I help one person understand it was worth it! Be safe out there!
AJ
I was watching the ratio deplete as I was heading south. It was 50% extra then 40% extra and soon it was near my nav destination number. I am also a private pilot, so I was starting to prepare for the worst. The numbers were depleting way faster than mileage to destination. At one point I was 14 miles shy of destination in the dash vs. nav. I decided it would be a great idea to draft behind a Semi truck doing 60 (the speed limit was 80!) I called Tesla - I usually enjoy a nice tech conversation with the boys. This one wasn't good. I asked him what the max travel after 0 on the dash was - because I was approaching zero VERY QUICKLY! He replied that that it varies but you can't actually count on ANYTHING!
I was climbing the last hill before the slight downgrade to the city. At this point my car said 0 - soon after - it said CHARGE NOW. While discussing with the Tech - I turned on range mode - I turned off all climate control and I was essentially 14 miles away from the supercharger. This is about as close to running out of gas in a plane as I have every been! I was advised by a friend that coasting is more efficient than regen - so coast I did. (I was doing 40 approx in an 80 MPH freeway section - with my hazzard lights on of course!) Keep in mind 14 miles to go. I babied that thing as much as humanly possible thinking every mile I saved was a little less tow bill. I was keeping my average watts per mile near 100! I took a bunch of pictures along the way - because that's what tech nerds do. Longer story short - I MADE IT!
I plugged in and it was charging like a bat out of hell! I wish someone would have warned me that in colder weather the vehicle heater and battery heaters take A LOT OF POWER! So my words to the wise! Stay a little longer at the charging stations in colder weather! If you plan on driving higher speed limits especially! I had fellow tesla owners praying for me. To this day I don't know how I made it! The ironic thing was - I was sitting there charging in station 1b and someone pulled up in 1a - I explained that I was VERY dead and it would help both them and I to charge faster. To which he replied - my car is dead - I coasted in to the charging station! His was COMPLETELY dead! I helped him push it in to 1a and it BARELY had enough juice to start charging and release the maglock on the charge port. His battery was so dead it only charged at 3 amps for about 10 mins! Although it made me feel a little better I wasn't the only one that underestimated - I feel an obligation to help people understand. Especially because if you run out in severe cold it could be REALLY bad! Needless to say since his car BARELY started charging - I moved to station 2.
My new rule of thumb is if its cold outside and you don't want to drive like a grandma - HAVE DOUBLE THE RANGE YOU THINK YOU NEED!
If I help one person understand it was worth it! Be safe out there!
AJ
Last edited: