Here is a mini trip report.
On the way up to Ely I left with 266 miles "in the tank," from SW Minneapolis. The planned route was 262 miles. I picked up about 30 miles at an RV hookup in Duluth at a marina. From Duluth I went to Two Harbors and then straight north on County 2, to Hwy. 1 and into Ely. I pulled in with around 35 miles rated, so I probably would have made it without the Duluth charge. I set the cruise at 61mph on 35w, there were insane winds, but they seemed to be mostly straight out of the west and seemed to net out to zero. It was snowing while we were on Hwy. 1. Near Pine City there were dust clouds obscuring my view and slowing traffic from the crazy wind, I resisted turning on the AC to save charge, around 70f and sunny, a few hours later, snow and seat heater at level 3.
Adventure Inn has one HPWC, 79 amps, 206 volts. The fastest it charged my dual charger MS was 48mph, but my battery was cold soaked when I used it. The HPWC is installed in such a way that you need to rely on a public parking space to be available to use it. I am going to talk with the owner about possible solutions, like getting a longer cable on the HPWC or if you could park on the sidewalk it would be fine.
They also have a J1772, Clipper Creek, 32 amps, 206 volts. The parking set-up is better for this charger, it is near their dumpster, where there is a dedicated concrete pad that has plenty of room to park on and would never be ICE'd. I charged overnight on this charger because the parking situation was more favorable and I would be full in the morning either way.
For the ride home from Ely to SW Minneapolis, I decided to make no charging stops. I was filling up at Adventure Inn and was impatient, I was at 265 miles rated, and still taking 20 amps or so and decided to leave on the 252 mile trip, according to Google Maps. My car has shown rated range as high as 272, but usually stops taking charge at about 266. The route I chose was the "standard" 169 to 53 to 33 to 35, then to 694, 100, Excelsior Blvd. I was careful to keep my WH/M below 290, which is my most conservative WH/M estimate for what "rated" means. Temps ranged from 30f in Ely to 49f in Minneapolis.
I made it home and according to my trip meter it was 257.1 miles, 70.9 KwH used, and averaged 276 WH/M, and had 15 rated miles left.
257 miles is not 252 miles, it is not a huge difference, but I wonder who is right, Google Maps or Tesla, because it could matter in an EV.
I do wonder about the useable capacity of my 85kwh battery. I used 70.9KwH, and had 15 rated miles left (15*290=4,350=4.35KwH). That implies a useable 75.25KwH. Had my car charged to 272 rated miles that would have been 7 more miles (7*290=2,030=2.03KwH) so would be 77.28 useable if rated equals 290WH/M. If rated equals 300 then I would have 81.6kwh. <--Just thinking out loud.
Overall I was VERY impressed with the range I could get out of the Tesla. Obviously, everybody know the quoted ranges when they decide to buy a Tesla. If you know where Ely is and and where Minneapolis is, and how much there is in between, and how much everything changes; it is very cool to know a Tesla can real-world make that drive on one charge. The automotive future is here...in case you had not noticed. Soon there will be two Superchargers on this route.
The whole trip cost me $5 in electricity and was done about 60% renewabley and I averaged about 95mpge....awesome.
***I forgot to mention I had a small hiccup. After the car had sat for about 24 hours in temps ranging from 15f to 30f I got in and put it in reverse, pressed the pedal, and nothing happened. I tried a few times and nothing. Then I put it in drive and pressed the pedal, the car shuddered for about 1 second, maybe 3 shudders, and then drove forward. I put it back in reverse, and everything has been fine, there were no error messages. I am wondering if the brakes were stuck to the rotors? That is the best explanation I can come up with.
