Apologies if this is an old topic but I've only recently discovered the Tesla marque and it's time for a new car.
I'm curious whether UK drivers achieve the claimed long range quoted by Tesla considering that UK major roads are typically higher speed than US (at least when they are clear) and that UK South east roads are often very busy giving rise to a lot of accelerating and braking. I'm also curious where UK drivers charge when on long trips away from home as there are only four supercharge stations. In other words, is the Tesla a practical choice over here? Any advice or comments welcome.
You might get more responses in the UK sub-forum.
UK-spec Model S have two choices for the range you see shown on the display - one being "rated range" which is the based on the ludicrously high official european test, and "typical range" which is more realistic. Typical shows about 240 miles on the gauge at a 100% charge, about 215 miles if you use 90% as your daily charge limit.
I haven't seen an official explanation, but 'typical range' seems to be based on 70mph on a still day with no traffic, no heating etc - in normal motorway driving if keeping to the speed limit, I find I don't quite get as much as typical range; driving ordinary single-carriageway roads or motorways where there is too much traffic to achieve 70 then I might get the indicated range on a good day. Spirited driving on ordinary roads, or driving well over the limit on motorways can come off quite a lot worse. In winter, starting off with a cold car knocks quite a few miles off your range (unless you pre-heat it before setting out), but the UK climate doesn't get cold enough for this to be a big deal on a long drive. 'Typical' seems to equate to about 330 Wh/mile; some people report using over 400 on their average driving, which would equate to about 200 miles range on a 100% charge. Realistically, you will usually do worse than 'typical' range - but the nice thing about that number is that you always _can_ get that range if you ever need to (just by slowing down a bit).
But you also need to bear in mind how you use the car. For most people, their typical daily driving is well under 200 miles, so on those days you can just drive how you feel like it and not worry as it will be full again by next morning. So you only need to think about range on long trips, and even then if there happens to be a supercharger conveniently located you still don't need to worry.
For longer day trips, charging on the road is normally not a big problem since you typically only need a top-up - full charge at home equates to 5 or more hours driving, so unless you are going to drive somewhere and turn round and come back again straight away you don't need another full charge. Depending exactly where in the UK you are, there's not a lot of places that make a sensible day-trip that's over 300 miles or so - which can be made up from a hour's charging stop (or two half-hour stops) at motorway service areas or suchlike even if there isn't a Supercharger on the route.
The category of trips that's not so easy is where you drive a substantial one-way distance and stay over somewhere that you can't charge overnight. Here you are reliant on public charging that can be thin on the ground in many places and/or ultra slow charging from a 13A socket or suchlike. Usually you can find some way to make these trips work, but it needs a bit of planning.
Like quite a few posters here, the Model S is my only car; 99% of the time range isn't an issue, and for the other 1% I've always managed to get where I wanted to go.
