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Louisville to Nashville: Possible in cold weather? Mid point charging options ?

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ElectricTundra

ElectricTundra

P85D AP1
Feb 5, 2015
922
424
Tundra
#1
Planning a trip from Wisconsin to Florida via Guntersville & B'ham AL (P85D, 600lbs payload, driving speed limit). The biggest gap seems to be Louisville to Nashville. EVTripPlanner says we can't make it (and I think I agree) so it wants to route us through Lexington, Knoxville, and Chattanooga to Guntersville. Fine places all but I'd rather not do that much extra driving. 170 miles of extra driving.

The hiccup seems to be temp. If it was 50f next Mon then EVTP says we can make it. 40f or below it says we can't. Forecast is for upper 20's.

Recommendations from those more knowledgable than I? Good option for charging between Louisville SC & Nashville SC? Better WAF to just drive the 2.5 hrs longer route and not have to deal with sitting in a KOA or similar for an hour charging?

Thanks,
 
#3
I travelled from Nashville to Louisville just last week without stopping and arrived in Louisville with 17% left starting from a 258 mile rated range.

Car: P85+
Passengers: two passengers weighing in total 330lbs
Luggage: two full small carry ons
Speed: cruised at 65mph the whole way.
Climate control: Mostly stuck to seat warmers, but heated the cabin occasionally
Outside Temp: 36 F


There is a HPWC about halfway at a Hilton in Bowling Green that I originally planned on stopping at, but everything looked just fine so I kept going and made it just fine. Just see how you're doing when you reach Bowling Green to decide if you should stop.

As I got about 3/4 of the way, I was projected to have more than enough range and cruised the remainder of the trip at 80mph.
 
#4
I did the trip from Chicago to Nashville over Christmas as well. The supercharger wasn't live on the way down so we did a hotel stop at 21c in Louisville for the night. But on the way home, we went from downtown Nashville directly to Louisville supercharger and I remeber having over 10% remaining with a P85D in 40-50F temperatures.

daled said:
There is a HPWC about halfway at a Hilton in Bowling Green that I originally planned on stopping at, but everything looked just fine so I kept going and made it just fine. Just see how you're doing when you reach Bowling Green to decide if you should stop.

As I got about 3/4 of the way, I was projected to have more than enough range and cruised the remainder of the trip at 80mph.
Click to expand...

It's completely doable, just have a backup plan like Hilton Bowling Green or a J1772/CHAdeMO solution if you need it. The supercharger being there saved us 6 hours of additional travel time.
 
#7
Another option is to get a Chademo adaptor; on the northern outskirts of Nashville (about 35 miles north of the supercharger) there's a Nissan dealership friendly to EVs with a Chademo, and around the corner there's a Mapco with a Chademo in case the dealer isn't so friendly (or closed). I think its called Nissan of Rivergate or something like that, its <1 mile from I-65. Plugshare will give the details.
 
Last edited:
#8
On the way back from Florida on January 3rd we left Nashville with a full charge and it was 28 degrees when we left. Had no problem making it to Louisville. Think it was about 40 degrees in Lousville when we arrived. The car was full with 5 of us and luggage. Close to 900 pounds of humans and packed light. Basically a soft carry on size bag each and a backpack each. Then some blankets and pillows. Not to mention the lightsabre umbrella I got at Disney :)

Oh we have an 85D
 
#9
We ended up going over through Lexington and down to Chattanooga. Really didn't want to risk any range issues with my wife. Overnighted at Chanticleer on Signal Mountain who have a HPWC. Wonderful people, great place, awesome stuffed pancakes for breakfast. After some decades of seeing See Rock City signs on barns I finally got to see Rock City.
 
#10
Bringing back this thread, as I fatigue of watching nothing happen in Jackson MS or Birmingham AL. (or Jackson TN, Memphis, Little Rock, anywhere on the southern 2/3 of I-55 etc.) Patience is sometimes difficult.

There's a Meijer opening soon in Elizabethtown KY and one that opened within the past 2 years in Bowling Green, KY. Both have/will have fueling stations, so they could very well have Superchargers. Has anyone scoped out these locations and permit authorities? One of these two will likely/hopefully(?) have a Tesla Supercharger, sooner or later ...
 
#11
Either Elizabethtown or Bowling Green would be good but I think BG would be a better midpoint. Personally I'd really like to see something along this stretch of I-65 (and something between Nashville & B'ham). As noted above, I can't make either of these comfortably in my P85D with a bit of travel luggage in cold weather.
 
#14
Tesla's sales pitch to places like Hilton is that the chargers will attract customers, provide some we're-up-to-date PR, and that they can limit them to customers only. However, personally I think it's kind of petty for them to have acted that way, they could have built up a bit of future customer good will by letting you charge and instead they did the opposite. Not to mention they could have had a Tesla sitting out front for a bit which many businesses like.

I hope you were able to charge somewhere and make it to your destination OK.
 
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