For quite some time Tesla Toronto has been promising to put an HPC in Kingston, which would make Ottawa/Toronto and Montreal/Toronto travel much easier than it is now. But it has never happened. Last time I talked to them they were waffling, because they didn't want to spend the money and not have it be useful for Model S. Very disappointing. Ironically, the secrecy concerning the Model S charge port is interfering with rolling out infrastructure for charging Tesla cars!
The current situation is a little awkward. The place we've found to charge is an RV campground that is itself at the extreme edge of range to Toronto. So we have to fully top up a Range Mode charge, which takes a long time, and drive slower than the average traffic. It's inconvenient enough that my wife would rather take the ICE car.
So that got me thinking about the Model S. Would its extra range really allow a non-stop trip? And if not, how much charge time would be required?
There is more than a little guesswork in these numbers... feel free to comment.
If it takes 3.5 hours to charge a Roadster on an HPC; that gives ballpark 100 km / 64 miles per charging hour. On a NEMA 14-50 that's more like 55 km / 34 miles.
For a Model S, with a 95 kWh pack and a nominal 300 miles range, the charging is slower. At HPC levels we're talking 72 km / 45 miles per charging hour. That means using an HPC for a Model S is comparable to using a NEMA 14-50 on a Roadster. Full charge time on an HPC would be on the order of 6.3 hours.
My typical trip to Toronto is very close to 400 km / 250 miles (stopping in the West end). Okay, less than 300 miles, that's good, right?
Not so fast. The 416/401 highways have 100 kph speed limits, with trucks going 105 kph (speed limiters) and cars ranging from 110 kph to 120 kph. Driving at 100 kph is pretty scary, with all those trucks tailgating and passing you. So 105 kph is actually a practical minimum, IMHO.
I hacked up Tesla's Roadster efficiency spreadsheet to try and predict Model S performance, using what little information we currently have available. Take the following with a grain of salt:
90 kph / 55 mph --> 480 km / 300 miles range
100 kph / 62 mph --> 419 km / 262 miles range
105 kph / 66 mph --> 386 km / 241 miles range
110 kph / 69 mph --> 363 km / 227 miles range
120 kph / 75 mph --> 325 km / 203 miles range
The upshot is, if I'm willing to drive right at the speed limit, I can get there in one go -- just barely -- but it isn't a comfortable speed on that highway. Any faster than 100 kph and I'm going to need some electrons. Well, if I drove 105 kph and drafted trucks all the way we would probably make it. On the bright side, if we do stop to charge then an hour on an HPC would probably be enough. That's a reasonably convenient lunch stop. Of course this all depends on actually having an HPC available.
One thing I hadn't considered before -- a longer trip might actually be faster in the Roadster. It takes a lot less time to charge than the Model S. Once you've depleted your ESS the trip is pretty much dominated by the charge time.
Of course a DC fast charger would make travel in the Model S quite painless. The question is, will we have them? So far we don't have any infrastructure at all.
The current situation is a little awkward. The place we've found to charge is an RV campground that is itself at the extreme edge of range to Toronto. So we have to fully top up a Range Mode charge, which takes a long time, and drive slower than the average traffic. It's inconvenient enough that my wife would rather take the ICE car.
So that got me thinking about the Model S. Would its extra range really allow a non-stop trip? And if not, how much charge time would be required?
There is more than a little guesswork in these numbers... feel free to comment.
If it takes 3.5 hours to charge a Roadster on an HPC; that gives ballpark 100 km / 64 miles per charging hour. On a NEMA 14-50 that's more like 55 km / 34 miles.
For a Model S, with a 95 kWh pack and a nominal 300 miles range, the charging is slower. At HPC levels we're talking 72 km / 45 miles per charging hour. That means using an HPC for a Model S is comparable to using a NEMA 14-50 on a Roadster. Full charge time on an HPC would be on the order of 6.3 hours.
My typical trip to Toronto is very close to 400 km / 250 miles (stopping in the West end). Okay, less than 300 miles, that's good, right?
Not so fast. The 416/401 highways have 100 kph speed limits, with trucks going 105 kph (speed limiters) and cars ranging from 110 kph to 120 kph. Driving at 100 kph is pretty scary, with all those trucks tailgating and passing you. So 105 kph is actually a practical minimum, IMHO.
I hacked up Tesla's Roadster efficiency spreadsheet to try and predict Model S performance, using what little information we currently have available. Take the following with a grain of salt:
90 kph / 55 mph --> 480 km / 300 miles range
100 kph / 62 mph --> 419 km / 262 miles range
105 kph / 66 mph --> 386 km / 241 miles range
110 kph / 69 mph --> 363 km / 227 miles range
120 kph / 75 mph --> 325 km / 203 miles range
The upshot is, if I'm willing to drive right at the speed limit, I can get there in one go -- just barely -- but it isn't a comfortable speed on that highway. Any faster than 100 kph and I'm going to need some electrons. Well, if I drove 105 kph and drafted trucks all the way we would probably make it. On the bright side, if we do stop to charge then an hour on an HPC would probably be enough. That's a reasonably convenient lunch stop. Of course this all depends on actually having an HPC available.
One thing I hadn't considered before -- a longer trip might actually be faster in the Roadster. It takes a lot less time to charge than the Model S. Once you've depleted your ESS the trip is pretty much dominated by the charge time.
Of course a DC fast charger would make travel in the Model S quite painless. The question is, will we have them? So far we don't have any infrastructure at all.
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