Hey guys, happy Memorial Day Weekend! I'm making my first "long" trip in my Model 3 Long Range from St. Louis to Nashville (about 4.5 hours). When typing in my destination, obviously my car shows me where I need to stop and charge, and what my battery will be at when I get there. Is that battery amount estimation based on me charging the car to 100% at the super chargers? My cause for concern is my car shows I will arrive in Nashville with 5% of battery remaining, that's much lower than what I'm used to running the battery down. Thanks!
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First Long Distance Drive
- Thread starter IHeiz13
- Start date
Each stop will set the amount to charge to to make it to the next stop in minimum time. You can always add more and unless the last stop was indicating 100% I wold add more to make the final stop with reserves to get to a charger for the overnight. Driving faster than speed limits will reduce arrival percentage. Under limit adds reserves. If driving too fast to make next stop software will popup message saying "Reduce speed to XX to make next charing stop". The current software adjust for head winds/tail winds, changes in elevation and payload (it must sense occupied seats). Estimates are quite accurate.
srs5694
Active Member
No. I don't recall how much detail is shown in Tesla's trip-planning screen, but it typically tells you to stay for as long as it computes you need to stay to reach the next Supercharger with a reasonable SoC. That'll normally be 80% or less SoC when you depart a Supercharger, but the details vary depending on what other Superchargers are on the route, your car's range, etc.
Chances are you can stay at your next-to-the-last stop for a bit longer so as to avoid arriving with such a low SoC. Alternatively, you can add stops; it's not like the car will refuse to drive to a Supercharger. You can have the car's navigation show you all the nearby Superchargers at any time. Obviously, for safety, this is best done by a passenger or after pulling over somewhere.
You might also want to check out A Better Routeplanner, which is a Web site and app for planning EV road trips. It offers more configuration options than Tesla's built-in route planner, so you can tell it (for instance) that you want to arrive with some specified minimum SoC.
The car will calculate the charging sessions to be as short as possible for you to make your trip, so will not charge to a high percentage. As you see with the final charge percentage it will assume you can charge at your final stop.
Let the car tell you when/where to charge, don't try to second guess it. It really is stress free. Once you get accustomed to how it works you can customize a bit more (with Apps like A Better Routeplanner etc).
A few other tips I have learned since doing long trips:
Charge up at home before you leave to 100% just before you leave (if you have home charging).
If you have multiple charging stops, no need to charge longer than suggested, which can often be only 10 minutes. I sometimes add an extra minute "just to be safe", but it is not necessary. You will probably find the car is ready to go before you are (we usually go get a coffee etc and it is almost always done before then) so you often get extra time anyway.
At the destination if you don't have access to easy charging (or a supercharger nearby) then charge to 80-90% at the final charging session so you are left with as much charge as possible.
If there is a supercharger nearby your destination and you don't have access to charging, it will save time to charge to 80-90% when you arrive (so add the nearby supercharger as a stop before your destination). This is faster than charging later with a "cold" battery.
Hope this helps!
Let the car tell you when/where to charge, don't try to second guess it. It really is stress free. Once you get accustomed to how it works you can customize a bit more (with Apps like A Better Routeplanner etc).
A few other tips I have learned since doing long trips:
Charge up at home before you leave to 100% just before you leave (if you have home charging).
If you have multiple charging stops, no need to charge longer than suggested, which can often be only 10 minutes. I sometimes add an extra minute "just to be safe", but it is not necessary. You will probably find the car is ready to go before you are (we usually go get a coffee etc and it is almost always done before then) so you often get extra time anyway.
At the destination if you don't have access to easy charging (or a supercharger nearby) then charge to 80-90% at the final charging session so you are left with as much charge as possible.
If there is a supercharger nearby your destination and you don't have access to charging, it will save time to charge to 80-90% when you arrive (so add the nearby supercharger as a stop before your destination). This is faster than charging later with a "cold" battery.
Hope this helps!
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Msjulie
Active Member
A couple things to note - Tesla's planned charging stops are based on you driving the speed limit, more or less, the whole way, with weather conditions staying mostly constant from time of plan.
If you have a heavy right foot ah hmm.. then you may want to allow the car to charge longer at a stop. Conversely if you're stuck is miserable traffic (trying to get through LA as example) you might find the use is significantly less than the car expected and you can go to a further stop
After I became more comfortable with how this all works, I noticed the car would sometimes be super conservative, arriving at a SC with 20-30%. So I either drive faster
or manually adjust the stops as I go as I'd rather get there about 10%. You can see SC on the map along your route and adjust if you want though try to stick to 250 chargers
Plenty of youtube videos out there as well for folks expounding their theory on best way to do this stuff - enjoy
If you have a heavy right foot ah hmm.. then you may want to allow the car to charge longer at a stop. Conversely if you're stuck is miserable traffic (trying to get through LA as example) you might find the use is significantly less than the car expected and you can go to a further stop
After I became more comfortable with how this all works, I noticed the car would sometimes be super conservative, arriving at a SC with 20-30%. So I either drive faster
or manually adjust the stops as I go as I'd rather get there about 10%. You can see SC on the map along your route and adjust if you want though try to stick to 250 chargersPlenty of youtube videos out there as well for folks expounding their theory on best way to do this stuff - enjoy
MJB-CO
Member
When I plan a road trip I use A Better Routeplanner (ABRP). It allows me to set the SoC for arrivals, and I'm conservative and set it to 20%. That way I have enough reserve for unexpected bad weather, traffic jams,, etc. without worrying about having to slow down.
ABRP predictions tend to be conservative while Tesla's tend to be optimistic.
If you need more charge at your destination, charger for longer at the last supercharging stop OR make an extra charge stop closer the the destination.
ColoradoMike
Member
Your trip will be incredible! Do not overthink it but you should be prepared if you do not have a charger at your destination.
ABRP is a good resource that you can leverage between stops if you need to do so.
Take a look at my post for a 1500 mile trip one way!
We elected to run the battery down to about 4% on a long run due to SUPER fast speeds! My wife was uncomfortable but it worked for us twice.
First 1500 mile cross country trip
Lindenwood
Active Member
You'll eventually get to know your car and how you drive it, and what you can expect. At first, trust the car and do what it says.
My last trip, I asked my wife if we should leave the supercharger even though the trip estimate showed arriving at <0%. She said probably not. I convinced her to leave when it hit 5% at destination, and I estimated we would arrive with 22% charge. 150 miles later we rolled in to our garage with 22% charge.
My last trip, I asked my wife if we should leave the supercharger even though the trip estimate showed arriving at <0%. She said probably not. I convinced her to leave when it hit 5% at destination, and I estimated we would arrive with 22% charge. 150 miles later we rolled in to our garage with 22% charge.
I hate that I used 8% Supercharger. Guess I need to talk more trips and not fly!
The wifey is zero...what a slacker.
ColoradoMike
Member
So we always charge at home. But for our our trip that included superchargers near destination (CO/FLA and FLA/CO) costed $381.65
We were NOT driving conservatively by any stretch of the imagination. Even with that being said, our charging over the trip was less than gas. Not significantly less but a savings just the same.
We were NOT driving conservatively by any stretch of the imagination. Even with that being said, our charging over the trip was less than gas. Not significantly less but a savings just the same.
ABRP is good but don't forget that Tesla app now has the ability to enter your destination and it'll show you the route and supercharger stops and SoC % at destination. It'll use your current SoC or you can enter a different one.
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Got to admit...had not idea. They don't make it that easy to find but found it under "Location" - Navigate.
Thx.
RedModel3
Member
You're probably on the road as I write, but what others have said. Also, that stretch in Illinois and Kentucky is REALLY boring, so it's a great time to use your AP. Your charging choices will be limited, but not too terribly inconvenient, and there are plenty of supercharger options once you get to Nashville. What I do on trips is clear out my nav at every charging stop and navigate to the next charger, while I"m still charging. That allows me to see exactly what I'll need, and I'll be able to check on upcoming road conditions or weather that could impact my range. Also, it will set up my battery for pre-conditioning if needed.
Please stay safe if you're going downtown. It's a drunken zoo.
Please stay safe if you're going downtown. It's a drunken zoo.
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