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Going on first road trip (around 285 miles one way).. New owner.. Just a few questions. Thanks
- Thread starter ts2340
- Start date
M3BlueGeorgia
Active Member
Good rule of thumb is to set your expectation of usable range to be 2/3rds of EPA range
Because:
1) No sensible person charges to to 100% and then drives to zero
2) You are unlikely to achieve EPA efficiency, and reasonable expectation is 87% of EPA at freeway speeds
3) Tire choice matters, which is why the P versions of Model 3 and Y have noticably lower range than with the default tires, but Tesla do publish the figures you can use
Math: Charge to 90% and drive to 15%, using 75% of battery capacity, getting 87% of implied EPA efficiency: 0.75 * 0.87 = 0.65, which is about 2/3rds
Note:
a) In frigid weather, efficiency has further negative impact
b) Going uphill against a headwind will negatively impact range
Example of a worst case scenario is to drive West on I-70 in Kansas in the middle of winter, when you be lucky to see range only reduced by half
BTW: Because less air resistance increases range, best case scenario for freeway driving is I-25 in Colorado in the middle of summer
Because:
1) No sensible person charges to to 100% and then drives to zero
2) You are unlikely to achieve EPA efficiency, and reasonable expectation is 87% of EPA at freeway speeds
3) Tire choice matters, which is why the P versions of Model 3 and Y have noticably lower range than with the default tires, but Tesla do publish the figures you can use
Math: Charge to 90% and drive to 15%, using 75% of battery capacity, getting 87% of implied EPA efficiency: 0.75 * 0.87 = 0.65, which is about 2/3rds
Note:
a) In frigid weather, efficiency has further negative impact
b) Going uphill against a headwind will negatively impact range
Example of a worst case scenario is to drive West on I-70 in Kansas in the middle of winter, when you be lucky to see range only reduced by half
BTW: Because less air resistance increases range, best case scenario for freeway driving is I-25 in Colorado in the middle of summer
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I'm a month-long owner of a model Y long range, and learning more every day.
What about the (potentially negative?) long-term effect on your battery life/charging system, of mostly charging from ~10% specifically because it charges at a higher rate and creates/produces more heat? Or does this have a negligible negative affect on the battery life/charging system? Thank you.
Negligible effect. You're not going down to 10% every day/charge, only for long road trips. And there's been crazier folks using tesla as taxi or supercharging every day and no significant reports or terrible battery degradation.
I was not surprised too much on my first road trip, which included roof cargo that resulted in -20% or so to range at highway speeds. I did tell ABRP to assume a higher consumption that it would otherwise assume for the car (I had a good idea of what the roof cargo penalty was). The only (minor) surprises on that front were that in some areas, wind conditions were worse than typical, resulting in arriving at a Supercharger at a lower state of charge than intended (e.g. 7% instead of 14%). An unrelated surprise was only getting 36kW out of a Supercharger at a Tesla store when there was no one else charging at it.
On flat ground without significant wind and moderate temperatures, EPA economy is doable at about 65mph. However, it seems that most drivers here drive faster than that most of the time.
I’d also add bring your J1772 plug. I’d bring/buy a CCS charger as well. As you get more comfortable with travel in your EV, you may want to get off the interstates and where I live, there are areas not really served by Tesla chargers but they most often have a place with a CCS connector and most certainly a J1772 plug.
I’m the second owner. Bought it with right around 7k miles. It has 9800 now. So my “2800 mile” lifetime is 314Wh/mile so far.
For road trips, I use it every time, the real value is for final destination purposes. It's handy to know where the closest charger near my destination is if I want to arrive at a particular SOC. Yes the navigation will tell me that when I'm there too, but I like to know before hand. For example: last year we went to gatlinburg and on same arrival day we were all meeting up to go to a dinner show. I saw that the show had destination chargers right in the parking lot so I didn't worry about my arrival SOC and was able to plug up for free while we ate dinner.
BigNick
Infamous Fat Sweaty Guy
Started at 96%. Drove to my destination straight through and arrived with 19% remaining.
Drove to the SC and arrived with 6% remaining. 265 miles and 90% used calculates to a full range of 294 miles.
Charged to 90% for the trip home and arrived home with 20%.
Relatively mild summer conditions, A/C on 72 and speeds mostly 65-75 on highways for the trip out but lower on the way home.
Drove to the SC and arrived with 6% remaining. 265 miles and 90% used calculates to a full range of 294 miles.
Charged to 90% for the trip home and arrived home with 20%.
Relatively mild summer conditions, A/C on 72 and speeds mostly 65-75 on highways for the trip out but lower on the way home.
Sweet mercy how is my Wh/Mile so much higher? I mean, I've only driven like 3K miles with it so far.. But 314 vs 248??
I drove it like I stole it for the first week or so but not since.. I do go around 70 on the highway but other than that, pretty normal driving.. 50/50 I would say (city/highway).. I do have bigger wheels (20x10 on the rear and 20x9 on the front).. So maybe that's it?
I drove it like I stole it for the first week or so but not since.. I do go around 70 on the highway but other than that, pretty normal driving.. 50/50 I would say (city/highway).. I do have bigger wheels (20x10 on the rear and 20x9 on the front).. So maybe that's it?
Zcd1
Active Member
It would appear that his (her?) average speed was extremely low - like 50-55 mph, which by itself would account for the difference.
Your bigger wheels and (likely wider) tires also make a big difference.
cdub
OG 2011 Leaf / 2023 Model Y LR
Yes I did my first road trip from LA to Morro Bay this weekend and was a little shocked by the range and when I need to recharge. Not a huge deal though and I'm sure going up the grapevine both ways does a number on range. Lol. My poor leaf wouldn't be able to dream of that trip. The Y goes farther using 15% of its battery lol.
I did notice that the estimated charge on arrival going north was right on target the entire trip saying I'd arrive at 29%.
The trip down went from 24% to 6% then back up to 19% constantly. Wasn't able to see what was correct as daughter needed to pee so I decided to charge for a moment at Tejon outlets. So many chargers there!
Using the superchargers and how it automatically routed you to a charger, how many are available, and how easy it is to plug in and charge kind of makes this whole range discussion moot.. lol. It was a breeze and zero stress.
I imagine the same trip in an R1S would not be as stress free.
