Idiot reviews 270mile P90DL, heroically runs it dead in 117 miles ...

[Alketi]

... with family watching.

Pardon the title.

So, if anyone uses Yahoo Quotes to look at TSLA and also reads the news section, you know that Business Insider comes up frequently in the articles list. And, you also know that Matthew DeBord happens to be the Business Insider transportation "expert".

If you've read him before, you know his articles about Tesla fall somewhere between slanderous and clueless.

So, Tesla thought he couldn't be this stupid, and decided to loan him a P90DL.

Yes, they gave him the SUPERCAR.

Incredible as that was, he promptly used it on a 240 mile ROUNDTRIP vacation -- and naturally ran it DEAD FLAT in 117 miles.

Then, he (of course) managed to only find a 120V/15A outlet which gave him a nice photo-op of a 1MPH charge rate.

Not sure we should give the article any clicks, but some of the comments at the bottom are Oscar-worthy. Enjoy the humor.

We took a Tesla Model S on a road trip and learned the hard way how it's different from every other car

 

[Mike K]

Getting there with 16 miles of range left and leaving with 195 miles means his 117 mile trip used 179 miles of rated range. A combination of a slight grade, headwind, bad weather and a higher than expected speed could all easily conspire to make that the case. I know in a recent trip just a couple weeks ago I was giving myself a 60 mile buffer between stops and even that was questionable.

He seemed to have high praise for the car and quite frankly, I think the issue here lies on Tesla. As owners we know rated range is a bunch of snot but the average ICE driver will get into these cars for a road trip, see 195 on the range indicator and think that they can realistically expect something close to that without appreciating that there are a bunch of variables that can drastically change that number.

 

[GasKilla]

Getting there with 16 miles of range left and leaving with 195 miles means his 117 mile trip used 179 miles of rated range. A combination of a slight grade, headwind, bad weather and a higher than expected speed could all easily conspire to make that the case. I know in a recent trip just a couple weeks ago I was giving myself a 60 mile buffer between stops and even that was questionable.

He seemed to have high praise for the car and quite frankly, I think the issue here lies on Tesla. As owners we know rated range is a bunch of snot but the average ICE driver will get into these cars for a road trip, see 195 on the range indicator and think that they can realistically expect something close to that without appreciating that there are a bunch of variables that can drastically change that number.

At least the Tesla range indicator is way better than the Nissan Leaf guess-o-meter that was basically a wild guess at what your range might be ...

 

[Akikiki]

Yeah, but he's a lot smarter now. Bet he doesn't do that again.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

All those pictures and not a single picture of the trip tab under the energy app.

The one essential tool for going on a trip with a Tesla.

 

[Saghost]

I actually thought it was a pretty positive article - he clearly says that he screwed up and that the car warned him but he did it anyway, and has nothing but good things to say about the car.

I'm not quite sure how he managed to burn so much power - the energy graph would have been interesting to see - but I don't see it as a bad article or a hit piece.

 

[JPUConn]

Alternate title - Family leaves for road trip with less than a full tank, drives aggressively, and arrives close to empty.

Would be nice for the nav to show your % at arrival and % round trip by default and not having to press on the mile/time row at the bottom of the directions.

My 2006 Viper had an epa highway mileage of 20mpg and an 18.5 mile tank (370 mile range!). Would anyone be surprised when my gas lite came on after 150 miles? Sure if I left it putting along in 6th gear at 55 mph the whole time I could go farther but flogging it at every light and driving like it was meant to be driven happened to be less efficient (not a surprise to this driver).

 

[kort677]

Getting there with 16 miles of range left and leaving with 195 miles means his 117 mile trip used 179 miles of rated range. A combination of a slight grade, headwind, bad weather and a higher than expected speed could all easily conspire to make that the case. I know in a recent trip just a couple weeks ago I was giving myself a 60 mile buffer between stops and even that was questionable.

He seemed to have high praise for the car and quite frankly, I think the issue here lies on Tesla. As owners we know rated range is a bunch of snot but the average ICE driver will get into these cars for a road trip, see 195 on the range indicator and think that they can realistically expect something close to that without appreciating that there are a bunch of variables that can drastically change that number.

you are correct, the average person is absolutely clueless about the nuances associated with driving an EV. handing the keys to an uninformed newbie is dangerous at best. it is incumbent on a tesla owner to learn how his car functions, what it is and isn't capable of. I discouraged a neighbor from buying a tesla just by saying it is unlike any car that they have ever driven, that in daily driving he shouldn't have range concerns but on longer drives he had better plan and know where their next charge is. he was concerned when I talked about how weather conditions affect range and how he couldn't fly down the road 20 MPH over the speed limit without severely impacting his range. owning a tesla is not yet a feasible choice for many, maybe when SpC become as ubiquitous as gas stations a lot of the newbie issues will go away.

 

[Saghost]

The other interesting piece here that's not obvious to the EV newbie, though not really drawn out by the author, is that electricity is pretty much everywhere these days.

Imagine showing up at camp with half a gallon of gas left instead - then what do you do? Whereas the EV still had a place to charge, albeit slowly.

Doesn't make up for being able to fill the tank in 5 minutes, but it's useful to keep in mind...

 

[HankLloydRight]

Misleading thread title, he didn't run it dead, like John Broder (from the New York Times) did (twice, I think). And even still, this guy took full blame for running it down very low (but not dead). Broder ran it completely dead and then blamed the Tesla and not his own idiocy.

I actually think it was quite a good write-up that shows (and he admits) that the car knows best, but he chose to ignore the warnings and he suffered the consequences. And it shows that even still in the light of his error, he was able to find a make-shift charging location to solve his problem and continue on his way. At no time did the car run dead and need towing (as the thread title clearly implies).

I think he deserves credit for being honest and not slamming Tesla for his own mistakes. Sure, it was a rookie mistake, but besides that, he had nothing bad to say about the car at all.

 

[nexsuperne101]

At least the Tesla range indicator is way better than the Nissan Leaf guess-o-meter that was basically a wild guess at what your range might be ...

I don't know what you mean. My Leaf was showing 95 miles yesterday, then I drove 72 miles with the aircon on full blast on a 27C day and knocked it flat. Experience has taught me that a Leaf, driven gently (60mph or less), can return 80+ miles to a charge, but not with aircon, or the mother-in-law in the car

 

[mgboyes]

Well-written and generally very positive article where everything works out OK and the reviewer admits that nearly running out of charge was basically entirely his own fault and that he had to ignore warnings from the car to get into the situation he did.

Nothing to see here... move along.

 

[GasKilla]

I don't know what you mean. My Leaf was showing 95 miles yesterday, then I drove 72 miles with the aircon on full blast on a 27C day and knocked it flat. Experience has taught me that a Leaf, driven gently (60mph or less), can return 80+ miles to a charge, but not with aircon, or the mother-in-law in the car

I had a 2012 Leaf and my daily commute involved one hill that would throw the range indicator (guess-o-meter) wildly off in a very short time. My Tesla doesn't make the same mistake

 

[mgboyes]

Not sure we should give the article any clicks, but some of the comments at the bottom are Oscar-worthy. Enjoy the humor.

Am I missing something? There are no comments.

 

[Electroman]

This morning I started with 204 (80% charge) on my S, drove 36 miles at around 70mph most of the distance (with occasional 75 and 60), and reached my office with 168 left. Perfect on the dot. If I had driven at 65 constant throughout, I would have got better than rated.

 

[RogerHScott]

Alternate title - Family leaves for road trip with less than a full tank, drives aggressively, and arrives close to empty.

Would anyone be surprised when my gas lite came on after 150 miles?

I don't think the point here is how quickly he ran out -- the point is that when he ran out there wasn't a gas station within a ten-mile
radius that could fill him to capacity in five minutes. In a world of ubiquitous gas stations the only variable is how much you spend
on the gas you're rapidly burning, not whether you'll be able to find any at all.

 

[Maximus8]

I read the article before this thread was started and the headline of the article seemed to express that he had a negative experience. After reading the whole article he admits to the mistake of underestimating how much charge he would need and that he should have followed the recommendations of the MS navi. The rest of the article was pretty much a positive review of the MS. It packed more gear than the i3 he had last year. What one can take from the article is any trip that is greater than the full capacity of the battery requires planning and that there is a good network of charging opportunities (destination and Superchargers).

 

[Saghost]

I don't think the point here is how quickly he ran out -- the point is that when he ran out there wasn't a gas station within a ten-mile
radius that could fill him to capacity in five minutes. In a world of ubiquitous gas stations the only variable is how much you spend
on the gas you're rapidly burning, not whether you'll be able to find any at all.

Unless you drive into the middle of nowhere for a summer camp - in which case there isn't a gas pump within ten or fifteen miles ( but there are a lot of slow electric outlets, usually.)