Road trip questions

[KenBlub]

Just took my first road trip. 900 miles. Used the Tesla nav system. Wasn’t thrilled it made fewer but longer stops. I have some questions so please be gentle on a new EV traveler

1-I always charge to 50% for daily use. When I got to my first SC I didn’t see a screen telling me what SOC I needed to charge to. Knowing my slider was set to 50%, I moved the slider to 90% just in case. After plugging in it told me I needed 73% so I stopped there. My question is: if I had left my daily charger at 50%, would the SC have charged to 73% because that was what was needed?

2-If I had not manually turned off at 73%, would it have continued charging or automatically turned off.

3-I ended up in a location with not a lot of charge. Any way I can tell Tesla I want to arrive with a certain SOC like ABRP?

There was 2 L2 charging ports available in the hotel and one was empty on my arrival. I wasn’t going to leave for a couple days but was hesitant to charge to 80% and leave it there for a couple days. Any issues with leaving the car at 80% SOC for days in a row?

4-I played with ABRP. I want routes with more stops for less time. Can I take the suggestions from ABRP and add the SC stops to my Tesla nav system and let Tesla calculate how long I’ll need to stay to get to the next SC? What happened is that Tesla had me routed to SC A then B. when I tried to add a stop between A and B, it eliminated B as a stop even though I still wanted to go there because I had enough charge to get to my final destination

Can I trust ABRP to use that solely as my planner? Do I just input one SC at a time as my destination and then use ABRP’s suggested charge level as a guide when to stop charging at each stop?

Thanks for your help

 

[Eric33432]

Just took my first road trip. 900 miles. Used the Tesla nav system. Wasn’t thrilled it made fewer but longer stops. I have some questions so please be gentle on a new EV traveler

1-I always charge to 50% for daily use. When I got to my first SC I didn’t see a screen telling me what SOC I needed to charge to. Knowing my slider was set to 50%, I moved the slider to 90% just in case. After plugging in it told me I needed 73% so I stopped there. My question is: if I had left my daily charger at 50%, would the SC have charged to 73% because that was what was needed?

2-If I had not manually turned off at 73%, would it have continued charging or automatically turned off.

3-I ended up in a location with not a lot of charge. Any way I can tell Tesla I want to arrive with a certain SOC like ABRP?

There was 2 L2 charging ports available in the hotel and one was empty on my arrival. I wasn’t going to leave for a couple days but was hesitant to charge to 80% and leave it there for a couple days. Any issues with leaving the car at 80% SOC for days in a row?

4-I played with ABRP. I want routes with more stops for less time. Can I take the suggestions from ABRP and add the SC stops to my Tesla nav system and let Tesla calculate how long I’ll need to stay to get to the next SC? What happened is that Tesla had me routed to SC A then B. when I tried to add a stop between A and B, it eliminated B as a stop even though I still wanted to go there because I had enough charge to get to my final destination

Can I trust ABRP to use that solely as my planner? Do I just input one SC at a time as my destination and then use ABRP’s suggested charge level as a guide when to stop charging at each stop?

Thanks for your help

1. Why do you charge only to 50%? But if you left it on 50% it would have stopped at 50%.

2. If you set it to 80% it would have continued charging past 73% and stopped at 80%.

3. Not that I am aware of. No issue leaving the car at 80% for a week or so. If you are going to leave it for a long time without driving I have read that it might be best to leave it at about 50% with Sentry, Overheat protection turned off.

4. I use ABRP when I am planning a trip to get a feel for what it will be like, then use the Tesla Nav for the actual trip since it gives turn by turn directions.

I have seen the Nav system plan a SC stop with the battery at a higher SOC than I wanted. I ended the route, and set it again, and it chose a better Supercharger. I have also seen it select a Supercharger that at first look did not make a lot of sense, but then realized it was choosing a 250 kW Supercharger over a 120 kW supercharger. I expect, but do not know for sure, that when there are a lot of SC in an area it might pick ones that are not as busy.

You can always click on the icon that locates SC and put whatever SC you want into the Nav system. I did that several times on my recent trip to the DC area.

At hotels I charge to 92%, then when I wake up set it to 100% while I am getting ready to leave so that if it hits 100% it will not be at 100% for very long.

For more tips see this post, including my reply:

Planning a road trip from GA to NJ sometime in the early fall, anyone have any experience?

Hey y'all, as the title says, I'm planning a little road trip up to New Jersey sometime in the fall (ideally around mid to late October). Has anyone done this road trip, particularly from the southeast all the way up to NJ/NYC? I had a few questions as I've never taken my Tesla on a long...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[KenBlub]

Thanks for the reply. I set to 50% to minimize calendar degradation. My longest drive during the week is 80 miles so and there is no scenario where I’ll need more than my 50% charge. Plugging in at home every day or 2 isn’t an issue at all.

I was hoping there was a one app way for me to arrive with my preferred SOC and control where I stop during the route. I’ll have to learn by taking more trips

 

[Eric33432]

Thanks for the reply. I set to 50% to minimize calendar degradation. My longest drive during the week is 80 miles so and there is no scenario where I’ll need more than my 50% charge. Plugging in at home every day or 2 isn’t an issue at all.

I was hoping there was a one app way for me to arrive with my preferred SOC and control where I stop during the route. I’ll have to learn by taking more trips

I think you can do that simply by looking at the nav and stop charging when the estimated SOC at your next destination reaches the level you desire. When I Supercharge I like to charge so I arrive at my next destination with about 10% (if arriving at home), 20% (if arriving at a Supercharger or place where I know from experience that I can charge) or sometimes 50% if I am arriving at a place I have never been to that is some distance from Superchargers or am worried about the the local charging logistics.

See my discussion at this post for more details:

Planning a road trip from GA to NJ sometime in the early fall, anyone have any experience?

Hey y'all, as the title says, I'm planning a little road trip up to New Jersey sometime in the fall (ideally around mid to late October). Has anyone done this road trip, particularly from the southeast all the way up to NJ/NYC? I had a few questions as I've never taken my Tesla on a long...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[djtaylor]

With regard to your third question, I wish they'd offer an option to set arrival SOC, it wouldn't be difficult.
If you want a workaround, set a final destination that's further. You can guestimate 4 miles per kWh charge and do a bit of percentage calc.
Then set your actual destination as the last waypoint before this false final destination.
Hope that makes sense?
Same for a round trip of something like 400 miles back to home.
Starting point = home
Destination = home
Add a waypoint that's the"destination"
Then the car will calculate arrival back home with low SoC and set enroute charging appropriately.

 

[KenBlub]

Good ideas. Coming home isn’t a problem because I have a charger in my garage. I want to arrive at a low SOC. As for my destination away from home, I found the closest SC to that destination and used ABRP to see how many kw needed to get between the two. That made it easier to charge at the final SC to a level I wanted at my destination. I just wish I didn’t need to use 2 apps to accomplish this. Real first world problems.

 

[djtaylor]

Yes coming home isn't a problem, that's why I mentioned it as a round trip route where start and end are home.
That way the car calculates the optimum round trip charging to arrive home low.
Otherwise as you've found, it tries to arrive at the first destination arriving low, then you have the immediate need to charge and if you charge too much, arrive home with more than needed.
Less of an issue on a very long trip, that's why I said the short trips which are on the border of one, maybe a second charge.

 

[KenBlub]

Thanks. I’ll give that a try next trip. Should be easier to arrive at my actual destination with my preferred SOC

 

[Rocky_H]

1-I always charge to 50% for daily use. When I got to my first SC I didn’t see a screen telling me what SOC I needed to charge to. Knowing my slider was set to 50%, I moved the slider to 90% just in case. After plugging in it told me I needed 73% so I stopped there. My question is: if I had left my daily charger at 50%, would the SC have charged to 73% because that was what was needed?

2-If I had not manually turned off at 73%, would it have continued charging or automatically turned off.

Regarding these kinds of questions, here's how this works. The limit is the limit. Period. It will not go over that. The screen's charging recommendations won't go over the limit.

So in practical use, there's this. You have your limit set to what you want for daily ongoing use, but when you are about to leave for a trip, move that limit way up and leave it there the whole time you're traveling. Because that would suuuuck if you're taking a little longer paying for lunch or walking back to the car, and it stopped earlier and starts accumulating idle fees when it could have just continued charging for that extra 10 minutes while you're returning.

I ended up in a location with not a lot of charge. Any way I can tell Tesla I want to arrive with a certain SOC like ABRP?

Kind of, and it combines with what you're saying about using different stop locations. If you just pick the next Supercharger you want to go to as your destination, then the "Trips" tab in the energy app screen will show projected energy use and the estimated target % state of charge at arrival. This will start off as a negative number of course, but continue rising as the car fills some. Whenever it's up to some margin that looks OK to you (like 15% or so?) then that's your target, and you can unplug and go.

I sometimes at the beginning of a trip will let Nav do the entire route just to see a general idea of what it's planning, but as I travel, I usually just pick my next stop at each one, because it depends a bit on how I'm feeling, when I'm getting hungry, what kinds of restaurants are near each Supercharger, how long I ended up staying at each place, so maybe I have some extra energy leftover, etc. So I'm a bit more "seat of the pants" as I travel, depending on how the travel day is going.

 

[GtiMart]

@Rocky_H has it spot on. The car's navigation is a suggestion, a baseline. You get to choose. Choose your next stop if you want, charge for as long as you know you need etc... That's exactly what I do. ABRP is great for planning before the trip, just to understand how things will pan out.

 

[KenBlub]

Regarding these kinds of questions, here's how this works. The limit is the limit. Period. It will not go over that. The screen's charging recommendations won't go over the limit.

So in practical use, there's this. You have your limit set to what you want for daily ongoing use, but when you are about to leave for a trip, move that limit way up and leave it there the whole time you're traveling. Because that would suuuuck if you're taking a little longer paying for lunch or walking back to the car, and it stopped earlier and starts accumulating idle fees when it could have just continued charging for that extra 10 minutes while you're returning.


Kind of, and it combines with what you're saying about using different stop locations. If you just pick the next Supercharger you want to go to as your destination, then the "Trips" tab in the energy app screen will show projected energy use and the estimated target % state of charge at arrival. This will start off as a negative number of course, but continue rising as the car fills some. Whenever it's up to some margin that looks OK to you (like 15% or so?) then that's your target, and you can unplug and go.

I sometimes at the beginning of a trip will let Nav do the entire route just to see a general idea of what it's planning, but as I travel, I usually just pick my next stop at each one, because it depends a bit on how I'm feeling, when I'm getting hungry, what kinds of restaurants are near each Supercharger, how long I ended up staying at each place, so maybe I have some extra energy leftover, etc. So I'm a bit more "seat of the pants" as I travel, depending on how the travel day is going.

Thanks. I’ve only done 1 trip and let the Tesla nav do the whole trip. 3 stops each way and they were all 25-30 minutes. Next time I’ll try for more and shorter stops and see how I like that approach. I had stops at 2 Meijer parking lots and each time got a text from my wife asking me to pick up things for her.

 

[Rocky_H]

Thanks. I’ve only done 1 trip and let the Tesla nav do the whole trip. 3 stops each way and they were all 25-30 minutes. Next time I’ll try for more and shorter stops and see how I like that approach.

For straight up quickest travel time, "Splash & Dash" is usually fastest overall. But you might not like always having short stops. I find that it works out to a helpful human traveling rhythm to kind of alternate between short stop and long stop. So let's say approximately 2 hours between each. You may take a quick stop for the first, and then at the next one, it's been four hours, so maybe that's a longer stop for lunch. It fills probably more than you really need. So the next stop can be quick since you have some leftover. Then the next after may be time for food again, etc.

 

[KenBlub]

That’s a great idea. My next road trip will be over 700 miles each way, solo so mixing things up should keep me fresh. Doing it in 1 day each way.

ABRP has me doing it with 8 stops and the longest one is 16 minutes. 5 are 10 minutes or shorter. Lots for me to learn

 

[maximizese]

That’s a great idea. My next road trip will be over 700 miles each way, solo so mixing things up should keep me fresh. Doing it in 1 day each way.

ABRP has me doing it with 8 stops and the longest one is 16 minutes. 5 are 10 minutes or shorter. Lots for me to learn

Out of curiosity, which Tesla configuration do you have? We've got an old 2013 S85 and ever since June 2019, our Supercharging sessions from SOC 30-80% takes about twice as long. Since Supercharger sites and stalls have really expanded over the years, we now try to minimize our time at the Superchargers by arriving with a SOC <20% and usually drive off to the next furthest SuC site before the SOC goes above 80%. So we average about 20-40 minutes at a Supercharger unless we have something more compelling to do such as to stop to eat, see the sights, nap, or answer emails.

If you're interested in minimizing your time charging, I recommend you reference the Supercharging curve that corresponds to the configuration of your car to see where it charges fastest and perhaps you feel your time is best spent driving towards your destination rather than (say) charging below 40kW. Here is a graph from ABRP that corresponds to my car:

 

[KenBlub]

Cool data. Thanks. I have a 2023 Model 3 LR with the LG 78.8 battery. Only 1.5 months old

Where do I access the charging curve for my LR Model 3? The route suggested for me by ABRP has a lot of 15-50 or 15-55% stops. 63% is the highest SOC it has me charging to.

Edit: Mine is the BT43 battery and ABRP does not have stats on the charging curse as near as I can tell.

 

[maximizese]

Cool data. Thanks. I have a 2023 Model 3 LR with the LG 78.8 battery. Only 1.5 months old

Where do I access the charging curve for my LR Model 3? The route suggested for me by ABRP has a lot of 15-50 or 15-55% stops. 63% is the highest SOC it has me charging to.

Edit: Mine is the BT43 battery and ABRP does not have stats on the charging curse as near as I can tell.

Here's some helpful information I found as the first Google hit when searching "2023 Tesla Model 3 LR Supercharging curve"

Tesla Model 3 Long Range charging curve & performance :: evkx.net

Here you find the charging curve for Tesla Model 3 Long Range.

evkx.net

It looks like charging under 6% will be slower, but that 7%-45% is your sweet spot for speed. That is so much faster than my old S85 and it makes a battery upgrade very compelling for long trips.

 

[KenBlub]

Thanks. I looked under the hood at the study linked and they were testing the Panasonic 82kw battery. Mine has the LG 78.8 with 333m range. It is my understanding the LG 78.8 has only been in the Model 3 LR in the US for a few months although things I’ve read suggest it may have been used in Europe earlier.

 

[Joe-FV]

then use ABRP’s suggested charge level as a guide

I have done this a lot and it works like a charm as long as you aren’t doing 80 or more and using more energy than expected. Take a screen shot of the list under the ABRP route and choose the next SC when you plug in. This also takes care of your arrival soc.
ABRP is great, but as time goes on I find a lot of value in Tesla’s nav for traffic and detouring incidents ahead. I was floored the other day while sitting in traffic, going from Va to VT, when it recommended I take the next exit, stay in the through lane of the exit (parallel to the interstate) which was moving at 70 mph , then get back on the interstate. The nav did it a few more times that day. And many times it has made good recommendations to avoid further delays.

Regarding which to use for charging stops/schedules, I have done 35k miles this year on the highway and it seems to me if you are going to drive 80 or more mph you should use the car for sc planning as you will not be making many long segments and the car can respond accordingly. If I drive 70 or 75 without a lot of quick bursts the car often gets the rated range, depending on terrain, and is pretty easy to plan on your own by mileage.

 

[KenBlub]

Thanks. I don’t do 80-85 so ABRP gives me lots of options. I like the ability to pick the SuC based upon what is nearby so I can plan meals etc.