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Tesla Transcon Planned - 3 days (~ 1 of which spent supercharging)

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by Air_Boss, Jan 26, 2014.

  1. Air_Boss

    Air_Boss Senior Member

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    Per @elonmusk:
     
  2. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    The first 6 day super charger trip just was completed. I'm not sure if 3 days is very exciting though. If someone is doing this often they would probably take a different car, even a rental, but it shows that the superchargers work.
    First-Ever Supercharged Tesla Model S Coast-to-Coast Road Trip is Complete
    It is nice that tesla is supplying the hundreds of dollars worth of electricity for these trips included in the price of purchase of one of its cars.
     
  3. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    So looking at the average, daily numbers:
    • 3619/6 ~= 603 miles/day
    I've done several 750 mile, 'day trips', and they each ran about 14 hours including a 'short nap' after a mid-way meal. With two drivers, piece of cake, but for a single driver, a real endurance test. I am impressed with this cold-weather test. I've done 750 mile trips in summer and winter and summer is definitely better.

    One of my 24 hour, cold weather drives in the 2003 Prius started at 3:00AM and 17F, went to a mid-day high of 38F, and ended just before 4:00AM back home at 19F. There was little wind as a single, massive high pressure system was centered midway on the route from Huntsville to Columbia SC. I drove 65 mph, the optimum cross-country speed, and kept a log of each segment. The temperature and mileage impact followed the air density curve very nicely. So this Tesla test has given a reasonable, worst-case, cold weather metric not counting for head winds, which were very likely in this East to West drive.

    Kinda of a long drink of water to wind up back at the Tesla but this is an impressive feat. It justifies building out a network of SuperChargers as the Tesla fleet increases and establishes a minimum, practical range, 200 miles. Now comes the anti-electric, backlash by both big oil and Detroit.

    Bob Wilson
     
  4. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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  5. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    I've made the So Cal to Flathead Valley Montana trip at least a dozen times, under 20 hours (1,275 miles straight throuh). The older I get, the nastier that trip becomes.
    2,000+ miles?
    fugetaboutit
     
  6. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    I drove my insight from PHL to Irvine CA in 2 and a half days. With about 9 hours downtime each night. If an EV could do the same thing (with the downtime) then I'd be impressed. In reality though it'd probably take 4 days for a solo driver.

    I'm not sure why it's 3600 miles though. The shortest interstate route is only 2700-2800 miles. The website claims they'd have supercharges along I40, I70, I80 by the end of last year, but maybe it's wrong?
     
  7. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    From the link I provided in the comment above you can see the route
    [​IMG]

    The super charger network is still being built out which means you can't take the shortest route. They just complete the first transcontenental route. The six days were just from the first people that did the trip using superchargers. They expect those making the trip for time to take 3 days including 9 hours for supercharging.

    The superchargers will allow the shortest route from the northeast to california this year. It should be complete in 2015. You can click on this page to see which are being built this year and which next.
    Supercharger | Tesla Motors

    A phev, hv, or diesel would likely give you good fuel economy if you are driving accross the country a great deal. The super charger network should though allow an occastional cross country trip, with tesla paying for the fuel.
     
  8. Zythryn

    Zythryn Senior Member

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    3 days is going for a Guinness record for an EV going from coast to coast.
     
  9. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    Sure it will be a record, but the 9 hours isn't a glowing recomendation for the trip. I fully expect in 5 years they will have figured out how to do it faster.

    The key is really that the super chargers are good enough for a 200 mile range car. They will be ready for blue star. If you only occationally drive more than 300 miles a bev has the range you need, and it doesn't require any more infrastructure. Other manufacturers may be able to buy into the tesla chargers, or build their own. Those claiming that fuel cells or gasoline are needed for long distance trips, now will have to explain tesla, or drop that claim. Those claiming phevs are a better model still have a major point.
     
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  10. Air_Boss

    Air_Boss Senior Member

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  11. dhanson865

    dhanson865 Expert and Devil's advocate

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    [​IMG]

    They don't have I-40, I-70, or I-80 coverage for the majority of the country.

    Diversions from optimal include:

    * Driving down to DC instead of taking I-80 across Pennsylvania
    * Driving up to I-90 (Chicago to Mauson, WI on one end and Rapid City, SD down to Denver on the other)
    * Taking the S curve down from Grand Junction, CO through UT, NM, AZ instead of just going strait from Grand Junction to Los Angeles, CA through UT, NV.

    That trip doesn't have to take those detours, it's just going to be a few more months until superchargers are added in the places to straighten out that trip.

    Las Vegas, NV has one under construction but the I-70/I-15 shortcut is still missing some sites. I'd guess those will be done in spring or summer when the weather is better for construction.

    I-80 in Pennsylvania will come sooner than I-80 in Iowa and Nebraska. All of those should happen sometime in 2014.

    I-70 through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado would come in peices and I'd expect that entire route to be finished after the I-80 segments though I'm sure there will be overlap where sections of I-70 are developed before sections of I-80 are finished.

    I-40 doesn't make the trip from NY to LA much if any shorter but only the west half of I-40 gets done in 2014, it'll be 2015 when they do the east half of I-40 under current plans. Even if you want to do I-70 to St Louis then cut down to I-40 for the west portion you'll have to wait for 2015 to make the ST Louis to Oklahoma City leg.
     
  12. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    How many times a year do you do that trip? If its more than twice, a tesla should not be your only car.

    Have you actually done it that fast? Most of us take breaks on longer trips. A tesla would require more than 4 hours of breaks on that trip.
     
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  13. sURFNmADNESS

    sURFNmADNESS Prii Family

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    I just wonder how many Prius' they will pass in all those miles. How many privately owned Tesla? I bet they cross more Chevy Volts and C-Maxs than other Teslas.
     
  14. Zythryn

    Zythryn Senior Member

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    Undoubtably. After all, Prius have been sold for well over a decade in the US.
    Volts? Considering twice as many have been sold, again not surprising.
    Why are you wondering?
     
  15. JBumps

    JBumps Member

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    Looks like they did around 93 or so MPGE. Not as high as I'd hoped, but I doubt that the drivers had much experience with or concern for maximizing efficiency, knowing that a free source of 'fuel' was within reach.
     
  16. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    [The
    Tesla Motors Team Completes 76-Hour, Cross-Country Trip | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

    Tesla Touts Cross-Country Trip, Aims For Guinness World Records - Forbes

    When I plug the numbers in I get 97 mpge, but I could have a math error. The EPA rates the 85kwh tesla S at 89 mpge, so your numbers or mine, the team did an efficient drive given the cold weather snow and rain. Maximum efficiency would have slowed down bellow 50 mph and turned the heat off, which would not have showed anything. Tesla wants a more realistic, but still optimistic number. Sometime in the next 2 years 600 miles will be cut off this trip from better placed new super chargers.
     
  17. JBumps

    JBumps Member

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    Probably not a math error, but rather a difference in the amount of assumed energy in a gallon of gas. I calculated based on the energy content of E10.

    Agreed that the numbers weren't shabby given the conditions, but then again I'm always left hoping for better fuel economy.
     
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  18. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    Sure I used the 33.7 kwh electricity / Gallon Gasoline Equivelant that the EPA uses.

    You can always find that hypermiler info, but that is the kind of trick that turns people off of hybrids and plug-ins. To reach the market more of a honest drive is needed.
    http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/father-and-son-drive-423-miles-on-one-charge-in-tesla-model-s/
    When you see 423 miles, then you see some driver doing it in the snow going 70 not getting 200 miles that just looks bad. I'm sure tesla could have told these drivers to get better mpge, but that would have stepped on this pr stunt.

    The message is you can drive the car normally and with the supercharger network you can cross the country. Some media outlets have pointed out that the network forces you to go 600 miles out of the way from LA to NY, and isn't even possible without using non-super chargers from many parts of the country. Tesla though gaines from these questions as they can point out that by the end of 2015, less than two years from now the network will be close to complete, and if they find spots that people need, they will add them, all free with solar power to people that buy a supercharger equiped tesla.

    This does help them quite a bit with the carb politics. Carb currently favors fcv over bevs in their credit system. The fact that the super chargers are so extensive and tesla has demonstrated battery swap has allowed them to get fcv type credits. Carb politics still hurts phev vendors, and pehaps that is also good for tesla, but not for the state or nation.
     
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  19. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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  20. Air_Boss

    Air_Boss Senior Member

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    Once a year, straight through, for the 12 Hours. A reliable 20 hours -- including 4 fuel stops. Could make it on 3, but why push, right? Don't know where Goog gets their "prevailing, safe and reasonable" segment speeds. Maybe when part of the the route was via A1A.