darelldd is going to be SO envious!

Looks like that Roadster on eBay didn't sell.

Update: My Roadster was picked up by the shipper today. No word yet on when it should arrive. But apparently the truck is going from Chicago to Denver before it comes here to Spokane. That will slow it down a lot, depending on how many deliveries they have in Denver and how long those take.

Tesla is telling me I'll have it by the end of the month, but I doubt it. If I'm lucky I'll get to drive it for a few days before I leave for summer hiking in Canada. (Which is just a little too far to drive the Roadster).

 

Redmond is part of the greater Seattle area, on the coast. Spokane is as far east as you can go and still be in Washington state. I'm about a ten-minute drive from Idaho. But I'll be happy to give you a ride if you come to Spokane. I'm guessing it's about a 4-hour drive from Redmond, maybe 4 1/2. I'd advise against driving it in the winter, though, unless you are comfortable with snowy mountain roads. IIRC there are two high passes to get through between the coast and here. It's the reason Spokane is relatively dry: those two mountain ranges squeeze most of the moisture out of the air before it gets to us. If you fly it's about an hour's flight on Horizon's little turboprop planes, which fly almost every hour, or about 40 minutes on Alaska's jets, which only make the trip a couple of times a day.

Of course, though I'll gladly give you a ride, the Tesla store in Seattle will probably do the same and save you the trip to Spokane. OTOH if you're going to drive from Delaware to Redmond to visit your uncle, you can come right through Spokane to get there.

 

I doubt there are many Prius Chat members between Spokane and Golden, B.C. There's probably an RV park in Cranbrook, but that would either add four hours to my trip, or be an overnight stop.

No, the Leaf I turned down was here in Spokane, and the dealer has a list of I think about a dozen people who want them, so I'm sure whoever was at the top of the list is driving it by now.

You call three seconds fast??? Ha! THIS is fast.

But it's not about speed. It's about class. The Wrightspeed is just a motor on wheels. The Tesla Roadster has style and elegance.

Oh, and I bet the Wrightspeed won't go 245 miles on a charge!

 

Yep. Plycar is hauling my car. Apparently, their drivers are trained in the handling and driving of the Roadster, and Tesla trusts them not to take the car out for a joyride along the way.

I have the Universal Mobile Connector, NEMA 14-50. It plugs into an RV style outlet (which I have in my garage, as the Porsche uses the same thing). The circuit is on a 50-amp breaker and the connector draws a maximum of 40 amps. Assuming that it's always drawing 40 amps (which I do not know) 220 v times 40 amps = 8.8 kW. If the car will go 3 miles per kWh (this also I do not know, but that's what the Xebra does, and the Tesla, though heavier, will be more efficient) I would get about 25 miles for an hour's charging. A two-hour meal would only get me 50 miles of range, assuming there was an RV outlet at a restaurant. Otherwise I'd be loathe to leave the car unattended while charging.

If Richmond is 146 miles from Spokane, the round trip is 292 miles. Assuming I could get 200 miles of freeway driving on a charge and still have some in reserve for unexpected detours, an extended 3-hour visit over a leisurely meal would give me 275 miles of range. But I'd need 4 hours of charging to make that trip.

If there was someone in Richland with a Tesla 70-amp home style charger I could do the trip easily.

With only 8.8 kW charging available, extended road trips in the Roadster are awkward at best. Even charging overnight, using a charging cable that does not lock onto the car and can be easily stolen, not to mention the possibility of waking up without a charge if for any reason the breaker trips or the charger shuts off, does not appeal to me. (There's talk that the Model S might feature a locking cable.)

The Roadster will not plug into a Nissan L3 fast charger, and I do not have a connector to plug into a J-wichamacallit thingy like Nissan uses.

(Remember all that b.s. from Nissan about how we needed a hard-wired EVSE due to government rules? Ha! The Roadster plugs directly into any electrical outlet, via a variety of available connectors, though I only bought the NEMA 14-50, and a standard 120 v plug comes with the car.)

I didn't get this car for road trips. The Prius will make the trip to Canada for hiking, and will be the car I leave at the airport when I fly; the Roadster is for everything else. But I'll be delighted to show it off and give rides to anyone who wants to make the trip to Spokane. (Caveat: I won't let anyone drive it. Sorry about that. If you want a test drive, visit a Tesla store.)

 

The Xebra is MUCH lighter, so I figure the efficiency compensates for the weight. And we're not exactly comparing apples to apples. With the Xebra I was measuring miles per kWh at the wall: For every 3 miles I drive, the meter at the wall measures 1 kWh. I'm assuming 8.8 kW coming out from the wall, so an hour would give me 3 X 8.8, which is just over 25 miles.

With a stinker you don't calculate how many miles the car can go per X number of joules that the engine can convert to kinetic energy. You don't calculate the energy content of the gasoline and then factor in the efficiency of the engine. You measure the gallons coming out of the pump and see how far you drive.

Similarly, I measure the electricity coming out of the wall and see how far I can drive on it. That's where my 3 miles/kWh for the Xebra comes from.

They always say 220/240. I assume that means the line can be anywhere between the two numbers. So I was using the smaller number. Let's see what happens with the different methods of measuring.

If you figure the car gets 4 miles/kWh delivered to the motor, but the motor is only 85% efficient, then 4 X 8.8 X .85 = just under 30 miles.

Not enough difference to affect travel/charging plans. And anyway, if I have to drive gently to extend my range, and put added wear on the batteries by charging in Range mode and driving to near depletion, I'll take the Prius, which for long trips will be far more comfortable. The whole point of the Roadster is that it's fun. Driving slowly is not fun. It's transportation. So the Prius will remain my travel car, and the Roadster will be my within-100-miles-of-home car.

 

Again, all I care about is how far I can go per kWh coming from the wall, because that's what can be measured and that's what I pay for. Charging efficiency, motor efficiency, battery losses, none of that needs to be calculated since I pay for the electricity at the wall. And the Xebra gets 3 miles per kWh at the wall. The Roadster remains to be seen, though actually I have no way to measure energy on a 220-v 50-amp circuit.

 

Hi Justin. I, too, am glad to see you're still alive and fighting. I'm staying away from Fred's, but I did check out your thread for your news. I don't believe in prayer or any of that stuff, but I'm rooting for you. Keep on keeping on.