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LTLFTcomposite said:
For a fraction of what a model S will cost you can just rent a car for those longer road trips, and likely find it's a far more satisfactory solution.
While we are quite satisfied with the capabilities of our Model S on road trips, I agree that it would not be an efficient use of funds to purchase a Model S just to use it on a few road trips per year.

However, longer-range EVs are also great for more regular, regional driving. It takes real dedication, and multiple CHAdeMO or CCS DC charging stops, to use a short-range EV to cross from one side of the SoCal sprawl to the other. With our Tesla, we can go pretty far before we even have to think about charging, and on those less frequent occasions when we do have to stop to charge, we've found the Superchargers to be without parallel. Our Tesla also turns out to be a very comfortable car for longer drives, at least in our opinion.

This isn't to knock our LEAF, as it remains useful for short, local drives.
 
Graffi said:
A year ago I surprised my wife by setting up a test drive in a Tesla Model S here at the San Diego showroom. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our Leaf and if anything ever happened to it we would gladly get another. However, we do take long road trips throughout the year, with several LONG ones during each summer. A 2-week (or 3-week) cross-country trip of from 7,000 to 9,000 miles; a 1-week trip of about 2,500 to 3,500 miles; and several shorter trips of 1,200 miles or less. Anyway, she fell in love with the Tesla and made me sign up for the Model 3 that evening.

Now, a year later, we are thinking that we would be better off with a Model S, 85 Kwh or greater, and anywhere from 2013 to 2015 Model year. I would be happy with any, but my wife wants the dark blue. I have kept my eyes open to Craigslist San Diego lately but think there must be a better source. The closer we get to our departure date (8-weeks from now) the more we want to make the long cross-country trip in our NEW (used) Blue Tesla S. We are thinking that we need the larger capacity battery, Tech Package (Auto pilot, auto parking - my wife really loved this one), and the white leather interior.

What I would love from others that have been driving their Tesla S for a while, even on long trips, is your recommendations of:

1. What other sources can I find used Tesla's for sale.

2. What features should we get: Must have, Should have, Would be nice to have, Don't need. Is any Model year preferred over another?

3. Budget I should need for the various Model Year, mileage, and options included.

4. What trip planning tools does Tesla have that will not only get us to our destinations, but plan our Super-Charger station stops. Does it give up to date access and availability?

5. Any other recommendations you think we would need when searching for our new EV.

Thank you all for your assistance in this matter.

By far the best site is the Tesla CPO site. Last I looked they had several S85s under 40K miles in the $50K price range or less
 
abasile said:
LTLFTcomposite said:
For a fraction of what a model S will cost you can just rent a car for those longer road trips, and likely find it's a far more satisfactory solution.
While we are quite satisfied with the capabilities of our Model S on road trips, I agree that it would not be an efficient use of funds to purchase a Model S just to use it on a few road trips per year.

However, longer-range EVs are also great for more regular, regional driving. It takes real dedication, and multiple CHAdeMO or CCS DC charging stops, to use a short-range EV to cross from one side of the SoCal sprawl to the other. With our Tesla, we can go pretty far before we even have to think about charging, and on those less frequent occasions when we do have to stop to charge, we've found the Superchargers to be without parallel. Our Tesla also turns out to be a very comfortable car for longer drives, at least in our opinion.

This isn't to knock our LEAF, as it remains useful for short, local drives.

Many thanks to everyone, both here and on the Tesla site.

Last week we visited the local Tesla store in San Diego to get further info on what options were available when and other data. We used the computer to build our Ideal Model S, as well as search the CPO older versions. Considering the rebates on purchasing a new one, plus the Autopilot V 2.0, it was worth it to us to get a new one for $20k more than a used one with less capability and 30,000 to 40,000 miles on it already.

Anyway, they found us a new one in Denver, CO. with 900 miles on it (used for giving test drives) with a $7,100 discount. Oh, and this one does have FREE lifetime SC usage. It is a 75D, Pearl White, with lots of good options, nothing missing that we wanted (it has both Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving capability already paid for). My wife decided she likes it. We found out we could save $2,000 delivery cost and $1,000 in sales taxes by picking it up in Denver. I went online and found a one-way ticket for $42 each. A friend of mine is flying to Denver next month on the same airline and he already got his ticket a few weeks ago for around $450, although I think his is round-trip, Still a lot more expensive than our $84.

Now we have a 13 hour drive back to San Diego, plus Super Charger stops for recharge. As it is now, when we take road trips we stop for 15 to 20 minutes every 1.5 to 2 hours already for potty breaks and stretching. This way, all our stops will be at the SC stations, not truck stops.

My wife had already planned one week off of work for 5/15 through 5/19. I teach a class on Mon/Wed nights, and she is taking a class Monday nights, so we are flying out at 6:20am Tuesday, Going to the Denver Tesla service center to pick it up, as well as coaching, then leave Denver for our trip home sometime around 2pm. That should get us through the east Los Angeles traffic by early morning before it gets too bad, and home before 6am Wednesday. Anyway, that still gives me 12 hours before I teach the class, so plenty of time if it takes us longer getting home.

Then early morning Friday we leave for Disneyland, another 200+ mile round trip with the kids and grandkids. For Memorial weekend the next Friday we are going to San Francisco Bay area for another trip of over 1,000 miles. We are really looking forward to the stress free driving of the autopilot.

We do LOVE our Leaf and will keep it for many years to come. It will remain our preferred local driver but the Tesla will be our go-to vehicle for longer drives. We are so excited. Now for the learning process so we can fully enjoy all the benefits. Is it reasonable to assume that we can get up to 1,000,000 miles on the Tesla before we wear it out??? That gets the amortization cost down to only $0.10 per mile and $0.05 per mile for electricity (half that or less with SC charging). Maybe another $0.05 per mile for maintenance. Still less than the cost of gas for ICE vehicles.

Now for home charging. We do have the AV 240v, 30a unit for the Leaf. It will be okay to use it, but I was thinking of installing another 50a breaker on the panel and installing a 240v, NEMA 14-50 outlet for the Tesla EVSE included with the car. The electrical panel is outside the garage so I can install it on the inside wall at the panel. Any thoughts? Should I be looking for a larger amp breaker and connection? We have a 200 amp panel, with a 5kw solar system.
 
Graffi said:
Anyway, they found us a new one in Denver, CO. with 900 miles on it (used for giving test drives) with a $7,100 discount. Oh, and this one does have FREE lifetime SC usage. It is a 75D, Pearl White, with lots of good options, nothing missing that we wanted (it has both Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving capability already paid for). My wife decided she likes it. We found out we could save $2,000 delivery cost and $1,000 in sales taxes by picking it up in Denver.
Congratulations! That appears to be a great buy! Are you able to get another $1K off by using an existing owner's referral code? Plenty of us on the forums would be more than happy to share our codes... :mrgreen:

I don't know how you can save $1K in sales tax, though. Won't you have to pay an equivalent amount in "use tax" when you register the car in California?

Graffi said:
Is it reasonable to assume that we can get up to 1,000,000 miles on the Tesla before we wear it out??? That gets the amortization cost down to only $0.10 per mile and $0.05 per mile for electricity (half that or less with SC charging). Maybe another $0.05 per mile for maintenance. Still less than the cost of gas for ICE vehicles.
I guess I wouldn't be that optimistic. I wouldn't recommend buying a Tesla as a way to save money. You buy it because it's a great car that's a joy to own and contributes to a better future. While it's Tesla's design goal to have their drivetrains last a million miles, they aren't yet known for having anywhere near that level of reliability. If anything, aside from the LEAF's lousy battery capacity loss, I'd say that the LEAF is generally a more reliable car. On the other hand, I've found Tesla's service to be phenomenal!
 
When asked if I had a referral code I said there were plenty to choose from but no one specific. The person at the Tesla store said no problem, they had some from their customers so we used one of those.

Believe me, we did not get it to save money, but in the long run I believe we will. I have always been very easy on my cars and generally keep then long past their expected life and usually end up donating them or turning them into an auto recycle place. We expect this Tesla to be in the family long after both myself and my wife are passed on.

We will be driving this car over 3,000 miles in the first two weeks, so getting lots of use out of the Supercharger network. Then two weeks later, we will start this summer's cross-country trip of over two weeks and 7,000+ miles. By the end of summer we will probably be close to 15,000 miles on her. My wife has already named her "Pearl". Our Leaf is "Graffi", and our bright blue Lancer is called "Bebe", B-B for bright blue.

When I mentioned to my wife that this will be a nice "chick magnet" for me, she countered that it will be much better "stud magnet" for her.
 
GRA said:
90 mph is on-highways; everywhere is it's speed limit +5 mph.
Prior to this update, it was limited to 35 MPH off highways.

This will be a nice improvement; much of my commute is a non-highway with stretches of 50MPH (I typically use the LEAF 3-4 days a week, and the Tesla the others).
 
jlv said:
GRA said:
90 mph is on-highways; everywhere is it's speed limit +5 mph.
Prior to this update, it was limited to 35 MPH off highways.

This will be a nice improvement; much of my commute is a non-highway with stretches of 50MPH (I typically use the LEAF 3-4 days a week, and the Tesla the others).

Our vehicle list will be almost like yours: 2013 Leaf SL, right at 50,000 miles; Tesla S 75D will be picked up next Tuesday, 5/16/17, in Denver then drive back to San Diego; Tesla Model 3 on order, now at a higher priority, LOL. Our Leaf will remain our Primary daily driver for commute and local driving, only taking the Tesla Model S when further range is needed. Our 2012 ICE will be passed on to one of the kids. It still looks new, with just over 50,000 miles on it, although we have been using it for trips, but the Leaf is our go-to driver for all local driving.

Our Leaf just lost the first bar last week at 49,600 miles, we still get 60 miles at 80% and 80 miles at 100%. We are almost ready to replace the front tires, OEM, the back tires look to have another 10,000 miles left. I think we lucked out with our Leaf. Plus we are very gentle with our vehicles.

If I have not said it enough, WE LOVE OUR LEAF!!! If anything ever happens to it, I think we will get another one, even though we now will have a Tesla. It is so nice for all local driving. That being said, we are very excited about having the Tesla S. Just at the start of our touring season. I will not be surprised if we have over 15,000 miles on it by the end of summer. We expect to have over 3,000 miles in less than two weeks, over 10,000 miles by end of July 4 holiday, the rest in July, but most in August. Prior to this, we always rented a car for our long trips, but now we will just use our Tesla.
 
Graffi said:
abasile said:
LTLFTcomposite said:
For a fraction of what a model S will cost you can just rent a car for those longer road trips, and likely find it's a far more satisfactory solution.
While we are quite satisfied with the capabilities of our Model S on road trips, I agree that it would not be an efficient use of funds to purchase a Model S just to use it on a few road trips per year.

However, longer-range EVs are also great for more regular, regional driving. It takes real dedication, and multiple CHAdeMO or CCS DC charging stops, to use a short-range EV to cross from one side of the SoCal sprawl to the other. With our Tesla, we can go pretty far before we even have to think about charging, and on those less frequent occasions when we do have to stop to charge, we've found the Superchargers to be without parallel. Our Tesla also turns out to be a very comfortable car for longer drives, at least in our opinion.

This isn't to knock our LEAF, as it remains useful for short, local drives.

Many thanks to everyone, both here and on the Tesla site.

Last week we visited the local Tesla store in San Diego to get further info on what options were available when and other data. We used the computer to build our Ideal Model S, as well as search the CPO older versions. Considering the rebates on purchasing a new one, plus the Autopilot V 2.0, it was worth it to us to get a new one for $20k more than a used one with less capability and 30,000 to 40,000 miles on it already.

Anyway, they found us a new one in Denver, CO. with 900 miles on it (used for giving test drives) with a $7,100 discount. Oh, and this one does have FREE lifetime SC usage. It is a 75D, Pearl White, with lots of good options, nothing missing that we wanted (it has both Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving capability already paid for). My wife decided she likes it. We found out we could save $2,000 delivery cost and $1,000 in sales taxes by picking it up in Denver. I went online and found a one-way ticket for $42 each. A friend of mine is flying to Denver next month on the same airline and he already got his ticket a few weeks ago for around $450, although I think his is round-trip, Still a lot more expensive than our $84.

Now we have a 13 hour drive back to San Diego, plus Super Charger stops for recharge. As it is now, when we take road trips we stop for 15 to 20 minutes every 1.5 to 2 hours already for potty breaks and stretching. This way, all our stops will be at the SC stations, not truck stops.

My wife had already planned one week off of work for 5/15 through 5/19. I teach a class on Mon/Wed nights, and she is taking a class Monday nights, so we are flying out at 6:20am Tuesday, Going to the Denver Tesla service center to pick it up, as well as coaching, then leave Denver for our trip home sometime around 2pm. That should get us through the east Los Angeles traffic by early morning before it gets too bad, and home before 6am Wednesday. Anyway, that still gives me 12 hours before I teach the class, so plenty of time if it takes us longer getting home.

Then early morning Friday we leave for Disneyland, another 200+ mile round trip with the kids and grandkids. For Memorial weekend the next Friday we are going to San Francisco Bay area for another trip of over 1,000 miles. We are really looking forward to the stress free driving of the autopilot.

We do LOVE our Leaf and will keep it for many years to come. It will remain our preferred local driver but the Tesla will be our go-to vehicle for longer drives. We are so excited. Now for the learning process so we can fully enjoy all the benefits. Is it reasonable to assume that we can get up to 1,000,000 miles on the Tesla before we wear it out??? That gets the amortization cost down to only $0.10 per mile and $0.05 per mile for electricity (half that or less with SC charging). Maybe another $0.05 per mile for maintenance. Still less than the cost of gas for ICE vehicles.

Now for home charging. We do have the AV 240v, 30a unit for the Leaf. It will be okay to use it, but I was thinking of installing another 50a breaker on the panel and installing a 240v, NEMA 14-50 outlet for the Tesla EVSE included with the car. The electrical panel is outside the garage so I can install it on the inside wall at the panel. Any thoughts? Should I be looking for a larger amp breaker and connection? We have a 200 amp panel, with a 5kw solar system.

guessing you are back now. How was the trip?

**edit* opps, read calendar wrong.... so how is it going so far? ;)
 
abasile said:
LTLFTcomposite said:
For a fraction of what a model S will cost you can just rent a car for those longer road trips, and likely find it's a far more satisfactory solution.
While we are quite satisfied with the capabilities of our Model S on road trips, I agree that it would not be an efficient use of funds to purchase a Model S just to use it on a few road trips per year.

However, longer-range EVs are also great for more regular, regional driving. It takes real dedication, and multiple CHAdeMO or CCS DC charging stops, to use a short-range EV to cross from one side of the SoCal sprawl to the other. With our Tesla, we can go pretty far before we even have to think about charging, and on those less frequent occasions when we do have to stop to charge, we've found the Superchargers to be without parallel. Our Tesla also turns out to be a very comfortable car for longer drives, at least in our opinion.

This isn't to knock our LEAF, as it remains useful for short, local drives.

For the elevation challenges you have, I have to say the LEAF is simply not gonna work....yet
 
Graffi said:
Now for home charging. We do have the AV 240v, 30a unit for the Leaf. It will be okay to use it, but I was thinking of installing another 50a breaker on the panel and installing a 240v, NEMA 14-50 outlet for the Tesla EVSE included with the car. The electrical panel is outside the garage so I can install it on the inside wall at the panel. Any thoughts? Should I be looking for a larger amp breaker and connection? We have a 200 amp panel, with a 5kw solar system.
IIRC Tesla offers a base OBC of about 40 kW or an optioned up choice of 80 kW. If you have the base option then a 15-40 on a 50 Amp dedicated circuit will provide all the power the car will take.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
For the elevation challenges you have, I have to say the LEAF is simply not gonna work....yet
It's very true that the 24 kWh LEAF was never a great fit for us. Still, we've managed to rack up 68K miles! This would have been considerably easier with the 30 kWh LEAF, which has enough range to descend our mountain, do a bit of driving around, then make the trip back up.

Our Tesla is superb for our drives beyond the LEAF's single-charge range. Last weekend, we drove it down to Pasadena and up to the summit of Mount Wilson for a group tour of the astronomical observatories. Then, instead of returning home on the freeway through the city, we drove east through the San Gabriel Mountains on the scenic Angeles Crest Highway which tops out at 7900', then past Silverwood Lake on CA-138, up through Crestline, and home across the "Rim" on CA-18. It was a very pleasant 195 mile round trip, with no stops for charging or gasoline. Of course, after plugging in for the night, the car had plenty of range for the next day's driving. So, even with longer drives like that one, we're truly saving time by not having to stop at gas stations. :D

There was one little hitch, though. Our Tesla key fob didn't really work on the summit of Mount Wilson due to the heavy R/F interference! So I had to hunt around for the radio receiver in the rear of the car, left of center. By holding the fob against the bumper in that spot, I was able to unlock the car. Then, to "start" the car, I had to hold the fob just under the 12V outlet in the front console area.
 
SageBrush said:
Graffi said:
Now for home charging. We do have the AV 240v, 30a unit for the Leaf. It will be okay to use it, but I was thinking of installing another 50a breaker on the panel and installing a 240v, NEMA 14-50 outlet for the Tesla EVSE included with the car. The electrical panel is outside the garage so I can install it on the inside wall at the panel. Any thoughts? Should I be looking for a larger amp breaker and connection? We have a 200 amp panel, with a 5kw solar system.
IIRC Tesla offers a base OBC of about 40 kW or an optioned up choice of 80 kW. If you have the base option then a 15-40 on a 50 Amp dedicated circuit will provide all the power the car will take.

You are correct, but your units are wrong. The base OBC is 40A, which is 240V * 40A = 9.6kW nominal. The upgraded OBC (if still offered) is 80A or 240V * 80A = 19.2kW nominal.

Tesla marketing turned 9.6kW into 10kW and 19.2kW into 20kW.
 
GetOffYourGas said:
SageBrush said:
Graffi said:
Now for home charging. We do have the AV 240v, 30a unit for the Leaf. It will be okay to use it, but I was thinking of installing another 50a breaker on the panel and installing a 240v, NEMA 14-50 outlet for the Tesla EVSE included with the car. The electrical panel is outside the garage so I can install it on the inside wall at the panel. Any thoughts? Should I be looking for a larger amp breaker and connection? We have a 200 amp panel, with a 5kw solar system.
IIRC Tesla offers a base OBC of about 40 kW or an optioned up choice of 80 kW. If you have the base option then a 15-40 on a 50 Amp dedicated circuit will provide all the power the car will take.

You are correct, but your units are wrong.
OOPS. Right you are. Thanks for the correction
 
We made it back from Denver to San Diego with no problems. We got back home around 2pm yesterday, Wednesday, after a "fill-up" at the Temecula, CA Supercharger. We left the Tesla Model S 75D set at 90% because there is no need to wait around for the extra time to get that last 10% anyway. We only missed the one Supercharger in north Las Vegas because we wanted to stop at the one close to the airport, Las Vegas south. We would stop it at 80% then on to the next station. We very much enjoyed our drive, meeting many other Tesla owners. We ended up spending more time at most stations than we had planned just chatting with the folks.

We found ourselves driving much faster than we had planned, just following the flow of traffic. We LOVE the AP2. It took some getting used to but eventually we both learned to trust it to make the curves by itself without us taking over. We were set for 7 car lengths spacing but eventually realized that we will need to change that, maybe try 3 and see how it goes. The auto lane change is great. The car already had the 17.17.17 update installed. We do hope that future updates will help to smooth out the driving around curves, but the jerking was not too bad, considering that we could just let it go and do it's thing and still get us home safe.

We only had one leg that gave us worry. We had stopped the charge at 70% in Green River, UT, thinking that the rated 181 mile range would be enough to get us the 124 miles we needed with a little reserve until the next Supercharger in Richfield, UT. After all, we did have 57 miles more than we needed, right? Well, what we did not (read that to mean me, not my wife) account for was the terrain and wind. We were happily driving along with AP going 80 mph up, then up, then up some more. There is a lot of high mountain passes on this route. Beautiful though it was, even at night, it is very high. Also we were experiencing very strong head winds. Now in the usual rented cars we take our cross country trips in we can feel the wind, hear it even. NOT in the Tesla S. It was so smooth and quite. Such a joy to drive in. Okay, back to the story. Anyway, we were happily driving (meaning me for this leg), using the AP2. Every once in a while I would check the Remaining Miles, and compare it to the miles needed to drive to get to the Richfield, UT Supercharger. I began to notice that our reserve of 57 miles kept reducing. Then the GPS on the touch-screen, along with the dash GPS started giving me the message that I needed to slow down to 60 mph to make it to our next stop. Well when did I ever listen to sound advice. I was not going to let some computer tell me what to do. So on I drove at 80 mph (this was the posted speed limit, by the way), but I was continuing to watch the dwindling reserve while AP2 was continuing to safely drive us along the freeway. Eventually I started having visions of spending hours waiting on a tow truck, in the middle of the night, just to drag us to the next Supercharger. Therefore when the reserve reached 30 miles I slowed down 5 mph, to 75. When the reserve reached 25 miles I slowed down another 5 mph, to 70. This was a little better, but it kept dropping. By this time we were past the summit and on our way down so it should give us lots more range. However, the headwind was not helping us at all. At 20 miles reserve another 5 mph reduction to 65 mph. We were lasting longer at each reduced speed, but still losing reserve. At 15 miles reserve I slowed down another 5 mph to 60. By this time I was wishing that we had waited the extra 10 minutes to charge from 70% to 80%. That extra 25 rated miles would have been useful. Even at 60 mph we were still losing reserve because of the headwind. At 10 miles reserve I again slowed down another 5 mph to 55 mph. As a side note, we do love the AP2 speed adjustment of 1 mph and 5 mph. It makes it so easy to adjust speed. Finally at 55 mph we were able to get better efficiency than rated so the reserve started to grow. I though about increasing speed but decided that the extra time driving slower was not worth the risk of not getting to the station. Well Hallelujah, we made it to the Richfield, UT Supercharger station with a whopping 22 miles remaining (8% of battery). From then on we charged a minimum of 80%, except at Las Vegas south we stopped as soon as we got back from the bathroom and the car was at 66%. We only had 36 miles to Primm, NV. At Primm we went to the MacDonalds for breakfast so the car was almost 90% when we returned. We waited a couple of minutes for it to finish, then left for Barstow, CA., 119 miles away.

Overall, we are very happy with our new Tesla, and are looking forward to the next 15,000 miles or so of trips we will be using it for in the next 3 months.

Concerning the Supercharger speeds, I was looking forward to getting 120Kw for the first 50% of charge, but was disappointed. It must be with the 90 or 100Kwh models that get that speed. The highest speed we got was 99kw, but usually 97 or 98kw below 50% battery charge. From above 50% the speed dropped. I tried to record speed at each 5% mark but missed some when we left the car to eat or use the restroom. I will continue to plot our Supercharger speeds as we continue our travels in the next few months. We did notice that every Supercharger was different, but within a close range of speed. I will post what data I have now.

Below 50% charge: 96 to 99Kw
55% - 80 to 87Kw
60% - 72 to 81Kw
65% - 64 to 78Kw
70% - 56 to 66Kw
75% - 43 to 56Kw
80% - 36 to 44Kw
85% - 29 to 36Kw
90% - 25 to 30Kw
I will update this list as more data is gathered on our next trip.

The slowest charge, and the station furtherest from the freeway, was St. George, UT. Also at St. George we were not able to find restroom until the Starbucks opened up at 5am. Because of this we stayed plugged in until the full 90% charge was achieved while we were away from the car. The GPS got us to every station, but we did have to search in the dark before we saw a few of them. Still, overall we were very happy with our experience.

On a side note, we have learned to use "Hypermileing" techniques driving our Leaf. We try to drive only 55 or 60 mph on the freeway, Occasionally we go faster, but only if we are in a big hurry and a short trip. With the Tesla I thought about trying to limit our speed to 60 mph on the trip back to conserve energy. However, since I needed to get back home to teach a class Wednesday night I felt it best to give the Tesla a real world test run. Most drivers of gas cars seem to push the limit of speed. If EVs are to gain general acceptance then they must meet these needs, even if that is not the most efficient method. Very few drivers are thinking about conserving. They just want to conserve their time and never mind what fuel or energy they waste. Because of this, I set the Tesla limit at 5 mph over speed limit. However, on the entire trip our fastest cruising speed was 80 mph.
 
Graffi said:
We made it back from Denver to San Diego with no problems. We got back home around 2pm yesterday, Wednesday, after a "fill-up" at the Temecula, CA Supercharger. We left the Tesla Model S 75D set at 90% because there is no need to wait around for the extra time to get that last 10% anyway. We only missed the one Supercharger in north Las Vegas because we wanted to stop at the one close to the airport, Las Vegas south. We would stop it at 80% then on to the next station. We very much enjoyed our drive, meeting many other Tesla owners. We ended up spending more time at most stations than we had planned just chatting with the folks.

We found ourselves driving much faster than we had planned, just following the flow of traffic. We LOVE the AP2. It took some getting used to but eventually we both learned to trust it to make the curves by itself without us taking over. We were set for 7 car lengths spacing but eventually realized that we will need to change that, maybe try 3 and see how it goes. The auto lane change is great. The car already had the 17.17.17 update installed. We do hope that future updates will help to smooth out the driving around curves, but the jerking was not too bad, considering that we could just let it go and do it's thing and still get us home safe.

We only had one leg that gave us worry. We had stopped the charge at 70% in Green River, UT, thinking that the rated 181 mile range would be enough to get us the 124 miles we needed with a little reserve until the next Supercharger in Richfield, UT. After all, we did have 57 miles more than we needed, right? Well, what we did not (read that to mean me, not my wife) account for was the terrain and wind. We were happily driving along with AP going 80 mph up, then up, then up some more. There is a lot of high mountain passes on this route. Beautiful though it was, even at night, it is very high. Also we were experiencing very strong head winds. Now in the usual rented cars we take our cross country trips in we can feel the wind, hear it even. NOT in the Tesla S. It was so smooth and quite. Such a joy to drive in. Okay, back to the story. Anyway, we were happily driving (meaning me for this leg), using the AP2. Every once in a while I would check the Remaining Miles, and compare it to the miles needed to drive to get to the Richfield, UT Supercharger. I began to notice that our reserve of 57 miles kept reducing. Then the GPS on the touch-screen, along with the dash GPS started giving me the message that I needed to slow down to 60 mph to make it to our next stop. Well when did I ever listen to sound advice. I was not going to let some computer tell me what to do. So on I drove at 80 mph (this was the posted speed limit, by the way), but I was continuing to watch the dwindling reserve while AP2 was continuing to safely drive us along the freeway. Eventually I started having visions of spending hours waiting on a tow truck, in the middle of the night, just to drag us to the next Supercharger. Therefore when the reserve reached 30 miles I slowed down 5 mph, to 75. When the reserve reached 25 miles I slowed down another 5 mph, to 70. This was a little better, but it kept dropping. By this time we were past the summit and on our way down so it should give us lots more range. However, the headwind was not helping us at all. At 20 miles reserve another 5 mph reduction to 65 mph. We were lasting longer at each reduced speed, but still losing reserve. At 15 miles reserve I slowed down another 5 mph to 60. By this time I was wishing that we had waited the extra 10 minutes to charge from 70% to 80%. That extra 25 rated miles would have been useful. Even at 60 mph we were still losing reserve because of the headwind. At 10 miles reserve I again slowed down another 5 mph to 55 mph. As a side note, we do love the AP2 speed adjustment of 1 mph and 5 mph. It makes it so easy to adjust speed. Finally at 55 mph we were able to get better efficiency than rated so the reserve started to grow. I though about increasing speed but decided that the extra time driving slower was not worth the risk of not getting to the station. Well Hallelujah, we made it to the Richfield, UT Supercharger station with a whopping 22 miles remaining (8% of battery). From then on we charged a minimum of 80%, except at Las Vegas south we stopped as soon as we got back from the bathroom and the car was at 66%. We only had 36 miles to Primm, NV. At Primm we went to the MacDonalds for breakfast so the car was almost 90% when we returned. We waited a couple of minutes for it to finish, then left for Barstow, CA., 119 miles away.

Overall, we are very happy with our new Tesla, and are looking forward to the next 15,000 miles or so of trips we will be using it for in the next 3 months.

Concerning the Supercharger speeds, I was looking forward to getting 120Kw for the first 50% of charge, but was disappointed. It must be with the 90 or 100Kwh models that get that speed. The highest speed we got was 99kw, but usually 97 or 98kw below 50% battery charge. From above 50% the speed dropped. I tried to record speed at each 5% mark but missed some when we left the car to eat or use the restroom. I will continue to plot our Supercharger speeds as we continue our travels in the next few months. We did notice that every Supercharger was different, but within a close range of speed. I will post what data I have now.

Below 50% charge: 96 to 99Kw
55% - 80 to 87Kw
60% - 72 to 81Kw
65% - 64 to 78Kw
70% - 56 to 66Kw
75% - 43 to 56Kw
80% - 36 to 44Kw
85% - 29 to 36Kw
90% - 25 to 30Kw
I will update this list as more data is gathered on our next trip.

The slowest charge, and the station furtherest from the freeway, was St. George, UT. Also at St. George we were not able to find restroom until the Starbucks opened up at 5am. Because of this we stayed plugged in until the full 90% charge was achieved while we were away from the car. The GPS got us to every station, but we did have to search in the dark before we saw a few of them. Still, overall we were very happy with our experience.

On a side note, we have learned to use "Hypermileing" techniques driving our Leaf. We try to drive only 55 or 60 mph on the freeway, Occasionally we go faster, but only if we are in a big hurry and a short trip. With the Tesla I thought about trying to limit our speed to 60 mph on the trip back to conserve energy. However, since I needed to get back home to teach a class Wednesday night I felt it best to give the Tesla a real world test run. Most drivers of gas cars seem to push the limit of speed. If EVs are to gain general acceptance then they must meet these needs, even if that is not the most efficient method. Very few drivers are thinking about conserving. They just want to conserve their time and never mind what fuel or energy they waste. Because of this, I set the Tesla limit at 5 mph over speed limit. However, on the entire trip our fastest cruising speed was 80 mph.

Sounds like you got a lot more out of the experience than just a car! As far as charging speeds, I have heard of several instances when the max speed was not always available and they couldn't tell me why
 
Graffi said:
Concerning the Supercharger speeds, I was looking forward to getting 120Kw for the first 50% of charge, but was disappointed. It must be with the 90 or 100Kwh models that get that speed. The highest speed we got was 99kw, but usually 97 or 98kw below 50% battery charge. From above 50% the speed dropped. I tried to record speed at each 5% mark but missed some when we left the car to eat or use the restroom. I will continue to plot our Supercharger speeds as we continue our travels in the next few months. We did notice that every Supercharger was different, but within a close range of speed. I will post what data I have now.

Below 50% charge: 96 to 99Kw
55% - 80 to 87Kw
60% - 72 to 81Kw
65% - 64 to 78Kw
70% - 56 to 66Kw
75% - 43 to 56Kw
80% - 36 to 44Kw
85% - 29 to 36Kw
90% - 25 to 30Kw
I will update this list as more data is gathered on our next trip.

I have never seen more than 117kw on an 85 pack and I drop in at under 20.
 
Graffi said:
Below 50% charge: 96 to 99Kw
55% - 80 to 87Kw
60% - 72 to 81Kw
65% - 64 to 78Kw
70% - 56 to 66Kw
75% - 43 to 56Kw
80% - 36 to 44Kw
85% - 29 to 36Kw
90% - 25 to 30Kw
I will update this list as more data is gathered on our next trip.
Tesla Bjorn has an interesting video up on youtube comparing his Model X 90 kwh that is restricted to no more than 90 kW, to another Tesla with no maximum power restriction. 20% to 80% was a matter of ~ 4 minutes difference. Arithmetic says it should be more but the car tapers the charge faster in the unrestricted car. I presume this is related to battery temperature control but whatever the reason the fastest charging cars end up with very little time advantage if you are taking on ~ 50 kWh.

I think I read that 70 mph driving gives the best overall distance per time. If the superchargers are spaced e.g. 100 miles apart and the car moves 4 miles per kWh, you can charge from ~ 15% for 25 - 30 kWh in about 20 minutes and end up with net travelling speed of 54 mph after you use up the previous full overnight charge. That does not sound great but the first 200 segment of the trip is from the night charge and the last segment ends on an empty battery so it works out to somewhere in the range of 500 miles, 60 minutes of charging, and 7 hours of driving for a net average speed of 62 mph.
 
Graffi said:
Concerning the Supercharger speeds, I was looking forward to getting 120Kw for the first 50% of charge, but was disappointed. It must be with the 90 or 100Kwh models that get that speed. The highest speed we got was 99kw, but usually 97 or 98kw below 50% battery charge.
I was quite unhappy to find that the 75 and under was limited in SuperCharging speeds (as I understand it, in the 90 and 100kwH packs there is an additional bank, which allows them to accept more current). Had I known this ahead of time, I would have easily opted for the 90D instead of the 75D.

Re: hypermiling

What I've found is that you want to arrive at the SC with as little left in the pack as possible, so as to get the fastest charge. And then you only want to charge enough to be able to reach the next SC on your trip. Whereas with the LEAF I tend to keep it at 60-65MPH on the highway, with the Tesla (when going to a SC), I drive with traffic and don't worry about it. If that means 75-80MPH, then that's what I do (as long as I'll reach the SC).
 
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