* not needing to refuel
no, we're taking Soothing30MinuteRelaxingBreaksAt200MileIntervalsAwesomeHappy™ brought to you by Tesla™ instead
back
1 comments
I don't know about you. I've driven the last 5 months / 5,000 miles without using a Supercharger once, except for the first day I took delivery just to try it out.
It's there when I need it for the long road trip. But daily life is effectively refueling-free.
What percentage of round-trips are under 200 miles? NHTS recorded the distance from ~750,000 car trips in 2009 and found the 95th percentile is 30 miles, and the 99th percentile is 70 miles. Somewhere on the order of 1 in 1,000 trips needs a Supercharger stop along the way.
I go on vacation a few times a year. Renting a car just for that is more expensive than extra cost of fuel. Not to mention most rental cars won't let me use my truck as a truck (putting rock in the back damages the bed, and a trailer is right out - both things I do only a couple times a year but I still own a truck for just those few times).
IF this is as good as they claim I don't see electric cars as worth it as a first car. They are slightly cheaper for an in-town only commuter car, but the downsides of electric cars (expensive battery replacement, limited range without long recharge times) are something that fans hate to acknowledge. Note that I said first car, once you have decided to have a second car electric is probably better.
Battery replacement is not really a factor under any kind of "normal" use. One Tesla owner driving for Tesloop was able to burn out a battery after extensively (exclusively) Supercharging from low charge to 95-100% charge after about 350,000 miles. Maintenance cost over that time was calculated as $0.05/mile. [1]
With V3 Supercharging, you can drop in with your Model 3 at 15% and be at 80% in 24 minutes. In my road trip experience, that's barely enough time for everyone to use the bathroom and pick out a beverage. [2]
[1] - https://www.tesloop.com/blog/2018/7/16/tesloops-tesla-model-...
[2] - https://twitter.com/privater/status/1103567772301193216/phot...
Interesting stats on the battery replacement, but if my family/youth groups/etc. routinely took 20+ minutes for a gas station bio break, there'd be words. Especially if we had to do it every 150 miles (80-15%).
I go both ways on that one. On the one hand I want to get there. On the other hand my doctor wants me to get out and take a 10 minute walk every hour anyway.
Also worth mentioning that 65% of the LR Model 3 is over 200 miles.
So if you are starting the day with 95% charge, and ending the day plugged in at your destination with 15% charge, that means you can travel about 450 miles with just one ~20 minute stop to charge along the way.
How is that not fast enough? The only issue is if you can't plug in at your destination. Maybe in that case you have breakfast near the next Supercharge on your route.
Yes, it is something you might have to think about for a minute. The guidance software will map out Supercharging stops for you.
How long are you waiting in line to get a chance to charge? I've been driving with my friend with a Tesla and he visited 2 places before giving up because the line was too long.
I wouldn’t know, I’ve only gone the one time.
I do expect that they will figure out a reservation system which tracks and queues vehicles en route, like an air traffic controller, to cut down on inefficient ad hoc queueing at the location.
It would be super fun to program such a system, backend and front. Even more so as the cars become increasingly autonomous.
For now at least you can click on the map and see live how many chargers are in use.