Took Tesla Model Y on first extended road trip of 2500 miles. Based on this experience I would say that EV range anxiety is largely baseless if one drives a Tesla.
Tesla navigation is available in the car and on the phone app. Put in a destination and the app will calculate based on current battery level a travel itinerary that includes charging stops, the estimated battery level when those stops are reached, and the minimal time needed to charge at those sites.
On average, the recommended charging sites were located at 150-200 mile intervals with charging times averaging about 20 minutes. That comes out to a stop every 2.5 hours or so. The charging locations were all in good locations with lots of facilities nearby. There was only one time when the charging site had a waiting line (Saturday afternoon at a mall) so found another site about 5 miles away. Never did see a nonfunctioning charger.
BTW, the app provides two charge time estimates, the shorter one when charging is sufficient to get to the next destination (with at least 10% charge to spare) and a longer one for full charging. Could probably reduce mean charge time to about 10 minutes if necessary.
Very positive travel experience.
Been playing around with the navigation app (too much free time) and have yet to find a US location that could not be reached and returned from.
This is one area where Tesla wins, and clearly. I’d like to take a trip to Boston to see my brother and some friends, but cannot find an app, nor after several hours of research, surety in finding a route with sufficient charging stations spaced along the way. (Yes, the car will show me all the chargers as I pass them, including what type, Level, etc. but I don’t know how - or if - to get a route for a long trip.)
That’s why I was surprised Musk let the charging network go to other makes and models; it was a significant “secret sauce” which gave Tesla a marked advantage, and he let it go for a few paltry government dollars - and now seems pretty uninterested in the whole thing.
Anyway, there are several EV apps for various things, but I have yet to find the one which will do what you say the Tesla app does, and so my trip to Boston hasn’t happened yet.
Another area where Tesla clearly wins is regarding software updates. Tesla regularly, and I mean REGULARLY, sends software updates to their vehicles that both fix problems (mostly small problems, but sometimes also annoying ones) and add features (quite often very useful ones). Other manufacturers are simply not as much on the ball in this regard. One vehicle that we considered getting to replace our minivan was the Kia EV9, a very nice 7-seater, at a reasonable price. But after reading story after story (not in the press from biased journalists, but in all sorts of social media from real people who use the product) of the low voltage battery not properly being charged, and the vehicle not starting afterwards, we’ve put that purchase on hold. Many, really MANY, people who drive that car, now keep one of those battery jump things (a lithium ion battery pack that can supply 12V power instead of the built-in 12V battery) in the car, so they can get it started to bring it to Kia for an under-warranty 12V battery replacement (apparently when it flat lines, it gets damaged and often needs to be replaced).
Kia has been less than responsive with a software update that fixes this problem.
Did you try the ABRP (A Better Route Planner) app?
You make the point that the software is where the value lies. From my experience the EV charging infrastructure is mostly in existence for Tesla. I’m not sure there is a need for more rapid expansion of sites as opposed to increasing the capacity of existing sites. In any case, the Tesla advantage is in its navigation software and the reliability of its supercharger system.
Good to read about real life user EV travel experiences. What does a 80% or so “fill up” charge cost you, and how far can you highway travel on 80% ? Were you traveling via interstates ? If so, when you get off interstates, was it still easy to get charged up ?
( don’t mean to sound like an interrogation, just curious )
No, the software is a convenience. It’s the lack of hardware (infrastructure) that’s holding me up. I have mentioned before: my trip to a small suburb in Kentucky took me 3 “fill-ups” because of the lack of charging infrastructure, whereas with a gas car I would have gone there, filled up once, and returned home.
The apps I have spent any time with don’t allow me to exclude Tesla chargers which I cannot use. So it’s time consuming to figure out the route with superchargers I can. (They also include every Level 2 charger at a motel or behind a Suburu dealer, which is useless information.)
They need both. Clearly there are times when people have to wait for a charger, which is extremely inconvenient given the time required, but there are also holes in the map. A quick google search says the largest distance between Tesla chargers is 283 miles, a bit scary for someone with a 300 mile range, especially if they want to use the heater, A/C, or drive over 55. (It may be that there are other chargers at other points, I didn’t follow it that far, but it is somewhere in outback Minnesota so maybe not.)
At home it’s about $9. At a public charger, about $19. I can get about 225-250 miles on that. At 20mpg on my van that’s about 13 gallons, or $40, roughly.
It is about half the cost of gas, but I don’t know exactly since I am still getting free supercharging as a buying perk. 80% charge is about 270 miles, but I increased my charge limit for the trip to 95%, which should bring me close to a 300 mile range. Wasn’t really necessary though, other than to alleviate range anxiety. The navigation app appears to assume 80% recharge at each station and make sure you arrive at each station with a minimum of 10% charge. Lowest I ever got was about 13% and averaged in the mid-20%.
There was perhaps one occasion when I thought the recommended charge site was a bit too “risky”. I just found a closer site and put that in as an intermediate destination and deleted the recommended site.
Was off the interstate in western Pennsylvania/Virginia. Superchargers were often associated with Sheetz and easily accessible. Along interstates, the recommended superchargers were all within a couple of miles of the offramp.
That’s because you aren’t driving a Tesla. This is a very stripped down and slow version of the navigation App. https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/trips
But the vast majority of locations are easily within reach of a Tesla supercharger. One can also buy an adapter to be able to use Electrify America or Blink if one wants (though more and more of these are NACS compatible).
My guess is that one comes out ahead by buying a Tesla for most driving and renting an ICE for those occasional treks into the wilds of Minnesota.
It depends on how many and where the Tesla superchargers available for nonTesla use are distributed. It is also a matter of whether Ford can duplicate the functionality of the Tesla navigation software.
There may be no future advantage or a significant advantage.
I have no idea if that number…283…is correct or up-to-date or where it is. To those wanting near real-time updates on the largest gaps between Superchargers there is a database for that. It started many years ago just for Interstates, but once that problem was mostly solved they moved to state highway routes as well.
See it here:
Someone posts every time a new Supercharger goes on line that splits these gaps
(Wild speculation: Elon just found out about how the Tesla community was keeping track of all this for “free”)
I didn’t think to see if it was out of date; appears to be from about 9 months ago. And it isn’t necessary “the longest”, it’s just a Reddit thread that came out when I googled “what’s the longest distance between Tesla chargers”
I'm planning a trip in August (i.e. warm weather) that will involve driving across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The longest stretch between superchargers is Duluth to Escanaba, 283 miles.
My Model 3 tops out at just over 300 mlesi, so it shouldn’t be a problem. But I’m still nervous. Should I be?
In Aug 2022 I was driving around the UP of Michigan - from Mackinaw City to Marquette to Iron Mountain - and saw at least three Teslas - the odd part being they were all from out of state - Louisiana, Texas and Georgia. Sort of surprised me and I figured they had no range anxiety.
By the way, I am only mentioning ABRP as an option, I am not specifically recommending it per se. I rarely use it because:
All long EV trips are in our Tesla. And the Tesla software does a good enough job for us most of the time. The only time I use ABRP is to double check when I purposely want to not use the Tesla recommended route.
I find ABRP to be a bit confusing. Possibly because I only use the free version and not the paid version, and I use it without logging in.
I think I read somewhere that Rivian (another EV company) purchased ABRP a while back. Maybe they will improve it? I’ve been told that Rivian is second only to Tesla in terms of well-updated software.
The Tesla navigation app recommends driving from Duluth MN (begin with 80% charge) to the supercharger station at Minocqua, WI (166 miles) where the car will have 21% charge. A minimum charge time of 12 minutes will get you to Escanaba MI with 11% charge. Obviously, the longer one charges at Minocqua, the more battery charge upon arrival at Escanaba. The total distance of this route according to Google Maps is 310 miles (5 hrs, 48 min).
In comparison, the shortest distance by an ICE vehicle is 283 miles (5 hrs, 9 min). On this trip the gas car has a 30 mile or 40 minute advantage.
Just to demonstrate the conservative nature of the navigation app, even assuming a 100% charge in Duluth and a 300+ mile range, the app still recommends the Minocqua route.
Also keep in mind that one can buy a converter attachment that will allow a Tesla to use other EV charging stations that may be present along the shorter route.
Funny. The Tesla web page maps says to go from Duluth to Marquette (255 miles), then to Escanaba, a total of 322 miles.
FYI, I would definitely not plan a drive of 283 miles between Superchargers in my ~300 mile Model 3 unless I knew of at least an L2 charger midway-ish where I could stop for lunch/dinner and charge if I needed to based on the Tesla energy screen projections/graph it plot as you go. With that you can easily see if you are “on track” with the estimated range within a few miles and you can slow down a bit if you are NOT going to make it. (based on the current projection). I’ve never had to do this but things happen (detours, weather, etc.)
BTW, the TMC link I gave before was about tracking longest gaps on US Interstate highways and this 283 mile gap is on state highways.
See my comments above in this thread (and in other threads about EVs). The Ioniq is a nice car, and has really good efficiency, but like I said above, I am suspicious about how committed they are to regular software updates. For me, that’s a must at this point, Tesla has spoiled me. Of course, some people despise Eon Musk, so they won’t buy a Tesla under any circumstances. I think that’s absurd, but to each their own.
Since this topic is EV Range anxiety…If you think you might have range anxiety, get a Tesla.
They work at all the Tesla Superchargers which are well integrated into the GPS Navigation in the car, suggesting when and where to stop and charge, automatically pre-conditioning the battery before arrival and giving you access to the number of empty stalls and amenities available so you can pick where to recharge is you have a choice. If the supercharger location has its own restrooms (not operated by a nearby store) and lounge the code to unlock the door is given on screen when you arrive.
The in-car energy screen gives you a detailed graph as you drive of how much battery charge will be used to drive, how much due to elevation changes, wind, climate control and more. It includes tips on how much more range you’ll get by slowing down a bit or running the heat/air a bit less.
