Hatched a Tesla
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ed5000
Well-known member
We just need some terrible auto reviews and our dreams could come true! :lol:Phximiev said:Ok, can I get one used for under $10k?
If so, I'll take it.
Elon might not let that happen though.
Of course I would have loved to own the fully-sensored model, which was introduced in September 2014. Trouble is, when I was looking a few months ago the Autopilot-equipped cars commanded a $30K price differential (not $3K) on the used-car market! On long trips, especially, that lane-keeping feature would be really decadent but wonderful. Another byproduct of all those sensors (for a small-car person like me) is that they exactly measure and display the distances between the car and the objects around it when moving the car around in close quarters.pbui19 said:
Anyway, I don't have it and doing just fine driving the car 'conventionally'.
A side observation: the vehicles that could really use the lane-keeping feature are large trucks. It is really disturbing how many truck drivers seem to be inattentive - much more than I recall in all my past years of highway driving.
Arrived home at the end of June after a fantastic 45-day 10,098-mile journey. Went East the southern route (Interstate 10) down to Key West, then up the East Coast to Virginia, then zig-zagged to western Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio and then across the middle of the country and up to Idaho and Oregon from Colorado before coming down to the San Francisco Bay Area. Were it not for external pressures, we could have easily spent another month touring this country - as it was, we stopped short of Washington DC as we had to head home. I actually took a quick drive up to Oregon over July 4 weekend to retrieve my wife from Medford. We loved the trip and the sightseeing and museums, and it was great seeing so many old friends scattered around the country whom I hadn't seen in years.
Simplistic impressions -
1. The Tesla is a wonderful long-distance car. Only once during the trip did we have to cool our heels (for half an hour) to charge the car and that was simply because I forgot to plug it in the night before. The rest of the time the car was always ready to go before we were, as we were always busy doing something - usually eating or touristing. 115kW SuperCharging is fantastic!
2. It's a beautiful country!
3. People are very nice, everywhere. Unfortunately, most seem to eat too much.
4. Whereas in California we have our earthquakes and forest fires, much of the rest of the country has heat, humidity, floods, hurricanes, hailstorms, tornados, and mosquitos. Luckily, we were able to avoid most of these, with some close calls.
5. Electric cars, home solar, greenhouse gas emission reduction, and energy and water conservation is a California thing. Whereas it was nice to see windfarms in the midwest, I was saddened by the scarcity of home solar and electric cars in the rest of the country. Won't get into some of the disturbing geopolitical and environmental discussions we had to endure...
6. Fox News is the entertainment media of choice at motel breakfasts across the country.
7. Generalizing, the vehicles of choice in most of the country are pickup trucks and large SUVs, none of which have working turn signals.
8. The country has many wonderful museums and national parks.
9. The country is littered with shopping centers, all indistinguishable from each other.
The Tesla was positively received everywhere (primarily drawn by its looks), with many people asking what it was and being astounded that it was pure electric "it's so quiet". If anything will change the perspective on EVs in this country, it will be the eye-popping Tesla performance specs which good 'ol boys understand and can relate to.
It was great to get back into the i-MiEV after getting home - it's nice being able to throw the car around, turn on a dime, and not worry about hurting it.
Whereas we took hundreds of photos and I could bore everyone with an interminable slideshow, I simply selected a few -
Proof that we got to the southeastern end of the country.
Tesla screen statistics for the trip (Trip A), with Trip B showing what we covered since I bought the car.
Sign by an electric car in the Tallahassee Automobile Museum
I thought this was fitting, taken next to a charging station in Lake Land College, Illinois
Simplistic impressions -
1. The Tesla is a wonderful long-distance car. Only once during the trip did we have to cool our heels (for half an hour) to charge the car and that was simply because I forgot to plug it in the night before. The rest of the time the car was always ready to go before we were, as we were always busy doing something - usually eating or touristing. 115kW SuperCharging is fantastic!
2. It's a beautiful country!
3. People are very nice, everywhere. Unfortunately, most seem to eat too much.
4. Whereas in California we have our earthquakes and forest fires, much of the rest of the country has heat, humidity, floods, hurricanes, hailstorms, tornados, and mosquitos. Luckily, we were able to avoid most of these, with some close calls.
5. Electric cars, home solar, greenhouse gas emission reduction, and energy and water conservation is a California thing. Whereas it was nice to see windfarms in the midwest, I was saddened by the scarcity of home solar and electric cars in the rest of the country. Won't get into some of the disturbing geopolitical and environmental discussions we had to endure...
6. Fox News is the entertainment media of choice at motel breakfasts across the country.
7. Generalizing, the vehicles of choice in most of the country are pickup trucks and large SUVs, none of which have working turn signals.
8. The country has many wonderful museums and national parks.
9. The country is littered with shopping centers, all indistinguishable from each other.
The Tesla was positively received everywhere (primarily drawn by its looks), with many people asking what it was and being astounded that it was pure electric "it's so quiet". If anything will change the perspective on EVs in this country, it will be the eye-popping Tesla performance specs which good 'ol boys understand and can relate to.
It was great to get back into the i-MiEV after getting home - it's nice being able to throw the car around, turn on a dime, and not worry about hurting it.
Whereas we took hundreds of photos and I could bore everyone with an interminable slideshow, I simply selected a few -
Proof that we got to the southeastern end of the country.
Tesla screen statistics for the trip (Trip A), with Trip B showing what we covered since I bought the car.
Sign by an electric car in the Tallahassee Automobile Museum
I thought this was fitting, taken next to a charging station in Lake Land College, Illinois
sandange
Well-known member
Great write up Joe,
i've always been a long distance road trip enthusiast .
Having reserved the M3 & should are plans work out, - we are hoping to pick it up at the factory in California and experience a cross continent drive back to Montreal, and also to journey on the route 66 .
If you would do it over, is there anything you would have done differently.
Thanks for sharing the experience,
i've always been a long distance road trip enthusiast .
Having reserved the M3 & should are plans work out, - we are hoping to pick it up at the factory in California and experience a cross continent drive back to Montreal, and also to journey on the route 66 .
If you would do it over, is there anything you would have done differently.
Thanks for sharing the experience,
Pier
Well-known member
What !!!! 292 Wh/mi . I have an average lifetime of 190 Wh/mi. on my I-Miev. Is it because of a lead foot or the wheight of the car ?
Otherwise nice short description of america.
Otherwise nice short description of america.
I'd say highway driving and A/C are the biggest factors, both of which are more the exception than the norm for i-MiEVs.
Glad you enjoyed the trip.
Glad you enjoyed the trip.
Love your posts about your trip. Sorry we couldn't have met when you were in Florida. That being said, I am going to take the Tesla from Florida to Michigan next week. This will be my first multiple supercharger road trip. Lots of superchargers on the trip (I-75) so it shouldn't be a big deal---more like an adventure. Glad your adventure went well for you.
Thank you all for your comments. I'm afraid that I was being too harsh on the rest of the country, as evidenced by all the astute members of this forum.
When I bought the car it had 30,000 miles on it and it showed 350Wh/mi by the previous owner, so we're doing a bit better. Don't forget, I'm proud of my hypermiling skills - here is the lifetime consumption for my Honda Insight (true 77.0mpg) that was totaled when a drunk driver hit me:
With the i-MiEV, I rarely need to hypermile, and for the first 8000miles of my i-MiEV ownership and driving 'normally' I kept meticulous records, with my measured wall to wheels consumption being 238Wh/mi (148Wh/km) or 4.2 miles/kWh. Nowhere near as good as yours, Pier (190Wh/mi = 5.26mi/kWh lifetime - wow!).
Ref: http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5744#p5744
Nowadays with the i-MiEV, I'm a leadfoot.
With the Tesla, the only time I needed to be careful was crossing the vast expanses of New Mexico and Texas with no SuperChargers, and even then I didn't need to get too serious about it. In regular driving between SuperChargers there is absolutely no need to conserve, and I simply set the Cruise Control to whatever was the speed limit and let her go.
Incidentally, as a law-abiding citizen driving right at the 80mph speed limit, it was disconcerting to be continuously passed by large trucks! :evil:
sandange, The trip was really little-different from that in an ICE car. I had pretty-well prepared myself for the trip, primarily with my huge collection of power connector adapters and a small cooler with lots of water as I need to stay hydrated. As discussed elsewhere on this forum, iPad charging station and RV park locators make life easy for a BEV nowadays.
With no spare tire, my only nagging concern was getting a flat tire (especially in the middle of nowhere in Texas) but I compromised by having a tire puncture repair kit and a pump. I felt it was too much weight to carry a spare wheel+tire, a serious jack (the car is very heavy), and a monster lug-wrench (Tesla wheel nuts require 220ft-lb torque! Edit: THIS IS WRONG - the number is 129ft-lb (175Nm). Thank you siai47). We were lucky, and had no flats.
Our no-schedule trip was far better than having every night planned out, as we often made unscheduled stops during the day at local attractions in response to billboard ads or suggestions from locals. Reminded us of cruising: as evening approached we'd decide to drop anchor and simply pull off at the next available motel; yes, some of the Tesla SuperChargers or HPWCs were at up$cale places (uh, no thank you), yet others were quite reasonable. Even on Memorial Day weekend we were able to find inexpensive hotels/motels in Florida. The distinction between hotel and motel is blurred nowadays.
If we happened to stop at a hotel that had a charging station, I would set the timer to charge to 60% in the evening, and then in the morning before breakfast would charge it up to whatever I needed for the next leg of the trip. Never charged to 100%, and usually stopped at 80%SoC. Similarly, at the bottom end only once went down to 13%SoC (Bisbee AZ to Las Cruces NM) and normally charged just enough to get us to the next charging station with around 25%SoC remaining.
Pier, actually, it's even worse, as the display shows battery-to-wheels, not wall-to-wheels. To answer your comment, in a nutshell:Pier said:
When I bought the car it had 30,000 miles on it and it showed 350Wh/mi by the previous owner, so we're doing a bit better. Don't forget, I'm proud of my hypermiling skills - here is the lifetime consumption for my Honda Insight (true 77.0mpg) that was totaled when a drunk driver hit me:
With the i-MiEV, I rarely need to hypermile, and for the first 8000miles of my i-MiEV ownership and driving 'normally' I kept meticulous records, with my measured wall to wheels consumption being 238Wh/mi (148Wh/km) or 4.2 miles/kWh. Nowhere near as good as yours, Pier (190Wh/mi = 5.26mi/kWh lifetime - wow!).
Ref: http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5744#p5744
Nowadays with the i-MiEV, I'm a leadfoot.
With the Tesla, the only time I needed to be careful was crossing the vast expanses of New Mexico and Texas with no SuperChargers, and even then I didn't need to get too serious about it. In regular driving between SuperChargers there is absolutely no need to conserve, and I simply set the Cruise Control to whatever was the speed limit and let her go.
Incidentally, as a law-abiding citizen driving right at the 80mph speed limit, it was disconcerting to be continuously passed by large trucks! :evil:
Yes, bought a Tesla sooner. :roll:sandange said:
sandange, The trip was really little-different from that in an ICE car. I had pretty-well prepared myself for the trip, primarily with my huge collection of power connector adapters and a small cooler with lots of water as I need to stay hydrated. As discussed elsewhere on this forum, iPad charging station and RV park locators make life easy for a BEV nowadays.
With no spare tire, my only nagging concern was getting a flat tire (especially in the middle of nowhere in Texas) but I compromised by having a tire puncture repair kit and a pump. I felt it was too much weight to carry a spare wheel+tire, a serious jack (the car is very heavy), and a monster lug-wrench (Tesla wheel nuts require 220ft-lb torque! Edit: THIS IS WRONG - the number is 129ft-lb (175Nm).
Thank you siai47). We were lucky, and had no flats.Our no-schedule trip was far better than having every night planned out, as we often made unscheduled stops during the day at local attractions in response to billboard ads or suggestions from locals. Reminded us of cruising: as evening approached we'd decide to drop anchor and simply pull off at the next available motel; yes, some of the Tesla SuperChargers or HPWCs were at up$cale places (uh, no thank you), yet others were quite reasonable. Even on Memorial Day weekend we were able to find inexpensive hotels/motels in Florida. The distinction between hotel and motel is blurred nowadays.
If we happened to stop at a hotel that had a charging station, I would set the timer to charge to 60% in the evening, and then in the morning before breakfast would charge it up to whatever I needed for the next leg of the trip. Never charged to 100%, and usually stopped at 80%SoC. Similarly, at the bottom end only once went down to 13%SoC (Bisbee AZ to Las Cruces NM) and normally charged just enough to get us to the next charging station with around 25%SoC remaining.
tigger19687
Well-known member
Congrats on a Great trip ! It is so fun to drive all over and I am still jealous, but some day I will buy one
Couldn't resist making a comment on one of Green Car Reports postings, as I can now 'authoritatively' speak about both cars.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1106245_know-what-a-baller-is-wanna-be-one-for-clean-energy
Sorry, but as the owner of both a Model S (our long-distance car) and three Mitsubishi i-MiEVs (our family's daily drivers), let me tell you that not only is ingress/egress MUCH easier in the i-MiEV, but it has better headroom and visibility as well. The distance from the centerline of the seat to where my elbow hits the door is 16" in the i-MiEV and 14" in the MS. As far as styling is concerned, beauty is in the eye of the beholder: I've been told often (by women) that the i-MiEV is 'cute' and I, for one, would prefer that my Tesla have rear fender skirts (like my previous Gen1 Honda Insight) as well as fully-covered (aerodynamic) wheels, to further improve its efficiency.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1106245_know-what-a-baller-is-wanna-be-one-for-clean-energy
Here's what I said:
Sorry, but as the owner of both a Model S (our long-distance car) and three Mitsubishi i-MiEVs (our family's daily drivers), let me tell you that not only is ingress/egress MUCH easier in the i-MiEV, but it has better headroom and visibility as well. The distance from the centerline of the seat to where my elbow hits the door is 16" in the i-MiEV and 14" in the MS. As far as styling is concerned, beauty is in the eye of the beholder: I've been told often (by women) that the i-MiEV is 'cute' and I, for one, would prefer that my Tesla have rear fender skirts (like my previous Gen1 Honda Insight) as well as fully-covered (aerodynamic) wheels, to further improve its efficiency.
sandange
Well-known member
Great reply Joe
Someone has to educated the short sighted
Someone has to educated the short sighted
Thanks, but to balance the story what I realize that I left out is the fantastic legroom in the Tesla, both front and back - with a fully adjustable steering wheel (it remembers individual settings for steering, seat (fore-aft, up/down, tilt, and seatback angle), mirrors, and backup mirror positions), one can really get comfortably settled-in for the long haul with those setting remembered for each driver.
Our short (1000-mile) hop down to Southern California (to pick up a replacement i-MiEV door) a few days ago confirms our choice of the Tesla as a long-distance cruiser with good cargo-hauling capacity. Heading up to B.C. (Canada) in a week or so...
Our short (1000-mile) hop down to Southern California (to pick up a replacement i-MiEV door) a few days ago confirms our choice of the Tesla as a long-distance cruiser with good cargo-hauling capacity. Heading up to B.C. (Canada) in a week or so...
Plugging the Tesla into a SuperCharger or the i-MiEV into CHAdeMO reaps the most benefit from such high power charging if the car's battery is at a low state of charge. On longer trips, this results in significant time savings if one simply keeps the charge state low and charges just enough to get to the next charging station.
Of course, this runs counter to our normal good charging and driving habits of always leaving a nice safety margin at the bottom.
Had an interesting episode while driving the 400 miles (640km) up from home to Medford Oregon yesterday: I had charged in Corning (still in the valley, basically at sea level). The next SuperCharger is in the city Mt. Shasta at around 3600' (1100m) and recognizing the altitude change I had put in just a wee bit more than necessary to get there.
So there I am happily zooming along still trying to figure out the latest Tesla over-the-air Media update when I get a phone call from my wife: "I see you've passed Red Bluff but could you go back there and meet someone at a gas station to retrieve my brother's camping gear?" - he had just completed a 100-mile canoe trip and forgot some of his stuff. With her iPad and the Tesla app, my wife knows EXACTLY where I am with the Tesla (works both ways).
"Um, ok" - so I take the next turnoff and go back about 15 miles and meet this nice couple and chat EVs (he'd never seen a Tesla before but is really into environmental stuff) and we say goodbye and I now have 30 more miles to go than previously. No worries, just slowed down a bit and arrived in Mt. Shasta with 10% SoC (predicted 8% when leaving the gas station in Red Bluff).
Moral of the story: ALWAYS have a range cushion.
A quick glance at PlugShare shows that there were still plenty of J1772 stations and campgrounds along the way, so there was no danger of running out of juice - and I never leave home without my huge box of adapters.
Of course, this runs counter to our normal good charging and driving habits of always leaving a nice safety margin at the bottom.
Had an interesting episode while driving the 400 miles (640km) up from home to Medford Oregon yesterday: I had charged in Corning (still in the valley, basically at sea level). The next SuperCharger is in the city Mt. Shasta at around 3600' (1100m) and recognizing the altitude change I had put in just a wee bit more than necessary to get there.
So there I am happily zooming along still trying to figure out the latest Tesla over-the-air Media update when I get a phone call from my wife: "I see you've passed Red Bluff but could you go back there and meet someone at a gas station to retrieve my brother's camping gear?" - he had just completed a 100-mile canoe trip and forgot some of his stuff. With her iPad and the Tesla app, my wife knows EXACTLY where I am with the Tesla (works both ways).
"Um, ok" - so I take the next turnoff and go back about 15 miles and meet this nice couple and chat EVs (he'd never seen a Tesla before but is really into environmental stuff) and we say goodbye and I now have 30 more miles to go than previously. No worries, just slowed down a bit and arrived in Mt. Shasta with 10% SoC (predicted 8% when leaving the gas station in Red Bluff).
Moral of the story: ALWAYS have a range cushion.
A quick glance at PlugShare shows that there were still plenty of J1772 stations and campgrounds along the way, so there was no danger of running out of juice - and I never leave home without my huge box of adapters.
Presently in Victoria, going to be crossing to Port Angeles on the ferry later today before the storm hits. Toured the Sunshine Coast (Sechelt peninsula) and Vancouver Island.
No problem with charging the Tesla anywhere - including dangling a power cord out a backwoods cabin bathroom window for an overnight boost. Would have been 'interesting' but doable in the i-MiEV.
This trip confirmed my distain for charge ports on the left side of the car: in Bellevue WA the curbside J1772 cord wouln't reach the Tesla port aft (left rear) location but thankfully I had bought a 40A J1772 extender a few weeks ago. The other was a curbside CHAdeMO in North Vancouver where luckily I was able to simply move the car forward in front of the fire hydrant for the cable to reach, and where I had to stick around and subsequently had a pleasant chat with a lady policeperson who was ok with that as long as I was there.
Miss the maneuverability and small size of my i-MiEV, especially in city parking.
No problem with charging the Tesla anywhere - including dangling a power cord out a backwoods cabin bathroom window for an overnight boost. Would have been 'interesting' but doable in the i-MiEV.
This trip confirmed my distain for charge ports on the left side of the car: in Bellevue WA the curbside J1772 cord wouln't reach the Tesla port aft (left rear) location but thankfully I had bought a 40A J1772 extender a few weeks ago. The other was a curbside CHAdeMO in North Vancouver where luckily I was able to simply move the car forward in front of the fire hydrant for the cable to reach, and where I had to stick around and subsequently had a pleasant chat with a lady policeperson who was ok with that as long as I was there.
Miss the maneuverability and small size of my i-MiEV, especially in city parking.
A J1772 extension has been on my wishlist for a while now (just haven't gotten around to buying it). The real desirable item is a CHAdeMO extension for the one place that is a stretch to reach the EV spot.
Enjoying the trip?
Enjoying the trip?
No, unfortunately, we bypassed that area (also missed a meetup opportunity there with an i-MiEV owner on this forum) and we've been on an accelerated schedule due to external constraints. Did spend a pleasant evening with jray3 and his great kids.Phximiev said:
I haven't seen any CHAdeMO extenders, but imagine they would be very heavy and very very expensive. I have no qualms about parking either my Tesla or my i-MiEV up on sidewalks or other 'forbidden' places if I need the charge.PV1 said:
Yes, thank you, Canadians are such nice friendly people who go well out of their way to help. In Canada, charging has been free everywhere I plugged in. The Tesla sure makes a great long-distance cruiser with a negligible recurring cost (so far). By the time I get home we'll have put on 20,000 miles since May.PV1 said:
