Hatched a Tesla

[PV1]

All good points, and unlike my previous charging experience, we didn't wait for the car (at least any more than 5 minutes) to reach a set state of charge before departing. The first stop was unplug and go once we finished using the restrooms and stretching our legs. The second stop was about a 3 minute wait until the SoC at destination became comfortable. The Model 3 is able to keep a high charge rate to an astonishingly high SoC. I still had a charge rate above 40 kW at 85% charge. Those 2170 cells are something special. With this particular trip, the Superchargers were the only charging infrastructure that was worth driving to, with no charging at any of our destinations.

As for the range numbers, I've opted to set the car display to percentage and use the trip view to see where the battery will be at upon arrival, and my driving, at worst, has matched the initial prediction. It helps that Autopilot drives the easy stretches of highway. One stretch of river roads had my energy consumption around 190 Wh/mi. on the 30-mile graph.

 

[JoeS]

...As for the range numbers, I've opted to set the car display to percentage and use the trip view to see where the battery will be at upon arrival, and my driving, at worst, has matched the initial prediction. It helps that Autopilot drives the easy stretches of highway. One stretch of river roads had my energy consumption around 190 Wh/mi. on the 30-mile graph.

Yes, I also only use percentage (recognizing that number represents a very slowly decreasing range - best I can tell, 10% for my 8-year-old Tesla). Yeah, I've seen some amazing numbers, especially during the 90-mile 7000ft elevation change downhill run from Donner Pass to Sacramento. My previous lifetime was 295Wh/mi (75K miles) until Tesla did the display repair (under warranty) last year which reset that metric. I'm now running 280 Wh/mi for the last 2000 miles (no trips this year). The previous owner had 350Wh/mi. BTW, I've dedicated Trip B to be lifetime readings (even renamed this onscreen), and I keep all this happy trip data always active on my instrument cluster. Finally, if you really need to hypermile you can disable cruise control and you can do better - we've had this discussion elsewhere on this forum, as cruise control unnecessarily blips into both consumption and regeneration trying to maintain a constant speed - the system has too short a time constant IMO.

 

[PV1]

I know I can drive more efficiently than Cruise control (especially with the phantom braking on Autopilot cars). My Model 3 lacks the range mode switch (I think it became the default behavior), but I did try some coasting this morning. Boy, does this car roll. For other efficiency improvements, I wonder if folding the mirrors in and using the side cameras would provide any improvement, as well as reinstalling the aero covers. I don’t think I’d ever need this for range, more for experimentation. A big savings could probably be had if there was a way to disable spatial processing for Autopilot and the drive view. Sentry Mode (the camera-based alarm system) uses up ~5% of the battery while parked at work.

I put the car in Chill Mode today, too. It’s just too quick otherwise.

 

[JoeS]

Unlike the i-MiEV where I swear I spend at least 20% of the time in Neutral, I never got the hang of doing it with confidence in the Tesla, probably because in the i-MiEV it's a satisfying straight shot with a thunk into the stopper whereas on the Tesla it's a careful push up on the lever so as not to overshoot with the (unfounded) fear of going into Reverse and associated warning on the display that undoubtedly gets recorded in the Cloud.

I always thought the Tesla should have rear fender skirts (like my Insight), but when I suggested this on TMC there were very few supporters of that idea. I'd be happy to swap my wheels for the (now unobtainable) Aero wheels for my Model S. After my taped-on quick experiment, I made some fiberglassed foam skirts for my i-MiEV but couldn't come up with a non-destructive way of attaching them, as the easiest would be a few rivnuts right through the fender.
http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1745&start=50#p14686

I don't recall seeing Chill Mode in my OTA updates for my Model S. What a different world from the 'Eco' mode in our i-MiEVs!

 

[PV1]

I’ve only seen the S aero wheels once in the wild, so I’d say they weren’t popular. This was at a Drive Electric Week event several years ago. Honestly, with free Supercharging and a decent network even then, it was probably of very little benefit to most buyers, so they opted for looks or the freebie wheels. I think they’re even on the way out for the 3, as Tesla’s configurator now defaults to the upgraded wheels.

In Controls, under Driving, Chill should be one of the acceleration options. As for coasting, hold the stalk to the first detent upwards for a couple seconds. It won’t let you go into reverse above 5 MPH. Even the i-MiEV, if shifted into Reverse while moving forward, will coast until speed drops below 5 MPH, regen the car to a very slow roll, and then power the motor in reverse. It’s not something I’d want to do often, but the cars are programmed to cope with it.

 

[ed5000]

Did your coworker originally order the refreshed S with the yoke steering? I saw one at the service center a couple weeks back, and the interior looks to be a serious upgrade.

I finally ran into my coworker. He was on vacation which I really thought was Paternity leave for his new Model S but no, just a regular vacation. :?

He said he ordered a Model S with a rectangular steering wheel. I'm not sure if I could handle the yoke steering wheel myself but with that car it could probably grow on me.

 

[jray3]

I’m resurrecting a classic thread because, as I’ve long wanted to be just like Joe when I grew up, I’ve also just hatched a Tesla!
The incubation may have been longer, but I’m optimistic that the bargain is better! There are many used model S down in the $15,000 range now, so I sought out a 2014 to ‘15 all wheel drive, non-performance model S with free unlimited supercharging. Along the way, I encountered a 2013 S Performance with only 63,000 miles and a version three 90 kWh pack that was installed right before the end of the eight year warranty!
TESLA did manage to deprive me of unlimited supercharging, but I’ll take that awesome battery in return!
I did find coolant leakage in the drive unit during my pre-purchase inspection so negotiated the price down significantly but once that rebuild with coolant revisions is done next week we should have a couple hundred thousand miles of awesome power and 260 miles of range!
This 2013 is the simplest model S ever built, with no autopilot and only one camera, and of course the single motor. That makes me optimistic for DIY maintenance, and I somewhat soured on the dual motor versions despite their more reliable motors when I learned that they provide not redundancy, but double jeopardy. When either drive unit fails, the car shuts down, so arguably the odds of failure are twice as high in the dual motor cars. Plus they tend to eat front axles, and this overpowered rear wheel drive beast is a hoot to drive and I daresay requires a little more skill than just the point and shoot AWD Autopilot!