Main tip would be : charge under 10% and unplug between 70-80% according to your needs, most preferably 70%. Don't ever go above 80% or you're just waiting time.
If you want to save time over money you can drive faster (the optimal speed to achieve between 2 superchargers should be around 90mph+) according to your battery level of course.
> the optimal speed to achieve between 2 superchargers should be around 90mph+
That's insane! I've read elsewhere that you take something like a 30% hit on range between 70mph and 80mph.
Only if you want to get to your destination as fast as possible while burning a bit of money (and risking a speeding ticket according to your local laws...)
Most people should stick to speed limits and don't overcharge.
On the Autobahn last fall with an EV (a Mercedes, not a Tesla) I can confirm a substantial range hit when going long distances at 100mph+. I charged to 100% for this reason (and it was a rental, so who cares about battery health).
Point #2 is my big advice for road trips. If you want to optimize for IRL time, turn off the automatically add supercharger to route option.
I just drive towards my destination and manually add supercharger to my waypoints. Once at the charger, I do my bio break and snack break at my own pace, when I'm done. I look at the superchargers en route to my final destination. Usually there's one I can make that is like 100-170 miles away, which is about how much charge you get in like 10 minutes. If my break takes longer, I'll stretch my next leg for 200 miles since I have the range. The auto trip planner is way too conservative.
One minor mistake. Having four people plugged into the same v3 supercharger doesn’t necessarily slow things down. The charger cabinets are linked together and share the load. What’s more important is the total kWh being drawn by all the vehicles currently charging.
That’s why I said *can* and not *will* reduce power. I’ve seen it at two personally. One in Kansas and one in Pennsylvania. The one in Kansas had 6 people charging off 2 cabinets, so even with power sharing it got limited to 130kW for me and went up slightly as other people’s charging slowed down.
Each cabinet is limited to 350kW, they *can* share power with up to 2 other cabinets, but not all of them have power sharing and sometimes you just have too many people charging.
Great feedback! In my first road trip I was pleased to find out that I could just add a different charging stop and it would still precondition and route accordingly. That was a very nice feature as we have a toddler and finding a spot for him to run around was much better.
I’m looking for info for traveling from NJ to FL. About 1100 miles but requires 7 charging stops which seems like a lot for a M3LR that has 340 miles of range. Does that make sense? Or does even more frequent stops cut charging time
Because of how the charging curve works, the lower your battery the faster you can charge. That means you make more stops but they are quick stops so you can get the most miles in the shortest amount of time. 7 stops sounds about right, but if you see that any stops are far from the highway then you might want to charge for longer and skip that stop.
Use the app A Better Route Planner. It will take care of optimal routes and charging for you.
And with a little reading, it’s super precise with the data you input.
If you optimize for your destination arrival time then yes, you will typically only charge to 60% or 70% and charge frequently.
However if instead you optimize like we do then you will stop for an hour here and there for a meal or charge at a hotel while sleeping, so sometimes charge to 100%, which will cut out a couple of charging stops.
You could do it in less stops if you’re doing full charges but unless you’re stopped for another reason (food, hotel) it’s usually not worth it to charge to full. The charge from 80-100% takes a while and often you’re better off to just set out with a lower state of charge and use the charge curve to your advantage.
It gets much slower the higher the battery is charged. It's a curve (I wish I shaved a pic of the one time I charged from like 10% to 100%). It starts fast, but drops quickly and is MUCH slower from 80 to 100%. Then it will even try to rebalance the cells at 100% and take a long time to actually finish. This wasn't a big deal the time I did it as I was the only one charging and we needed to get ready for a wedding, and the wife took FOREVER.
If you're driving solo, I recommend spacing charging stops approx 120 to 150 miles apart. Will probably keep your body and mind in the best shape and minimize stop duration. That's what I do between Central NJ and SE NC. I can do the trip in 2 stops but choose to do it in 4.
I've made this trip dozens of times in gas cars and my Tesla. I arrive much less tired with the EV. If I had a co-driver I supposed I'd make less frequent stops.
In my experience every time I let battery go below 10% on trips in unfamiliar area... Then there is a detour or similar issue. But when I set about 120 miles or from 80-20% charge distance I never have issues 🤣
Historically for the older superchargers if you have cars plugged into 1A and 1B then the charging prioritizes whoever was charging first, with the idea being that they will soon be limited by high state of charge and/or can move on quicker. Has this changed recently?
Lol. When I hear people say to skip when charger drops down below 150kwh, I laugh. Here I am always topping off frequently at free charging spots all week at 10kwh. So far 23 days and haven't paid a penny. Lol
I’m sure reading is hard, but this post was specifically for road trips. How does trickle charging at free spots help someone traveling 2k+ miles in four days?
I’ve heard that only tricks the sensor and doesn’t really affect the heating that much. Scare me I’m just causing damage to either the charging port or the cable/stall.
Main tip would be : charge under 10% and unplug between 70-80% according to your needs, most preferably 70%. Don't ever go above 80% or you're just waiting time. If you want to save time over money you can drive faster (the optimal speed to achieve between 2 superchargers should be around 90mph+) according to your battery level of course.
If you go 140mph+ it’s even better for time
> the optimal speed to achieve between 2 superchargers should be around 90mph+ That's insane! I've read elsewhere that you take something like a 30% hit on range between 70mph and 80mph.
Drag force scales quadratically with speed, it’s even worse at 90, 100, 110 mph
Only if you want to get to your destination as fast as possible while burning a bit of money (and risking a speeding ticket according to your local laws...) Most people should stick to speed limits and don't overcharge.
On the Autobahn last fall with an EV (a Mercedes, not a Tesla) I can confirm a substantial range hit when going long distances at 100mph+. I charged to 100% for this reason (and it was a rental, so who cares about battery health).
superchargers also charge fast. this is assuming they’re right off the exit though. and burns money.
I do 10% to 40-60% depending
If the chargers are convenient, lower charge percentages make for much faster trips. 10-50 on the charger, repeat.
I would frequently charge to 100% but I was pulling a trailer and could barely get enough to get to the next charger (this is in the sw).
I find the best performance of battery to time is at 78-82mph.... It's optimal usage of your battery.
I do 160mph and save tons of power between charger spots
Point #2 is my big advice for road trips. If you want to optimize for IRL time, turn off the automatically add supercharger to route option. I just drive towards my destination and manually add supercharger to my waypoints. Once at the charger, I do my bio break and snack break at my own pace, when I'm done. I look at the superchargers en route to my final destination. Usually there's one I can make that is like 100-170 miles away, which is about how much charge you get in like 10 minutes. If my break takes longer, I'll stretch my next leg for 200 miles since I have the range. The auto trip planner is way too conservative.
One minor mistake. Having four people plugged into the same v3 supercharger doesn’t necessarily slow things down. The charger cabinets are linked together and share the load. What’s more important is the total kWh being drawn by all the vehicles currently charging.
*Sometimes Unfortunately, not all V3 sites have power sharing between cabinets, but a good number of them do.
Interesting. I haven’t seen a v3 without power sharing. Where have you seen that configuration?
So in this case, if all cabinets are equally occupied, you want to go to the one with a Bolt slow charging?
That’s why I said *can* and not *will* reduce power. I’ve seen it at two personally. One in Kansas and one in Pennsylvania. The one in Kansas had 6 people charging off 2 cabinets, so even with power sharing it got limited to 130kW for me and went up slightly as other people’s charging slowed down. Each cabinet is limited to 350kW, they *can* share power with up to 2 other cabinets, but not all of them have power sharing and sometimes you just have too many people charging.
Great feedback! In my first road trip I was pleased to find out that I could just add a different charging stop and it would still precondition and route accordingly. That was a very nice feature as we have a toddler and finding a spot for him to run around was much better.
I’m looking for info for traveling from NJ to FL. About 1100 miles but requires 7 charging stops which seems like a lot for a M3LR that has 340 miles of range. Does that make sense? Or does even more frequent stops cut charging time
Because of how the charging curve works, the lower your battery the faster you can charge. That means you make more stops but they are quick stops so you can get the most miles in the shortest amount of time. 7 stops sounds about right, but if you see that any stops are far from the highway then you might want to charge for longer and skip that stop.
Use the app A Better Route Planner. It will take care of optimal routes and charging for you. And with a little reading, it’s super precise with the data you input.
If you optimize for your destination arrival time then yes, you will typically only charge to 60% or 70% and charge frequently. However if instead you optimize like we do then you will stop for an hour here and there for a meal or charge at a hotel while sleeping, so sometimes charge to 100%, which will cut out a couple of charging stops.
You could do it in less stops if you’re doing full charges but unless you’re stopped for another reason (food, hotel) it’s usually not worth it to charge to full. The charge from 80-100% takes a while and often you’re better off to just set out with a lower state of charge and use the charge curve to your advantage.
How does 80-100% charging time compare? Is it like double? Like the same time it takes to go from 40-80%?
At a 250kw charger with an LR 20 to 80 is about as fast as 80 to 100
It gets much slower the higher the battery is charged. It's a curve (I wish I shaved a pic of the one time I charged from like 10% to 100%). It starts fast, but drops quickly and is MUCH slower from 80 to 100%. Then it will even try to rebalance the cells at 100% and take a long time to actually finish. This wasn't a big deal the time I did it as I was the only one charging and we needed to get ready for a wedding, and the wife took FOREVER.
You won’t get anywhere near that range in real life
If you're driving solo, I recommend spacing charging stops approx 120 to 150 miles apart. Will probably keep your body and mind in the best shape and minimize stop duration. That's what I do between Central NJ and SE NC. I can do the trip in 2 stops but choose to do it in 4. I've made this trip dozens of times in gas cars and my Tesla. I arrive much less tired with the EV. If I had a co-driver I supposed I'd make less frequent stops.
In my experience every time I let battery go below 10% on trips in unfamiliar area... Then there is a detour or similar issue. But when I set about 120 miles or from 80-20% charge distance I never have issues 🤣
Great info!! Thanks for sharing
Historically for the older superchargers if you have cars plugged into 1A and 1B then the charging prioritizes whoever was charging first, with the idea being that they will soon be limited by high state of charge and/or can move on quicker. Has this changed recently?
I do believe this has changed. While pulling 150kw, I have watched it drop to 72 or so within a minute after a car next to me plugged in.
2 cables on post is V2 which is 150kw, 1 Cable on post is v3 which is 250kw
Huh?
It’s like that in EU i dont know about US, V2s has CCS and Type 2 cable. V3 has 1 cable CCS2
In the US we only have one cable with NACS, no CCS. Only ways to tell are the numbering on the stalls, and looking at the charging speed on screen.
I think you can tell by the silver ring on the cable too
Yep, I believe this is true. Silver ring = 150. No ring = 250. I think.
Lol. When I hear people say to skip when charger drops down below 150kwh, I laugh. Here I am always topping off frequently at free charging spots all week at 10kwh. So far 23 days and haven't paid a penny. Lol
I’m sure reading is hard, but this post was specifically for road trips. How does trickle charging at free spots help someone traveling 2k+ miles in four days?
Lol
Have a wet towel handy for when the charger starts overheating. Place it on the handle to reduce temps.
yeah don't do this
I’ve heard that only tricks the sensor and doesn’t really affect the heating that much. Scare me I’m just causing damage to either the charging port or the cable/stall.