I recently went on a 2500+ mile road trip from northern Colorado to Houston in my 2014 Tesla Model S85. It was yet another awesome road trip in a Model S. My road trip was in the last week of December 2015 and I was concerned about weather as well as energy consumption by the car. I was planning to drive I-25, I-70, I-135, I-35 and I-45. This route is well covered by Tesla superchargers and I had no concerns about being able to charge, but knowing how much charge I was going to need between superchargers was important since this route is subject to significant temperature variations and wind. Luckily my entire road trip fit in between two big storms. I caught the mess created after the end of one storm in northern Colorado on my way to Houston and caught the start of next snowstorm in northern Colorado on my way back.
I drive a RWD S85 with 19" wheels and I have Michelin X-Ice 3 winter tires on it. On my way to Houston, I-25 north of Denver was icy and snow packed. I left in the late afternoon and there were multiple accidents on I-25 due to road conditions. I had to find my way around these accidents and drive on icy/snowy side roads since traffic on I-25 was barely moving. High temp until Oklahoma was around 50F and low was in 10's and 20's. Temperature got up to 80F in Houston while I was there which was a treat coming from frozen Colorado :) On the way back, another snowstorm had started and my last half hour of drive was through snowstorm that dumped 5 inches of snow in little over two hours. Model S performed amazingly well through all these road conditions. I never felt even the slightest loss of control. For 20+ years before Model S, I had always driven FWD vehicles and was quite concerned about a RWD in Colorado. Not any more if it is a Model S!
Talking about energy consumption, I planned the segments between superchargers using
evtripplanner. I have used evtripplanner for the last 2 years and I have found it to be quite accurate in its estimate of energy consumption. This held true for this trip as well except one segment where evtripplanner overestimated significantly. Other than that one segment, I consumed range miles that were within 10 miles of evtripplanner's estimate. Here is all the data on route, evtripplanner's estimates and actual range consumed:
- Tesla Model S85 RWD with 19" Michelin X-Ice 3 tires
- Speed: 3-5 miles above limit
- Interior temp: 72F
- Exterior temp: 20F-80F (<50F for 70% of the trip)
- Winds: <5 mph for most of the trip except in Kansas where it was 15-20 mph with 30 mph gusts at times (mostly head winds or blowing sideways)
Following maps show the route I took and the superchargers I stopped at. Below the map I have stats on energy consumption. Each entry shows the next destination, road distance, number of range miles estimated to be consumed by evtripplanner followed by actual number of range miles consumed.
- Limon - 137 miles, 178 miles estimated, 186 miles actual
- Goodland - 108 miles, 130 miles estimated, 116 miles actual
- Hays - 142 miles, 188 miles estimated, 189 miles actual
- Salina - 94 miles, 128 miles estimated, 131 miles actual
- Wichita - 98 miles, 135 miles estimated, 130 miles actual
- Perry - 93 miles, 127 miles estimated, 124 miles actual
- Ardmore - 155 miles, 209 miles estimated, 212 miles actual
- Denton - 69 miles, 95 miles estimated, ??? miles actual (forgot to record this one)
- Corsicana - 101 miles, 122 miles estimated, 124 miles actual
- Huntsville - 114 miles, 167 miles estimated, 142 miles actual
- North Houston - 55 miles, 72 miles estimated, 59 miles actual
I followed the same route for the return trip except I decided to stop at Denver supercharger (by the airport) for a quick top off since temperature dropped significantly and it was already snowing. Weather conditions were about the same mostly except winds were down by 3-5 mph compared to earlier. I will start the stats for return trip from Huntsville supercharger:
- Corsicana - 114 miles, 180 miles estimated, 136 miles actual
- Denton - 101 miles, 128 miles estimated, 110 miles actual
- Ardmore - 69 miles, 96 miles estimated, 86 miles actual
- Perry - 155 miles, 212 miles estimated, 194 miles actual
- Wichita - 93 miles, 131 miles estimated, 118 miles actual
- Salina - 98 miles, 136 miles estimated, 144 miles actual
- Hays - 94 miles, 139 miles estimated, 129 miles actual
- Goodland - 142 miles, 210 miles estimated, 201 miles actual
- Limon - 108 miles, 153 miles estimated, 153 miles actual
- Denver airport - 76 miles, 103 miles estimated, 95 miles actual
Some notes:
- I used a speed multiplier of 1.1, weight of 800 lbs and appropriate outside temp based upon forecast for each segment, for all evtripplanner estimates
- I drove 4-5 above limit normally except when speed limit was 75 mph when I drove 77-78 mph.
- There is a steady climb from Salina to Denver with head winds often. Salina to Denver was the segment I was most concerned about regarding energy consumption. It went smoothly after I had estimates from evtripplanner.
- Perry, OK supercharger is nowhere near as scary as has been reported on forums :) I stopped there around 9:00 pm with my wife and kids. It is very well lit and I never felt unsafe. The gas station by the supercharger looks run down from the outside but is nice inside with good restrooms.
- Energy consumption is always higher in lower elevations. This was true when I was driving a hybrid car as well, so it didn't surprise me with Model S.
