What Running Out of Power in a Tesla on the Side of a Highway Taught Me

[brooklynite]

Atlantic Cities:

It's 209 miles from the parking lot of a Chili's in Barstow, California, where we are, to the parking lot of a Carl's Jr. in Kingman, Arizona, where we need to go. I'm in a rented Tesla Model S, a sleek, battery-powered electric vehicle, with a travel companion. We're just about fully charged, and the car estimates it can travel 247 miles before we need more juice. That's a buffer of 38 miles, which should be more than enough to reach Kingman. We'll soon realize it isn't.

The seemingly random parking lots I'm traveling between are sites of a new nationwide network of fast battery charging stations for drivers of Tesla's Model S. The company calls them "Superchargers" — direct-current battery charging stations of a proprietary design that can bring a nearly dead Model S battery to full charge in a little over an hour. That's much faster than the roughly 8 hours it would take by plugging into a wall outlet in your garage. Tesla's official reason for building this private network of battery charging infrastructure (currently up to 80 stations and counting) is to encourage Model S drivers to take road trips — a concept otherwise unthinkable in a car powered only by a battery. I'm testing it out on a weekend road trip from Los Angeles into Arizona and back.

For drivers of electric vehicles, calculations of distance and range are of near-constant concern. How far you want to go must always be less far than your battery can take you. The Nissan Leaf, for example, can get up to 84 miles of range on a full charge — enough for most people's daily commutes and errands, but hardly a long-distance option. The estimated 265-mile range of a fully equipped Tesla Model S has allayed some concerns about having enough juice to get where you want to go. Coupled with the Supercharger network, it's made the idea of taking a battery-powered road trip feasible — even cross-country. Feasible, I quickly find, is not the same thing as simple.

An hour outside of Barstow I notice on the digital dashboard display that the 38-mile buffer between range and distance has fallen hard to about 20. We panic. We've got more than a hundred miles to go, a lot of it uphill, and if the buffer keeps decaying at this rate, we'll never make it. I'd been driving as I normally would, not realizing that higher speeds and the rising elevation would drain the battery faster — that "estimated" range really is just an estimate. In any effort to save battery life, we turn off the stereo and dim the huge touch screen control panel. I figure out the cruise control and drop it down to 63. We coast and hope.

Unless Tesla is going to make the advance investment of charging stations that are a prolific as gas stations, I don't see how this will catch on.

[JI7]

1. i would still get one if i could afford it and if the charging station issue is not fixed

and i planned on a long road trip i would just get a rental.

[MineralMan]

6. I'm with you. I used to drive older used cars that I didn't

like to take on long trips. They were great for driving around my home area, but taking them on a long road trip didn't seem like a good idea. For the cost of one payment on a new car, I'd just rent a nice new car for those long trips. I had one regular trip that was 11 hours each way from my home. I always made that trip in one day, each way, with two days at the destination. Rental cars were ideal for that.

[JI7]

11. that's what i was thinking , i wouldn't even take my regular car

on a long road trip. if i had a new one i would but you only have a new one for a short period of time until it becomes old.

i can maybe understand this being an issue for people who regularly drive long distances and where there is lack of charging stations.

but most people do not drive like that regularly. and most already rent if they will go on long trips.

and with time the charging stations will be more available and there will probably be better batteries.

[MineralMan]

14. For me, it was a no-brainer, since it was a business trip and I

could write off the entire cost as a business expense with no calculations. Besides, I could rent a nice big, comfy car for the 600 mile trip each way. It made things much easier for me.

[alphafemale]

30. I do this. I live a mile and a half from work and a grocery store.

My primary mode of transportation for three years has been a bike.

I order lots of things online.

I'm with you.

I do have friends that will pick me up for some other shopping. But that it is not needed very often. Weather was too bad for biking to work exactly three times last year.

Occasional times a long trip is needed, once or twice a year, it is much better to rent a car. And a credit card I have covers the insurance. I might get an old Toyota or a scooter soon though.

[KansDem]

26. "I'd just rent a nice new car for those long trips."

I do that too!

Several times over the last few years I've driven from KC to southern California to visit friends and attend conferences. I've found I can rent a good economy car with unlimited mileage. Usually for a week or so.

Then I put a bag of ice in an ice chest, drop in a 12-pack of seltzer, and two meals, usually sandwiches or wraps.

Then I head out on I-70 across Kansas, Colorado, and into Utah where I pick up I-15 for my trip southwest through Nevada and into southern California.

I eat and sleep at rest stops and can usually make the trip in 24 hours.

You're right: for the cost of one payment on a used car I can make the trip to and back. I only pay for gas, ice, seltzer, and two dinners. No restaurants or motels.

[mac56]

33. Have you had any problems taking a rental car across state lines?

In my experience, rental companies get kind of fussy about that.

[KansDem]

35. No

I've taken rental cars through every western state with no problem. I'm usually asked where I'm going and I tell them but I haven't received any kind of flack about my travel plans.

On one such trip I traveled about 6,000 miles, from KC to northern Idaho, then on to northern California, then back home to KC.

No problem.

[Make7]

2. "...not realizing that higher speeds and the rising elevation would drain the battery faster..."

[postulater]

5. Whaaaat? You expected him to remember his high school physics?

[The Straight Story]

10. I wonder if he ever factored that in using a gas car and mpg?

I have traveled the road he took quite a few times on my back and forth trips from Ohio to CA on the 40.

Between Barstow and Needles you have a lot of long upward hills. It's not like the 40 in New Mexico and Texas. I tracked my miles/fill ups/etc on a little notepad I kept with me most trips. Same problem he had - less to the tank in some areas.

Simple. Basic. Logic.

[Marr]

19. Yeah-- that killed me, too. And then he says he had no idea that the computer's estimated mileage

was only an estimate. Apparently he thought the car knew where he was going, knew the way, and was making an educated guess.

This is the kind of moron who gets lost in the woods because he assumes his phone will direct him out.

[gcomeau]

3. It does not need to be nearly...

..."as prolific" as gas stations for any kind of early adoption to catch on.

But it does have to fill in a little more than it currently is.

[upaloopa]

4. I'd take the bus or train.

What does a Telsa cost?
It is pretty expensive if you have to rent a car to go anywhere for a day over 80 miles

[brooklynite]

9. Reading on, about $1000,000

....but part of the hook is that the charging stations and energy are free.

[Ash_F]

7. Most driving is not roads trips though

And while enabling road trips is certainly a worthy cause for some drivers, observers of the electric vehicle market see the Supercharger network mostly as a marketing tool. "They are selling the idea that you can travel across country in your electric car, but the number of people who do it is probably not all that high," says Nicholas, the UC Davis researcher. "It kind of takes away that mental barrier of 'This electric car can't do what my gas car can do,' and sometimes people need that kind of assurance to buy the car in the first place."

Good read though.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. So it is basically a commuter car.

A very expensive commuter car at that.

Not good for long trips, not affordable to short hops like most city driving.

[Ash_F]

24. New technology is often more expensive at first

It will become cheaper than its predecessor sooner than later, just like we are seeing with solar power. As with solar, the main barrier with batteries is material technology.

Electric cars lose less kinetic energy to heat, noise and friction. They have fewer moving parts and thus require less machining to build and less maintenance. They have maximum torque at all speeds.

The the physics of the design is just more efficient and much less is wasted. Not only will they be more energy efficient and cheaper than internal combustion engines, but more powerful and faster.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

40. I don't know if they still do it but Nissan was offering a free flatbed tow if your Leaf ....

.... ran out of juice.

Same concept. Overcoming objections.

[gratuitous]

8. Oh, well

If it's not a perfect and total replacement, there's probably no reason we should proceed any further with electric cars. Total waste of time and effort, if it can't take over for gas-powered vehicles tomorrow. Somebody write it down for future generations, "We tried." And nobody better write "but not very hard," or we'll get mad and stuff.

[brooklynite]

13. My perspective is not that of building a new energy paradigm...it's driving a car

If I can't reliably get from A to B, and I need to on a periodic basis, I won't buy the car.

[lumberjack_jeff]

39. +1 n/t

[KamaAina]

12. We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert

when the batteries began to discharge.

[11 Bravo]

16. Relax, pretty soon the drugs will begin to take hold and you won't care!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

38. Watch out for the attacking bats!! AGGGHH!!!!!

[Warren DeMontague]

43. JESUS GOD MAN! AND I THOUGHT THE COCAINE WAS EXPENSIVE

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. Duzy!!!!!!!

[riqster]

31. Hunter S. Tesla!

[Orrex]

15. I keep a spare can of electrons in the trunk for just this sort of emergency

[riqster]

32. Who can resist such a strategy?

I haven't the capacity to think of it.

[Marr]

17. "...not realizing that higher speeds and the rising elevation would drain the battery faster."

&quot I didn't realize)... that "estimated" range really is just an estimate".

That's just flat-out stupid. I know that stretch well, and it's taxing. This person was driving fast, uphill, and is somehow surprised that doing that takes more energy.

No technology can ever protect a person that stupid from themselves.

[JVS]

20. We're used to getting conservative estimates about such things. Cars say empty even when you have..

2.5 gallons in reserve. Speedometers are all calibrated to read higher than drivers are actually going. It wouldn't be hard for Tesla to rig their estimates on the side of caution.

[JVS]

18. Running out of juice in bat country!

[energumen]

23. I probably wont be buying one anytime soon

Comparing the Tesla against my gas guzzler, if i underestimate my fuel economy and calculate use a fuel cost of $5 dollars a gallon and don't consider the cost of electricity to charge the Tesla, I will start saving money after 150,000 miles. For my wife's car it would be more like 500000 miles, $4/gallon for gas and only 30mpg.

Admittedly rough calculations but electric cars will have to get a lot better and less expensive or gas will have to get to ridiculous prices before they are remotely practical.

Currently, I would be interested in Elio Motors, I think they are roughly 8000 and get 80ish mpg. That would put a break even point for a Tesla way way out there.

[Nye Bevan]

25. The concept is great, but until charging stations are as easy to find as gas stations,

and until it's as quick to recharge the battery as it is to fill a tank with gas, I'm not buying.

[hunter]

27. Hah! I've made that trip in a $400 car...

... and a hitchhiker paid for my gasoline.

(Of course gasoline was about sixty cents a gallon then.)

These days I've dropped out of our car crazy culture. Yeah, I still have to drive sometimes, but I'm never going to buy a new car. If someone gave me a new car I'd quickly give it away. Even a Tesla. Maybe especially a Tesla. I hate cars, they hate me. I don't wash them, I don't fix any cosmetic damage, and I truly hope I never have to own a car with a digital computer in it.

My $800 mid-'eighties POS car still runs well, it still passes the California smog test, and when it dies I'll get another much like it.

In my utopia nobody drives from Barstow to Kingman because there's frequent comfortable electric train service, and safe, clean, inexpensive hostels in both places. Route 66 is still there for the antique automobile and motorcycle enthusiasts, but highway 40 has been removed and the land restored to its natural state. Looking around there are no chain restaurants like Chilis, Carl's Jr., or McDonalds but there are awesome one-of-a-kind taverns, some with very good reputations, and a few with my favorite sorts of bad reputation.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66

[KansDem]

28. "Kingman?" "Barstow?" What the Hell!

[randys1]

29. Would take some real getting used to...not relying on oil based products

Which are everywhere, assuming you can afford them, but none of us can, really, given their contribution to climate change.

I suppose someone is going to invent a battery that will go further and longer, but as I understand it the future of Tesla is based on this battery the OP is talking about, so without an almost financially impossible investment in charging stations all over the country, dont see how Tesla can do it by themselves.

Now, if we had a government that wanted to invest in green energy AND in the American People, we would raise taxes on the filthy rich and corps and spend hundreds of billions in INFRASTRUCTURE which is mostly jobs and build the damn charging stations.

But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, we cant do that, makes too much god damn sense.

[frylock]

34. hunh. increased speeds drain the power faster..

nobody told me you needed to be an astronaut to operate this thing. and really?! 80% into the road trip, and Einstein is just now figuring out how to use the cruise control?

[cherokeeprogressive]

36. Wipers. Heater. Lights. (Radio? )

I wonder how far they go on a cold rainy night.

[geomon666]

37. This is why we need Mr. Fusion

[LeftyMom]

41. There aren't a ton of charging stations in the middle of effing nowhere?

That's breaking news.

I've spent many a trip through the rural west wondering if I'd make it to the next gas station, that doesn't mean ICEs are a failed technology. It just means that vast stretches of the American West are practically unpopulated.

That guy is an idiot.

[krispos42]

42. The obvious and simple solution...

...is to create a generator on a trailer that electric cars could tow behind themselves for long trips.

A very small automotive motor, with the proper emissions-control equipment of course, in the 60-horsepower range driving a generator that directly powers the car.

Simply go to a rental company, put the trailer on a hitch and plug in a cable. Now the generator is supplying energy to the motors, the infotainment and HVAC systems, the lights and power accessories, and the vehicle's computer system, plus any extra juice could be used to charge and maintain the car's internal battery.


Of course, this would probably limit the speed of the car somewhat while towing, but that shouldn't be too big of an issue.