# First Trip



## SAronian (Apr 4, 2019)

First trip in the new 2019 Model 3 LR RWD

Lots of TACC use, the best I have experienced, compared to 2012 Toyota Prius Advanced and 2014 BMW i3.

Autosteering was better than expected. It seems to locate and track position via the left side lane markers which was problematic on the many passing lanes that appear and disappear in the area. Always wanting to track to the left lane left me wanting a preference for lane choice. I suppose FSD option would have added some enhancement. Something to look forward to

San Francisco to Portland via US Interstate 5

Superchargers
Mount Shasta, CA - Energy 40 kWh @ $0.28/kWh
Grants Pass, OR - Energy 25 kWh @ $0.27/kWh
Springfield, OR - Energy 43 kWh @ $0.27/kWh
Tigard, OR - Energy 61 kWh @ $0.31/kWh

Portland to San Francisco via US Route 101

Superchargers
Lincoln City, OR - Energy 20 kWh @ $0.26/kWh
Bandon, OR - Energy 25 kWh @ $0.26/kWh
Crescent City, CA - Energy 52 kWh @ $0.28/kWh
Eureka, CA - Energy 17 kWh @ $0.28/kWh
Ukiah, CA - Energy 40 kWh @ $0.28/kWh

Started at 100% SoC
Finished at 33% SoC
1474 Total Miles


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## shareef777 (Mar 10, 2019)

Nice. Do you have times of how long you spent at each SC? Planning on a road trip with my wife and 3 kids. Curious if they’d get bored waiting.


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## Ed Woodrick (May 26, 2018)

Congrats!

It does look like on the way back you could have skipped a few Superchargers.
By dropping further down, you increase your charging rate, and less time at the Supercharger. You commonly want to go between about 10% to 75% and never 100% unless an extreme gap between Superchargers.


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## SAronian (Apr 4, 2019)

All supercharger visits were mostly vacant except in Tigard, so charging was at full speed, 500 miles per hour. Time spent was usually 20-30 minutes. As Ed Woodrick noted we could definitely have skipped some of the charges, but we were also exploring all the different areas.

We were both impressed with how consistently fast the charging was.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

SAronian said:


> All supercharger visits were mostly vacant except in Tigard, so charging was at full speed, 500 miles per hour. Time spent was usually 20-30 minutes. As Ed Woodrick noted we could definitely have skipped some of the charges, but we were also exploring all the different areas.
> 
> We were both impressed with how consistently fast the charging was.


and on your route, once out of the bay area, there are not exactly alternate Superchargers if you choose to skip one, you may not reach the next one. 
Tigard is always full (have not actually charged there), but at least it is the Urban SC, so you don't have to worry about sharing with an adjacent car as each have a dedicated charger.


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## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

If I understand your numbers, your total "fuel" cost was $90.29 ( and you didn't charge back to 100% at end of trip so there is a wee bit more to add to the cost side ) over 1474 miles = 0.0612 $/mile.

Is that correct?


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

SAronian said:


> All supercharger visits were mostly vacant except in Tigard, so charging was at full speed, 500 miles per hour. .


Doesn't matter if you're the only car at the place, your charging speed is based on your state of charge. Unless it's so busy that you're sharing a stall pair, that will be your limiting factor.

Seems like a fun trip!


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## Nom (Oct 30, 2018)

Hope you don't mind @SAronian -- your thread title works well with a post I was going to make so I'll jump onto yours. The family and I just did a trip the looked like:

Boston to Vienna, VA
Vienna, VA to Williamsburg, VA
Williamsburg to Vienna
Vienna to Troy NY via Allentown
Troy NY back to Boston

Still in my 6 month window so free supercharging along the way. Impressions:

Love my car (LR AWD).

The Good:
>> Seats are very comfortable. All around. Kids and wife were happy as well.
>> Love having the power to zip around folks when needed - including on steep up hills.
>> Plenty of supercharger options in this next of the woods. Preferred those right in rest stops (like on I-95 in DE and MD). (One SC station in southern NY had the super chargers aligned along side the parking spots so that you had to pull in forward into the spot to have the charger near your back left charge port. Hadn't seen that before as the setup for all chargers at a station.)
>> Supercharging speed great at lower state of charge for the battery. Got used to aiming for an 8%-20% SOC by time needed to charge.
>> Plenty of room in trunk. Kinda of forgot about using the frunk until more than half way through the trip. Nice option once remembered it.
>> Radio is awesome
>> First time using the air-conditioning. Seems to use less power than heating. True?
>> Efficiency was quite good when not having to use heat. Didn't keep track of the details.
>> Used a parking garage in DC that had a free charging hook up ... always nice to find. Came back to find an early Roadster parked next to me.
>> Enjoyed having auto-pilot and TACC during heavier traffic conditions.
>> Let a friend with an early model S give it a try. He was very impressed. Wondered why anyone would buy an S anymore. 
>> On friends regular outlet, app said I was getting 5 mi/hr charge. Thought it would be 4.

The not as good:
>> Wish Waze worked on the main screen. Had to keep it on my phone as well to help alert on police locations.
>> Most supercharger locations visited didn't have great food options nearby. But there were options. 
>> My screen rebooted a few times. Two times mid driving. A little disconcerting in the moment. Car still drives fine. But couldn't tell if blinker was working (does it work when screen is blacked out?)
>> While charging speed was good at low SOC, sometimes I wanted to charge a bit higher due to circumstances. A couple times felt like the time was taking a bit long. 
>> Windshield wipers on auto --- at one moment -- fine, at another, just not getting it right. They must be getting tons of data from people that have it on auto and then switch it off auto. Bingo, excellent feedback that it doesn't have it right. Great machine learning opportunity. 
>> TACC - often would weirdly slow down car on a lane change when there was no reason. Felt a bit like a yo-yo. Go, slow, go. Family was annoyed by the pull and push feeling. Also, if I want best efficiency, TACC is not way to go. Not smart enough to smooth things out and avoid accelerating (+ or -) when it could. Me looking ahead could better anticipate so as to permit a smoother ride.

Regarding super charging -- generally would start out at 62KW or so, then, after bit, slowly ramp .. and then more quickly ramp up to 110-120KW. This is even after driving for a while. I figure it was getting the battery ready to take the larger charger. Is this going to be remedied by the preconditioning I'm hearing about? So when pull in get the faster charger more quickly?

Overall - I returned loving my car and the experience even more. A few things to improve ... the cool thing is that with software updates, they will likely improve!!


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## SAronian (Apr 4, 2019)

Klaus-rf said:


> If I understand your numbers, your total "fuel" cost was $90.29 ( and you didn't charge back to 100% at end of trip so there is a wee bit more to add to the cost side ) over 1474 miles = 0.0612 $/mile.
> 
> Is that correct?


Yes that is right. That's what I expected and I'm satisfied with the cost.


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## SAronian (Apr 4, 2019)

Needsdecaf said:


> Doesn't matter if you're the only car at the place, your charging speed is based on your state of charge. Unless it's so busy that you're sharing a stall pair, that will be your limiting factor.
> 
> Seems like a fun trip!


Yes that's what I was implying, no shared stalls. My local super chargers in Alameda, CA almost always requires sharing.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

SAronian said:


> Yes that's what I was implying, no shared stalls. My local super chargers in Alameda, CA almost always requires sharing.


Understood.


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