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Tesla owner drives 452 miles on single charge

techcrunch.com

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Re: Tesla owner drives 452 miles on single charge

#11

Post by reustle »

beachstartup wrote: post #5
feld wrote: post #3

I commented in another similar post but it seems to be lost... My friend did 438 miles with his P85 by drafting behind a semi the entire trip. With the extra range (efficiency!) of the P85D I'm certain he could have hit 500, easy. I don't recall how many Wh/mile he was doing but it was crazy low. I'm not sure why he hasn't been contacted about his drive, but Tesla does have the data and he's asked a couple engineers…

obvious tip: this works for gas cars too. if you're extremely low on gas and in the middle of nowhere, draft a semi ... very carefully. luckily they don't brake very fast. i did this more than a couple of times during college road trips when i was broke as a joke.

Sometimes on long motorcycle rides you can take a few minute break behind a semi. Especially on a bike with no windscreen, your arms get really tired of pulling you against 60~ mph wind for hours. Pull up close behind a semi and the wind will disappear. Keep alert, like you said though.

Re: Tesla owner drives 452 miles on single charge

#13

Post by 001sky »

dublinben wrote: post #4
hkmurakami wrote: post #2

The (imo, more interesting) stats in the video are missing from the article text body: Total Distance: 728.7km, 452.8mi Total Energy: 77.5kWh Average Energy: 106Wh/km, 171Wh/mi Driving Time: 18:40 hours Average Driving Speed: 39.0km/h, 24.2mph Total Stops: 1 hour Total Time: 19:40 hours Max Elevation: 94m, 310ft

24mph is an excruciatingly slow average speed for a 450 mile journey. No wonder they were able to be so efficient.

so, basically slower than a pro on a bicycle

nice one

Re: Tesla owner drives 452 miles on single charge

#14

Post by oomkiller »

reustle wrote: post #11
beachstartup wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

obvious tip: this works for gas cars too. if you're extremely low on gas and in the middle of nowhere, draft a semi ... very carefully. luckily they don't brake very fast. i did this more than a couple of times during college road trips when i was broke as a joke.

Sometimes on long motorcycle rides you can take a few minute break behind a semi. Especially on a bike with no windscreen, your arms get really tired of pulling you against 60~ mph wind for hours. Pull up close behind a semi and the wind will disappear. Keep alert, like you said though.

It might be better to just take a break at a rest stop. A friend of mine was on a long distance ride across the U.S. and was killed doing this.

Re: Tesla owner drives 452 miles on single charge

#15

Post by tekni5 »

Qualman wrote: post #8

Is there something special he's done to get this much milage out of the car? It's only rated for about 300mi on a full charge, so I'm curious if it's just luck, or more?

I'm guessing you didn't watch the video or read the article, they didn't do anything special, just drove super slow on a very straight road.

Re: Tesla owner drives 452 miles on single charge

#16

Post by kennywinker »

jfoutz wrote: post #10

The hypermiler thing always seemed kind of dangerous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy-efficient_driving 59 mpg in a plain old accord is impressive though.

If you're hypermiling to save money, good on ya. If you're hypermiling to save the environment, I suspect you're fooling yourself. The extra gas burned by people rage-driving around you has got to easily outweigh your gains.

Re: Tesla owner drives 452 miles on single charge

#17

Post by Animats »

Right, big deal. "Nyland and the charitable friend who drove with him had to cruise an excruciatingly slow 25 miles-per-hour at near zero elevation to pull off the feat." This is like those solar car events where people find some long, straight road and drive bicycle-like things with solar panels very slowly. With a good road and hard tires, it takes very little energy to go a long way, slowly.

Re: Tesla owner drives 452 miles on single charge

#18

Post by ctdonath »

Having persuaded my LEAF to a predicted 120 miles on a charge https://scontent-atl1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/1... I can very much appreciate the accumulation of tricks, nuances, and talent needed to actually achieve such range. Kudos to them for actually driving that 450.

I'm afraid the EV market is going to collapse shortly before it can really take hold and eventually dominate. (Georgia just ended its massive tax credit for EVs, and the dealers are bailing out of the EV market with plans to ship all the used lease-returned vehicles overseas.) Great vehicles on the cusp of seriously viable battery range.

Re: Tesla owner drives 452 miles on single charge

#19

Post by limaoscarjuliet »

I read an article on hypermilers the other day. They indeed can push the MPG in high double digits (e.g. 70MPG in accord) but... the approach is not very practical:

- Switch to neutral and roll as much as you can,

- Drive only in optimal range,

- Close the windows,

- Do not run A/C or radio,

- Do not run lights,

- etc.

Needless to say they annoy pretty much everybody on the street who is around them.

So yes, good result, but not very practical.

Re: Tesla owner drives 452 miles on single charge

#20

Post by nkurz »

userbinator wrote: post #7

AFAIK lithium-ion batteries wear out quickly with deep discharges, so I wonder how much range he'll get on his next charge (or alternatively, how much capacity he lost.)

I don't think this is the case. Lithium batteries are generally much better with deep discharge than lead acid. Trying to power a heavy load below a certain threshold voltage will quickly and permanently damage them, but generally there is a low discharge disconnect that kicks in before this point. I don't presume he'll notice any particular ill effect.
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