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from the 490-must-be-enough-for-anyone dept.
With the latest long range Tesla rated at 402 miles, newcomer Lucid Air demos one of their cars going 450 miles in real-world driving. An additional 40 miles were driven after the Motor Trend witness called it a day.
2021 Lucid Air First Ride Review: 450 Miles on One Charge!:
Lucid engineering is located close to Tesla in the Bay Area and the article claims they employ 1200 people at this point--not a small effort. A clipping from the end of the story:
Back on the road and heading north, we pass a milestone: 402 miles, or the highest rated range for which a Tesla model is certified. At this point, the Air's battery reads 16 percent remaining, and the range prediction has now dipped to 478 miles. An hour and a half later, we roll into Lucid HQ for a coffee, a stretch, and a shake of our foggy heads, then crawl back in and head out again. We cut west across the Dumbarton Bridge to lap up and down the 101 as it arteries along San Francisco Bay's east side, increasingly reddening on the traffic map. The day is starting its reverse transition to twilight, and we're experiencing range anxiety of the opposite type: Instead of worrying about running out of juice, we're getting anxious that we'll never stop driving.
At 6:20 p.m., 450 miles and almost 12 hours after we started, we pull back up to HQ. A stubborn 7 percent of energy is displayed on the screen, predicting a range of 484 miles—that's now probably very close to reality for this trip—and we sit silently for several seconds before I concede the battery has beaten us. That's enough; we're calling it a day. I slowly climb out of the car and straighten up. Later that evening, a fresh Lucid driver took out the car again, finally ending the experiment at 490 miles. Not the FEV laboratory's 517, but 95 percent of it, every mile demonstrated in the hills and heat of the real world.
Also noted in the article is that Lucid have developed their system in-house, not using available parts from suppliers. They make their own 900V battery pack which allows motors to be smaller, and charging (with the right charger) to be faster.
Getting closer, but still not enough range for this AC--I'm headed out for a 730 mile road trip tomorrow, it took about 12 hours when I did the same trip last month (didn't want to fly for viral reasons). I stopped to pee a few times and twice for gas, never pushed the ~400 mile range of the gas tank of my Impreza. Yes, it's a bit noisy, that's what ear plugs are for!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2020, @01:59AM (7 children)
Agreed, thanks for the info dump.
> dozens of 500-600 mile trips.
With an aging relative and adult children rotating in-and-out of the assistant role, I now have a ~740 mile trip (each way) that I'm going to be doing round-trip. I'll probably drive one day, stay for 2 days for a "handoff" and then return on the 4th day. This is going to be about once a month. We used to fly, no one wants to expose themselves to airports and aircraft cabins these days.
I just completed my second solo one-way today, 12 hours total including one gas stop and several ~5 minute pee/stretch breaks for me. No meal stops, I'm happy snacking in the car.
This is an average of ~62 mph on USA freeways that were posted between 55 and 70 mph (north central region). Guessing there was about a half hour of stop-and-go to get through metro areas and some construction slow-downs. When the left lane was moving, I was above 80 mph to bring the average up, with occasional "platoons" moving at 95 mph for short periods.
How long would this take in your Tesla? Rough guesses based on your experience are welcome.
Addtional Q's:
How does battery life go with higher speeds (higher power)--any rough data on this?
Have you done any of these longer trips in the winter, does below-freezing temp change anything?
(Score: 2) by PhilSalkie on Thursday August 13 2020, @02:07PM (6 children)
Rough data? This is the age of data, my friend - I have hard numbers. :-)
I picked a similar drive, Philly to Detroit, late spring weather:
Overnight charge at home to 100%
657 miles driven
10 Hours 48 Minutes driving time, highway segment average speeds 59, 68, 66, 67, 65 MPH, last hour was tooling around local destination roads doing errands.
2 Hours 48 Minutes Supercharge time in 3 stops
Charge stop 1 - 21 minutes from 30% to 69% (That's a "Splash and Dash" - plug in, head into the convenience store, bathroom/coffee/snacks, back on the road.)
Charge stop 2 - 56 minutes from 12% to 88% (Sit-down dinner)
(Stayed in a hotel, but no charging there - traveling with pets, so had to pick a spot that was accommodating to them rather than to the car.)
Charge stop 3 - 90 minutes from 16% to 96% (Sit-down breakfast)
Ended the day with 53% charge.
So, I'm gonna say your 740 mile trip would be another 90 minutes' driving for a total of 12 Hours 20 Minutes, which would bring you to your destination pretty low on charge, so add another 15 minutes charge someplace to allow for tooling around at the destination, for a total of 3 hours, 3 minutes charging.
So, twelve and a half hours' driving (with an hour of that being off-highway), 3 hours stopping for charging and food - looks like the drive time's about the same but you're adding 3 hours to the trip for charging, while saving some money on fuel and vehicle maintenance expenses (no oil changes, etc.).
Personally, I wouldn't want do to the drive without Autopilot - for me, twelve straight hours of active driving is just exhausting, whereas with Autopilot and charge breaks I could jump in the car at 5AM, and be in Detroit for dinner still able to keep my eyes open. It's still a driving experience, no doubt, but it's more of a supervisory role - you're looking around more, seeing the positions of the other vehicles around you, looking for things that may be outside the car's visual range or odd situations like weird merges or construction entrances. (Personally, I've never been one who enjoys driving a car - it's always felt like dog-work. Autopilot takes most of the dog-work out of driving, and the integrated navigation system takes away a lot of the frustration of mislabeled roads and phone navigation being weird when someone calls and does anyone remember maps?)
On balance, I'd say for a road trip the gasoline car will inevitably be faster, but the Tesla experience is more like having flown than having driven (but without having to deal with airports.)
Battery range definitely drops with higher road speeds and with cold weather. Here's a chart of my actual driving efficiency plotted against in the Model S P100D:
Here's the P85D (A more efficient vehicle overall, but with lower range and less capable Autopilot hardware)
Charts courtesy of the excellent TeslaFi vehicle tracking website.
So, yes, colder temperatures can really whack your range - gonna have more supercharger stops on a long drive, probably want to add an hour to your long drive in the winter.
Some of that loss is from the inefficiencies of cabin heating, it's only 100% efficient. ("What?", I hear you cry! "How can you do better than 100%?" The Model Y uses the A/C system as a heat pump to move heat from outside to inside, giving you 3 units of heat energy inside the cabin for every 1 unit of electricity spent moving it, so much less loss of winter driving range.)
Some of that loss is from the battery not moving electrons around as well when it's cold, and some is from the battery management system heating the cells to combat that problem. You can fight that somewhat if you have the car pre-warm itself using power from the wall charger before your trips in cold weather (if you have a regular work schedule, you can tell the car to just be ready when your drive starts, and it'll figure it out for you.) In the vehicles without heat pumps, you can use the seat warmers and keep the cabin at a lower temperature to save some range.
When the navigation system in the car is plotting your trip, it does pay attention to elevation change, roadway speeds, and temperature to pick charging stops and the times required. I've found that to be pretty accurate except that I usually spend a little more time in a given "Splash and Dash" stop than it estimates - it doesn't add any time for driving around in parking lots, backing into the spot, and suchlike.
If you're interested in seeing what a trip might be like in an EV, you can set up a free account on PlugShare https://www.plugshare.com [plugshare.com] and explore their trip planner. With that system, you can plot a trip, see what charging is available sorted by type of connector plug (Tesla Supercharger, Tesla Wall Charger, CCS, ChAdeMO, NEMA, etc.) and/or by charging network (Blink, Electrify America, etc.) That planner's not as smart (can show you elevation along the route, but doesn't factor it into your range) but it's more flexible, allowing you to plot trips with multiple waypoints and charge stops, see your range circle from any waypoint or charge stop on the trip, and save trips for future review.
For a specific Tesla-only trip planner (that lets you select which type of Tesla vehicle to plan with) try this: https://www.tesla.com/trips [tesla.com] This planner is more like what's in the car, but lets you add stops, and has a "show nearby destination charging" button so you can see what's available for overnight charging at your destination.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday August 13 2020, @10:24PM (3 children)
>never been one who enjoys driving a car - it's always felt like dog-work
You people should start using the correct terminology:
countach is UFO
pre-oil crisis alfa and ferrari are THE CAR
RWD DOHC and carbs, no electronics is CAR
FWD is car with body mounted the wrong direction
AWD is drunk-yard car
SUV is pregnant car
smart car imply dumb owner
electronic injection, distribution and ABS are hybrids
ESP and traction control and other stuff are videogames
electric is appliance
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by PhilSalkie on Friday August 14 2020, @01:41AM (2 children)
Hmm, so I've got an "appliance" that does 0-60 in 2.4 seconds and a 10.5 second 1/4 mile. I think I can live with that... :-)
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday August 15 2020, @10:57AM (1 child)
That's actually good. Less people appreciating cars means more cars left for the rest of us. Vroom vroom.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by PhilSalkie on Saturday August 15 2020, @11:08PM
Enjoy!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2020, @04:36AM (1 child)
Thanks! I'm the AC with the 740 mile trip. Your data was just what I was looking for, and that's less charging time than I expected.
One personal difference is that I like driving (although freeway driving can get a little boring). Learned how to drive a stick shift at age 5 (not on public roads), so I guess it's "in my blood".
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday August 15 2020, @11:07AM
LOL reminds me a car mechanic that built a nifty go kart for his son, who was 7 or 8. It had like 0.5 hp/kg, in the 70s; if he did it now he'd lose custody.
Account abandoned.