First ‘road trip’ this weekend, a day trip to chicago (about 90 miles each way). Learned some truths about the performance of the retail charging network, the uptime for Tesla stations, and what the ex30 default battery % seems to really mean…
Left Sunday AM with 2 passengers, speed limit or below the entire way with 1 brief stop along the planned route. 200 miles was indictaed when leaving, so doing the entire trip seemed doable with a top off in chicago. Arrived in downtown for about a 2 hour stop, the tesla chargers were either occurpied or out if service in the garage I parked in (about 12 stalls). I selected a ‘normal’ charger (dont know if the tesla ones were supers or not, was on kinzie st). To my suprise, the charging started, but a 18+ hour timeframe was quoted to get back to 100% – so basically a 120v connection from what appears to be a stronger ‘pipe’ for energy. I will say, this was my first public charging experience. After 2 hours, I had gotten only about 5% back, putting my return home at ‘-5%’ – so needing a better solution & requiring more time. The consumption rate seemed very pessimistic to my instinct, but I had to believe the computer. We went to the outlet mall just inside the WI border, and belly’d up to the tesla charger station, expecting to use my Volvo dealer purchased tesla adapter (over $200, and paired with the serial number). After 15 mins of trying the volvo app, adding & trying the tesla app, no luck, maybe this one was OOO too? other teslas were seemingly charging (do tesla owners typically sleep while charging? 3 of 5 had snoozing drivers in the lineup….). I then went on a 30 min hunt for charging around kenosha, finally getting a station by the Haribo factory – another trickle charger… After 30 more mins, and my passengers getting a little uneasy, before taking off with basically 1:1 mile to charge realtionship, I discovered what appears to be a default in the charging range that sets 0% at 10% actual range, meaning there is a ‘reserve tank’ of ~10% after the indicated hits 0%. That would have been good to know, but I need to understand better. I turned the climate to ‘eco’, set the cruise to 57 (70 limit), and made the may home, battery be damned! We arrived with 3% left, 9 miles, and 1.5 hours after planned, but arrived.
I have more questions about the ex30, set up a dealer visit on the range & other concerns, and still love the way it drives & performs. Other than the inconveneince, the passengers enjoyed the ride, even the back seat! I charged her back to 90% overnight, and now indicate 220mi at 90%, an all time high…
the ex30 continues to be a very good car, but the range & behaviors/configurations keep me thinking Im not asking the right questions sometimes. bigger picture, my ignorance to the strength of the charging network was disappointed hugely – I though big plug/cord = big charge. Not the case, at least in this sunday’s sample size….
Welcome any thoughts, will follow up on what my dealer says about the to do list.