We planned a day trip to the Milwaukee area to see relatives and conduct genealogy investigations. An enjoyable day of visits, with lunch and dinner at new venues. The day before departure, I raised the charge level to maximum on the Tesla Model S, which meant that the morning's distance available was 258 miles. The normal round trip distance to Milwaukee from our home is about 160 miles, and adding another 40 miscellaneous miles would satisfy the trip plan. I thought that a routine stop at the Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin Tesla SuperCharger on the return would be necessary. The Trip Mode was set on the Tesla which also reduced excessive energy consumption.
The temperature at departure was 12 degrees F. We had learned that the Tesla S mileage suffers with the drop in temperature (regenerative braking is also somewhat reduced with lower outside temps). We started out the trip early, after warming the car briefly while it was plugged in to our home charger, inside our garage, A nice, toasty start.
Tesla Model S performed flawlessly. I auto-piloted almost 80% of the distance to Milwaukee. A great chance to listen to a podcast called "The Axe Files" by David Axelrod. It was a December 26, 2016 interview with President Obabma.
We arrived with time to take some pictures of a home that was occupied by a maternal grandmother in 1940. The house and neighborhood still looked good. Off to our next stop - a recently opened antique shop owned by a cousin. I did notice that the cold temperatures were dropping the miles available at a faster rate than expected, but thought all would be fine.
After a few curious purchases, wonderful conversations and Tonkatsu Ramen at a local restaurant, we headed out to visit more relatives living in Waukesha, about 20 miles distant. After this stop, we back-tracked to a cemetery for a photo stop, and then continued on to our dinner meeting. I noted that the miles available were dropping rapidly. Temperature was 10 degrees F. We got to the restaurant with the miles available showing 57 miles. I knew we were no more than 35 miles to the SuperCharger, so thought we'd be good. Dinner thoughts, though tended to focus on that drive to the SuperCharger - this is a classic case of energy anxiety...
After a great dinner with relatives, we set off on the return trip home. After setting the navigation to home, the Tesla (obviously) said we needed to stop at the Pleasant Prairie SuperCharger. It also said that I needed to keep the speed to 60 mph to make it there. This seemed fine, although this is not my normal highway speed. Off we went.
About 5 minutes into the drive, the navigation system updated its recommendations on the speed to 55 mph. I knew this was going to be interesting. With agreement from my travel partner, we started to shut down unnecessary consumption of energy. This meant shutting off the heat and lowering the display brightness to minimum. Temperature outside was dropping, now 9 degrees F.
It's annoying driving behind someone going slower than the speed limit. I apologize to all who had chance to tail me going 55 in a 70 mph multi-lane freeway, but they were all able to pass me easily. There are a lot of semi-tractor trailers driving on this highway in the evening, all zipping past me at 70 mph or faster.
Miles to "empty" kept on dropping. The display dropped to a yellow bar showing miles. No distance marker to Pleasant Prairie, though, so a comparison of capability was difficult. The miles available bar turned red. Two miles from the exit, the navigation system voice announced the exit that I needed to take. Miles to empty was 10. It was cold in the car, but not unbearable.
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| Display upon reaching SuperCharger |
I estimated that our true "miles available" was about 64% of the displayed miles at our low outside temperatures. Obviously, we were using heaters and car seat warmers as well, which affected miles available. But future planning for winter long trips will be much more cautious.
It would be nice to have a Tesla SuperCharger in Milwaukee, too...
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| Pleasant Prairie, WI SuperCharger |
