
Tesla owner drives 452 miles on single charge - SQL2219
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/25/programmer-drives-his-tesla-model-s-a-record-breaking-452-8-miles-on-a-single-charge/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity_1730_-7755888158177957146
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hkmurakami
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

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

~~~
001sky
so, basically slower than a pro on a bicycle

nice one

~~~
jrockway
Also a lot less energy efficient. They claim 171Wh per mile, that's 147 kcal
per mile. On a recent 17 mile ride, I applied 591kJ (141 kcal) of work to the
bicycle. So a bicycle ridden by a non-pro is almost 18x more energy-efficient
than the car. (Of course more than 141 kcal of energy is required to get your
muscles to do 141 kcal of work on the pedals. But not 2500 kcal worth, like
the car would require. I wish a 1 hour bike ride burned 2500 calories.)

~~~
asdfkajh2
Of course a bicycle that is what... 1.2x human weight... is more efficient
than a car that is probably ~10x human weight, when you measure it by vehicle
rather than kcal per mass.

~~~
kennywinker
The weight of a car is not optional. If I want to move some mass between point
a and point b, and I do it by car, I have no choice but to haul along that
extra ~10x my weight. Measuring by kcal/mass ignores this practical reality in
favour of a more precise definition of "efficiency".

Also if you're riding a bike that weights 1.2x your body weight, you have the
wrong bike! Good god!

~~~
dzhiurgis
Neither 4 passengers, pile of groceries, comfortable dry seats, infotainment &
air conditioning are optional on bicycle.

In other words apple to oranges comparison.

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feld
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 to look up his car and confirm. :-)

~~~
ferrari8608
Truck drivers really don't like people driving close enough behind them to be
in their slipstream. If you're that close, they can't see you.

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babo
They do this themselves, at least in Europe. It's scary like hell that they
follow each other, neck by neck, hour by hour with the shortest possible
tracking distance.

~~~
eridius
But can't they also talk to each other over CB radio? Seems like that would
make it safer. And of course it's a lot easier to see a truck right behind you
than it is to see a car.

~~~
LoSboccacc
Still they block the exits for cars that need to merge. Happened once to me, a
train of ten trucks slipstreaming right when I needed to take an exit.
Couldn't slow down and merge at the end and the head was already after the
exit.

Had to match carefully speed and merge the car in a space I wouldn't have used
for parking. And the asshole even blew the horn at me!

Seriously, fuck those idiots doing it. Driven for years on highways and all
scary things ever only came from truck drivers needing to save those 10
bucks/five minutes.

~~~
pc86
> Had to match carefully speed and merge the car in a space I wouldn't have
> used for parking.

> needing to save those ...five minutes

So you wouldn't have parked there but you have no problem squeezing between
two moving objects 10x your weight/inertia at highway speed? All so you can
take an exit (that you were inexplicably in the left lane when you realized
you needed it) rather than just take an extra five minutes and turn around at
the next exit?

Hard to imagine why he blew his horn.

~~~
kwhitefoot
The lorry driver was in the wrong he was driving with an illegally small space
between him and the vehicle in front.

~~~
pc86
I'm not disputing that. I'm disputing the intelligence of looking at a spot
barely big enough for your car that is moving at highway speeds and
sandwiching yourself between two vehicles, either one of which could kill you
with inertia alone, and then wondering why you might get honked at for it.

~~~
LoSboccacc
not every state has 5 minutes between exit luxury highways

~~~
pc86
So? Distance between exits doesn't change the fact that what he did was
reckless and dangerous.

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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.

~~~
mdasen
Wouldn't switching to neutral increase fuel usage?

When you're in gear, the engine is kept moving by the momentum of the car.
When you switch into neutral and break the connection between the movement of
the car and the engine, the vehicle has to use fuel to keep the engine moving
and not stall. Yes, resistance will cause you to slow down quicker in gear
than in neutral, but during that time you should be using basically no fuel
compared to using the same amount of fuel that your vehicle would be using
while idling if you're in neutral.

Basically, while you're coasting in gear, you're using the car's momentum to
run the engine rather than fuel. When you switch to neutral, the car's
momentum keeps the car moving forward, but the engine needs fuel to keep
going.

EDIT: Popular Mechanics has an article on it
[http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/hybrid-
electric/a5977/c...](http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/hybrid-
electric/a5977/coasting-in-neutral-fuel-economy/)

~~~
waitwhatt
No. The Model S will break the car for regen purposes if you are in gear. So
you will lose speed but get a tiny bit more energy added to the battery. It's
better to just go into neutral because that whole process is inefficient.

~~~
kalleboo
I haven't had the privilege of driving a Tesla, but I have driven a Volvo
prototype electric car[0] and it had two modes. One "emulate a petrol car"
mode where letting off the accelerator would simulate engine braking (via
regen). Then it had a "highway mode" where letting off the accelerator would
just coast as if it was in neutral. The highway mode meant you could avoid
wasting your momentum on a highway due to slight foot movements in speed
regulation.

Do Tesla cars have something like this?

[0]
[http://www.plugincars.com/volvo-c30-electric](http://www.plugincars.com/volvo-c30-electric)

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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.

~~~
07d046
Those solar cars aren't slow.

> By 2005, several teams were handicapped by the South Australian speed limit
> of 110 km/h (68 mph), as well as the difficulties of support crews keeping
> up with 130 km/h (81 mph) race vehicles. It was generally agreed that the
> challenge of building a solar vehicle capable of crossing Australia at
> vehicular speeds had been met and exceeded.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Solar_Challenge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Solar_Challenge)

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toephu2
When I first saw the headline on techcrunch I thought they modified the car
somehow to get that range. That would have been a lot more interesting than
just some guy cruising at 25mph.

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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...](https://scontent-atl1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-
xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10501796_10152918555362379_9203658750328292002_n.jpg?oh=c8e165105e07a45733cd75983237b66c&oe=56730953)
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.

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michaelbuddy
what the heck, 19 hours for what a 7-8 hour trip max? If it's not real world,
then why give it a headline? A scooter can get 95 miles to a gallon of gas. To
me that's amazing.

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ianstallings
Because those poor saps that wrote the article pay their bills by the click.

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jfoutz
The hypermiler thing always seemed kind of dangerous.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy-
efficient_driving](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy-efficient_driving)

59 mpg in a plain old accord is impressive though.

~~~
kennywinker
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.

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donkeyd
> his two-year-old Tesla

Video is of a P85D, which was announced less than a year ago.

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userbinator
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.)

~~~
nkurz
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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Qualman
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?

~~~
tekni5
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.

