Route Advice: 3000 mile round trip Houston - Bethesda - Houston: Charging Experiences?

[ciaranob]

Hi all,

My CT4S won't arrive earliest EOY more likely into Jan, 2022 but of course planing all sorts of trips One albeit tentative idea is to drive to visit our daughter in Bethesda taking the 'mountainous' route through Alabama and Virginia - I am attaching a web link of the preliminary route in ABRP and also a pic of the route below.

Interested to hear from those of you that have used EA and other chargers along this route (any length section) and whether you'd characterize it as good bad or indifferent w.r.t. working stations and a viable route to take. It certainly seems good on paper but reality may be very different!

All advice welcome,
Cheers, C.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=c1cd0d43-15be-4c86-a14d-9ed5f8031dc7

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[kort]

Hi all,

My CT4S won't arrive earliest EOY more likely into Jan, 2022 but of course planing all sorts of trips One albeit tentative idea is to drive to visit our daughter in Bethesda taking the 'mountainous' route through Alabama and Virginia - I am attaching a web link of the preliminary route in ABRP and also a pic of the route below.

Interested to hear from those of you that have used EA and other chargers along this route (any length section) and whether you'd characterize it as good bad or indifferent w.r.t. working stations and a viable route to take. It certainly seems good on paper but reality may be very different!

All advice welcome,
Cheers, C.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=c1cd0d43-15be-4c86-a14d-9ed5f8031dc7

stick with the route offered, the only negative on the route will be slow trucks going up the mountains on I 81. you could consider the route through atlanta but then you'll have to deal with metro atlanta and then I95 in NoVA which can be terrible.
another thing that you need to be aware of is that those mountain upgrades will eat a lot of range and if it is below 40 degrees you will need to charge to the max at every stop in that region.

 

[ciaranob]

stick with the route offered, the only negative on the route will be slow trucks going up the mountains on I 81. you could consider the route through atlanta but then you'll have to deal with metro atlanta and then I95 in NoVA which can be terrible.
another thing that you need to be aware of is that those mountain upgrades will eat a lot of range and if it is below 40 degrees you will need to charge to the max at every stop in that region.

Thx for sharing - indeed had also been thinking re temps and might be better suited to delay this particular trip to late Spring! Re Atlanta, my thoughts exactly - want to avoid like the plague

 

[kort]

Thx for sharing - indeed had also been thinking re temps and might be better suited to delay this particular trip to late Spring! Re Atlanta, my thoughts exactly - want to avoid like the plague

there is no issues regarding the cold other than your range will take a hit. I generally would only use the car's heater to get the car warm and then rely on the seat heaters, that will lessen some of the hit. just plan on at least a 20-30% hit on range in the mountains if it is cold out.
I once travelled in a tesla west bound on I 70, 20 degrees, 100+mile slight up grade and severe headwinds coming off the rockies. it was a tight run but have your charging stops planned and you should be fine.

 

[jkjjpc]

What WH/MI setting did you use in ABRP? The default seems very high, something like 365 when I can see 270-280 in my 4S sedan on highway driving In the DC/NVA region. The default will calculate more stops than needed, but that can be good since you wont need to charge as much as predicted at each stop.

 

[ciaranob]

What WH/MI setting did you use in ABRP? The default seems very high, something like 365 when I can see 270-280 in my 4S sedan on highway driving In the DC/NVA region. The default will calculate more stops than needed, but that can be good since you wont need to charge as much as predicted at each stop.

Well noted and indeed I would normally reset this to something that is typical of most Taycan's reported here in the forum - but again, spot on, I was playing the game to see where most of the stops were on the route and as you say toying with more frequent less charging time stops vs longer charging stops. But I need to experience the car's capabilities to make any informed decisions there - again main query here is around how consistent the chargers are on this route and in particular as to what areas to avoid (of course this can also change dramatically in 4 months!).

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