Winter ski trip range - w/ snow tires, roof box, low temperatures etc. ?

[FutureTruck]

Would this work for you? $30 for 4 to 16 hours of parking includes L2 charging in a garage:

https://www.plugshare.com/location/38275

I would also make sure to have a Tesla adapter cable so you can charge at the Tesla destination chargers (not Superchargers) as I would assume they would be more prevalent at ski resorts.

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[Taycanfrank]

Now I'm gonna be on the lookout for a Taycan at Crystal! Have you had any luck reserving one of the chargers?

No, they aren't actually operational yet. I finally got them to update the website to reflect that instead of just getting an error message.

 

[SeaGeo]

No, they aren't actually operational yet. I finally got them to update the website to reflect that instead of just getting an error message.

So that was you! I was looking at it this week and was wondering if I had to call or something.

 

[Taycanfrank]

So that was you! I was looking at it this week and was wondering if I had to call or something.

I've also been pushing them not to allow hybrids access and save it only for fully electric. They said that will be the case but we'll see.

Every time I go to Stevens there are hybrids on all of the chargers. Super annoying.

 

[SeaGeo]

I've also been pushing them not to allow hybrids access and save it only for fully electric. They said that will be the case but we'll see.

Every time I go to Stevens there are hybrids on all of the chargers. Super annoying.

That's a really good idea! Now to get them up and running, and then... get A LOT more of them up there (I honestly have no idea how many they have, I'm just guessing it's not enough).

 

[TheManInTheSea]

That's a really good idea! Now to get them up and running, and then... get A LOT more of them up there (I honestly have no idea how many they have, I'm just guessing it's not enough).

Curious to see how these locations deal with the onslaught of EVs in the nearish future. I was in Leavenworth over the holiday and was blown away by the number of Teslas in line for the wall of superchargers in the village.

 

[SeaGeo]

Curious to see how these locations deal with the onslaught of EVs in the nearish future. I was in Leavenworth over the holiday and was blown away by the number of Teslas in line for the wall of superchargers in the village.

This is part of the reason I appreciate having RAN be exclusive initially. I'm a hell of a lot more worried about congestion on EA (and superchargers) than I am about EA reliability.

 

[mpw81]

We have a Q5 PHEV. I don't believe its regen braking is as significant as with most EVs, but I've still been impressed with the range I can add coming down either side of Eisnhower/Johnson tunnels, Floyd Hill and the stretch from Genesee to the Denver West exit.

 

[xyskis]

The payload weight and aero hit at 85mph will be problematic, along with the additional energy required for softer snow tires/pushing through rainwater in rutted roads/snow.

Also, you might not recoup as much energy as you think on the way down. I notice that we use an additional 2-4% per passenger + gear in the model y for the way up and get less than that amount back for the way down . No getting around the physics of additional work due to moving weight up a ramp and the efficiency losses in the drivetrain/etc. This is coming from PDX which is around sea level to Mt hood meadows which is just over 5.5k ft.

Personally, I think a 400ish mile pack would better enable this use case unless you had a destination EV charger with your name on it.

 

[ColoradoRivian]

Would this work for you? $30 for 4 to 16 hours of parking includes L2 charging in a garage:

https://www.plugshare.com/location/38275

I would also make sure to have a Tesla adapter cable so you can charge at the Tesla destination chargers (not Superchargers) as I would assume they would be more prevalent at ski resorts.

That would be great (since I'll already be paying for the parking.) I'll surely look for open chargers, but I share TheManInTheSea's concern about joining a huge bubble of new EV owners. I figure we cannot count on these chargers being open/operational all the time.

To answer earlier concerns, yes, I tend to make these trips with 4 people in the car plus gear. It isn't towing, but will presumably reduce range further. It sounds like this use case will be close to the line and my success will be largely temperature dependent.

 

[xyskis]

That would be great (since I'll already be paying for the parking.) I'll surely look for open chargers, but I share TheManInTheSea's concern about joining a huge bubble of new EV owners. I figure we cannot count on these chargers being open/operational all the time.

To answer earlier concerns, yes, I tend to make these trips with 4 people in the car plus gear. It isn't towing, but will presumably reduce range further. It sounds like this use case will be close to the line and my success will be largely temperature dependent.

More than temperature, if you can keep speed at 60ish, you should be ok but still close.

 

[FutureTruck]

That would be great (since I'll already be paying for the parking.) I'll surely look for open chargers, but I share TheManInTheSea's concern about joining a huge bubble of new EV owners. I figure we cannot count on these chargers being open/operational all the time.

To answer earlier concerns, yes, I tend to make these trips with 4 people in the car plus gear. It isn't towing, but will presumably reduce range further. It sounds like this use case will be close to the line and my success will be largely temperature dependent.

Totally agree. I'm interested to hear your experience, hopefully you can post about it next ski season.

And I'm jealous that you get to live in the mountains and have a Rivian. I'm stuck here on flat ground in the southeast. At least it's going to be 76F here and I'll be wearing shorts at the beach today.

 

[Andystroh]

We are losing about 25% range in our ID4 with cold weather, snow tires, and a ski box driving between golden and summit county. We haven’t skied at vail this winter to see if we can make that distance without a charge. EA charger in frisco is easy to access from i70 if necessary.

 

[ajdelange]

I hoping an R1S (with the "300 mile" battery) will be my first EV and am projected to have the chance to take delivery this summer. The ability to make a day trip from Denver to the Summit County ski areas and back without a charge is a critical one for my family.

To begin with you should think of your "300 mile" battery as a 240 mile battery as you really want to stay out of the <10% SoC nd > 90% SoC ranges as much as you can. Is it OK to charge to 100% before going on a road trip? Yes, but you don't want to do it very often.

How about a very low-profile roof box?

That's potentially a problem. Get up to 60-70 mph and stick your hand out the window into the slip stream. How much force? Maybe 10n (a couple of pounds). To push against that for a mile takess 16030 joules which is about 4.4 Wh. What's the frontal are of you roof box? If it is 10 times the area of your hand that means 44 Wh/mi which is getting close to 10% extra consumption.

A cold,...

Cold air is denser than warm which means more drag but then you are at altitude which means thinner air so don't worry about that one too much.

...snowy day?

Anything on the road can really suck power. Any snow accumulation will really reduce range. Even rain does this though not so dramatically as snow. Headwinds is another bigh consumer.

How do these handicaps stack? If the car is fully charged and pre-conditioned in my Denver-area garage, do I have a chance of making the ~105 mile trip from my home to Vail and back without a charge?

The answer is yes, you do have a chance. The difficulty is that you don't have a certainty and the reality is that when everything is in your favor you will be fine. When it isn't you won't and only some experience with the cart, driven as you drive it, in the area of question and under the actual conditions will tell.

I would not be comfortable unless I had identified charging options along the way or at the detination.

 

[FutureTruck]

Not sure if you read Reddit but an R1T owner who just did a drive from CA to Lake Tahoe posted this range report today:

~240 in Cali weather. ~190 in winter weather with climate on.

They also posted:

Freezing temps dropped real world range by ~45 real world miles (rear and front defog almost always on, no seat heaters, and mild cabin heating).

Phantom drain was atrocious in cold weather though. Dropped by ~70 miles in 4 days.

Also bad: the truck doesn't precondition for a fast charging session. Took ~30 mins to warm the battery up enough to accept more than 20 kW - took us 2 hours to charge to 80% on EA in the cold (normally takes ~30 mins to 80% and ~1.5 hours for 100%)

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