4 ms·

I was happy to see they'd increased range to 315 miles.

by DennisP 7y ago

mikorym 7y ago
That's 507 km, which is starting to become an acceptable range in countries where you tend to travel longer distances.
- pedrocr 7y ago
  The model 3 and S already have that range or more. You'll only get ~350km out of that at highway speeds though. The supercharger network makes it perfectly reasonable but it's not yet ideal. Other EVs tend to be far behind still. Most can't charge fast enough and even the ones that do don't have enough charging infrastructure in most places. We're getting very close to mass adoption but will still need 5-10 years more depending on location to get enough battery improvement and charging deployment to make it a no-brainer to get the EV over the pretty good plugin-hybrid models that exist right now.
  - torpfactory 7y ago
    Depends on the definition of highway speeds a bit. At 60mph I hit the rated range pretty much dead on (500km/310mi). At 75mph it’s probably between 350 and 400km. Generally agree about the charging infrastructure. Personally I have fun trying to find where I can connect to the grid but I don’t think everyone would call that fun... Round numbers: I think when there are ~2-3x the number of supercharger locations (not chargers but locations), it will basically be at parity with the convenience of gas. I believe range (500km @ 60mph) is already acceptable and if the number of locations is increased it will be even less of an issue. Just my $.02
    - pedrocr 7y ago
      Sure, given the context being in kilometers instead of miles I was using the ~130km/h that is common in a lot of European highways. From experience that gets you less than 350, particularly in winter. Some places (and drivers) are quite a bit faster still. US highways have fairly low speed limits and so range is less of an issue. True parity with gas will take a much longer time. My previous diesel car had almost 4 times the range and could be refueled in 5 minutes. But there are other advantages that cover for that. Which is why my estimate is that 5-10 years depending on location is what will be needed for both the offer of models and the charging infrastructure to all be in place.
      - qqqwerty 7y ago
        As a counter point, my current gas powered car only gets about 240mi/385km in range. And my car before that was 300mi/480km. So compared to that a 300mi range is perfectly adequate.
jsight 7y ago
OTOH, they killed the RWD version. That likely would have had an even longer range, and certainly had a lower cost.
- xeromal 7y ago
  I used to think the same as you but it's not exactly what you think. The front motor is a bit smaller than rear so at cruising speeds on the highway, the rear motor disengages and the front can handle the speed while using less KW even with the added weight of the extra motor.
  - jsight 7y ago
    That has been true in the past with the S & X, but the motors on the 3 (and presumably Y) are a bit different. The RWD 3 was slightly more efficient than the AWD.

I was happy to see they'd increased range to 315 miles.

mikorym 7y ago

That's 507 km, which is starting to become an acceptable range in countries where you tend to travel longer distances.

pedrocr 7y ago
The model 3 and S already have that range or more. You'll only get ~350km out of that at highway speeds though. The supercharger network makes it perfectly reasonable but it's not yet ideal. Other EVs tend to be far behind still. Most can't charge fast enough and even the ones that do don't have enough charging infrastructure in most places. We're getting very close to mass adoption but will still need 5-10 years more depending on location to get enough battery improvement and charging deployment to make it a no-brainer to get the EV over the pretty good plugin-hybrid models that exist right now.
- torpfactory 7y ago
  Depends on the definition of highway speeds a bit. At 60mph I hit the rated range pretty much dead on (500km/310mi). At 75mph it’s probably between 350 and 400km. Generally agree about the charging infrastructure. Personally I have fun trying to find where I can connect to the grid but I don’t think everyone would call that fun... Round numbers: I think when there are ~2-3x the number of supercharger locations (not chargers but locations), it will basically be at parity with the convenience of gas. I believe range (500km @ 60mph) is already acceptable and if the number of locations is increased it will be even less of an issue. Just my $.02
  - pedrocr 7y ago
    Sure, given the context being in kilometers instead of miles I was using the ~130km/h that is common in a lot of European highways. From experience that gets you less than 350, particularly in winter. Some places (and drivers) are quite a bit faster still. US highways have fairly low speed limits and so range is less of an issue. True parity with gas will take a much longer time. My previous diesel car had almost 4 times the range and could be refueled in 5 minutes. But there are other advantages that cover for that. Which is why my estimate is that 5-10 years depending on location is what will be needed for both the offer of models and the charging infrastructure to all be in place.
    - qqqwerty 7y ago
      As a counter point, my current gas powered car only gets about 240mi/385km in range. And my car before that was 300mi/480km. So compared to that a 300mi range is perfectly adequate.

jsight 7y ago

OTOH, they killed the RWD version. That likely would have had an even longer range, and certainly had a lower cost.

xeromal 7y ago
I used to think the same as you but it's not exactly what you think. The front motor is a bit smaller than rear so at cruising speeds on the highway, the rear motor disengages and the front can handle the speed while using less KW even with the added weight of the extra motor.
- jsight 7y ago
  That has been true in the past with the S & X, but the motors on the 3 (and presumably Y) are a bit different. The RWD 3 was slightly more efficient than the AWD.