Tag Archives: Model 3

Road Tripping in a 7-Year-Old EV with 100,000 Miles 

June 2025. American Southwest.

This spring I reached 7 years in my Model 3 and celebrated the occasion with a road trip to visit National Parks and landmarks in the American Southwest. I’ve gone on similar trips when the car was new, and several times a year I go on regional trips that require a supercharging stop. But now I was approaching 100,000 miles on the odometer and wanted to know how well the car would handle a longer trip. Would I still get fast DC charging speeds while driving hundreds of miles and supercharging 2 or 3 times per day? Would I have to wait in line to charge since more cars use Tesla’s charging network now? Would newer charging stations be in good locations? And what about that electric cooler I picked up, would it drain my battery? (spoiler alert: No). My goal was to Combine an EV road trip with meeting friends from the east coast, spending time in the great outdoors, and testing how well my 7-year-old EV would handle the trip.

The Car

2018 Model 3, RWD, 18″ wheels. Rated range with a full charge is about 285 miles (I haven’t done a full charge to test that). The odometer is at 100,000 miles.

The Trip

Visiting National Parks to Celebrate Birthdays. This was a milestone birthday celebration with a group of friends to hike, bike, and kayak in National Parks in Arizona and Utah. My east coast friends flew in to Phoenix and drove to the Grand Canyon. One of my friends drove with me from the Sacramento area and we stopped at a few National Parks and landmarks along the way. We took turns driving and my friend served as DJ. Somehow I’d missed the whole Yatch Rock thing and it set the perfect vibe for this road trip. Also, Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio – 2 thumbs up.

Screenshot

National Parks and Landmarks Visited

We stopped at Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park to check out Moro Rock and giant sequoias; the Hoover Dam; the Route 66 Museum in Kingman; hiked in the Grand Canyon; kayaked on the Colorado River in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area; rented eBikes in Zion National Park; hiked in Bryce Canyon National Park; saw slot canyons near Page; checked the temperature in Death Valley (it was hot); and stopped at Mammoth Lakes, Mono Lake, and Lake Tahoe. It was a good trip.

Supercharging

Supercharging stops averaged 18 minutes for the whole trip. I supercharged 11 times at 10 locations and my car charged the same on this road trip as before. I noticed charging power over 220 kW, but didn’t stick around to check the highest charging speed.

I paid $163 for charging and averaged 148 miles between superchargers.

I didn’t have to wait in line for superchargers. The superchargers were busy but no waiting. I did see cars from different manufacturers at most stops and that was good to see. However, twice I saw a single car taking up 2 supercharger stalls because their charging port was on the opposite side of the car and that was the only way the driver could plug in. Luckily that didn’t prevent anyone else from charging at that time, but it will become a problem unless mfg’s establish a common standard for charging port location.

My odometer. We drove over 2,100 miles while visiting National Parks and landmarks in 4 states.

Energy Use

I used 581 kWh of electricity to drive 2,181 miles. The car reported using about 460 kWh for the trip (see odometer above under ‘Buddy Trip’). But that number represents only energy used from the battery pack. Getting those 460 kWh into the pack used more energy. Charging an EV involves converting AC to DC, which results in losses. Supercharger stations convert electricity to DC before sending it to an EV – a process that is about 92% efficient. As a result, 100 kWh of electricity are used for each 92 kWh sent to an EV. Level 2 conversion of AC to DC occurs in your car and is less efficient – about 85%. So 100 kWh are used for each 85 kWh stored in the pack. Level 1 charging is less efficient – about 70%. I recorded energy sent to my car on this trip from Supercharging, Level 2 charging, and Level 1 charging, and added charging losses to get a more accurate estimate of the total amount of energy used.

2/3 of the energy for this trip came from supercharging.

Two thirds of my energy came from supercharging. The rest came from my home and from Level 1 and 2 overnight destination charging at places we stayed.

Comparison: 1 gallon of gas contains the same amount of energy as 33.7 kWh of electricity. So using 581 kWh of electricity for this trip is like using 17 gallons of gas to drive 2,100 miles (that’s like getting 125 MPG).

Emissions

Charging my car produced 344 lbs of CO2 emissions. Where you charge on a multi-state road trip impacts total emissions since each state utilizes a different mix of fossil fuel and renewable power plants for their grid. I kept track of how much electricity I got from charging in each state and looked up CO2 emissions from generating electricity in those states. The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration publishes this data as pounds of CO2 emissions released per MWh of electricity generated in each state. The EIA lists the data by state, by year, and includes other emissions produced by electricity generation like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. I focused on CO2 since it is a potent heat trapping gas, and is useful for comparing EV emissions with those from gas powered cars.

In summary, I drove 2,181 miles and used 581 kWh of electricity. Generating electricity in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah to charge my car released 344 lbs of CO2.

How Does This Compare to a Gas Powered Car?

The average 25 MPG car produces 5 times more CO2 than my EV. Calculating emissions from gas powered cars is much simpler. Burning one gallon of gas releases 19.6 lbs of CO2. So it’s just gallons of gas burned. The average car in the US gets 25 MPG. So a 25 MPG car traveling 2,181 miles would burn 87 gallons of gas and release 1,710 lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere – 5X more than my EV. I also calculated emissions from more efficient cars and larger less efficient SUVs that are popular (see below).

EVs produces fewer emissions.

Why is This Important?

Transportation accounts for nearly 1/3 of carbon emissions in the US. There’s about 300 million vehicles on the road in the US, and hundreds of millions more around the globe. The average person drives about 13,000 miles per year in a car that gets 25 MPG in the US. New sedans are more efficient, but pickup trucks and SUV are the most popular vehicles on the road and these vehicles lag behind in efficiency. Even with improved efficiency for gas burners, EVs are much better for daily driving, road trips, and over their full life cycle.

My EV makes less pollution today than it did 7 years ago because the electric grid gets cleaner year by year. That doesn’t happen with gas powered cars – a car that gets 25 MPG today will get 25 MPG 7 years from now.

Fuel sources for generating electricity in the US, 2023.

The average gas-powered car in the US releases over 200 lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere every week. Multiple that by the millions of vehicles on the road, every day, all year long, and those emissions add up quickly to 35 billion tons of CO2 each year – and that CO2 stays in the atmosphere for decades. This man-made process is dramatically increasing the level of CO2 in our atmosphere.

We pump fossil fuels out of the earth and transfer that carbon into the atmosphere. Our current mode of transportation consists of pumping fossil fuels out of the earth and burning them. This takes carbon that was stored in the earth over a period of millions of years and rapidly transfers it to the atmosphere through a 100% man-made process. The climate has gone through ice ages and warm phases in the past. However, previous climate change events were caused by natural events like prolonged volcanic activity, changes in solar activity or the Earth’s orbit, even asteroids. Those climate changes brought drastic consequences including species extinctions that are best avoided.

Climate change can be avoided. Burning fossil fuels on a large scale tips the balance of the earth’s atmosphere and ecosystems, and it is entirely under our control. More sustainable solutions are available and worth developing. The good news is that the US grid has been improving:

Thoughts on EVs from my Friend

The friend who drove along with me does not have or plan to get an EV. We took turns driving but didn’t talk much about my car during the trip – except for those WTF moments when phantom braking reared its ugly head. He spun up good tunes, enjoyed the landscapes, and observed. At the end of the trip I asked for his thoughts, the pros and cons. Here’s his report:

Pros: Pleasantly surprised by how quick the car charged at the Superchargers, by the easy access to chargers along major routes, the location of chargers, amenities, and by not having to wait for charging.
Cons: Cruise control was terrible. I’ve had TACC in my past 3 cars and never had a problem with it. The phantom braking is a safety issue and it was annoying as heck.

Conclusion

There is nothing extraordinary about making this trip in an EV today. ‘Regular’ cars do this all the time, and that’s the point: EVs are just cars (that produce fewer emissions). My EV has held up well. It’s reliable, takes care of commuting, chores, family outings, and takes me places I like to go while greatly reducing emissions. If you haven’t considered an EV yet, there are a lot of options for ~300 mile EVs on the US market from Chevy, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota, Tesla, VW (and more expensive models from Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Lucid, Mercedes, Polestar, Porsche, Rivian, and Volvo). My advice? Check it out.

Finally, I like sharing pics so I’ll end the post with a couple highlights from the trip:

Approaching Moro Rock in Sequoia National Park (left), and a view of the park from Moro Rock.
Driving past the Ivanpah power plant on Rt. 15.
Clockwise from above: Intake tower at the Hoover Dam; Statue commemorating workers who built the dam; 1951 Studebaker Champion with a window-mounted evaporative air cooler in Kingman’s Rt. 66 Museum.
The Coffee Cup Cafe in Boulder City, NV is a great little diner.
Starting our hike down South Kaibab and coming back up Bright Angel in the Grand Canyon National Park.
Slot canyon near Page; Kayaking down the Colorado River.
Riding eBikes in Zion National Park; Hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park.
The author in Death Valley National Park.
Charging in Lone Pine, CA.

5-Year Review of the Model 3: Battery Pack Status   

April 2023. California.

Part 4 of my 5-year review on the Model 3

When we got our car in April 2018 it had 310 miles of rated range. A software update in 2019 increased the usable portion of the pack giving us 325 miles of range. After 67,000 miles and 5 years years of travels a full charge on our 2018 RWD Model 3 now reports 291 miles of rated range.

Rated range of our Model 3 after a full charge over 5 years.

*Rated range is based on EPA testing and is the estimate of how many miles the average person can drive based on the amount of energy stored in the battery pack.

The rated range of my battery pack dropped pretty quickly from 325 to about 300 miles at the end of 2020. I don’t know whether that was actual degradation, or if Tesla changed their method for calculating range, or if they increased the size of the buffer on the packs. Whatever the case, over the last 2 years my range has slowly gone down about 5 miles per year from 300 miles to 291 miles. Compared to the peak 325 miles of range I’m at 89.5% of capacity, and compared to the initial 310 miles I’m at 93% of initial capacity.

How I charge my car: 90% of my charging has been at home on a 240 Volt 30 amp clothes dryer outlet. I drive 50-60 miles a day and charge for 2 hours each morning before I leave for work. On a daily basis I’m usually operating between 40 – 70% SOC. I only use Superchargers for out of town trips, and that adds up to 10% of the energy used to charge my car so far. The full charge at year 5 was the 5th time I’ve charged to 100%.

I was hoping for less degradation. I called Tesla, they analyzed my battery pack and said I’m at 0.4% below average for cars similar to mine – within the normal range, just a bit below average. Whatever the case, in the real world 291 miles of range is not a problem for me. We have plenty of range for the most common trip we take: 180-200 mile round trip visits to the Bay Area. Example: A couple weeks ago we visited the California Academy of Sciences. For that trip Ieft home with a 90% charge (260 miles) and after 198 miles of driving we arrrived home with 84 miles in the pack.

After 5 years a 90% charge still provides plenty of range for our day trips – in this case 198 mile round trip to visit a favorite museum. In mild and warm weather I usually beat rated range estimates (we drove 198 actual miles but only used 176 miles of rated range from the pack).

291 miles of range is also plenty of range for my road tripping – I usually operate between 30-80% SOC on the road. The longest distance I’ve driven so far between charging sessions is 238 miles. On road trips I average about 150 miles between Superchargers, with the longest distance between Superchargers at 223 miles. And the longest I’ve driven from a Supercharger to a Level 2 destination charger was 177 miles. So 291 miles of rated range has been more than enough for me.

Battery Health: A relatively new company, Recurrent Auto, is addressing battery health, primarily for used car buyers. From their website: “Today the health of an electric vehicle battery is a black box. Recurrent is working to change that by collaborating with thousands of EV drivers and introducing advanced machine learning (to evaluate the battery health for individual cars)”. I signed up for their service and below I’ve pasted screen captures showing Recurrent’s evaluation of my battery pack. I got 291 miles on a full charge – they estimated 289 miles.

Expected Range and Battery Health of my battery pack from Recurrent.

Recurrent provides a comparison of how your battery pack compares to other cars of the same make and build in their database, recommend charging habits to promote longevity of your pack, and graph out your State of Charge over time so you can take stock of your charging habits.

Comparison of my battery pack’s estimated range compared to other Model 3s with a similar build in Recurrent’s database, and graph showing my State of Charge over time.

Calculating battery pack capacity: Tesla’s Rated Range calculation relies on the BMS estimate of capacity. A post on Tesla Motor Club states that the Model 3 pack needs 3-6 hours of downtime (car completely off, contactors open) for the BMS to make the best evaluation of capacity, and describes a method to recalibrate Rated Range in the Model 3. According to this post it involves letting the car sit for 3-6 hours, completely off, so the HV contactors are open – and this should be done at a variety of charge states. HV contactors are not open when the car is using energy for things like cooling the cabin or sentry mode – features I use while parked at work. My car is completely ‘off’ for a good 8 hours overnight in the garage, but my SOC is usually between 40-70% on a day by day basis. Following advice from this post I should let my pack get to both a higher and lower SOC, let it sit over night and check if that impacts rated range estimates. If I notice a change I’ll update this post. But again, let me stress that 291 miles gets the job done for me.

This is Part 4 of my 5-year review. The review is broken up into short posts on different aspects of owning the Model 3. Additional posts will be linked below as they go live. Topics covered include:

5-Year Review of the Model 3: Day 1 

April 2023. California.

This is Part 1 of my 5-year review. The review will be broken up into short posts covering different aspects of owning the Model 3. New posts will be linked below as they go live. Topics will cover:

5 years ago in April 2018 I picked up our Model 3 from the Fremont showroom. After taking a tour of the factory I drove 120 miles home to pick up my kids from soccer practice. I’d been driving an EV for 5 years by that time so I was used to instant torque and acceleration, but that first drive was like piloting a rocket ship.

Picking up my car from the showroom in Fremont.

My family didn’t know I was picking up the car that day so I met the kids at their practice and followed them down the street with camera rolling to catch their reaction:

BTW, kids still like the car…. Looking back it’s remarkable that I ordered this car sight unseen. I waited 2 years from order to delivery and it was worth the wait, and not just because early orders came with a scale model in the center console. I provide more details in a separate post, but in short I love this car.

5 Year Review of the Model 3: Quality & Reliability 

April 2023. California. 

Part 3 of my 5-year review on the Model 3

My car has held up well. The car is solid outside and in, the drive is comfortable, smooth, and cabin is quiet. The car is pretty much the same as 5 years ago. It’s been reliable, hasn’t broken down, left me stranded on the roadside, or needed any major repairs.

Items fixed under warranty:

  • Piece of rubber came off gear selector stalk
  • 2 door handles replaced
  • Rear view camera wiring harness replaced

Items fixed on my dime

  • Charge flap replaced ($220)

The little motor that opens and closes the charge flap quit. I could still open and close the flab by hand, so charging the car was not an issue. But it wouldn’t open when you pressed the button on a Tesla charging cable, or open by using the car’s center screen or through the phone app. I set up a mobile service visit and they replaced the whole assembly while I was at work for $220. Incidentally, my charge flap never entirely worked right. If you gently push on the bottom of the charge flap it’s supposed to open – a magnet in the bottom of the flap is part of that function. The technician who replaced my charging flap pointed out that the magnet was missing on mine. So that little part was missing when I picked up the car from the factory and I didn’t really notice because otherwise the charge flap worked.

The cabin is in good condition, but one thing I’ve noticed is that the driver seat heating coils are visible. Seat heating works fine, but the wear is notable:

Regular maintenance:

  • 12 volt battery replaced after 4 years ($128)
  • Wipers replaced ($54)
  • cabin air filters replaced ($38)
  • New set of tires ($1100)
  • Front end re-torqued ($97.50)

Minor complaints

I have 18″ aero wheels and the hubcaps are noisy. When driving at low speeds I hear rattling all around the car and have realized it’s the hubcaps. They have freedom of movement and apparently bump up against the rim when I’m driving slowly. I don’t hear the noise at highway speed and that’s either because centrifugal force at higher speeds keep the hubcaps in place, or road noise at higher speeds covers the sounds. I didn’t notice the sound earlier on but it’s become more noticeable over time. Perhaps the redesigned hubcaps are better.

All of my hubcaps move like this and I can hear noise when driving at low speeds on city streets, smooth or bumpy.

This is Part 3 of my 5-year review. The review is broken up into short posts on different aspects of owning the Model 3. Additional posts will be linked below as they go live. Topics covered include:

5-Year Review of the Model 3: Charging 

April 2023. California.

Part 5 of my 5-year review on the Model 3

Charging at home: I charge my EV in the garage each night. I’ve used 2 approaches for daily charging over the last 5 years. And for those new to EVs, I don’t sit around waiting for my car to charge, it charges during the night while I’m sleeping. I wake up with the car ready for the day ahead of us. I bought a splitter for my clothes dryer outlet from EVSEAdapters and have the clothes dryer and my Model 3 mobile connector plugged into the same outlet. We don’t dry clothes overnight or early weekday mornings so we don’t have to worry about tripping the circuit.

I use this splitter to share the same circuit for drying clothes and charging our EVs. Works well for us.

1) For the first 2 or 3 years I had my charge limit set at 60% for daily driving and scheduled charging to start at 3AM when electricity prices were low. I charge on a 30 Amp clothes dryer outlet and about 2 hours of charging would get the car back to 60% SOC each night.

2) Before going on road trips I’d set the charge limit at 90% to make use of the range we’d need to reach our destinations. After getting back from one of our trips I forgot to reset the SOC and just kept the charge limit at 90% the past 2 years. I don’t need the range of a 90% charge for daily driving – in fact I prefer keeping my battery at a lower SOC in the hopes it increases longevity – less time at higher voltage for the cells. So what I do now is charge for 2 hours before leaving for work. I scheduled the car to start charging at 6AM, and I get 2 hours of charging before I leave at 8AM. That adds about 50 miles to the pack, which is enough for the day. RecurrentAuto can track your State of Charge over time so you can see your charging habits on a graph.

State of Charge of my Model 3 over a one month period. Data from RecurrentAuto.

Note: There are many ways to approach daily charging, this is what works for me.

Road Trips: First thing I do for road trips is plan my charging stops using ABetterRoutePlanner. Great resource, check it out. On long road trips I average about 150 miles between Supercharging stops and a little over 20 minutes charging time per stop. I use the stops to grab a bite to eat or stretch my legs. At each Supercharger I usually charge up to the distance of the next leg plus 100 miles. That extra 100 miles in the pack doesn’t give me the fastest charging times but it does give me added flexibility in case of unplanned detours. I’ve done road trips alone and with the family – in one case covering 800 miles in a day with the whole family on board and it worked out well.

DC charging on road trips using Tesla’s Supercharger network is dead simple. Park, plug, grab a cup of coffee, and soon after get back on the road refreshed. The Supercharger network was the #1 reason I ordered the Model 3. The range of the Model 3 combined with the Supercharging network has allowed to visit a number of places we’d been wanting to visit – all while driving a low emission vehicle.

This is Part 5 of my 5-year review. The review is broken up into short posts on different aspects of owning the Model 3. Additional posts will be linked below as they go live. Topics covered include:

5-Year Review of the Model 3: Energy Use and Emissions 

April 2023. California.

Part 6 of my 5-year review on the Model 3

We’ve just completed 5 years of driving our 2018 Model 3. This post estimates energy use and carbon emissions from charging our electric car. I calculated the amount of CO2 released from power plants to generate electricity to charge our car using data published by the US Energy Information Administration.

Continue reading →

Supercharging II: 800 miles in a day 

March 2021. California-Grand Canyon: There & Back

This spring we drove to the Grand Canyon to get outdoors and to get a break from virtual schooling during our children’s spring vacation. This post is a ‘road trip primer’ for those considering an EV and is another example to demonstrate that electric cars work well for families.

Continue reading →

Electric Cars are Cleaner than Gas-Powered Cars 

February 2021

The idea that EVs make just as much pollution as gas-powered cars is not new. It’s often brought up as a reason to keep pumping oil out of the ground and gasoline into cars. But believe me it’s an old idea, and it’s been addressed many, many times. We should, of course, all understand the mix of energy sources used to produce electricity, the emissions that come from using different sources, and the impact of emissions on the air we breath. But, the idea that EVs pollute “just as much as gas-powered cars” is not true.

Continue reading →

Supercharging I: Solo Road Trip 

December 2020. California and the American Southwest.

The driving range of electric cars on the market today can easily meet the daily driving needs for the average person. In my case I charge my Model 3 for about 2 hours every night in the garage for daily driving. But what about charging an electric car on longer drives and road trips?

Continue reading →

Charging your EV at an RV Campground 

February 2020. California.

This weekend while visiting the Mount Shasta area we stayed overnight at a Lodge / RV campground and charged our car on an RV electrical hookup. I plugged in that night and we left the next morning with 281 miles of rated range (and a warm cabin).

Continue reading →

Electric Road Trip: Touring the American Southwest in a Tesla Model 3 

October 2019. American Southwest.
 

In October 2019 I went to New Mexico for 5 days of work. The trip to Albuquerque would have been about 1200 miles as the crow flies, but rather than fly I drove there in our Model 3. The full trip was 2,700 miles through 6 states. I used 17 Superchargers and paid $92.66. Driving electric reduced my emissions by over 70% compared to driving a car that gets 25 MPG (or burns 9.7L / 100km).

Continue reading →