First road trip in the Tesla Model Y

Yesterday, we took our first drive out of town in our new Tesla Model Y. I named it Mithrandir, in reference to one of the many names of Gandalf the Grey in Lord of the Rings. (Mithrandir is a name in Sindarin meaning “the Grey Pilgrim” or “the Grey Wanderer.”)

The trip was a relatively short one, so we could learn what kind of real-world range we could expect in our new EV. Our Model Y is the Long Range AWD version, with an EPA rated range of 330 miles. Of course, we expected less than that, since most of the drive would be at speeds of 70-75 MPH, but the temperature outside was 60℉, so we thought we’d do pretty well. The planned round trip was 238 miles. Although we weren’t sure if we needed to, we checked for Tesla Superchargers along the route and found a couple banks, one in the town of Cisco and one between our home and our destination, about 65 miles from Cisco, in Santo, Texas. (see map above)

We were heading for the “Old Zoo Nature Trails, in Cisco, Texas. The path goes right by the now defunct zoo, nestled in the woods, as well as a grouping a abandoned houses, an abandoned Country Club and a dam, topped with a bridge that is now closed. I am told the zoo was only open for 20 years, closing after one of its animals was poisoned. The day was overcast with heavy rain forecast for the evening.

Not only was this our first road trip, but it was our first time to try out Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD). I did not purchase the option, but Tesla included a free 30-day trial. I found FSD to be frustrating at first. It kicked me out of FSD so many times that I was “grounded” from using it on the trip. I stopped at a parking lot, long enough to shut down the car and get out of FSD jail.

The issue was two-fold: 1) I either held onto the steering wheel too firmly, making FSD think I was trying to take manual control or too loosely, making it think my hands weren’t on the steering wheel, and 2) I occasionally looked at the car’s touchscreen or my smartphone too long, so it determined I wasn’t paying enough attention. Once I realized what was going on, FSD performed pretty well. Still, I’m not sure I’d pay $12,000 for the functionality. The standard navigation, much like adaptive cruise control on my 2018 Volt, was sufficient for my needs.

It didn’t take very long for me to realize we were not going to be able to complete the trip without recharging. This was surprising because the round trip was 238 miles, just 72% of the EPA range estimate. But as we drove, I could see the remaining miles counting down so fast that a charge would be required. I ran the numbers and decided we could stop in Santo, rather than charging in Cisco, where we’d be just 65 miles from home and not require much of a charge. The chargers in Santo were rated at 250 kW.

Once we reached the zoo trails, the rain was getting closer and the skies more foreboding. There was a group leaving, just as we arrived and no one else was around. It added to the creepy feel of the place. Bonnie even said in jest, “If you hear a chainsaw start up, run!“

The loop trail is only about a mile and a half and not taxing at all, so we really explored the remains of the zoo as well as a cluster of abandoned stone houses nearby. All in all, a nice little trip.

Once we returned to the parking lot, we noticed signs pointing to the “lake trail,” so we decided to check that out as well. Lake Cisco’s dam was on the near side of the lake, topped by an old bridge that is out of commission and marked with “No Trespassing” signs.

That concluded our sightseeing for the day and we decided to stop for lunch in Cisco, picking a place called “Muddy Mikes Bar & Grill.” I asked Kendall our waitress what the best thing was on the menu. She said their country fried steak was great and prepared in-house. I consider myself a connoisseur of what Texans normally call “chicken fried steak,” so I order that, with the brown gravy and a Shiner Bock draught. Bonnie got the double smash burger literally drenched in blue cheese sprinkles with a Shiner as well. That cheese is repulsive to me. I just can’t understand how she can eat it…

Anyway, it was a good meal and we were ready to start the trek home. But first, a recharge in Santo. I used the navigation / FSD to direct Mithrandir to our next stop. Everything went well, except when we exited the freeway, there were no chargers in sight. The navigation showed another 3 miles to our destination, so I just let it lead the way although the photos posted on PlugShare showed a major highway in the background.

The nav system told us we had arrived and there was nothing but a very small town’s downtown area. Bonnie pulled out her phone and said it looked like we’d left the freeway one exit too early. Rather than back-tracking to I-20, we found an alternate route directly to the chargers from where FSD had taken us. I believe what happened is it understood Santo, Texas but not the address we provide and just took us to the center of town.

When we arrived at the chargers, located in a Shell service station / Subway sandwich shop parking lot at the intersection of I-20 and state highway 281, it was nighttime. There were no other EVs present. Bonnie had not yet been involved in recharging the Model Y, so I was able to show her something cool: At a Tesla Supercharger, you don’t open the charge port on the car. You just press a touch-sensitive sensor on the handle of the charger plug and the hatch on the car opens automatically. Arthur Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This certainly felt magical. When we arrived, we had about 65 miles of range left and were 65 miles from home. We could have gone for it, with Fort Worth having plenty of charging stations, but Bonnie (who doesn’t even gamble in casinos) didn’t like that idea.

We climbed back in the car and listened to music and talked about our day so far. The time seemed to pass quickly and I was surprised when we reached 80% of battery capacity. Our charging session started at a rate of almost 200 kW. I hadn’t expected to fill it up much, since we only had about 65 miles to home, but time flew and we were back to 80% of capacity. Bonnie pointed out to me that when we arrived a white pickup has pulled up to the Subway and was still there. There was a lot to do, while the car was charging, but I stayed with the car while Bon went inside the store. Bonnie came out with two loaves of banana nut bread a guy was selling. We felt the time to charge was not a burden at all.

Now, with more than enough range to get us home, we headed out again in FSD mode. Once cool thing about the navigation/cruise control on the Model Y, is that it knows the speed limit. In the settings you can tell it if you want the car to be able to exceed the speed limit, so I set it to 5% over.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, but what we discovered was a little disconcerting. The actual total range of the fully charged Model Y, at 60℉ ambient temperature and speed at 70 to 75 MPH, ended up being about 250 miles, including the FSD’s trip to downtown Santo instead of the Shell station. The EPA’s estimated range is 330 miles, so that was a pretty big discrepancy (24%). It would have seemed more in line with my experience in other vehicles, if it had been 35℉ outside. So I decided to see what other people were experiencing.

Since one of my main criteria in selecting my first BEV was the EPA range estimate, this was somewhat disappointing. The car we almost bought, the Hyundai IONIQ 5, Long Range, RWD had an EPA estimated range of 310 miles which, if we extrapolate data from the chart should result in real world driving of about 296 miles, or about 46 miles more than the Model Y Dual Motor Long Range.

Whether those numbers are true in the real world, I have no way of knowing. Until I found the chart on the right, I thought it possible I had been given a standard range Model Y although even my Tesla app shows it to be the long range version. The chart at the bottom shows the two Model Y’s specs from the FuelEconomy.gov website.

Am I upset? No, just a little disappointed. My original minimum acceptable range, when shopping for an EV, was 250 miles and the Model Y hit that, at highway speeds. I haven’t learned enough about the Model Y to know if anything I did contributed to the drop in range, but the chart seems to indicate my results are very similar to what others are seeing.

The acceleration of the Tesla definitely is far superior to the Hyundai, as is the sound system, charging network, speed limit aware cruise control and so many other things. The Hyundai’s charge speed, if you can find a fast enough charger to reach top speed is amazing, but as I said, our wait at the Shell station was not burdensome at all. I still feel I got the right car for my needs and that is what matters, in the long run.

I’ll keep evaluating this as I get more driving experience, so stay tuned.