The brake pads in my Tesla should easily last 300k or more miles because I rarely use them. The cars regenerative braking is so strong I basically only drive with the throttle now. As soon as I let off, the car will use regen on the motors and slow me down all the way to 0 now and then apply a brake hold until I apply power again. The actual brake pedal is only used for quick or emergency stops.
So yes, it takes energy to climb a hill but you'll use regen the whole way down and regain some of that lost energy. You don't get 100% of it back because nothing is that efficient but you get nothing back from a gas vehicle when you slow down or go down a hill. You always lose energy as long as the engine is running. And range estimates on cars are exactly that, estimates. Don't take the article literally that the car went from 50 miles of range to 8 miles. Just as in a gas car, the estimate is not perfect. Moral of the story is, don't run out of gas or battery power and life will be good. A portable generator to charge a car is not a great idea. It's easier to get a flatbed and drop the car off at a supercharger or a 220v outlet to charge faster. I know my car won't let me navigate somewhere without telling me I need to charge in order to reach the destination. It's pretty idiot proof as it should be. I have yet to run out of juice either but I've gotten close like pulling into the garage at 1% range. Tesla does say they have a 5% reserve on average so even if I hit 0%, I'd have around 15 miles left in the battery before it truly stops. Proper planning is best for any vehicle and as more superchargers are built and more level 2 chargers installed at restaurants and hotels, the range anxiety will be a thing of the past. For wisp's, you can have chargers installed at the office or wherever the trucks sit at night and have a full tank every morning. And it's very doubtful you'll run dead. If you drive 200 miles or more in one day, you need to schedule jobs more efficiently because that's over 3.5 hours of windshield time you're paying your techs. Their time should be spent installing, not driving. The corner cases like ranchers in Montana are well under 1% of drivers and they'll eventually go electric too once big diesel trucks aren't made in 10+ years. This is a train that is coming down the tracks and while it's not possible today to produce enough batteries for EV's to replace everything overnight, in 10 years the majority of new vehicle sales will be electric whether you like it or not. It's simply the future and everything will get better. Better motors, cheaper and higher density batteries, chargers everywhere including rural towns, etc. On Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 11:52 AM Mathew Howard <[email protected]> wrote: > A nice side affect of regenerative braking is that my brake pads look like > they've barely been used... and my car has almost 60k miles on it. > > On Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 11:16 AM Bill Prince <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Yah. Teslas are not like that. Going down a mountain generates power. >> Slowing down (sort of braking) generates power. In aggressive throttle >> mode, you hardly have to touch the brake as you can accelerate and slow >> down with regenerative braking. >> >> >> bp >> <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com> >> >> On 11/30/2019 8:58 AM, Matt Hoppes wrote: >> > My experience with a Toyota Prius the other week was that climbing a >> hill I could deplete the battery but coming down would not charge it. >> > >> > So yes. You’ll get into a deficit. >> > >> >> On Nov 30, 2019, at 11:25 AM, Seth Mattinen <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> >> >>> On 11/30/19 5:56 AM, Chuck McCown wrote: >> >>> Depends on distance. My car is always charged. So I always have 200 >> miles on the tank. At the end of a full day of driving yes it needs to be >> charged. Local police departments are making Teslas work. Just takes a >> different mindset. No maintenance and a truck good for a half million >> miles with no fuel costs is pretty attractive to me (I charge with solar). >> >> How much do you lose climbing elevation? Let's say sea level up to >> 7000' 180 miles uphill (San Fransisco to Donner Pass). It's a minimal grade >> for the first 100 miles then the last 80 is nothing but uphill. Back when >> Tesla was first doing their supercharger network thing they put ones in >> Roseville (basically the bottom of the hill) and more in Truckee (just past >> the summit) so the assumption was that the climb is hard and you would >> charge before going up the hill and charge again after the climb. Even just >> to go to Lake Tahoe requires crossing an 8000' summit (Reno is around >> 4200'). >> >> >> >> I'd like to get my wife an electric car, but it seems like normal >> mountain driving would eat the battery quickly and then it never gets used >> except for flat driving to and from her job or shopping. I'll have 16.3kW >> DC of solar panels by the end of February and the way I see it is free >> "fuel" for the car. I don't care about saving the planet as much as I am >> interested in technology. >> >> >> >> -- >> >> AF mailing list >> >> [email protected] >> >> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >> >> -- >> AF mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >> > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >
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