2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test

San Francisco road trip the long-term 2013 Tesla Model S.

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gslippy

Wow, I'm jealous of the beautiful places you guys frequent, especially when the bleak fall & winter weather arrives in Pennsylvania.

For me, all of your road trips are a photographic treat.

dunning15

LOL. The drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco taking the I5 freeway is one of the least beautiful drives you could ever take. There might be 5 minutes of interesting things to look at and that's only once you hit The City. Only the drive from LA to Las Vegas is more desolate and depressing. The 101 is a completely different story, however, and I am anxious to hear about a Tesla road trip along one of the most scenic drives in the world. Congratulations on getting from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back without spending a single dollar on gasoline and putting no emmissions into our environment on that particular drive.

zimtheinvader

dunning15, that is a boring soul sucking drive going down I5 to LA. Capped off by horrible traffic as I5 merges over and over into the other freeways once you hit civilization.

fordson1

Mark, I don't see how with a 470-foot elevation at Harris Ranch and a 125-foot elevation at Union Square, the northbound drive could be uphill. I think you were facing headwinds, as dunning15 speculates. To me, it's troubling that the range estimates from one charge to the next ranged from a low of 75% of the initial estimate up to just under 90% of the initial estimate. My car normally gives a 430-mile range estimate when I fill up. If, after burning three-quarters of a tank driving conservatively on a highway trip, my remaining range+miles-driven total was down to 340 miles, that to me is just wrong. I don't think I recall any ICE car you folks drove that would not actually match or exceed its miles-to-empty figure it gave at fillup. You had a 382-mile trip, with a supercharger location almost exactly at the halfway point (195 miles), and even with initial range estimates of 250-260 miles every time you charged, you still did not feel you could make the trip in two hops with any degree of confidence. On the other hand, I must say that other than the "range thing," the car and the charging infrastructure seem to have performed flawlessly and it was apparently a real pleasure to drive.

exnevadan_

I'm interested in the concept of 90 second battery swaps, even faster than filling a gas tank. might make a low/limited range electric worthy of consideration. Has Edmunds written about them in the past or maybe info is available at the Tesla site? also, are these supercharger sites free of charge to Tesla owners, no mention of swiping a credit card or recharging costs per visit. as for the no emissions comment above - that way of thinking is foolish, there is a power plant churning out emissions somewhere to feed those superchargers. believe CA has more coal/fossil fuel plants than any other relatively clean source of power. while that might change in the future, we're dealing with the here and now, so any electric is still a remote emission emitter.

drcomputer

Supercharger stations are free for life for all Tesla owners. Once the Supercharger network is complete they will all be powered by Solar panels and battery storage systems. The net use of power for the local power company will be close to 0. So the argument that driving an electric car will produce emissions somewhere is not true.

stovt001_

And by taking the 101, you also avoid Harris Ranch and the Central Valley in general. Bonus!

stovt001_

Good to know the Superchargers are free for life, but I wonder if that may change eventually for new owners. Charging at a supercharger may not produce emissions, but plugging in at home probably does.

klinkerkc

"The perfect should not be the enemy of the good"