Odometer: 1069 miles

The Mass Registry of Motor Vehicles notified me that my ham radio plates are in. Now I just have to get my insurance to certify my RMV-3 and drive to the Leominster RMV and exchange the old plates for the new.

Why ham radio plates? I got them because:

• I’m a ham radio operator with a 4 letter call sign, which makes for a nice vanity plate, and
• Ham plates have a nifty lightning bolt on them, which seems most appropriate for an electric vehicle.

And with a vehicle named Lightning, I couldn’t resist going for the ham plate, even though I’ve never bothered with them before.

So playing the odds regarding the rarity of silver Teslas (it’s a rather uncommon color) and hams with 4 letter callsigns, if you see a silver Tesla with a MA 4-letter ham plate, it’s most probably me.

Odometer: 1069 miles

I tried the parcel shelf mounting suggested previously on the way into Boston today, and got a 50% (i.e., 1 out of 2 reads) green light success rate, which is better than my success rate on the windshield. I’ve adjusted it again this morning for what I hope is better visibility to the transponder readers and will see what the response rate is on the way home.

For those of you suggesting holding the transponder up through the sunroof, I did try that on the way to Maine and got no response. I really do think my 12-year-old transponder batteries are at least part of my specific problem (even if the Mass EZ-Pass folks say the transponder responds just fine in their testing box).

More data when I pass through more tollbooths.

Odometer: 941 miles

A bane of a Tesla-owner’s existence is the EZ-Pass transponder.

This seemingly routine bit of hardware used to pay tolls on the practically every major toll road and bridge in the east usually just gets fastened to your windshield, and you are off to toll-booth-free nirvana. It’s typically a “5 minutes and you’re done” operation.

The above is true provided you are not a Tesla owner.

After taking my one week old S90D from Massachusetts to Maine and back, I discovered that my 11-year-old MA FastLane transponder (it predates the EZ-Pass transition) mounted in the black area of the windshield (no dots on the new windshield — you get transparent or black) was read in NH, but not in Maine.

Figuring it was the battery, I brought it to the Boston EZ-Pass office today and asked for a replacement. They tested it and said that it works fine and therefore will not replace it with a new interior transponder — only with the big black license plate one. Knowing the problems people have had with license plate mounts and autopilot hardware (my model S has that), and not having a nosecone to hide it in (I have a refreshed design model S), I’ve decided to keep my FastLane transponder and try the rear parcel shelf mounting, but given the age of the transponder and its batteries, I’m skeptical it’s going to work.

A colleague here offered a good solution that I might consider if the parcel shelf mounting doesn’t work: register with the Pennsylvania Turnpike to get one of their new interior EZ-Pass transponders. The claim is that they don’t care if your plate is from out of state, and they would give me a more modern interior transponder.

I’ll write up the results after I’ve tested the parcel shelf mounting with some Boston tollbooths.

Odometer: 740 miles


University of Maine, Orono campus

Our 500-mile trip to Orono and back went completely according to plan. David and I had a great weekend in the great state of Maine, and our Tesla, Lightning, performed exactly as expected in my pre-trip plan.

We were a bit surprised at our first stop at the Augusta, ME supercharger because we had set out at 6 am. When we arrived there at around 9:30, we discovered that the restaurants opened at 11 am, so we had to look elsewhere for a rest room. As it turns out, Panera Bread wasn’t more than a couple mall parking lots away, and that allowed us to stretch our legs while Lightning charged to 100% for the Bangor and Orono leg.

Augusta, ME Supercharger

This being my first supercharging experience, I was a bit astonished at the initial charge rate. Here’s a screen shot:

With a bit of quick math, I was astonished to see that the supercharger was charging the car at a rate of more than 100 kW. To put that in perspective, that’s more than the power needed for 20 houses (assuming power draw per house at 5 kw, which I’ve approximated from data from the Fire Protection Research Foundation)! We were able to charge from 22% to 95% in an hour, and we were back on our way. Superchargers are fabulous (and the bagels and coffee at Panera Bread aren’t bad either)

We did have one deviation from plan though. We stopped at the Augusta, ME supercharger on the way home, and because we were only 180 miles from home, I only charged to 80% figuring that would be sufficient. However, it was hot and traffic was slower on the way home, so we used up more charge than I had expected. By the time we reached New Hampshire, we had only had about 100 miles of range left to travel about 60 miles. While I’m reasonably sure we would have made it home safely, we would have arrived home below my arbitrarily imposed 20% reserve, and I wanted some safety margin in case we got stuck due to an accident or other unexpected event on I495. So we deviated for a 10-minute charge at the Seabrook supercharger, took on nearly 60 miles of charge in 10 minutes, and headed home with no concerns. Nothing eliminates range anxiety like having more than enough twice as much charge as you need.

Seabrook, NH Supercharger; what is it with Panera Bread and supercharging locations?

Son David and I are driving to University of Maine at Orono on Saturday for student orientation. That’s a trip of just over 250 miles each way, and we’re taking the Tesla on a shakedown cruise.

Howe’s first rule of Tesla driving: Plan the trip like a pilot would (full disclosure: I earned a private pilot’s license about 40 years ago, but most of the lessons are really good for many life situations). Good pilots think running out of fuel during flight to be the making of a very very bad day. The same should be true for Tesla drivers. That means planning refueling stops and always keeping a reserve for emergencies. My planned reserve is 20% battery or about 60 miles. Therefore, while my 90 kWh battery is rated for 293 miles, my planning battery size is 80% of that or 234 miles.

The map above shows the results of planning the trip through EVTripPlanner.com and PlugShare.com. The trip from our house will be 253 miles each way. Two superchargers (high speed chargers dedicated to Teslas) are along our route: Seabrook, NH, and Augusta, ME. Augusta is 172 miles away, which fits nicely within my 234 mile planning range, so we won’t need Seabrook; Augusta, ME will be our first stop.

I’m only targeting 172 miles of range on this first leg, so I’m not going to charge my battery to its full capacity; 100% charging cycles stress the battery a little and may decrease its lifetime. I normally charge to only 80% around town, but today, I’m charging the battery to 90% for the trip. I’ve adjusted the charging rate so that the car will top off from our 9 kW solar array today and consume no grid power. We’ll make the trip tomorrow entirely on sunshine, because Tesla installs solar arrays for its superchargers as well.

Once we hit Augusta, our planned itinerary is to travel to UMaine Orono, which is another 84 miles. I’m not staying on campus, so I have to make a 22 mile round trip to my hotel in Bangor. Then, because there are no superchargers in Orono, we have to have enough range to make it the 84 miles back to Augusta. Let’s see: 84 + 22 + 84 = 190 miles. That’s within my 234 mile planning range.

That said, I want some extra padding in case we want to make a side trip or two, so our plan is that we’ll charge to the full 100% battery capacity at Augusta. Charging up to 100% takes a lot longer than just 80% because the last 20% is done at a lower rate to protect the battery, but the superchargers are really fast for the first 80%. While we could get a 50% charge in about 20 minutes, I’m budgeting about an hour to get a full 100% charge from the supercharger. That should be plenty of range for our roughly 24 hours in Orono and Bangor, and should bring us back to Augusta on Sunday with something like 90 miles or 30% charge left

When we hit the Augusta charger on Sunday, we’ll only be 172 miles from home, so we won’t need a full charge, so we’ll likely just charge to 90% again, which should only take about 40 minutes or so.

Howe’s second rule of Tesla driving also comes from flying: Always have a backup flight plan. I’ve got a few for this trip:

1. RV campgrounds. Should the Augusta supercharger be down (unlikely) or we run short of range in the area around Orono, my backup plan is to check into Paul Bunyon campground in Bangor for a few hours and make use of their 240-volt 50-amp service. That will add range to my car at the rate of 29 miles per hour of charging. It’s not my first choice because adding 100 miles of range would take about 4 hours, but it would work in a pinch.
2. The local Nissan dealer. Nissan sells the Leaf electric car and provides charging facilities for them and to the public. I could stop at the Bangor Nissan dealer, and take advantage of its J1772 charger (Tesla supplies an adapter), although that wouldn’t really be any faster than the RV park. It’s a backup plan but I feel like it’s also a bit tacky to take advantage of another EV manufacturer’s charging infrastructure. Consider this a backup to the backup.
3. Dunkin Donuts. I could also stop at the Bangor Dunkin Donuts in Bangor for some 240 volt EV service, but it will only charge at 2 amps instead of 40. That would take a lot longer than the campground, but it is free.
4. My hotel. If you ask nicely, often hotels will let you plug into one of their 110-volt outlets for a charge. I’ll only be at the hotel about 8 hours, and 110-volt outlets only add about 3 miles of range every hour. Still, if I were desperate, another 24 miles of range might allow me to get to a faster charging system somewhere else. This is, in my view, an absolutely last resort option.

By the way, if you’re not into detailed trip planning, Tesla makes it easy for you to improvise trips like this. Tesla’s on-board navigation system will automatically route you through superchargers and will alert you if your route or range falls below the distance needed to drive to the next charger. I can also pull up PlugShare on the in-car Web browser if I want to research other charging options.

Bottom line: We will have plenty of charge for all our planned stops, we have 20% of our charge reserved for contingencies, and we have backup plans if things go south. This should be a lot of fun and no stress.