Dallas (Plano) to Austin - 440 mile roundtrip

A

AndysComputer

Well-Known Member
My wife and I may take a visit to Austin in the near future and despite owning a Tesla, which is more suited to this kind of trip, I like the challenge of trying to do it in the Mini.

Now, ABRP says it can be done but I will need to stop 3 times to charge, totaling 56 minutes, and I will arrive at charger 2, charger 3 and my destination with just 5% battery each time.

My range tests at speed suggest the car can do better than that, in fact I could do it with 1 charge stop (the 2nd one on the ABRP list) and I would get to that charger with about 13% charge left even though I skipped a charge. So ABRP is massively, massively pessimistic here...

If I can make the 114.5 miles to that charger on one charge then I can in theory make it all the way to Austin without charging again as it would be a further 109 miles.

Now, granted, my single stop would be longer and far into the top end of the pack so maybe I won't save any charging time, but I prefer my theory:
  • 1 hour 50 mins of driving
  • 50(?) minute stop (12% to 97%)
  • 1 hour 50 mins of driving
  • Arrive with 10%
vs ABRP (set on least charging stops):
  • 40 minutes driving
  • 11 minute charging stop (64% to 89%)
  • 1 hour 15 mins driving
  • 34 minute charging stop (5% to 86%)
  • 1 hour 15 mins driving
  • 12 minute charging stop (5% to 32%)
  • 28 minutes driving
  • Arrive with 6% battery

Now, if ABRP is pessimistic on power use then it's being very optimistic on charging speeds because it thinks going from 64% to 89% on that first charge will take just 11 minutes which I doubt...


Before taking the trip for real I decided to see if I could make that 2nd charger on a single charge, and also could I make it home as that could be different...

 
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AndysComputer said:
My range tests at speed suggest the car can do better than that, in fact I could do it with 1 charge stop (the 2nd one on the ABRP list) and I would get to that charger with about 13% charge left even though I skipped a charge. So ABRP is massively, massively pessimistic here...
Click to expand...

If you haven't already, I recommend adjusting ABRP's default Reference Consumption value to reflect what you have actually measured on your range test trip with similar weather. Hopefully that would result in a plan that is closer to your expectations.
 
AndysComputer said:
My wife and I may take a visit to Austin in the near future and despite owning a Tesla, which is more suited to this kind of trip, I like the challenge of trying to do it in the Mini.

Now, ABRP says it can be done but I will need to stop 3 times to charge, totaling 56 minutes, and I will arrive at charger 2, charger 3 and my destination with just 5% battery each time.

My range tests at speed suggest the car can do better than that, in fact I could do it with 1 charge stop (the 2nd one on the ABRP list) and I would get to that charger with about 13% charge left even though I skipped a charge. So ABRP is massively, massively pessimistic here...

If I can make the 114.5 miles to that charger on one charge then I can in theory make it all the way to Austin without charging again as it would be a further 109 miles.

Now, granted, my single stop would be longer and far into the top end of the pack so maybe I won't save any charging time, but I prefer my theory:
  • 1 hour 50 mins of driving
  • 50(?) minute stop (12% to 97%)
  • 1 hour 50 mins of driving
  • Arrive with 10%
vs ABRP (set on least charging stops):
  • 40 minutes driving
  • 11 minute charging stop (64% to 89%)
  • 1 hour 15 mins driving
  • 34 minute charging stop (5% to 86%)
  • 1 hour 15 mins driving
  • 12 minute charging stop (5% to 32%)
  • 28 minutes driving
  • Arrive with 6% battery

Now, if ABRP is pessimistic on power use then it's being very optimistic on charging speeds because it thinks going from 64% to 89% on that first charge will take just 11 minutes which I doubt...


Before taking the trip for real I decided to see if I could make that 2nd charger on a single charge, and also could I make it home as that could be different...

Click to expand...


Very well done. I don't have a Mini yet but my take away is you had perfect weather and you appear to have spent a lot time below the 70mph speed which from what I've read greatly enhances the range. Do you happen to have a avg. mph for this trip?
 
Temperature was about 24degC / 74 F outside so driving in Green mode with climate set to 21 / 70 meant AC was working but not hard.

I did spend a lot of time below 70mph, basically because there was a lot of construction where the limit was down to 65 or even 60. Plus I hit bad traffic around Dallas especially on the way back as it was rush hour.

According to Apple Maps the outbound trip it should take 1hour 57 minutes so that works out at an average of 59mph.

However it actually took 2 hours 10 minutes so the average was 53mph.

I did check on the way back and noticed that on the clips where I was cruising at 70mph and based on distance covered between battery checks I was getting 13 miles for every 10% which matches up to my earlier testing so in theory getting there should have left me with 12% battery. But that is better than expected because in the prior test I was driving in green+, but in Green this time so I would have expected some range lost with the AC running...
 
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MichaelC said:
If you haven't already, I recommend adjusting ABRP's default Reference Consumption value to reflect what you have actually measured on your range test trip with similar weather. Hopefully that would result in a plan that is closer to your expectations.
Click to expand...

I did try that. It refuses to even attempt the trip to that charger in one go even if I set it as low as 150wh/m and limit top speed to 65mph. And that’s with arrival allowed at 1%, no battery degradation and 70degF weather…

They just don’t have nearly enough data for the Mini to be useful imho.
 
I guess so.
I have one but haven't tried using it with their app yet.

One thing I don't like is that they ask you to set a route in their app and then follow it so they can see how the data lines up.
In this case I fundamentally did not want to follow their route plan because they were so far off, lol!
 
I have a 133 mile road trip to pick up a half a cow, I'm a little nervous to try it in the mini.
 
Round trip?
That distance is doable as long as it's not too hot or cold out.
Keep the speed down and you should make it.
At 70mph on the freeway with no ac/heat needed and no headwind I managed 132 miles to 0%.
On 45-60mph roads with plenty of red light intersections but in the same conditions I got over 165 miles to 0%.

You should be fine.
Gaining elevation is your enemy
Speed is your enemy
Headwinds are your enemy (20mph headwind is like driving 20mph faster and having it as a tailwind does not cancel it out later)
Cold is your enemy (and heat but less so)
 
One way, and ABRP has me at 10% at the end of the trip. I wonder if the weight of the cow will affect the efficiency.

ab.webp
 
sousvide said:
Waiting for your Dallas to Houston trip!
Click to expand...

I do want to try that sometime, but I'll start with going all the way to Austin instead of halfway!

We may be taking a road trip to California in our Tesla in a couple of weeks if a few health things in our personal life go well...
 
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