Range anxiety from a first time EV buyer.

[Dantes]

Maybe I missed it in your thread, but I don’t know how long you’ve owned your truck. It doesn’t take too long to get over the range anxiety, but it does take a little time. I remember having it when I purchased my 2018 Model 3. It took a few weeks-ish. Getting used to how an EV works in general can be a bit of a mind Trip. Miles do seem to disappear off the battery, but that’s because everything (literally everything) is running off the battery. Whether that be alarm, sentry, remote monitoring, AC, overheat, driving, etc. So you get all these features, but it does consume your power. I’ve noticed when I’m actually driving for a roadtrip, I’m much closer to an acceptable range than when I’m doing my daily jaunts about the city.

I'm pretty fortunate that there's plenty of superchargers in my area as well as at work. Hoping there will be updates on better power consumption management as well as a breakthrough in battery tech that will enable us to get better batteries in the future. Haven't done a long trip yet though.

Sponsored

 

[Dantes]

You'll realize after a short time range anxiety is silly.

You do have to retrain yourself to understand "fueling" at home with EVs vs ICE where you fuel at gas stations. It's simply a matter of being proactive. In a very short time you'll see how superior it is to always leave the house fully "fueled".

When camping, you need to be aware of charging networks, or, if you really camp in the middle of nowhere for extended periods of time, you bring a generator.

YEah extended trips is what I'm trying to figure out but the generator is a great idea!

 

[Dantes]

I was new to EV's and was also used to driving a truck with 500+ mile range. After seeing how easy it is to charge at superchargers and at home I now wonder why anyone thinks its an issue. What range anxiety?

Makes sense but I haven't tried charging at home living in my apartment. Gotta grab an extension cable and run it through the garage. I live in a super nice area with super chargers everywhere and even at work so I haven't needed to charge it at home yet but haven't tried a long trip yet. Especially since the truck needed to be towed 5 days after I got it in May. Screen flashed red with alarm sounds "Critical Malfunction Detected" on the screen and I had to pull over and stop. Car only allows you to override it and drive at only 4mph and that had me thinking "Oh shit... what if this happened while camping in Barstow?" Even more so when they gave me the truck back the following week and as soon as I got to work, it happened again.

 

[Dantes]

Sentry chews up energy and your previous cars didn't have it, so why not turn it off? (Or at least ignore its effects).
Home charging doesn't stop energy drain from sentry but does prevent SOC lost and mostly ensures you leave home with a fullish 'tank'.
We had a 200+ mile round trip this week so I set the charge limit to 100%. Ended up getting home with 30+% left. Passed 4 (will be 6 soon) Supercharging sites over the trip.

Yes, the in-laws live in a Supercharging void and a real Cybertruck CCS adapter would be handy, but we were still able to visit them with plenty to spare by charging on the way. There are regions where this is not the case though. Winter will cut range, TBD how much, but preconditioning at home does make a big difference.

Would love to charge at home but haven't figured out a convenient set up yet as I park the truck behind my apartment away from the street to keep it a little more private. Hence why the Sentry mode is always on. Cleared out my garage this weekend and until my neighbor clears his side, I'm not sure if it'll even fit. Backed it in a little and it's pretty tight. Other problem is that I'm not sure where to put my motorcycle if my truck is taking up the garage space lol

 

[Dantes]

I had a little bit of range anxiety when I first bought my 2018 M3, but it all went away when I switched from "Miles" to "Percent." With Percent remaining, you don't have to worry when you have 58% left, but 197 miles remaining sounds worse for some reason.

Like with your cellphone or laptop, we don't worry about how much mAh or time those devices have remaining in the battery, but it's easy to understand how much percent is left.

It took me a few months before realizing Percent > Miles remaining.

As for road trips, you will have nothing to worry about. Superchargers are everywhere now.

Appreciate the tip, I'll have to try switching back to %.

 

[Dantes]

I told people all the time the EV has a 300+ mile range and I only have about a 200 mile bladder. Rarely does anybody drive 500 miles in a day unless you’re on a road trip and then you’re using the supercharger network and stopping to charge. I’ve been an EV owner since 2015 with a Tesla model S and later a model X and now a cyber truck. There’s plenty of charging around so topping off the battery when you need to is no big deal. So I would just enjoy your vehicle

Oh I definitely enjoy it. It's really hard to get out of it because I just want to drive it all the time lol. Moved closer to work back in December and now that I have the truck I'm wishing my commute was a little longer haha

 

[Dantes]

Sentry mode eats 10% per day.

I knew it. Hope they can figure out how to make it more efficient. Until I can park it inside it stays on though. Already caught a few co-workers tapping on the side panels.. smh "Hmmm is this really metal?" I know it's harmless to the truck but it's the disrespect of touching someone else's property that triggers me.. that and finger prints..

 

[Dantes]

Why not use the wall charger when your car is outside at home? It will charge the truck about 5% per night so it will negate the sentry mode drain. Figure out the garage situation. And bring in California you probably have superchargers everywhere.
My wife called me traveling back home and was freaked out because it said she would arrive at 1% at a supercharger she was going to. I said “Keep Calm and Slow Down”. She slowed down 10mph and arrived at the charger at 3%.

It's a bit tight. It's an apartment and we have some storage racks in there + my motorcycle. Tried fitting it in there this weekend after we cleared it out and until we get the neighbor to clean up his side... not enough space. Even with it cleared up, still gonna be a tight fit. Might be an inch or two too long. Width is just fine.

 

[Dantes]

[

I don’t see Tesla selling and installing new EV batteries specifically for upgrade purposes as likely in the future for Cybertruck. Tesla would love for you to upgrade your battery, but to do it by purchasing a new Cybertruck.

But, if we own our Cybertrucks for many years and miles, we could possibly get an upgraded battery, as a warranty replacement or as a component replacement in the future. It really depends on how much the Cybertruck's physical and software components change in the future.

There is already a precedent for this - the Nissan Leaf. The Leaf's physical and software changes to the battery, it's physical and electrical and control interfaces have been small enough to allow upgraded batteries for later year models to be installed (with modifications, perhaps) into older Leafs. Here is EVrides, a company that is doing this now, apparently, for the Leaf. They also support Teslas, although not for battery replacement, at least yet:
https://evridespdx.com/landing-custom/

Thank YOU!! So far this is the first comment that opened up this part of the discussion that I was hoping to see talked about more. (I know my post was long and had a lot of detail and context in my life but figured context was necessary) My thoughts are towards future breakthroughs but yeah that makes sense. It would be in newer models and entice previous owners to upgrade to a newer one. Don't think I wanna let go of my FS though. Keeping that as long as the universe lets me. Was gonna keep my Charger and give it to my kinds one day when I have them.. would have been so cool give them something that would be considered unusual to them and let them appreciate what I loved for the 11 years I had it for. It had a lifetime power train warranty so it would have lasted if the jerk that hit me didn't ruin it...

 

[jerhenderson]

OMG
WTF?
LOL!

IKR ???

 

[2blentendre]

Phantom drain appears to have been fixed two updates ago. If I turn off sentry and overheat, it sleeps like a baby.

How many percentage points are you losing overnight or in a 24hour period with sentry off and cabin cooling/overheat function off?

 

[Outdoors]

The business of battery improvement via replacement is a hard one. Like really hard. Why? It has to do with the buyer, and the life stage of the vehicle.

Many look at the proposition of a new battery at time of replacement as a cost benefit analysis.
New car=new battery (known cost for period of time again)
Old car+new battery=? (unknown future cost)

Then throw in the business in the middle of the equation trying to educate a potential customer that might be a little agitated at the moment.

It would be nice to see a large company step into that mix. Offer replacement packs for various cars that aren't refurbished packs, yet new. Again margins slim. Extensive work, engineering, and most of all liability.

I appreciate anyone stepping into the market, yet one off guys out of garage have burned many a people on the TMC forum for battery warranties etc. when they went kaput.

Long story short. Tesla would tell you to buy a new truck if you want more range when the new product comes out. Hey Tesla improves many aspects of vehicles over time that other OEM's are just learning about. Replacing the battery in cars and trucks with a growing powerwall business is not Tesla's business anytime soon.

 

[Dantes]

The business of battery improvement via replacement is a hard one. Like really hard. Why? It has to do with the buyer, and the life stage of the vehicle.

Many look at the proposition of a new battery at time of replacement as a cost benefit analysis.
New car=new battery (known cost for period of time again)
Old car+new battery=? (unknown future cost)

Then throw in the business in the middle of the equation trying to educate a potential customer that might be a little agitated at the moment.

It would be nice to see a large company step into that mix. Offer replacement packs for various cars that aren't refurbished packs, yet new. Again margins slim. Extensive work, engineering, and most of all liability.

I appreciate anyone stepping into the market, yet one off guys out of garage have burned many a people on the TMC forum for battery warranties etc. when they went kaput.

Long story short. Tesla would tell you to buy a new truck if you want more range when the new product comes out. Hey Tesla improves many aspects of vehicles over time that other OEM's are just learning about. Replacing the battery in cars and trucks with a growing powerwall business is not Tesla's business anytime soon.

Make's sense. Been watching videos on maintaining the longevity of your battery for as long as possible and looks like the best move is developing those healthy long battery life habits.

 

[eswimm]

Unfortunately, Sentry Mode is unlikely to ever be efficient enough to be viable for at home, unplugged usage. The hardware that runs it will never compare to a purpose built dash cam. 240W or so is pretty negligible when you're traveling 60+ MPH (only adding ~4Wh/mi), but sitting still it drains ~50x more power than a good dash cam. I installed a ThinkWare dash cam in my 2016 Model X before they introduced Sentry Mode and I'm thinking of re-installing it in the Cybertruck.

As for range anxiety, it's easily thwarted by basic planning. I never go boating or scuba diving without planning for gas or air consumption. Even though gas stations are common, you still usually make some plans for stopping. The Tesla navigation makes the process easy.

Working out a home charging solution would help if you absolutely need to keep Sentry on, but you could consider other options like a wireless security camera.

Sponsored