Wind speed vs Cybertruck (with single digit temperatures)

[CTSoFL]

We just returned from a 1600 mile winter trip along I-90 in Minnesota & South Dakota. FSD 13.1 AWD Cybertruck. Temperature single digits Fahrenheit.

Westbound, we started out in a blizzard a couple hours before sunrise. NO problems with traction or headlight issues. When the snow stopped, the wind picked up, a perfect headwind of 40-50 mph with higher gusts. I-90 speed limit is 80 mph in SD. With FSD (chill) at 70 mph, we were using 1000-1100+ Wh/mile. It was too rough going much faster. There was a lot of wind noise, like one would expect driving at 120 mph! That equated to about 1% battery range/mile. We stopped at every Supercharger. The Cybertruck was pretty good at estimating what the arriving charge would be at the next Supercharger, sometimes we'd see a percent or two lower than what was estimated after charging upon arrival.

The next day, the temperature was the same, but NO wind. 70 mph saw 480-520 Wh/mile. Going 80 mph was a "breeze" after the previous day.

Coming home today, we had some headwind, but nothing like last week. Maybe we saw 10-15% more Wh/mile.....and the ride was quiet.

You can see from the chart above that wind pressure is not linear with wind speed, but almost logarithmic, actually it is the square of velocity.

Lessons:
1) A trip will take longer with strong headwinds and use a lot more energy. www.windyty.com has pretty good forecasting. Plan ahead for slower road speed and more time charging.
2) The Cybertruck is pretty good estimating destination charge even with severe winds.
3) The wind noise goes up exponentially with speed (who knew?), but with equivalent 110-120 mph "effective speed," it IS noisy.
4) AT tires gave no problems on snow packed roads.
5) We never saw the headlight problems others have reported.
6) The batteries were almost always preconditioning in the cold weather, which reduced the range some.
7) What an AMAZING pleasant vehicle to drive, errrr, letting FSD drive us! Just have to plan on "working" a little harder with extreme headwinds.

Great write up.

Oh you betcha dont'cha ya know!!

Sponsored

 

[mcm4ss]

as far as your post. AWESOME. Love the positivity. As far as the Chevy stuff,,,I plow. 3 am there was a hummer plugged in a charger. He could not use Tesla for some reason. It took me 2 hrs to plow the lot. He was there the whole time!! WOW was he mad. I asked him if he needed a refill on his coffee. (I carry a gallon) conversation came up and I informed him that very station got me to 80% not 3 days ago in less than 20 mins.. Do not know why or what, but sure like my CT.

 

[koolio]

as far as your post. AWESOME. Love the positivity. As far as the Chevy stuff,,,I plow. 3 am there was a hummer plugged in a charger. He could not use Tesla for some reason. It took me 2 hrs to plow the lot. He was there the whole time!! WOW was he mad. I asked him if he needed a refill on his coffee. (I carry a gallon) conversation came up and I informed him that very station got me to 80% not 3 days ago in less than 20 mins.. Do not know why or what, but sure like my CT.

Hopefully you got him thinking of a Tesla ?

Assume he was charging at another DC fast charger or was he charging at a level 2 Chargepoint-like station?

 

[jimbobb23]

Just went on a long trip. Was very disappointed with my range but no doubt a portion of it was the wind....

 

[kpanda17]

Just went on a long trip. Was very disappointed with my range but no doubt a portion of it was the wind....

think airliners, headwinds kill their efficiency/consumption vs tailwinds, pushed from the west coast to the east cost, amazing from a year ago, Airbus traveling 826Mph, also think the opposite
its the cost and benefit of any moving object in wind

Sponsored