The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter
I do most of my long trips in my Model 3 in the winter, to go skiing. I usually do ~300 miles round-trip in a day. Here's what I do:<p>I leave my car plugged in overnight, in the "normal" charging mode.<p>While I get dressed, I turn on extended range mode and turn the heat on. This warms up both the car and the battery. It usually takes me about ~20 minutes to get dressed.<p>I stop at a Supercharger to use the bathroom.<p>If I can, I grab meals at a Supercharger.<p>Most of the time, I don't need to "wait" while the car charges, usually because I'm in the bathroom or waiting for food prep. If I do need to wait, it's usually about 5 minutes. Thus, total stopping time is about as much as a gas car.<p>The only limitation is that there's waaaay less Superchargers than gas stations. The only time I really had to wait a long time at a Supercharger was when I went to a ski area with a charger, and because it was early season, there were no lifts / shuttles to the parking lot with the charger. (Otherwise I'd have been able to drive home without charging.)<p>Edits: I have a 2018 long-range. It got a total of 307 miles new, now that it's 3 years old it's total range is ~280. (This is very close to the 2022 standard range, BTW.)<p>I get about 2/3rds of stated range in cold weather. I drive with the heat at 68, and I use the but warmer for a few minutes. I try not to exceed 75MPH on 65MPH roads, or 80MPH on 70MPH roads. Where I drive, often traffic exceeds the posted speed limit.