Tesla Model 3 - V3.0

Have a look at abetterrouteplanner (app or website) you can put in the car, change weather etc to see how different trips look. The main motorway routes (except M9) are well served but would always use the supercharger if there was a choice as plenty of stories of people queuing for an hour at Ecars chargers.

My wife had to do a round trip from Cork to Wicklow in our new SR+. She had to stop twice - her first time using public chargers.

the first one was at M14 ESB charger - she hit that with 40% charge. The setup for ESB e-cars is not good. You have to pre-pay your account so she put in €50. She hadn’t received the physical card from ESB. Then the charger wouldn’t connect to her phone so it took her 20 minutes to realise what was going on. Luckily a nice lady offered to pay for her charge (she fixed her up with Revolut). It took her an hour to add the extra 60%.

My experience first time with Ionity was way more seamless, faster and no prepayment. ESB still have her money btw.

Coming back down she filled 50% at tesla supercharge Ballacolla in 25 minutes. Worked seamlessly.

Query for someone who is familiar with ID3 as well as Tesla M3, in the ID3 if you drive on D, there is always a drag period before the speed drops down gradually, in z M3 I don’t seem to find driving mode as the D, is there is no drag in the Tesla ??

I think that answers my query , I was under the false impression that all EV have D/B drive modes( under different names…etc) and yes gradually I’m getting used to it

It's slow alright, but often chargers aren't working as they should. Nest time wait a few moments till car ramps up properly then check the car screen to see the charging power (kW). Should be 40kW + on that machine.

Edit, I see you were at 60% when starting, but still should be faster than you got. I have seen 40kW at 90% on the RWD.

@drver1 any chance of sharing what u were invoiced for? Even in a DM

I bought them for my 2 kids here

They work great and also got fixed the constant beeping when they weren't in the car.

I'm very happy with them

Yes driving at 100 would help vastly. I do 110 myself and I achieve good efficency driving at that speed.

If u drive at 110 you'll make it back to castlebellingham no problem

But as always just throw the round trip in the maps just to be sure.

Yes make sure u plug in overnight and precondition for your departure as the precondition takes it from your power supply and not the car battery

Before u leave for home just make sure the sat says u have enough juice to get to CB but I really cannot see how you won't.

And only charge enough at cb to get u home with a bit to spare. No point in going to 100% and arriving home with 70%

I went from Carlow to Belfast last week in my RWD, stopped in Castlebellingham on the way up, in the time it took me to eat I was back at 99%, and from there I was able to get to Belfast, back down to Bray and then a quick stop in Sandyford before heading back to Carlow.

Plan your trip so that you don't have to rely on the charging network in Northern Ireland. If you do get a charge treat it as a bonus and not a given..

We went up to the Christmas market in Belfast last December (don't bother, it's sh1t), and took on enough charge in Castlebellingham to make it back to Castlebellingham southbound later that day (and I'm in a 2020 SR+ with 409km WLTP). We planned on parking in Castlecourt shopping centre where there are about 7 chargers. We arrived into the carpark about 20 minutes after it opened and all chargers were available (there's 3-4 Tesla only destination chargers (11kW)), so plugged in.. when we returned about 2-3 hours later all chargers were occupied, and some EV's were parked in the spaces opposite (so they obviously came looking for a charge)... We left at 97% and drove all the way home without needing the stop in Castlebellingham (but crucially had we not got on a charger in Belfast, we still had enough to make it back to Castlebellingham anyway).

You are in an LFP RWD (not sure what year but you have more range than me), so charge up to 90%+ in Castlebellingham and don't worry about anything else. Don't slow down to preserve battery, speed limits all the way. If you see an opportunistic charge up in NI, take it, but don't sweat it if you don't get the charge.... as long as you have more than 50% battery when you arrive in Belfast, you know you're easily making it back to the Supercharger with range to spare...

If you plan on parking in Castlecourt, my advice would be to arrive there early enough after they've opened for best chance to get an available charger.

Out of curiosity, do you guys follow any specific charging best practices in terms of when to plug in? I follow the 100% once per week and such, but I dont really cover any long distances, so I'm unsure when to plug in. Generally a charge lasts me a week with about 30-40% left, so I plug in once a week back to 100% to align with Tesla LFP recommendation. Would it be advisable to let it drop further, before plugging in? I could probably get 10 days of range or more easily.

Just got a motorway tag for my model 3 from tolltag. Don't really want to mount it on the glass because i really like the clean uncluttered feel of the cabin.

Saw a vid of some guy who mounted inside the armrest but don't know if that works with my specific tag. Anyone got some good advice for a clean mounting point for the tag?