Good Prius friend @Lee Jay and I may quibble about precision but I've not seen anything to doubt his data. Granted I didn't look at the Vegas trip but it takes longer to apply the facts and data than it takes to make an inflated claim ("A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes.") Marine drill instructor, SSgt. Patterson, once said, "A grain of observation out weighs a pound of 'bovine fecal matter' every time." Bob Wilson
Carlsbad NM distances to with (round trip): 119 mi (238 mi) - Van Horn TX, South East South 135 mi (270 mi) - Odessa TX, East South East 169 mi (338 mi) - El Paso TX, West South West Approaching Carlsbad NM from Chihuahua Mexico, Van Horn TX would be the shortest route to Carlsbad and within range of many Tesla. One could drive from El Paso TX to Carlsbad NM with two return routes: 169 mi + 119 mi = 288 mi :: El Paso TX to Carlsbad NM to Van Horn TX 169 mi + 135 mi = 304 mi :: El Paso TX to Carlsbad NM to Odessa TX But these routes are 180 degrees wrong if returning to Colorado. The alternative is to snatch a 40 A charge from a NEMA 14-50 at a campground at an optimistic 30 miles additional range per hour. Optimistic because the car will taper down as it approaches a full charge. "Mama Bear" RV park at $5/hr would be a good choice headed back to Colorado. Alternative "Rampy Park" Tatum, NM is close to Carlsbad but further from the nearest SuperCharger. Bob Wilson
The way this trip would have actually worked in a Tesla is if the hotel I stayed at in Artesia, NM had a destination charger. We stayed there the nights before and after the trip to the caverns. That would have given us enough range to (barely) get from and to the Las Vegas, NM supercharger.
The funny thing is you and I know what it would take. If only we could find a Tesla advocate to contact the motels in Artesia NM and let them know: Tesla program to install distribution chargers. The $10k Federal Tax Credit (still in effect?) for a commercial EVSE. Of course you and I don't have a 'dog in that fight' and we won't unless the chicken or egg shows up first. Now if only we could find someone who would actually care enough to write and/or call them. Bob Wilson
I see no reason a suggestion from you or Lee wouldn't work. You don't have to be a Tesla owner to make such recommendations.
I made a suggestion to Elon that he make a SpaceX artifact donation to the Hutchinson Cosmosphere (an extremely cool place, by the way) and install some destination chargers there. I doubt it actually got to him personally, but I tried.
Elon gets a ton of email/tweets/mail. I would suggest making the suggestion to the Cosmosphere (sounds pretty cool) and give them this link. Charging Partners | Tesla You can also make a suggestion on that web page.
Good job!! don't I think it didn't get to Musk. You'd be surprised. A guy that stays awake 20 hours a day thinking of new stuff to do? Or his peeps? In the same vein - Aries Hotels 'listened' ... several of the group plug-in owners clubs went to many of the hotel chains - & guess who came through 1st. Yep Aries Hotels. Their business increased, so other hotel chains are following suit. At least in several States we've driven through. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Examples; Costco? Not so much. Walmart? Much better. Disney, where I work, has put in dozens & dozens of chargers throughout the various properties that they own throughout multiple counties & States - for hotel guests - as well as employees, as well as their studios & broadcasting stations. It came about because nagging people kept on nagging. .
After checking the map of the place, I now may have a reason to go to Kansas I love the focus of the museum. We have a new Bell Museum up here with a planetarium, but it has a broader focus on natural history. They have some stuff on the skies, but not as much, from the looks of it.
It is a truly amazing place. The only thing about it that isn't good is the food in the on-site cafeteria. But check this out: Cosmosphere - Wikipedia "The museum houses over 13,000 spaceflight artifacts - the largest combined collection of US and Russian spaceflight artifacts in the world..."
Costco used to have free chargers in our area but they took them all out. I talked to a local manager about the reasons. He said the chargers kept getting ICE'd and this led to fights and thus required too much management supervision. I have sent a letter to Costco suggesting they re-install the chargers, but charge a reduced fee for the electricity on a per minute basis. This income would pay for an attendant to be on-site and monitor who can use those spaces. Costco has attendants at their gasoline stations to keep the peace, they can have an attendant at their charging station too.
Back to the OP, I've learned that the power ratings Tesla puts out are the minimum for that model. There are tiny, even microscopic, differences between motors coming off the production line. These lead to differences in what individual motors can output. So some cars are a little faster. The same is true of ICE cars. The engine and transmission getting assembled just a little bit better, and you get slightly better performance. Lack of demand and uniqueness is not the only reasons why race engines are hand built.
I seriously doubt any difference has much to do with the motors. More likely differences in battery performance and, not intuitively, sensors like voltage and current sensors.
Apparently, Elon disagrees with you. Tesla is culling the most efficient motors (by slight margins) to put in their performance model 3 for maximum output.
The difference in motor efficiency between worst and best, given the manufacturing method they use, will be in the neighborhood of 0.1%. This was my specialty in grad school - I did my thesis on 3-phase permanent magnet motor/generator efficiency and other magnetic performances (such as reactance) as measured on a dynamometer.
