6 months in... Charging already going south

[Qttire1]

Bought a 70d 6 months ago. Started out 80% charge getting 215 miles. Once did a 100% and charged to 240. Would go to super chargers occasionally and the first time could not believe how fast and the amperage it was at. Fast forward 6 months and 3 updates and now 80% (daily charge) only gets 204 miles. Daily driving does not even come close to getting the miles as it did brand new. It is a lot colder as we are in the middle of winter and bought the car in the summer (Virginia). Did not realize the heater drains way more than the a/c. Lastly, superchargers..... was in need of a quick charge to get back home from 1 hour away, Got to the supercharger with 100 miles left thinking we could back to 200 in about 20 min or so and the charger would only charge at 26kw. Thought it might be a bad charger so moved over to the next one and same thing, after about 10 min only went to 35kw and stayed there. 8 superchargers and we were the only one using it.

- anyone have charging issues after the 8.0 update
- is the cold weather that bad on the charging and or daily driving mileage
- are others experiencing same super charger issues.

 

[dhrivnak]

....
- is the cold weather that bad on the charging and or daily driving mileage
....

Yes cold can be a large hit on range. In NE Tennessee I have seen as much as a 25% hit on range trying to stay warm. The range comes back in the spring, but winter is hard.

 

[Skipdd]

@Qttire1, getting less range in cold is normal. If you look at the energy app when you are driving you will see a much higher draw in energy n cold weather vs in warmer weather. I see you live in Va. Not sure where, but in the DC area they are predicting it to be in the 60s one day this week. If you select the energy app then, and note energy use, and then compare that to when it's in the 20s and 30s, you should see a big difference. There are lots of posts about this, including some that provide tips on how to reduce the amount of energy used when it's cold. The 2 that I found most useful are to pre-heat the car in the morning, and to use the seat heaters and heated steering wheel while keeping the temp setting a bit lower (I use 72). This won't help you if you don't have the cold weather package - sorry.

As for SpC issues - again lots of posts on this topic, but I don't recall seeing any noted issues with the 8.0 update. It may just be that SpC had issues. I have had that happen albeit it was an exception.

Btw, I have an 85D and my 90% is ~240. It has stayed pretty close to that number in the 18 mos I've had it. You do lose a little range off the top, and per posts I've read, this tends to happen early in ownership. Full charge for me is 268 vs 270 when new.

Cheers,

 

[No2DinosaurFuel]

Supercharging in cold is also slower too. Also cold batteries can hold less energy hence why you see the drop in rated miles. Wait until the weather warms up it will be up again. And the supercharging will speed up also.

 

[TexasEV]

The Tesla web site has an interactive thing where you can dial in the outside temperature and your speed and you can see how the range changes with cold. Go to the Model S page and scroll down towards the bottom. A little research would have gone a long way.

 

[trond.strom]

As for supercharging in the cold I arrived at SC with cold batteries and 35% charge, sat there for two hours to get to 100% Car never got above 40KW charging during the visit. I wasnt in a rush to get anywhere and I watched a movie on my ipad, so no big deal . I do think that this could have been communicated better by Tesla and some might fint the charging time excessive. Temperature was about -2c

 

[dedicatedtek]

Started out 80% charge getting 215 miles

I think you may have misread a number..... My 70 is about 215miles for 90% not 80. and about 240miles for 100%.

 

[CT200h]

You would think that the car would warm the pack while charging at a reasonable rate and then ramp up SC power when the pack reached a Normal temperature.

 

[Saghost]

You would think that the car would warm the pack while charging at a reasonable rate and then ramp up SC power when the pack reached a Normal temperature.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it does - charge as fast as Tesla considers safe for the current temperature while heating the pack as fast as possible.

Heating a thousand pound battery pack through narrow coolant channels takes a long time, and at really low temperatures (below freezing) there is no charging Tesla considers safe, so it can take a while. You really don't want to start plating metallic Lithium onto your anodes...

 

[BerTX]

I think you may have misread a number..... My 70 is about 215miles for 90% not 80. and about 240miles for 100%.

The OP has a 70D.

 

[hpartsch]

Bought a 70d 6 months ago. Started out 80% charge getting 215 miles. Once did a 100% and charged to 240. Would go to super chargers occasionally and the first time could not believe how fast and the amperage it was at. Fast forward 6 months and 3 updates and now 80% (daily charge) only gets 204 miles. Daily driving does not even come close to getting the miles as it did brand new. It is a lot colder as we are in the middle of winter and bought the car in the summer (Virginia). Did not realize the heater drains way more than the a/c. Lastly, superchargers..... was in need of a quick charge to get back home from 1 hour away, Got to the supercharger with 100 miles left thinking we could back to 200 in about 20 min or so and the charger would only charge at 26kw. Thought it might be a bad charger so moved over to the next one and same thing, after about 10 min only went to 35kw and stayed there. 8 superchargers and we were the only one using it.

- anyone have charging issues after the 8.0 update
- is the cold weather that bad on the charging and or daily driving mileage
- are others experiencing same super charger issues.

I did a trip recently and the cold caused me to get 1/2 of the rated range. I was quite surprised (and a bit scared as I was wondering if a tow to was going to be necessary... had to extend my trip over a hour though by detouring to a supercharger). It's unfortunate the trip calculator was no where accurate. Cold weather definitely kills the range -- it will improve once it gets warmer. I hope Tesla really builds out the superchargers before the Model 3 release -- this would greatly help with this problem & I think things like this would tick off most of the general population.

 

[Dax279]

I did a trip recently and the cold caused me to get 1/2 of the rated range. I was quite surprised (and a bit scared as I was wondering if a tow to was going to be necessary... had to extend my trip over a hour though by detouring to a supercharger). It's unfortunate the trip calculator was no where accurate. Cold weather definitely kills the range -- it will improve once it gets warmer. I hope Tesla really builds out the superchargers before the Model 3 release -- this would greatly help with this problem & I think things like this would tick off most of the general population.

What were your conditions?

 

[jerry33]

I found that switching back up to 90% added miles back over time (85S). My thought is that an 80% charge allows the modules to become unbalanced. The balancing circuits are activated at 93% and then remain active until the pack is balanced.

 

[brkaus]

Also note, in the cold lots of short trips are the worst case. It heats the battery each time, then it cools while sitting.

My understanding is that you can also use range mode to help, if you need the range.

 

[Saghost]

I did a trip recently and the cold caused me to get 1/2 of the rated range. I was quite surprised (and a bit scared as I was wondering if a tow to was going to be necessary... had to extend my trip over a hour though by detouring to a supercharger). It's unfortunate the trip calculator was no where accurate. Cold weather definitely kills the range -- it will improve once it gets warmer. I hope Tesla really builds out the superchargers before the Model 3 release -- this would greatly help with this problem & I think things like this would tick off most of the general population.

The first twenty or thirty minutes are much worse than the rest of the trip in terms of consumption, as the car and pack warm up.

Once everything is warm, freezing weather without precipitation is only about a 10% overall penalty in my experience. Extreme cold or rain/snow will make it worse, of course.

 

[hpartsch]

What were your conditions?

Weather between 25F and 10F, more on the 10-15 side. Mostly highway speeds. Does changing the fan speed to 1 and keeping the temp the same, versus automatic climate control help with the range? For some reason anything lower than 67 was super cold air blowing out. And then the windows fogged up when I turned the cc off -- not something I want to have happen when I'm driving.

 

[DarkMatter]

It's weird to see people suggesting turning down the heat to 72. I run hot so that would be turning it up!

Yes, the cold has a big impact. I tracked the mileage on my ICE vehicles for over a decade and here in the PNW take a 20% hit on mpg in winter, and I avoid idling and warming up the car. Preheating when you're on shore power helps, as does adjusting the charge the last 10% up a half hour before you go to preheat the battery pack.

 

[Maximapolak]

I did a trip recently and the cold caused me to get 1/2 of the rated range. I was quite surprised (and a bit scared as I was wondering if a tow to was going to be necessary... had to extend my trip over a hour though by detouring to a supercharger). It's unfortunate the trip calculator was no where accurate. Cold weather definitely kills the range -- it will improve once it gets warmer. I hope Tesla really builds out the superchargers before the Model 3 release -- this would greatly help with this problem & I think things like this would tick off most of the general population.

In terrible weather, I've lost about 25% range. Did you have the heat on high and everything else imaginable on the whole time?

 

[DarkMatter]

Weather between 25F and 10F, more on the 10-15 side. Mostly highway speeds. Does changing the fan speed to 1 and keeping the temp the same, versus automatic climate control help with the range? For some reason anything lower than 67 was super cold air blowing out. And then the windows fogged up when I turned the cc off -- not something I want to have happen when I'm driving.

Auto is pretty good about managing things. You can do slightly better with manual tweaks but imo it's not worth it if you're already set at 72 or lower.

 

[DarkMatter]

Also, what is highway speed for you? That's a big difference. Do you have smooth speed control? That makes a difference even at the same speed. Both of these factors are identical in an ICE also.