A close call with running out of battery power driving home

Here is a cautionary tale. Bottom line: Don't be dumb like us. Use the Supercharger network!

My wife decided to take a spontaneous trip, with our usual charge of 80% (indicated 268 mi range. The town was 110 miles away, so no big deal, right? Well, after interstate speeds and low temperatures, the return trip range was too low. Two options: (a) drive 45 minutes in the other direction to the Supercharger, then 2 hours home, or (b) get some juice from a hotel destination charger, have dinner, and drive 1.5 hours home.

She chose (b) - mistake 1. Charging took 3 hours and got her to 150 miles range. 40 miles buffer, no sweat. She plugged in the navigation, and it said go to the supercharger. Nah, we got enough to get home - mistake 2. Tesla said to keep it below 65 to make it home.

Long story short, the Tesla range kept going down faster than linear. I assume it was because of the cold (29° F). I was watching the range on my app from home, and it looked terrifying - it looked like she was not going to make it. She tried stopping at an Electrify America station just off the interstate, but it was CCS and CHAdeMO only. She kept it to 65 mph, then 60, then down to 55 as the range got closer to zero. Several miles from home, range finally indicated zero. I had driven our ICE car out of town several miles to follow her in case the car shut down.

She made it home, with the range on zero miles for several miles. Apparently there is some kind of reserve, but I don't want to ever ever find out how much that reserve is!

Lesson: Use the Supercharger network, even if it's out of the way. It might save time and keep you from losing years of your life to range anxiety.

 

[KJD]

Here is a cautionary tale. Bottom line: Don't be dumb like us. Use the Supercharger network!

My wife decided to take a spontaneous trip, with our usual charge of 80% (indicated 268 mi range. The town was 110 miles away, so no big deal, right? Well, after interstate speeds and low temperatures, the return trip range was too low. Two options: (a) drive 45 minutes in the other direction to the Supercharger, then 2 hours home, or (b) get some juice from a hotel destination charger, have dinner, and drive 1.5 hours home.

She chose (b) - mistake 1. Charging took 3 hours and got her to 150 miles range. 40 miles buffer, no sweat. She plugged in the navigation, and it said go to the supercharger. Nah, we got enough to get home - mistake 2. Teals said to keep it below 65 to make it home.

Long story short, the Tesla range kept going down faster than linear. I assume it was because of the cold (29° F). I was watching the range on my app from home, and it looked terrifying - it looked like she was not going to make it. She tried stopping at an Electrify America station just off the interstate, but it was CCS and CHAdeMO only. She kept it to 65 mph, then 60, then down to 55 as the range got closer to zero. Several miles from home, range finally indicated zero. I had driven our ICE car out of town several miles to follow her in case the car shut down.

She made it home, with the range on zero miles for several miles. Apparently there is some kind of reserve, but I don't want to ever ever find out how much that reserve is!

Lesson: Use the Supercharger network, even if it's out of the way. It might save time and keep you from losing years of your life to range anxiety.

A couple of things here. Glad you made it home without calling the tow truck.

In the winter time set your charge limit to 90% instead of 80%. It will NOT hurt the battery.

When you are doing a road trip in winter you can always get up in the morning and bump the limit from 90% to 100% and get ready eat breakfast and leave when the car nears 100%. I would never charge to 100% every day but once in a great while, like your winter road trip here it will be fine.

Get used to using the Energy screen. It will give you and average kWh used and update the estimated range based on the last 30 miles. It really works and you can see the changes due to weather or speed. Test it out by comparing 60 MPH to 80 MPH the difference will be significant.

If this trip had been done on a nice spring day with mild temps you probably would have been fine. You have to be more careful in the winter.

 

[LoudMusic]

The car is REALLY GOOD at estimating range and knowing when you need to charge. It's OK to trust it

 

[jcanoe]

When faced with faux range anxiety in my Chevy Volt I would start off at a very conservative speed, i.e. 55 MPH even if that meant driving in the slow lane. At the halfway point I would re-evaluate the situation. Usually I could increase my speed to at least 60 MPH and be confident that I could reach home. I say faux range anxiety because with the Volt I could always use the gas engine if needed. Still, learning to maximize range with a 14kWh usable battery capacity taught me how to drive for maximum efficiency. If faced with a similar situation in my Tesla Model Y I would start out at a lower speed, cycle the climate control on and off and rely mostly on the seat heaters. After passing the halfway point I would worry less about reaching my destination.

 

[Fourdoor]

This still surprises me that people don't know the effects of speed and weather on range. Personally, I would not try to do a 220 mile round trip at highway speeds in the summer on 80% of a charge!

Quick rule of thumb:

EPA range estimate is that you will get over 3 miles of range for each percent of SOC used... this is a fantasy at highway speeds (75 to 85 mph).

Real world summer range with real world weather (wind, rain, etc) you will get approximately 2 miles of range for each percent of SOC used. On an 80% charge your "real" summer range is around 160 miles... not 220, let alone 268. If I had 90% charge, with good weather (dead calm, 75F dry roads) I would do a 220 mile round trip without concern but as stated, that is for perfect weather and with my high tolerance for low SOC without getting range anxiety. I never plan on perfect weather for a road trip.

Real world winter range (light snow, cold, windy) 1.5 miles for each percent of battery used.

ALL OF THESE NUMBERS CAN BE IMPROVED BY SLOWING DOWN, OR (not controllable by you) DRIVING IN "PERFECT" (for that season) WEATHER.

Later,

Keith

 

[Empiro]

I'm glad your wife was able to make it back! I think I would have picked option b just like she did. Whenever range is a concern, start by driving off slow and then speed up if you have extra energy -- I think things would have been way less tense if she started off at 55.

 

[Twiglett]

also try another planner to verify if you have the opportunity.
I always use abetterrouteplanner.com before longer journeys, that really helps with expectations.

 

[boulder.dude]

+1 to putting the Energy display into Trip mode whenever you have any concern. (I wish they had a “road trip mode” that made it split the screen with nav and music!)

 

[gx9901]

I've never used the miles display for the battery since I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be that accurate. Instead I've always used the percentage display and got a good idea through driving observations on how the consumption level fluctuated with temperature, speed, etc so I feel like I have a pretty good grip on the car's range most of the time. Hopefully I won't ever find out about the "reserve" range when the battery hits 0%.

 

[Oddmanout]

The car is REALLY GOOD at estimating range and knowing when you need to charge. It's OK to trust it

I just wish the percent remaining on arrival wasn't buried at the bottom of the navigation turn by turn list. Would like to see current and final at a glance. And in a way that doesn't modify the map orientation.

 

[Ciaopec]

I just wish the percent remaining on arrival wasn't buried at the bottom of the navigation turn by turn list. Would like to see current and final at a glance. And in a way that doesn't modify the map orientation.

Bring up the range graph. Shows total trip; starting percentage; ending percentage; and "you are here in your trip".

 

[TomServo]

If I have doubts I start off in the right lane and run the speed limit and try to find a truck to draft behind until the car’s consumption settles down and I have a more accurate feel for it’s efficiency.

 

[Rocky_H]

I just wish the percent remaining on arrival wasn't buried at the bottom of the navigation turn by turn list. Would like to see current and final at a glance. And in a way that doesn't modify the map orientation.

YES! That used to work correctly, and then Tesla broke it that way in a specific software update so that it will only show that in the full trip view and with full turn-by-turn. I have requested for Tesla to un-break that, but have gotten no response.

 

[Rocky_H]

Bring up the range graph. Shows total trip; starting percentage; ending percentage; and "you are here in your trip".

Really? This isn't the S or X that have two separate screens where you have enough room to display a LOT of things. That could kind of make sense on those, where you can still see your Nav directions on the screen behind the steering wheel and then put the energy graph over on the center display screen.

This is the forum section for the Y. On the 3 and Y, you only have the one small screen. Most people want to have their Navigation up instead of the Energy graph. That one number should be able to be shown on the Navigation, without having to replace it or remove screen real estate from displaying the Energy graph for no other reason than to show one little number.

 

[Ciaopec]

Really? This isn't the S or X that have two separate screens where you have enough room to display a LOT of things. That could kind of make sense on those, where you can still see your Nav directions on the screen behind the steering wheel and then put the energy graph over on the center display screen.

This is the forum section for the Y. On the 3 and Y, you only have the one small screen. Most people want to have their Navigation up instead of the Energy graph. That one number should be able to be shown on the Navigation, without having to replace it or remove screen real estate from displaying the Energy graph for no other reason than to show one little number.

Gosh, I know it is the 3/Y forum. I just comment on how I do it on my MY. I can see enough of the nav display and have the energy graph displayed. It doesn't have to be displayed too long. I maybe more comfortable having driven electric for over 5 years. I can start our knowing my estimated arrival charge will be 8% knowing that I can probably milk that up to 10-12% without too much effort. Maybe I misunderstood the question but I thought my answer provided a solution to their perceived problem. Best solution? Maybe not. There is certainly a lot of room for improvement on the interface and what is available for display. That little energy bar on the left top part of the screen is worthless in its current form.

 

[Rocky_H]

I maybe more comfortable having driven electric for over 5 years.

Don't. I've been doing it for 8 years and was taking long trips since before the car software had an energy graph or did any kind of calculation of energy consumption over the course of a trip or did any estimate of arrival percentage. It's not that.

Maybe I misunderstood the question but I thought my answer provided a solution to their perceived problem. Best solution? Maybe not. There is certainly a lot of room for improvement on the interface and what is available for display.

Sure, that is a thing to do. But it's a bad thing to have to do. It's terrible that this used to be CORRECT in the interface. All we need is that one number shown right there on the Navigation pane, so people can see it right there the whole time while driving, without having to juggle between other apps that shouldn't be needed. And it used to be there!! Now we're having to scramble around with these terrible workarounds with wasting a lot of screen space and inhibiting being able to see enough of the map because Tesla REMOVED that % number from where it needed to be.

So sorry for dumping on your suggestion as a bad solution. It is bad, but so is everything else. But that's all we are left with, because Tesla took away the solution that was actually good.

One might also suggest touching the Nav view to keep toggling it back and forth from the driving view to the zoomed out Full Trip view every single freaking time you want to see what that % number is. That's another thing that people could do, which is also a really terrible workaround for this thing that we shouldn't have to be recommending.

 

[Fourdoor]

But that's all we are left with, because Tesla took away the solution that was actually good.

Elon giveth and Elon taketh away... mysterious are the ways of Elon.

The worst for me is taking away the driver profile button at the top of the screen. My wife is 4'8" tall, if the car picks up on her phone instead of mine when I tap the brake pedal the car tries to kill me by moving the seat all the way forward and the steering wheel all the way out. Previously I could tap the user profile button on the main screen and tap on my name to fix this... now I have to hit the car icon, then the driver profile, and then my name. It may not seem like much but when you are fighting muscle memory while being compressed to death it is a bit nerve wracking.

Keith

PS: At least they are making progress on vision only TACC's... during daylight driving I only get hard braking every time a semi truck is in the oncoming lane now rather than random slowdowns for no perceivable reason. It is still trash at night though.

 

[dannycamps]

All good advice here. I am one of those people who gets nervous when my ICE car drops below 1/4 tank of fuel so I try very hard not to let the battery in my Tesla dip below 20% on trips and will plan accordingly with respect to charging stops. For daily use, I always charge to 90%. If I know I am going on a longer trip, I bump that to 100%.

Having driven EVs for a number of years (first a Chevy Volt then a Tesla) you learn that it's easy to lose at least 40% of stated range in the winter so you have to be mindful of it.

As others have said, the energy graph is your friend and it boggles the mind to try to figure out why Tesla removed it on the newer S and X refreshes.

 

[Tariqueislam]

All good advice here. I am one of those people who gets nervous when my ICE car drops below 1/4 tank of fuel so I try very hard not to let the battery in my Tesla dip below 20% on trips and will plan accordingly with respect to charging stops. For daily use, I always charge to 90%. If I know I am going on a longer trip, I bump that to 100%.

Having driven EVs for a number of years (first a Chevy Volt then a Tesla) you learn that it's easy to lose at least 40% of stated range in the winter so you have to be mindful of it.

As others have said, the energy graph is your friend and it boggles the mind to try to figure out why Tesla removed it on the newer S and X refreshes.

 

[Tariqueislam]

If you had owned a Nissan LEAF ‘once upon a time’ you never ever would have problem with Tesla’s range estimation!!