Are Old Model S Cars Still Good? (NEW VIDEO)

[Gr8dane]

Hi - I make car videos in my spare time, and my latest one is about our old 2012 Model S (P85).

If you enjoy car videos, take a look!

I hope you enjoy it and I would love to hear any feedback you might have. Be sure to let me know in the comments on YouTube that you are a member from here, so we can represent and grow the community!

Thanks!

 

[EastCoast85D]

Not bad on the range. My best run ever in my 85D was 39% battery used to travel 115 miles in 50 degree weather which works out to almost 295 miles of range. Autopilot set to 65mph, climate set to auto 72 and whatever traffic patterns dictate the average speed.

I am fairly certain that until the advent of the latest refresh model s, Tesla only made very minor gains in efficiency outside of fine tuning the aero and the wheels and most of the range gained was through larger batteries with more usable capacity

 

[Gr8dane]

Not bad on the range. My best run ever in my 85D was 39% battery used to travel 115 miles in 50 degree weather which works out to almost 295 miles of range. Autopilot set to 65mph, climate set to auto 72 and whatever traffic patterns dictate the average speed.

I am fairly certain that until the advent of the latest refresh model s, Tesla only made very minor gains in efficiency outside of fine tuning the aero and the wheels and most of the range gained was through larger batteries with more usable capacity

That's an impressive run!
I'm still surprised by the total range on my battery after all these years. I suspect the battery may have been replaced at some point, but I have only owned the car for 3 years, so I don't know much about its past.

 

[TimT]

Also impressed. I envy the 85 range. Currently run a 70. 2015 S has been a very solid ride.

 

[Gixx1300R]

Nice video

 

[EastCoast85D]

Found the screenshot of the trip meter of it. Comes out to about 290-295 miles of range.

 

[cpa]

I watched your video. Well done! A couple of things from a dude who has driven his same 2014 S85 since new in May 2014.

The serial numbers of the first 85kWh battery packs ended with the letter A. If you look in the right front wheel well with the tires turned, you should be able to see the part number. If it ends with an A, then that is more than likely the original battery. "A" series packs were limited to 90kWh Supercharging speeds. With a 2012 model, it is quite possible that you have one of the original packs. Those packs were not subject to the issues (reduced charging speeds and the temporary reduction in battery capacity) that later models experienced.

For elevation gains/losses I would suggest a more strenuous drive than a light-to-moderate drive from sea level to sea level that crosses the hills on the Riverside Freeway and then descends into the Coachella Valley that is below sea level by and large. (I happen to know Cook Street and the urban-style [72kW] superchargers in that outdoor shopping center on Bob Hope Drive.) A drive up the Grapevine and down to the Superchargers on either side of Interstate 5 at the Laval Road exit might provide better insight into the losses on ascent versus the regeneration on the descent. The SC at the outlet mall on the east side of I-5 can charge up to 250kW (Models 3 and Y). They have the skinny cables and the stalls usually do not share the power feed. The SC on the west side of I-5 are the older Version 2 SC with the thicker cables and a maximum output of 150kW. That style shares power with like-numbered stalls, so 1A shares with 1B and 8A shares with 8B and so on. This sharing means that if I plug in and start receiving 105kW, and you plug in 10 seconds later at the paired stall, I will immediately drop to 72kW, and you will receive a maximum of 72kW. I get barely 100kW on my '14S 85 during hot weather on either style for a short time if the battery level is < 15%.

I might also add to illustrate that the battery charges faster at lower states of charge. You could plug in with ~40% state of charge to see the rate and again with ~15% state of charge to compare the speeds. The differences won't be as noticeable if you have the 90kWh limitation with an A series battery, but will still be revealing.

Again, nice work!

 

[maximizese]

Nice video. A few things that may bring some clarity. With respect to range:

1) The rated range on the instrument cluster is based off a fixed Wh/mi X battery capacity. So that range does not account for variables such as elevation, wind resistance, speed over/under the limit, payload, etc.

2) The Projected Range estimate on the Energy -> Trip graph is your most accurate way estimation of range based on elevation and power consumption (which takes into account whether your driving over the speed limit).

3) As with any vehicle, the Tesla MS85 increases power consumption per mile as you go beyond 50mph. I believe someone posted a chart showing about an 8% range reduction for every 5mph over 60 one drives. In other words expect to get ~15% less range driving at 75mph compared to 65mph.

As for your battery, it appears yours is doing just fine. We bought our used 11/13 built S85 back in 2018; it we were enjoying 256 miles of rated range up until June 2019 when a software update reduced our range to 244 over night. Years later we hit another sudden decline and now we're only seeing a max range of 232 with 121K miles on the original battery. Our strategy now is to Supercharge with a low %SOC to take advantage of the faster charging, then head off to the furthest Supercharger site we can. It's rare that we Supercharge beyond 70%.

We just went from Newport Beach to Sonoma and back and spent about 2.5hrs Supercharging on the way up and about 2hrs Supercharging on the way back home.

 

[Gadget-X]

I know little or nothing about the older Teslas so I enjoyed the video. Thank You.

I do have one question about the Speedometer widget that is shown in the steering wheel display. I have a 2020 and I have looked around and never seen anything like that. I suspect that it must be an older system widget. I really liked it.

 

[swt2c]

I'm also curious about the Speedometer widget, which I've never seen on my 2017, either. I'm assuming perhaps it only shows up on pre-autopilot cars, since that's where the autopilot visualizations show up?