I've written, rewritten, deleted, written again, and again deleted this post a lot. But one last try, in an uncharacteristically short summary for me:
Regarding balancing, we'd probably be best to forget about the doc we've seen. By my measuring, it is either incorrect or misleading. We don't know which parts are still (or ever were) true. Even if the doc is partly correct, imbalance is so incredibly unlikely that the imbalance scenarios I've tried outlining are plainly asinine.
If you are reading this, your battery is almost certainly properly balanced. If it is not, you're likely in talks with Tesla, not this forum.
This is not a personal jab, but what you just described is the definition of range-anxiety. I think perhaps you’re over thinking this whole thing in situations where it’s really not warranted.
Personally, I think they highlighted a very realistic approach to non-anxious driving. Planning and reacting is still absolutely necessary with EVs (especially in poor weather conditions, which you can't always plan for). Considering the data you need to make a trip successfully with limited "refueling" options is absolutely not over-thinking, but
required (especially where EV charging options are still thin, e.g. most places outside southern California).
errr - in most cases it is demonstrably NOT the case.
Most ICE cars after 10 years do not get anything like the same MPG compared to new, same for power output.
An ICE is degrading from the moment it is first run.
It seems like a lot of people on here haven't overly measured their ICE vehicles. Properly taken care of (and this is not hard), ICE vehicles can still get great mileage after 10 years. Our 12 year old Honda Fit still gets 5.3L/100km on the highway (worst case) and about 5.8L/100km (worst case) in the city. It's EPA rated for 7.1 L/100 km city, 5.5 highway. (lower is better for L/100km).
ICE vehicles are at their worst efficiency beginning of life (my Crosstour got something like 30% worse at new than when it was broken in!), get better after break-in (yepp, this is real), then have generally
fixable (certainly preventable) degradations to efficiency later in life. A
lot of engineering has gone into modern ICE, and they give
incredible reliability for all that's going on.
The worst degraded mileage I've witnessed is a buddy's old 1992 Mazda MX-3 V6. It was rated for 20mpg in city, but got more like 15. It ran
terribly and had multiple issues, but the actual efficiency hadn't degraded as much as you'd expect. It was just a 1992 vehicle that didn't have great efficiency to begin with, which is maybe why people think that cars old in years get so much worse? A 25 year old Tesla isn't going to be any better if it's even alive.
EVs literally get worse every day, and this is permanent and unrestorable (short of replacing the cells, which isn't "fixing" to me but replacing).
Dude I know. I have the same. 8.5 of the 9 months we own our Model 3 SR+ it’s lacking -11 to -14% capacity.
When I bring this up to Tesla they won’t help you because no error. They tell you rated range is variable, bms needs calibrations, lecture about outside temps, tire pressure, car doesn’t measure heater energy, used energy isn’t accurate, drive even slower then speedlimit...
All bullshit and excuses in three different Tesla service centers in NL. I am also pretty sure you have the right to know battery health.
And yes I have frequently driven from 90, 100% to 5% and charged back up. I never charge small narrow charges.
Want to test for yourself how rediculous it is? Ask what State of Health is exactly next time when you are at service, Tesla will tell you it’s secret. (Even though I/you own the car!)
Funny thing is they tell you it actually would cost you money to get it checked! Even when they can see true capacity, but they won’t tell you capacity..
Our SR+ is usually around 208 /240 rated miles. Been like this when we got it, effectively never has been a SR+
ScanMyTesla shows I have 44.8 kWh available capacity at 100% charge. With a 0.5kWh heatloss that means max 39.7 kWh useable with a 90% charge. Buffer is 2.1kWh
(new full pack is 54.45kWh, ours is 46.x at best)
I really don’t want to as a shareholder, but after my “cooling down” (furious) I might explore legal options..
If that doesn’t work you’ll see my personally made Documentary (I built my own E-moped, programmed it, know how BMS work, ex- electric-cartechnician and I can edit videos pretty well also!)
Tesla might disagree with your lack of narrow cycles (these would be better for the battery, but potential worse for calibration?). But don't go by the new full pack value; as far as I've seen, this value is the same for all vehicles of the same size battery and may not be representative of what
your battery was at new.