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Can someone explain Range Mode?
- Thread starter Cripps
- Start date
One thing I have noticed on countless road trips watching the battery temperature is that often the car seems to increase the battery temperature when the state of charge drops low. Even in situations where I felt I was cutting it close and reduced speed for the last 20 min or so, the battery temperature goes up. I believe the car is trying to warm up the battery at lower SoC to be able to get the most out of it when it gets close to the end.
Once we have lower temperatures I will experiment with range mode again. I doubt it has changed but it's worth a try.
Ye
Yes that's normal. I get that too. The car will let the temperature of the battery go up or down without trying too hard to keep it at any level. If the ambient temp is 37 C, the car only has the ambient air to 'cool' the battery and as a result the battery will get warmer due to being used. If the ambient temps are 10 C, though, the car will use the radiators to cool the battery once it goes over 30 C. Once you switch range mode on, you can see how it bypasses the radiators and uses warm coolant from the drive train to get the battery warmer. But you can only see this behavior when the ambient temp is low. In hot areas with high ambient temps, the battery will get warm and the car won't take action unless it hits that 50 C point where it becomes active cooling.
In warm areas you might never see the effect of range mode in terms of battery temperature.
Yes that's normal. I get that too. The car will let the temperature of the battery go up or down without trying too hard to keep it at any level. If the ambient temp is 37 C, the car only has the ambient air to 'cool' the battery and as a result the battery will get warmer due to being used. If the ambient temps are 10 C, though, the car will use the radiators to cool the battery once it goes over 30 C. Once you switch range mode on, you can see how it bypasses the radiators and uses warm coolant from the drive train to get the battery warmer. But you can only see this behavior when the ambient temp is low. In hot areas with high ambient temps, the battery will get warm and the car won't take action unless it hits that 50 C point where it becomes active cooling.
In warm areas you might never see the effect of range mode in terms of battery temperature.
I've seen the behavior with ambients from 20C to above 30C. Car is still sending heat to the pack at those temperatures, which means it's in passive heating. I can reconfirm when it gets colder.
In other words you think it just heats up the battery to 40 C regardless of the range mode setting? Could be. Maybe they realized that temperature doesn’t affect degradation as much and the advantage of a warmer battery is a better choice.
Not so - at least on some cars. There's a noticeable difference in the slight whine from the front motor when my car enters range mode. I'm sure this associated is the "torque sleep" that came out with the P85D. For those who haven't been around as long, this changed the way that power is distributed between the front and rear drive units in such a manner as to optimize power consumption.
Probably not, however I don't need maximum range most of the time, I'd rather not have to park 1300lbs of pack at ~41C and heat up my garage. It wouldn't have been hard to give the user control over pack temperature regardless of conditions, i.e. heat it to full working temp in the winter, and don't heat it at all in the summer.
I used to have this difference, it was quite noticeable at low speeds, then it stopped doing anything after some firmware update. The behavior seemed to change a lot between firmwares, would have to check again on the current. Got tired of doing my 1000 point QA cycle on Tesla's releases, it just does whatever now. Thanks for the release notes, Tesla.
I agree I would love to have some control over things like that. There are situations where the car doesn't know what I intend to do so manually control of some battery management parameters would be helpful. At least to geeky owners
BTW, I drove for about 4 hours today and the temperatures were kind of low (for this area). The battery was 85 F at the start. It warmed up to about 100 after about 2 hours. I watched the temperature and compared it to the 'battery inlet' temp sensor. The entire time the car was pumping slightly cooler coolant into the battery. So it definitely didn't try to warm it up. With range mode on, that's what it would do. It would have pumped warmer coolant (from the DU) into the battery. So I think range mode still works the same as it used to.
I'm going to guess there is different logic for 90 vs 85. Most likely Tesla trying to compensate for accelerated degradation in the 90 packs.
I'm a Performance 3 owner hopping across the fence out of frustration of lower than expected range. We don't have a Range Mode and really need one. There seems to be little information I can find about this. What highway range do you experience with/without the Range Mode? How much does it help? I know your front motor is 4% taller geared than your rear, not that this gearing equates to a 4% gain. Has anybody done any pseudo-scientific personal testing of this? Even in good weather, my P was getting 260 miles range driving 65mph or slower.
gavine
Petrol Head turned EV Enthusiast
Others are seeing 260 as well. Your pack needs to be recalibrated. Charge to 100% and down to 10% three times in a row. Have you been charging to 70% daily? It’s too much of a coincidence thet you’re seeing 260 at 100%.
I don't mean it shows 260 miles. I mean that going 65mph, I get about 260 miles of range. On the 3, it takes 242 Wh/mi to reach the rated 310 mile range. For 260 miles, that is 288 Wh/mi.
Looking at video of the S with and without Range Mode, it seems to help about 7% by reducing power to auxiliary things and shutting down the larger and shorter geared rear motor. Since the 3 wouldn't have the benefit of taller gearing when the front motor shuts down, Range Mode alone would likely be a lower percentage gain, but I'd take anything I can get. It might be an extra 20 miles or be able to go 5mph faster. Driving 65mph to make range in a 75mph zone where people go 80+ isn't the smartest thing.
I'm late to this thread, but for anyone happening to come across it later with a similar question, I would advise always buying the biggest battery you can afford. I bought a 100 rather than a 75 without really understanding the benefits, but there are lots and they are significant.
One example, a supercharger runs faster on a 100 than on a 75 due to voltage differences. But additionally, charging speeds ramp down significantly at around 70-80%. On my 100, that's the equal of a full battery on a 75. So I charge faster and in miles per minute at the charger I charge significantly faster. But as I said, I didn't understand any of that when I bought my car initially.
In talking to the service center, the most common wish amongst Tesla S/X buyers is that they bought a 100 rather than a 75.
jeremy0916
Member
I have the 90 on my 2015 23k miles. I just got it this past weekend. The fact we are supposed to stay in like an 20%-80% range hurts compared to getting advertised 300 miles of range. Pretty sure over 5 years the battery has likely gone downhill ever so slightly. I suppose my realistic range is likely close to 220-230 or so if I stay in the window of desired charge ranges and account for years of minimal use.
Thats only a problem if that where you keep it. Don't lose one second of sleep charging it to 100, and driving it down to 5% to make your drive. Just once you arrive at your destination, return things to normal.
It's fine to charge it up to 100, just do it shortly before you leave rather than a week in advance, or leaving it there always. Similarly, if you drain it down to 5% (or 1%), charge it back up as soon as you arrive so it's not staying there. The goal is to not live in the extremes, not to never be there. Just like your body, Adrenaline is fine, but there's going to be a problem if you're continually under extreme stress.
Kev.
SSonnentag
埃隆•馬斯克
Range mode doesn't heat the battery, it ALLOWS the battery to get hotter before active cooling kicks in. I'm sure there is a minimum allowed temperature before some battery preservation heating kicks in as well, but in general, range mode is not kind to the battery. It also cuts the maximum cabin heating and cooling power draw down to 3kW, instead of the usual 6kW.
jeremy0916
Member
Interesting, didn't realize that is what can be damaging was leaving it in that state. Will keep that in mind for my longer trips.
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