Consuming 40% more energy than estimated?

[GBMaryland]

This makes no difference of course. Why would it?

Seriously… You use four times the power when you slam your foot down to floor in a MYP than you do if you take it easy.

over a long trip it absolutely makes a difference…

 

[runningdenver]

I'm a new (12/31) y owner, and took it on a 900 mile road trip Denver to Albuquerque and back last month. I quickly realized what others are saying. Colder temps definitely have an impact, as does driving faster, wind, heating etc But then I came to another realization. I bought this car because it's fun to drive, particularly the acceleration, and the fact it cruises effortlessly at 80+mph. I don't want to drive 65 miles / hour (unless I'm limping to a supercharger), just to get a bit of extra range. I chose to drive faster, expecting slightly more frequent stops. And I turn down the heat, and use the heated seat and heated steering wheel, to counter slightly... I want to enjoy driving this thing.

 

[GtiMart]

... But chill mode is not what makes the difference. You can simply press less on the accelerator to achieve the same result.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Seriously… You use four times the power when you slam your foot down to floor in a MYP than you do if you take it easy.

over a long trip it absolutely makes a difference…

Yeah just don’t do that. It’s not the Chill mode that changes things.

I agree that if you are binary with your accelerator application it might matter slightly.

Using 4x the power only a small impact though. Depends on where the motor is most efficient. Accelerating fast makes only a small difference in efficiency. It’s not a huge deal. Probably more significant is the higher average speed. Remember the 1x the power has to be applied for roughly 4x as long! In the end your car has the same kinetic energy of about 0.3kWh, and you are pouring in an additional ~0.4kWh per minute of energy to keep going.

So over a long trip a few seconds of extremely high power output (which itself does not matter much since you have to add the energy somehow) would have negligible impact of course because it just is nearly zero energy relative to the whole (400kW for 4 seconds is 0.44kWh, which is not how it works anyway since ~zero power is required at zero speed for massive acceleration - use 200kW for the average to be really rough about it). It is not like you are speeding up and slowing down a lot - you might just floor it once per supercharge!

 

[Rocky_H]

I quickly realized what others are saying. Colder temps definitely have an impact, as does driving faster, wind, heating etc But then I came to another realization. I bought this car because it's fun to drive, particularly the acceleration, and the fact it cruises effortlessly at 80+mph. I don't want to drive 65 miles / hour (unless I'm limping to a supercharger), just to get a bit of extra range. I chose to drive faster, expecting slightly more frequent stops.

Thank you for saying this. I was in another thread where someone was insisting that people getting electric cars are always told DON'T drive fast. DON'T use the heat. DON'T drive into the wind, etc. That's false. No one is saying not to do any of those things, or that people can't do those things. They just have to accept the reality that it's going to be less efficient and will require more charging.

 

[3sr+buyer]

Thank you for saying this. I was in another thread where someone was insisting that people getting electric cars are always told DON'T drive fast. DON'T use the heat. DON'T drive into the wind, etc. That's false. No one is saying not to do any of those things, or that people can't do those things. They just have to accept the reality that it's going to be less efficient and will require more charging.

Of course, in ICEVs, driving faster and driving into the wind increases fuel consumption. But maybe people do not notice that as much.

 

[ewoodrick]

Thank you for saying this. I was in another thread where someone was insisting that people getting electric cars are always told DON'T drive fast. DON'T use the heat. DON'T drive into the wind, etc. That's false. No one is saying not to do any of those things, or that people can't do those things. They just have to accept the reality that it's going to be less efficient and will require more charging.

If you want to get the rated range, you don't drive fast. (The others are much more subjective).

But that doesn't mean that you can't drive faster, I think I mentioned previously that the only time that you really need to think about it is when a Supercharge is a little further away from the last. In this case, as long as the car is navigating, it will take care of you and if you can't make it to the next charger with reserve, it will tell you to slow down.

It's a classic case of Range Anxiety. If you worry about it, it's a problem. If you don't worry about it, life is good.

 

[Y_tho]

Using the heater consumes significant energy, particular with an older car with a resistive heater (versus newer car with heat pump / reverse AC). Your image indicates that the car consumed "7.5 [rated] miles" for climate (heater) during your drive.

This is an underrated comment. The older Model 3, with resistive heater, will have a pronounced increase in energy consumption when the heater is on, compared with the newer models with heat pump. Both my neighbor and the local PPF-shop owner had resistive heat in their M3P's, both now with '22 models, and they've both talked about the high consumption during winter (gets kinda cold in Maryland), and how much this has improved since upgrading. I've only experienced heat pump, as my M3P is a '22, but... currently sitting at 281wh/mi lifetime after ~5K miles, with healthy mix of local and highway.

 

[insaneoctane]

I bought a used 2019 M3 LR this winter and took it on its first longer drive today. The car is in very good condition - there is nothing 'wrong' with it that I know of. But I was a bit surprised at the battery consumption. Basically I got about 170 miles of range on a car that was charged at 95% and said it would go 280-ish miles.

It wasn't a best case scenario - temp was about 35 degrees F., it was windy, it was all highway miles, mostly at 70 or 75mph. I also don't have wheel covers on the wheels. Tire pressure is fine though - 45psi all the way around.

Attached is a picture of the energy consumption charge from the car - basically you can see I was consuming more energy from start to finish through the whole trip. This was only one leg of the trip since I had to stop to charge, but the whole thing was this way.

Just wondering if this is 'normal' - does running near freezing really impact battery performance that much? I know it matters SOME, but I thought it got worse as you got colder, and it wasn't really terrible until you got down near zero - for some reason I didn't think 35 degrees F would matter much.

Or, any ideas on what else would be such a big drag?

Thanks! I love the car by the way - glad to be a part of the Tesla community!

What tire brand and model are installed on the car you bought? If they aren't LRR tires, that can certainly have a significant impact on your range.

 

[AAKEE]

The energy graph is quite exact for me, even at very cold weather.
But I guess the energy graph does expect on to drive by the speed limits, so going faster will offset that quite fast with increasing speed.

This is from a recent drive at -22C (-8F):
I have 19" spiked tyres on aftermarket wheels, but when changing between the (really change, not in the menu) in the the end of may and middle of october I do not see any noticable change in consumption so Ii keep the wheels in the menu to the stock 20" Überturbines. Also the software is f****d up so bot the SOC and range change if I try.

Anyway, this is how usually it looks for me most of the trips if I follow the speed limits. If I dont remember it wrong, I actually did drive a bit faster on that amber section.

It says 32.2% was consumed, 0.9 less than the "travel projection".

 

[Severo3080]

I was in accident, just got a M3 LR. I was at max capacity 362 miles. After I got the car back I noticed about a week in it was sitting at 345 miles. In the Winter when I bought the car. 2023 AWD LR it was getting going slow at 90% between 280-300+ miles per charge. After accident I saw max range decrease to 345 miles and for some reason I am burning 300 KW/H going speed limit or roughly, towards the top half of the charge. Yesterday coming home after a brief stop at a charging station, I was getting 217 kw/h, but the battery was at 25%...

In winter 270-310 miles depending factors.
In summer after collision I am getting about 240-250 miles with much better weather.

I was averaging around 250-260 kw/h.. I noticed lately right after I leave a charging station I am using 300+ Kw/h being a slow good driver.

Its all wierd. I am taking it into the SC for a ticking sound in the front end, residue of accident but I am not sure WTF is going on. Its got 18K miles, not doing alot of fast driving. Most likely accident related.

Any thoughts?