Cost of Fuel Equivalent

[AlanSubie4Life]

And, no, nobody getting terrible efficiency wants to spend time calculating it all out.

Compulsive consumption tracker here, just chiming in! I traveled 146k miles in my WRX STi, and purchased $25k worth of gasoline over 14 years, at an average of about 19mpg. That's $0.17/mi. Paid more in gasoline than I spent in depreciation on the vehicle.

It was surprisingly easy to track, and it actually didn't require any "calculating it all out" due to this thing called an "app," which did it for me. If the app is to be believed, I produced 150,000 pounds of CO2 with the Subaru.

 

[navguy12]

This is the right way to measure if you have a meter. What are you results?

My car is parked in a carport so I got the low regen warning quite a few times this winter. San Diego has the most expensive electricity in the country so it is a concern to some people who live here. I've got solar so it's more of an environmental impact question than an economic one.
I contend that it is almost impossible to achieve the EPA estimates in a Model 3 when you measure wall-to-wheel efficiency.

FWIW: my results via a seperate meter Mike's monthly Model 3 efficiency report

 

[navguy12]

We also need a thread about “routine maintenance” that ICE cars need. In my about 25K miles on my model 3. I have had nothing but tire rotations done so far. The first scheduled maintenance is at 100K for the cooling system

Tesla has removed the recommended cooling system maintenance requirement for TM3.

It's tire rotations every 10,000 km, inspect and lub calipers once a year (cold regions only), cabin air filter and inspect brake fluid once every two years and r&r the air con desiccant every six years.

I even emailed my SC to confirm no more recommend for the r&r battery coolant.

 

[Daniel in SD]

FWIW: my results via a seperate meter Mike's monthly Model 3 efficiency report

Very good analysis.
To summarize for people in this thread it looks like your overhead, real Wh/mi vs. gauge Wh/mi, is about 20% in moderate weather and 40% in severe winter weather.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Tesla has removed the recommended cooling system maintenance requirement for TM3.

It's tire rotations every 10,000 km, inspect and lub calipers once a year (cold regions only), cabin air filter and inspect brake fluid once every two years and r&r the air con desiccant every six years.

I even emailed my SC to confirm no more recommend for the r&r battery coolant.

Tire inspection is recommended every 10k-12k. They no longer recommend rotation if the tires are wearing evenly.

 

[navguy12]

Very good analysis.
To summarize for people in this thread it looks like your overhead, real Wh/mi vs. gauge Wh/mi, is about 20% in moderate weather and 40% in severe winter weather.

That about summarizes it.

Last nine months of data on post #71 of the thread, screen shot below:

 

[SageBrush]

inspect and lub calipers once a year

I found a youtube video that showed lube of brembo calipers on a Model S. It looked straight-forward.
Is the Model 3 the same ?

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

FWIW: my results via a seperate meter Mike's monthly Model 3 efficiency report

Thank you!

Very much in line with what I would expect, and predictably, the Model 3 Performance + with stock tires appears to use 30-50% more energy than your RWD. You are a very efficient driver. Kudos.

As mentioned above, rough rule of thumb is add 20% to your in-car meter in summer time. But there will be variation around this %, depending on how much you drive, and whether you happen to burn a lot of standby power due to various circumstances (sentry/cabin overheat protection with AC, etc).

Add 40% in winter, with some of the same caveats.

Thanks again. Maybe we can consider your data reasonably definitive as it pertains to calculating cost of fuel equivalent.

 

[navguy12]

Maybe we can consider your data reasonably definitive as it pertains to calculating cost of fuel equivalent.

I'm certainly open to constructive criticism, but these are the numbers I get and it is just over 1/2 the cost per km of what my Prius was.

You are a very efficient driver.

Much of my time behind the wheel is in "full manual control" and I run the HVAC in a manual technique that is more efficient than the auto mode.....

 

[navguy12]

I found a youtube video that showed lube of brembo calipers on a Model S. It looked straight-forward.
Is the Model 3 the same ?

The front calipers are the same, pretty straight-forward.

The rear calipers have the attached parking brake solenoid assembly and I have seen videos of that assembly being taken off the caliper slider.....but my cursory look at the rears (I'll do the maintenance in June when the car is a year old) tells me that one may not need to separate the parking brake solenoid assembly off the sliding portion of the caliper.

Any any case, a second person is required to sit in the car and put it in "neutral" while the primary person electrically disconnects the parking brake solenoid assembly (thence the car is put back into park and one can work on the rear brakes with no fan fare).

 

[SageBrush]

Any any case, a second person is required to sit in the car and put it in "neutral" while the primary person electrically disconnects the parking brake solenoid assembly (thence the car is put back into park and one can work on the rear brakes with no fan fare).

I think I understand what you saying: disengage the parking brake by putting the car in neutral before disconnecting the solenoid. What prevents one person from doing those steps ?

I've always been leery of working on brakes ever since I read about Prius people getting into trouble with the master brake cylinder. I think that in one way or another they either depressurized the cylinder or introduced air. The strongly worded advice was to disconnect the 12v first. Is there anything similar in the Model 3 to know about or do ?

 

[navguy12]

I think I understand what you saying: disengage the parking brake by putting the car in neutral before disconnecting the solenoid. What prevents one person from doing those steps ?

I've always been leery of working on brakes ever since I read about Prius people getting into trouble with the master brake cylinder. I think that in one way or another they either depressurized the cylinder or introduced air. The strongly worded advice was to disconnect the 12v first. Is there anything similar in the Model 3 to know about or do ?

Regarding one person for this "hack" (shade tree mechanic technique):

A Tesla tech will plug a laptop into the car and magically disengage the parking brake and carry on with the task.

We don't have that luxury and AFAIK, if one puts the car in neutral and then opens the door to get out, the car goes back into park automatically (again, not 100% sure of the safeties that exist to disallow use of neutral and no occupancy of the drivers seat.

Regarding the hydraulic side of the system:

I hear you and know well about the pitfalls of DIY Prius "bleed the brakes" issues.

I have no knowledge of the Tesla hydraulic brake system (yet) to see if one can do thier own "inspect condition of brake fluid once every two years" (aka be prepared to bleed the system without throwing codes).

My wild a** guess: the hydraulic brake system in the TM3 if far less sophisticated than the Prius was.

I really wish, in 2019, that Tesla begins to sell parts and shop manuals to anyone (and said manuals are in the $300 or less range).

 

[SageBrush]

We don't have that luxury and AFAIK, if one puts the car in neutral and then opens the door to get out, the car goes back into park automatically (again, not 100% sure of the safeties that exist to disallow use of neutral and no occupancy of the drivers seat.

Thanks -- I did not think of those safeguards.

Sounds like I could put a weight on the car seat and operate the gear changer through an open window.
Note to self: Be sure the car cannot roll !