Distraught by rapid loss of maximum battery storage

[Subi_Sr]

i'm a new owner of an X long range for 1 month. i have lost a max charge to 321 from 325 in the last week. Its a little disturbing and disappointing for the most expensive car i have ever bought x 2. Was never discussed obviously with tesla sales prior to purchase. People shouldn't be expected to dig through forums to find out about this information. I love the car and will accept it as i have no choice unless i try to sell it one day and take a huge hit. I bought it because of the raven increase in mileage for a family road trip car but disappointing to hear that it will likely decrease more over the year. Again only 1 month old.

 

[Mewtwo]

i'm a new owner of an X long range for 1 month. i have lost a max charge to 321 from 325 in the last week. Its a little disturbing and disappointing for the most expensive car i have ever bought x 2. Was never discussed obviously with tesla sales prior to purchase. People shouldn't be expected to dig through forums to find out about this information. I love the car and will accept it as i have no choice unless i try to sell it one day and take a huge hit. I bought it because of the raven increase in mileage for a family road trip car but disappointing to hear that it will likely decrease more over the year. Again only 1 month old.

Don’t worry too much about it. Battery will lose its capacity over time and usage. It’s basic chemistry, and no company can change that.

However, Tesla has the most sophisticated battery management system that can minimize battery degradation. Based on the history data, even after 100,000 miles most owner report less than 10% of battery degradation. Most of the degradation occurs in the early times (I.e. first year of ownership).

Once you’ve taken a few road trips you will pay less attention to the total rated miles. With the supercharger network you can easily go from supercharger to supercharger, filling up as needed. The couple miles you “lost” is less than a minute charging time at supercharger.

 

[ElectricOrgan]

i'm a new owner of an X long range for 1 month. i have lost a max charge to 321 from 325 in the last week. Its a little disturbing and disappointing for the most expensive car i have ever bought x 2. Was never discussed obviously with tesla sales prior to purchase. People shouldn't be expected to dig through forums to find out about this information. I love the car and will accept it as i have no choice unless i try to sell it one day and take a huge hit. I bought it because of the raven increase in mileage for a family road trip car but disappointing to hear that it will likely decrease more over the year. Again only 1 month old.

I agree, Tesla does not share many, many details that are important to new owners. They say this is in the manual, but the manual is HUGE!!! It is very hard to read and even then much of the wording to warn you about things that impact the capacity of your battery are written to disguise the true impact.

Here's the 411 on the reduction of battery capacity. You will lose around 3 to 5% in the first year. The fastest degradation will be when you buy your car and the rate of degradation will drop over the course of the year. By the second year the rate of degradation will be much slower and should remain fairly constant for the rest of the life of the battery.

Even a small loss of range is significant to most EV owners because these cars have such a smaller range than most cars sold today. My model X didn't even have 300 mile range when it was new, I think it was 289 miles. Now I struggle to complete a 250 mile round trip if I drive six miles out of my way. Actually struggle is not the right word, I don't make it. I have to stop and charge, even to go 250 miles. My real problem is that they don't have good charging at my intermediate destination. The backlog of Supercharger pedestals is preventing them from completing construction in many locations. With any luck they will have these completed by the onset of truly cold weather.

 

[ElectricOrgan]

Don’t worry too much about it. Battery will lose its capacity over time and usage. It’s basic chemistry, and no company can change that.

However, Tesla has the most sophisticated battery management system that can minimize battery degradation. Based on the history data, even after 100,000 miles most owner report less than 10% of battery degradation. Most of the degradation occurs in the early times (I.e. first year of ownership).

Once you’ve taken a few road trips you will pay less attention to the total rated miles. With the supercharger network you can easily go from supercharger to supercharger, filling up as needed. The couple miles you “lost” is less than a minute charging time at supercharger.

The problem with stopping at every charger along the way is that you end up spending an inordinate amount of time charging compared to driving. An 8 hour trip turns into 10 or 11 hours. I should be able to drive for four hours and stop to eat while charging. But it never works out that way because my range doesn't match the location of chargers.

In 10 or 15 years when charging is universal like gas stations are now, and batteries are better giving us cars with 400 mile ranges like my ICE has, then EVs will be driven with not much thought. But today, with the more limited range and the paucity of chargers, trips in an EV hark back to the early age of autos when leaving your home town was an adventure requiring a number of spare parts and tires. I know I've had to sit at level 2 chargers more than once waiting for the electrons to dribble into the battery so I could reach a supercharger.

 

[Rocky_H]

They say this is in the manual, but the manual is HUGE!!!

I have a suggestion to make this easier then. Perhaps skip the sections about tires and windshield wipers if you are wanting to read about the battery. The Table of Contents can be very useful.

 

[ElectricOrgan]

I have a suggestion to make this easier then. Perhaps skip the sections about tires and windshield wipers if you are wanting to read about the battery. The Table of Contents can be very useful.

So you are recommending that most of the manual is not important to read?

 

[Rocky_H]

So you are recommending that most of the manual is not important to read?

I thought it was a fun way to enjoy my new car, and I stayed up late the night I got it, reading it on the screen and trying out the functions of it. That's fine when you have time and want to learn things about the tires or the size of lug nuts or whatever. But enough about your red herring.

You specifically complained that you wanted to know these things about the battery and that the manual was just too "huge" to be able to find it. I was helping you with that.

 

[Mewtwo]

The problem with stopping at every charger along the way is that you end up spending an inordinate amount of time charging compared to driving. An 8 hour trip turns into 10 or 11 hours. I should be able to drive for four hours and stop to eat while charging. But it never works out that way because my range doesn't match the location of chargers.

In 10 or 15 years when charging is universal like gas stations are now, and batteries are better giving us cars with 400 mile ranges like my ICE has, then EVs will be driven with not much thought. But today, with the more limited range and the paucity of chargers, trips in an EV hark back to the early age of autos when leaving your home town was an adventure requiring a number of spare parts and tires. I know I've had to sit at level 2 chargers more than once waiting for the electrons to dribble into the battery so I could reach a supercharger.

You are absolutely correct, that charging during a road trip could be pain in the xxx. However, my main point was regarding OP saying he lost a few miles. I was trying to explain that in real world you wouldn’t even notice the “lost range” because it’s just a couple of mins at a supercharger.

 

[ElectricOrgan]

I thought it was a fun way to enjoy my new car, and I stayed up late the night I got it, reading it on the screen and trying out the functions of it. That's fine when you have time and want to learn things about the tires or the size of lug nuts or whatever. But enough about your red herring.

You specifically complained that you wanted to know these things about the battery and that the manual was just too "huge" to be able to find it. I was helping you with that.

Thanks, you have been a tremendous help. Oh, and here's your red herring back.

 

[ElectricOrgan]

You are absolutely correct, that charging during a road trip could be pain in the xxx. However, my main point was regarding OP saying he lost a few miles. I was trying to explain that in real world you wouldn’t even notice the “lost range” because it’s just a couple of mins at a supercharger.

Yes, and my point is that it's not a couple of minutes at a Supercharger if you don't have the range to get to where you want to go without stopping, again and again. Until they get more Superchargers installed so that I can use the range my car provides I will need to stop to charge when Superchargers are available rather than when I want to. Heck, with my present routine it does me zero good to charge at home. I make a weekly trip and have to charge halfway to my destination because there are no chargers other than level 2 which is not practical unless I have a couple of hours to spend at a natural foods store while I wait to put 10% on my car. I then have to charge on the way home again... IF I can even make it there. With the cooler weather I have to charge at a level 2 to even make it to the Supercharger.

Yes, I believe my range has gone down and it is significantly impacting the utility of my Tesla. Heck, the irony is that my consumption has dropped considerably at about the same time. While I used to get around 300 or more Wh/mi on this trip, I am now getting 280 or better at the same time as needing to charge more often.

 

[Mewtwo]

Yes, and my point is that it's not a couple of minutes at a Supercharger if you don't have the range to get to where you want to go without stopping, again and again. Until they get more Superchargers installed so that I can use the range my car provides I will need to stop to charge when Superchargers are available rather than when I want to. Heck, with my present routine it does me zero good to charge at home. I make a weekly trip and have to charge halfway to my destination because there are no chargers other than level 2 which is not practical unless I have a couple of hours to spend at a natural foods store while I wait to put 10% on my car. I then have to charge on the way home again... IF I can even make it there. With the cooler weather I have to charge at a level 2 to even make it to the Supercharger.

Yes, I believe my range has gone down and it is significantly impacting the utility of my Tesla. Heck, the irony is that my consumption has dropped considerably at about the same time. While I used to get around 300 or more Wh/mi on this trip, I am now getting 280 or better at the same time as needing to charge more often.

I hear you, it’s a total different story if you live or frequently commute to places where SC is scarce. I have 25 SC in my state and I never felt the anxiety of “whether I will be able to make the next SC”, and I have only 221 rated miles at 100%.

 

[ElectricOrgan]

I hear you, it’s a total different story if you live or frequently commute to places where SC is scarce. I have 25 SC in my state and I never felt the anxiety of “whether I will be able to make the next SC”, and I have only 221 rated miles at 100%.

There are lots of places where charging has to be planned. The problem is not really trips, but daily driving if you aren't at home or can't charge at home. Every week I drive out of state where Supercharging is 25 miles away in heavy traffic and a crowded station. This weekend I got a few kWh while having lunch with a friend, but even that's a PITA because the chargers are half a mile from the dining room.

There's a new Supercharger installation... well, non-installation nearby. Tesla couldn't keep up with production of the durn pedestals for Superchargers so they new installation is sitting with an idle power meter and no pedestals. Looking like it will be Christmas before they get turned on.

Using the small chargers messes up my chances to measure the actual kWh in the battery. I need to make a special trip to one of the Superchargers and remember to record all the data before I end the charging session. There's no way to pull it up once you disconnect.