Does the M3 allow selection of type of range?
- Thread starter Lerxt
- Start date
With the TM3, you can choose range or percentage in the left hand screen. The range shown there is only the EPA rated range (optimistic).
In the energy app, you can choose to display projected range over the last 5 miles, 15 miles, or 30 miles, with instant or average display.
In the energy app, you can choose to display projected range over the last 5 miles, 15 miles, or 30 miles, with instant or average display.
Snow Drift
[Off-Road Assist] Activated
The model S does not show real world range. It shows either Tesla rated range (inflated, nowhere near realistic) or EPA rated range (closer, but still pretty hard to attain in an S). No Tesla shows a range based on your driving style or location. The trip energy app sort of does, but that's never used in the "fuel" gauge. It also isn't based on anything more than the current trip behavior. The energy graph can also show an estimated range, but that's also extremely short term based.
The 3 shows rated range (the same as is labeled "typical" in a model s) or percentage. The 3 does not have any analog of the S's "rated range" (which is not EPA rated range, but Tesla rated range which I think they've stopped advertising as of a few years ago anyway)
Last edited:
Snow Drift
[Off-Road Assist] Activated
That's why we select for it to show %. How full is the battery? 50%? Then you can determine your range based on experience/expectations with that %.
Au contraire, showing expected range based on past driving habits can be misleading.
First, the number varies from car to car and person to person, not to mention season to season and day to day.
Say you've been doing a lot of city driving with heavy HVAC use (really hot or really cold, pick one). Your average efficiency would be very low. If you plan a long-distance trip based on this efficiency, it will be very much underestimating just how far you can go on a charge.
In another scenario, a shared vehicle. Both my wife and I drive the Model 3. She drives it about 15% more efficiently than I do (while driving faster, I haven't figured this out?!). Basing it on either of our usages could be wrong depending on who is driving, and the average between us isn't fair either.
Furthermore, what about used vehicles? The previous owners of my Smart fortwo said they got an average of 30mpg with it. I got closer to 70mpg. It's an extreme example, but if the Smart was constantly assuming 30mpg for the first while, it would be very wrong about how far I could drive it.
Enter EPA ratings. I know that my wife gets 20% better than EPA for highway. I get very slightly better for highway. In town, I get 30% better than EPA for round trips. With heating around 5 degrees C outside, I get nearly the exact EPA rated efficiency. If it gets much colder, I know it'll be perhaps 10-20% worse than EPA.
All that to say, EPA provides a good reference point if nothing else. That itself is quite valuable, since: every driver, every driving condition, every trip, every environment is different every time. Most vehicles with "estimated range" are commonly known to be hilariously wrong. My Honda Crosstour often thinks a full tank can get 700km (which depends on how I've been driving within the last 20km or so), but 600km would be pushing it in reality. You can know ahead of time if your conditions will be more or less efficient (speed, temperature, etc.) and plan accordingly in relation to the rated range.
And to answer your original post (though I think it's answered sufficiently at this point):
The range displayed near your speed with the battery icon is based on rated range. The only way to display estimated range based on your driving behaviour is with the "Energy App" (the one with the graphs), which also displays a flat line representing the rated range so you can see if you're doing better or worse than rated efficiency based on the last 10/25/50km (whatever you have selected).
This is EXACTLY what expected range is supposed to take into consideration. In the last 5, 15, or 30 miles, it knows what your average kWh/mile was...in your driving conditions which includes the cold weather, whether or not your heat is on, your heated seats are on, etc.
If you would have said rated range I would have agreed with you (another reason to use percentage). I don't know what the reference temperature for the EPA tests are, but I'm pretty sure they aren't winter cold, nor do they include snow storms or heat and heated seats on.
