For those owners unhappy with drop in maximum charged range

[eAdopter]

While I appreciate some of the comments above, I normally only report my observations.

I won't pretend, as others have above, to know things such as how miles are calculated, under what conditions the battery requires heating or cooling, if A/C uses more/less energy than heating, if battery heat is recovered to heat the interior, etc.

I very much appreciate when anyone can provide a link to information published by TM. To me, TM documents and owner observations are best.

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@markb
Sorry, I didn't see your question. I did not observe any difference in Rated miles after 5.8. My car has had a fairly linear downward trend.

 

[dhanson865]

This thread makes me support batter swapping even more. While I seem to be in the deep minority here on TMC, i much rather not deal with any of this stuff. I want to buy the car and lease the battery. I do not want to baby it, worry about it or experience real or imagined issues. i do not want to spend hours planning a trip around superchargers, and buying multiple coffees until it is finished.

In the OP's first post a battery swap would mean, just leaving Tesla with the battery to balance...configure whatever, and him driving off happy after 2 minutes.

How about instead of a battery swap just taking it to a Tesla Service Center and let them have it for a day or two once a year to get the cells balanced? Schedule it and get a loaner car to reduce your down time.

Myself I'd rather do the balancing myself at home or at a another charger of my choosing but if you aren't the technical type let the service center do it for you.

For a what if: How about even better you schedule a balance session with Tesla (by whatever means they provide, 800#, website, email) and leave your car plugged into a charger and they contact you when they are done balancing the cells using their ability to remote control the vehicle. Might require you opening up your wifi or having a really good cell signal at your house to have enough bandwidth for the control but it'd be nice down the road if they could do that as a remote service.

 

[markb]

@markb
Sorry, I didn't see your question. I did not observe any difference in Rated miles after 5.8. My car has had a fairly linear downward trend.

Projected, not rated. Thanks.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I won't pretend, as others have above, to know things such as how miles are calculated, under what conditions the battery requires heating or cooling, if A/C uses more/less energy than heating, if battery heat is recovered to heat the interior, etc.

I very much appreciate when anyone can provide a link to information published by TM.

If you want a "Tesla" source, you can play around with Tesla's range tool:
Your Questions Answered | Tesla Motors

You can observe the range goes up when you adjust the outside temp upwards (with the heat and A/C off) and down when the outside temp goes down. This coincides with the cold temperature range loss I talked about with no accessory loads. In general, the cold appears to have a larger impact than warm temperatures.

Nothing on: 262 (0F), 273 (32F), 283 (50F), 288 (70F), 294 (90F), 298 (110F)
AC on: 261 (70F), 266 (90F), 258 (110F)
Heat on: 264 (50F), 236 (32F), 220 (0F)

As for the range discrepancy I'm talking about (and I believe markb is talking about), this link describes what I'm talking about:
http://evtripplanner.com/InterpretingTeslaModelSEnergyReadings.pdf

The core thing is Initial Rated Range - Used Rated Range does not equal Remaining Rated Range, because of the formula Tesla uses (since changed with 5.8). And the 5.8 change may have to do with why you observed a differences in real world vs rated range (besides from the different conditions).

 

[eAdopter]

Great info. Thank you!

 

[markb]

As for the range discrepancy I'm talking about (and I believe markb is talking about), this link describes what I'm talking about:
http://evtripplanner.com/InterpretingTeslaModelSEnergyReadings.pdf
.

No, c'mon guys, you know, on the energy display on the touch screen, showing projected miles based on last 5, 15 or 30 mile energy usage. My projected miles has plummeted with 5.8 - i now need to drive under 280 wh/mile (virtually impossible this NY winter), to beat rated range versus
305 prior to 5.8. Hasn't anyone else seen this?

 

[Jointguy]

When I took delivery last year (P85) I got 300 ideal miles and 265 rated miles on a max charge
Now 12 months and 12K miles later I get 284 ideal and 247 rated on a max charge
So I'm in the same boat

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

I think ~ 275 Wh/mi is where the #'s match up for rated and projected based on my 'carlog' #'s

 

[fluxemag]

I did a test over the weekend, where I charged it completely to a rated range of 126 miles, and then drove it to 0 miles remaining. I got 106 miles at 300Wh/mi. Not very good! Also note that that was only 32.1kWh. So I think their algorithm to allocate a percentage of the 60kWh pack is very far off. Weren't we supposed to get 72% of 60kWh?

 

[qwk]

I did a test over the weekend, where I charged it completely to a rated range of 126 miles, and then drove it to 0 miles remaining. I got 106 miles at 300Wh/mi. Not very good! Also note that that was only 32.1kWh. So I think their algorithm to allocate a percentage of the 60kWh pack is very far off. Weren't we supposed to get 72% of 60kWh?

There is hidden range under 0 rated miles.

 

[yobigd20]

There is hidden range under 0 rated miles.

20% hidden? doubt it. probably a combination of imbalancing and poor software estimation for the 40kW cars.

 

[RedMatador]

I did a test over the weekend, where I charged it completely to a rated range of 126 miles, and then drove it to 0 miles remaining. I got 106 miles at 300Wh/mi. Not very good! Also note that that was only 32.1kWh. So I think their algorithm to allocate a percentage of the 60kWh pack is very far off. Weren't we supposed to get 72% of 60kWh?View attachment 42546

My zero mile left screen looks different. Does it vary among different battery packs or models or firmwares?

 

[bluetinc]

I've found my colors change by what seems to be pack temperature, though I'm basing that on outside temperatures, the colder it is the sooner the colors change.

Peter

 

[brianman]

My zero mile left screen looks different. Does it vary among different battery packs or models or firmwares?

Can you be more specific (different in what way)?

 

[dennis]

Can you be more specific (different in what way)?

The first pic posted has a yellow battery bar, a limit line at 120kw and the words Rated Range below the 0. The second pic has a red battery bar, no limit line and no words below the 0.

 

[RedMatador]

Thank you dennis. Sorry for the off topic question, but I was just curious about the differences.

 

[brianman]

Thank you dennis. Sorry for the off topic question, but I was just curious about the differences.

I think you're nearly on-topic, so no worries.

Also, thanks dennis!


Interesting observation.

 

[walla2]

I noticed that turning on climate controls and warming a fully charged pack increased my rated range from 257 to 260. Anyone else notice this? Perhaps, try a range charge and then turn on the climate to 85 degrees while still plugged in and report back.

 

[qwk]

20% hidden? doubt it. probably a combination of imbalancing and poor software estimation for the 40kW cars.

I didn't mean to imply that hidden range was solely responsible. Winter vs. summer energy usage is probably some of of the discrepancy, as well as battery pack imbalance.

 

[rallykeeper]

I admittedly haven't read every page of these various threads on reduced range (though I've been following it over the past several weeks both here and at tesla) , but I did have one observation vis a vis 5.8 that I don't think I've seen noted anywhere.

Could some reduced range be explained by the disabling of the low suspension setting? You obviously won't hit even ideal conditions if your aerodynamics aren't as good. Of course, I realize many posters might not have air suspensions so it doesn't explain everything.

As to my own situation...

12,900 miles, 13 month old car
85
Ideal range reduced to 289 miles (as of this morning at 50 degrees)
Rated range reduced to 256

I too have noticed the lowered dotted line in the projection section. Effectively, the projections are telling me that I need to drive even more efficiently than I used to to achieve the stated ideal/rated range. (That's what's leading me toward the air suspension explanation).

My car was in for its annual service last week and I asked about reduced range. FWIW, my service adviser said that the range calculations were impacted by my driving style. I don't think she understood my question very well. Obviously projected range is affected by driving style. Rated range after charge shouldn't be.

Apologies if this whole line of reasoning has already been explained away. If not, it gives me some hope that we might see range magically restored once low suspension settings return.