I view the Model Y's battery gauge like a fuel gauge in an ICE vehicle. With an ICE vehicle I would never let the fuel gauge dip below 1/4 tank; in winter I would fill the fuel tank whenever it showed half full. The only difference now is that I don't fill the Tesla to 100%. As ICE vehicles started to offer readouts of MPG and Driving Range I never spent any time viewing the Driving Range.
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How much is too much (charging to 100%)?
- Thread starter Teefal
- Start date
just be glad you have a large battery. I fully charged my EV and drove 43 miles, slowly on the backroads, modulating my defrost so I could mostly see out the front window. By my calculation I used about 10kwh for my drive - and pulled in just as my car signaled 'low battery charge' and I saw the single J1772 charger at my destination was ICEd despite me calling ahead. but I still like my 8.5 year old LEAF.... 
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No it's not. That is how most other brands of car makers do for their electric cars, and it's called the Guess-O-Meter for that reason. Tesla does not do that. It is not affected by your driving history or behaviors. It is measuring (to the best of its ability) the amount of energy contained in the battery, and then dividing by a FIXED efficiency constant based on the EPA testing. How you drive will not affect that display number.
Separately from that display, there is the Energy tab on the screen, which can plot energy use on trips and such. And that does have a number on the right side which is labeled as "Estimated", and it will show a projection of how many real distance miles you would have left based on your energy usage over the last 5, 15, or 30 miles, depending on which you select.
Ah, a fellow Leaf ownerjust be glad you have a large battery. I fully charged my EV and drove 43 miles, slowly on the backroads, modulating my defrost so I could mostly see out the front window. By my calculation I used about 10kwh for my drive - and pulled in just as my car signaled 'low battery charge' and I saw the single J1772 charger at my destination was ICEd despite me calling ahead. but I still like my 8.5 year old LEAF....
Range anxiety is real with a 24kwh battery, and I've bundled up for my longer winter drives to ensure that I'd arrive with at least 20% of my battery left. We never came close to having an issue, but still....the battery goes fast when you have lights, windshield wipers and climate control running. Can't begin to express how happy I am to see that I have almost limitless range. If I want heat, I'll have it.If Tesla is not taking into account route, recent driving history, temperature and only representing the energy in the battery pack divided by a fixed efficiency constant based on EPA testing then this should be termed the Less-Accurate-Than-A-Guess-O-Meter Meter. I owned a 2017 Volt; once it got dialed in the Volt's EV estimated driving range was quite accurate as long as the route taken on my commute, temperature and road conditions and driving style did not change. If one day I decided I needed to use the Volt's electric heat then the estimated EV range was no longer accurate.
Yeah. Most of them do get it wrong...including that guy. He said, "It's an estimate based on how you drive." That is known to be false, but it does get repeated a lot because...like I said...all other car makers except Tesla do it that way. So a lot of people make the assumption that Tesla is also doing it that way, which is why you see that often from "Youtubers", which is a very loose collection of people, who very often don't know the car that well. Look for some better sources.
That video is useless.
the BMS has a wide range of a parameters that the majority of us don't fully understand. The Tesla BMS is also one of the better ones in regards to the efficiency in keeping the temps at optimal levels, along with the estimated range (or battery percent). Mine is almost always spot on for long trips and if anything, on the slightly conservative side. I've done a few 150 mile drives and I'll end up 2-3% more range upon arrival.
pl8dlikafiddle
Member
To be clear, the mileage displayed by the battery gauge, when the user changes the display setting from percentage to miles, is not affected by driving habits. That number is strictly the kWh the car "thinks" it has divided by a constant - this is well documented in the Model 3 forums, some of you would benefit from reading some of the stickies in the Model 3 forums. The kWh the car thinks it has is affected by numerous factors, one of them being temperature, but actual on-the-fly driving habits or route are not.
What is affected by on-the-fly driving habits is the mileage readout shown on the energy tab. Don't confuse that "guess-o-meter" to the mileage readout shown on the battery gauge.
What is affected by on-the-fly driving habits is the mileage readout shown on the energy tab. Don't confuse that "guess-o-meter" to the mileage readout shown on the battery gauge.
The energy screen will display the estimated driving range including current estimated range , last 15 mile average and last 30 mile average. Actual vehicle Wh/mile is used in the estimate, this takes into account your recent driving speed, use of the climate control, elevation change, headwind and other road conditions. The estimated range displayed on the main screen driving is, at first glance, just a rounding of the last 30 mile average value that is available on the energy screen.
pl8dlikafiddle
Member
The miles shown in the battery gauge on the main screen? If so, this is not correct. The two may be close and appear as a rounding of the other, but they are two separate numbers that can be used for two different purposes.
The mileage shown on the main screen battery gauge gives you a peak at available energy the car thinks is available, and the mileage shown on the energy screen shows how far you can actually travel based on your 5, 15, or 30 mile driving history.
If you drive for 5 miles, up hill, consuming an average of 650 Wh/mi, I guarantee you the mileage shown on the main screen battery gauge will not appear to be a "rounding" of the projected mileage on the energy screen.
The ambient temperature would affect the available kWh from the battery pack if the temperature of the pack was not being managed but it is managed by the Battery Management System. The available kWh should be fairly constant over a wide temperature range once taking into account battery heating and cooling overhead. If the range displayed on the battery gauge is a simple equation of kWh divided by a constant it will not be accurate unless you happen to the the one driver in 1000 that is an average driver. It would make more sense to just display the last 30 mile estimated range from the Energy Tab onto the battery gauge.
I believe what you stated, makes me think the miles estimate displayed on the battery gauge is useless, so why display miles at all? I.e. it does not help if the battery gauge shows 20 miles remaining when I am trying reach the next SC or my destination only to discover that with x miles remaining, no options, the vehicle won't reach the destination. Alternately the battery gauge could display worst case, best case and average range. Then I would know what is the deal.
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Wow, for Tesla to be so cutting edge this is the dumbest realization so far. No wonder people always talk about losing 15 miles of range for a 10 mile trip. This is how you confuse people that are new to Tesla and EV’s.
I’m blown away, why would any manufacturer do this?
Yeah, I feel like Tesla would save themselves a lot of headaches if they just hardcoded it to the EPA range and said "YMMV" beyond that.
A separate pack health indicator could measure estimate degradation.
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