If you're low on range, don't check the car via the app. That wakes up the car and uses more of that precious energy.
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How to Squeeze the Most Miles out of a Nearly Dead Battery?
- Thread starter Black/Black MS
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- Model S
thefortunes
Active Member
People need to STOP saying this. You may have had a few miles below zero depending on whether your batteries were balanced, usage recalculated, etc... but THIS IS NOT UNIVERSALLY TRUE.
How do I know? I watched (on my phone) my daughter try to drive 3 extra miles below zero to the next supercharger on a cross country trip BECAUSE SHE HAD READ THERE WAS "EXTRA RANGE" ON THIS SITE. Car stopped within .5 miles of zero and she had to call Tesla for a tow.
The displayed range is an estimate, whether reported in miles or percentage state of charge. The battery SOC can't be measured directly. Some estimates are better than others depending on your recent charging history. Two miles may be two miles, or five miles, or no miles. It's really a case of YMMV, as they say. You shouldn't try to cut it that close.
It was confirmed with a number of inside sources that Tesla does reserve a small buffer beyond the "zero" point on the mileage estimator. I definitely don't recommend anyone relying on this buffer to save their lives, but it's definitely there.
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
That is for anti bricking, not for driving.
I think a lot of people keep believing this rumor simply because it matches what gas cars with lousy fuel level meters started doing many decades ago, even though the situation doesn't apply to an EV.
Many owners have had their car shut down at or before zero. Tesla has consistently said there is no driving buffer. Unlike gas cars, it wouldn't make sense to provide a driving buffer given that it clearly would not extend driving range (or even reduce chance of running out once people get used to having it), but allowing for it would complicate range calculations (which Tesla is trying to make simple) and reduce advertised range which gas cars aren't worried about but Tesla is working hard to make as large as possible. Tesla doesn't just copy gas car traditions, they designed a car from scratch and made it work like the best EV they could.
So it doesn't make sense to have it, Tesla says they don't have it, and we have seen that it is not there. The rumors that it is there are dangerous.
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Phillip L
Gas Passer
My son took ours down to 1km because he did not listen to the old man who told him to charge before going to pick up his uncle. He drove slowly and just made it to a charger. Lesson learned.
thefortunes
Active Member
STOP POSTING CRAP LIKE THIS!!! Maybe you should WAIT UNTIL YOU ACTUALLY HAVE A CAR before you post nonsense.
Tesla definitely reserves a buffer FOR ANTI-BRICKING (my Roadster does not have this buffer, my S does). This DOES NOT APPLY TO DRIVING!!!!!!!!
When you ignorantly post stuff like this you are perpetuating the myth and getting people (like my daughter) into trouble.
Would you like to pay for the tow that she had to incur because she believed inaccurate posts like this and the car shut down within 0.5 miles of zero (with 3 miles to go to a supercharger)?
Agree that it is not universally true. However, on my 85 the BMS state of energy read over CAN tracks 3-4% higher than the SOC displayed on the dash. I've never tried it, but it reasons that there is energy remaining below 0 miles. SOC would show 0 but SOE would show 3-4%.
All 85s have a static 4.0 kWh bricking buffer which is not included in SOE.
My suggestion is to set the car so it reads % battery, rather than guessed range. Pretty much a bogus number. Use the energy graph to estimate the range if you are, or expect to be close to the edge. It is at least reasonably close, and is updated based upon the last 5, 15 or 30 miles driven.
I drove to -4% just for a test around the supercharger on my first day of owning the vehicle. The car gets really slow (max 25 miles / hour on full throttle at the very end, but it worked)
-4% on my S85 is about 10 miles...
of course I would never recommend this to anyone, but the fact shows, that it "works sometimes", YMMV
-4% on my S85 is about 10 miles...
of course I would never recommend this to anyone, but the fact shows, that it "works sometimes", YMMV
Adrian
Title(D)
All this shows is the rated miles, or percentage state of charge, is an estimate rather than an exact number. You can't measure the SOC exactly so Tesla uses algorithms to estimate it. The estimate may be a little high or a little low. You never know which it is, so you can't count on it. All "it worked" means is the estimate of charge remaining was low that time and you got lucky. Do not expect to have any miles past zero unless you don't mind if the car shuts down. Don't even count on having the last mile or two. If you're counting on that then you're cutting it too close.
Shock-On-T
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I find it refreshing to read so many posts where YMMV actually refers to mileage 
Chopr147
Active Member
Got the car as an inventory car. wanted to make sure there is actually 76KW inside of usuable capacity. so yes. I dried it to the bottom and filled it up afterwards to 100% and drove another 150 miles just for the fun of it.Wow, first day of ownership and already sucking the battery dry?
Late to the party, but the extra energy to stop to fill tires up and then restart will be far higher than what you'd save on the rest of the short trip.
you know that filled up tires, stay filled up for weeks or months? so filling them up is never a energy waste. why is stopping a an energy waste at all? motor is not running while standing still
the only time when low pressure helps (for safety), is in my humble opinion, in sloppy weather conditions like snow or wet leaves.
