Impact of suspension ride height and regenerative braking settings on range and Wh/mile

[dasarp]

Hey folks, got a 2017 used X with ~30k miles. Drive it in a mix of city and highway (more city at the moment) and averaging a very high ~ 530 Wh/mile. (Seattle driving , 40-55 degrees, a little rainy).

Have it set to standard suspension and low regenerative breaking (available options are low and standard).

Curious what impact people have seen with lower ride height and/or the “normal” regenerative braking settings. Does it make a huge impact on range?

 

[Genie]

I don’t think ride height will have much impact in city driving, and my regen is only offered on full and I rarely hit 500 Whm. Driving locally 30-60mph I’m usually around 320, but have used more lately with all the weather we’ve had. I’ve found heavy rain, freezing temps and wind can bring it up near 500. Regen shoul be your good friend with all the hills in Seattle.

 

[AAARSINIC]

Low regen sure doesn’t help.

 

[aesculus]

Not sure if you are reporting the Wh/mile that the display gives or what you calculated. If the later, and there is a difference, it is probably from the battery heater. You would have to turn Range Mode on to reduce that, and the interior heating too.

The other factor is that the regen will be limited if your battery is cold soaked (ie you have not driven in in the last hour and got into a cold car). You can see this in the Energy display with the yellow triangle and dashes, until the battery has warmed up. This is even more pronounced when the SOC is 90% or greater.

 

[DCGOO]

Hey folks, got a 2017 used X with ~30k miles. Drive it in a mix of city and highway (more city at the moment) and averaging a very high ~ 530 Wh/mile. (Seattle driving , 40-55 degrees, a little rainy).

Have it set to standard suspension and low regenerative breaking (available options are low and standard).

Curious what impact people have seen with lower ride height and/or the “normal” regenerative braking settings. Does it make a huge impact on range?

If you are plugged in, try turning Climate on an hour or two before you need to leave (don't do this if you are not plugged in). A surprising amount of energy is consumed heating the battery. Also, set regen to normal, it makes quite a difference. You want it to reclaim as much energy as possible. Does your vehicle have 20 or 22 inch wheels? 22 inch wheels are huge energy suck.

 

[Rice&Curry]

500 WHm is way beyond normal, especially as you are not gaining elevation. Factors which impact WHm is , weight you are carrying in the car including passengers and cargo, any towing weight , elevation gain/loss, headwind, external conditions- temp, rain, road surface and your tyre air pressure. Suggest you review all of these to ensure you know which factors are impacting your WHm. By the way these factors are also applicable for ICE vehicles, it's just that the ICE vehicles never show your energy consumption and there is a gas station round the corner so no range anxiety and we don't even worry about consumption and what factors may affect it.

 

[dasarp]

Thanks all for trying to help. A few quick follow-ups to answer questions that have come up:

- I tried regen on for all my drives today. It seems to help a bit but my consumption remains in the >500wh/mile average. (Weather was 45F, light rain.)
- I’ve been trying to not drive too aggressively to help the range.
- Usually carry 3-4 people in the car total, and no cargo or towing.
- See attached image for recent energy consumption.
- While there are hills around me, there’s no net elevation gain (so while I expect some impact to range that consumption seems really high).
- 20 inch tires. Properly inflated (40-42psi, recommended is 42 psi)

Any more suggestions is hugely appreciated. Is it worth contacting Tesla?

 

[dasarp]

Oops forgot to attach the image

 

[gaswalla]

I was surprised that you have the 20 inch wheels, not the 22.
If you have a Ludacris version, suspension issues often develop and that could increase your wh/mi.
Also, if you have alignment issues, that could increase your wh//mi
I see your energy graph, and notice periods of over 1kw/mi consumption - for me, that happens when I floor it… one cannot examine consumption for a drive if it includes ‘spirited’ driving as well. Instead of ride height, maybe consider turning on ‘chill mode’ to improve efficiency?

 

[Rice&Curry]

I think based on the energy graph, it may be best to look at the consumption over a longer period/miles. Suggest reset the current trip odometer and start looking at the WH consumption over a longer period say 500/1000 miles to even out any one of cases related to train or load/environment. Also I would be curious to know what does the lifetime odometer read - miles and WH consumption?

 

[dasarp]

I was surprised that you have the 20 inch wheels, not the 22.
If you have a Ludacris version, suspension issues often develop and that could increase your wh/mi.
Also, if you have alignment issues, that could increase your wh//mi
I see your energy graph, and notice periods of over 1kw/mi consumption - for me, that happens when I floor it… one cannot examine consumption for a drive if it includes ‘spirited’ driving as well. Instead of ride height, maybe consider turning on ‘chill mode’ to improve efficiency?

It seems to go over 1kw/mi anytime I’m going up hills (when I’m on flat ground it’s usually in the 300-400 range). I’ll try the chill mode thing; and maybe take it for an alignment check.

 

[Felickz]

My bet would be hills.. net doesn't matter much as it is way more costly to go uphill vs gain coming back down.

It has been mentioned already on here but you seem to have all the negatives going against you: hills, rain, lead foot, low regen, heater. Also speed + wind can be a big factor once you get above 45mph. Passengers is going to be negligible. Battery heater is probably most surprising usage - schedule your drives/charging if possible.

Try out Tesla fi for more details ( check out the view you can get).. this was mostly flat on AP no lowering of suspension and still getting 480 ( cold soaked so battery heater was on)

Alignment a great idea for simple fix. If your not under warranty this might be a scary diagnosis but ask the service center to do a high voltage circuit integrity check to look for corrosion. Found a bad o-ring and replaced my motor due to water intrusion.

 

[basilray]

I'm in Minnesota, and my average winter wh/mi is about 420 - 460 depending on wind and ambient temps in the typical 15F - 30F range. Last week, it was -10F and windy, and I was up over 500. I hit 600wh/mi driving my son back and forth to school. I also run 19" square wheels and snow tires in the winter to help w/ some of the consumption concerns.

Preheat/precondition is your friend. If it's under 60F where you store your car when not driving, you'll benefit from some pre-planning.

If you were seeing those numbers in spring/summer, I would be more concerned and start w/ the basics: tires and alignment.

 

[brainhouston]

based on that graph im guessing u drive fast??... like 80mph
usually u get high uphill usage but then it dips way down downhill but it won't if u go fast (wind resistance)...
2nd guess is bad toe on either or both axles.. that will act as brakes n use up energy. i set both of mine myself to 1/16in after i did alignment.
u can try range mode, it won't use battery heater so u can eliminate one variable
also i noticed if u use high fan speed to heat up cabin it will use significantly more power even with normal 68-70deg setting

for reference, i get 380-400 in rainy pdx here in winter now (similar to Seattle weather)
i just did a trip to Sunriver, 130mi stretch between chargers over mt hood (4k elevation in the middle), 4 adults n bunch of food/gear, ave was 380Wh/mi, pretty surprising to me.

 

[dasarp]

This is very helpful. I added some air to the tires (wasn't "low" before but I added a couple of PSI) which hasn't helped.
I signed up for TeslaFi, hopefully that can tell me if the battery heater is on, etc.

I'll try preconditioning to see how that improves things!

Had to be at the hospital for some health related items, will try to schedule an alignment for tire alignment as well.

 

[dasarp]

My bet would be hills.. net doesn't matter much as it is way more costly to go uphill vs gain coming back down.

I think based on the energy graph, it may be best to look at the consumption over a longer period/miles.

Try out Tesla fi for more details ( check out the view you can get)

So far I've tried adding air to the tires, changing regenerative brake settings (tried on/off but doesn't seem to make a big difference), and signed up for TeslaFi.
Here's are some sample rides (I've covered the addresses/GPS data for privacy, but you can still see the elevation changes and weather); most rides are in the ~550Wh/mile range with some over/under.
Curious if people thinks this looks normal given the elevation change in each of these rides or if something is seriously wrong with my X.
Note: The "battery heater" column shows "0" when I click to view a drive's details - see second screenshot - I'm guessing this means the battery heater was not on.

A single drive (battery heater = "0")

 

[dasarp]

Not sure if this option was always there, but today when I went to the "service" section in my app I saw an option for "range". When I clicked on it, it offered to analyze a drive for range discrepancy (didn't give me the option to choose which one, just said it would analyze the longest one from the past two days).

Here's what came out: a 6.4 mile drive that "consumed" 14.6 miles worth of battery/energy (so an extra 8.2 miles!).

• Largest impact (3.6 miles worth) seems to be due to elevation
• Next largest (3.2 miles worth) seems to be due to "driving" (presumably my driving style/speed/etc)

 

[gaswalla]

Range analysis is a recent addition to the software… thanks for showing that! (I kept looking for it on the MCU honestly, and couldn’t find it)

 

[aesculus]

Not sure if this option was always there, but today when I went to the "service" section in my app I saw an option for "range". When I clicked on it, it offered to analyze a drive for range discrepancy (didn't give me the option to choose which one, just said it would analyze the longest one from the past two days).

Thanks for sharing this. I have tried to get this report 5 times and it keeps telling me it has an error and for me to try after 24 hours.

Can I ask you how much time after you did the drive did you run the report? I am wondering if I waited to long (next day).

 

[Felickz]

Sounds pretty high! Service Appointment here is a pretty chill drive in my p90d 2016 and app assessment from same drive