Inaccurate range estimate??

[Tes.L.A.]

Hi, is anyone else struggling with inaccuracy of the "range" shown on the dash? I have found it to be 35%-50% low on my Tesla X75 D after 3 months of driving it. Usually, I am in stop and go city traffic, which I understand would take more battery than freeway driving.

However, today I drove 90 miles, and it took 130 miles of the 170 miles of range the car said I had, which made for a very stressful last few miles. The SC said that there is nothing wrong with my battery, but that things like using the radio and climate control requires extra battery and depletes the range. Excuse me? The car battery was designed to use without climate control?

Is this problem of range estimation just with my car, or is it normal to be 35-50% off?

 

[TexasEV]

The range shown is the range on the EPA test cycle. If you’re not driving the EPA test cycle then YMMV, as the saying goes.

It has nothing to do with the radio. That belongs in the file of stupid things Tesla people have said. Heating the car does significantly reduce range. The car doesn’t have excess heat to heat the cabin as ICE cars do, it uses the battery for that. The seat heaters are much more efficient than turning the HVAC temp up. Air conditioning has much less impact than heat.

 

[d21mike]

When I got my car they had the "setting" on Idea instead of Rated which causes it to be way off. With that said your Energy needs to be 300 Wh/Mile or less to match Rated Miles. What are you getting on average?

 

[AB4EJ]

Driving at sustained high speeds (i.e., over 70) and use of cabin heater will definitely cut range. I have found range estimation to be pretty accurate on my S90D, but then I use seat heater instead of cabin heater whenever possible in winter. There are a host of other things that the range estimator system can't take into account (amount of load in the car, headwinds, etc.) but these tend to be more significant on long trips rather than around town.

 

[d21mike]

Not sure how accurate this is compared to while driving. But I believe my car used 7 miles per hour while sleeping in the car on Thanksgiving Weekend with just the Climate Control (heater) running. In Southern California so was not real cold compared to other areas.

 

[Krazaak]

Hi, is anyone else struggling with inaccuracy of the "range" shown on the dash? I have found it to be 35%-50% low on my Tesla X75 D after 3 months of driving it. Usually, I am in stop and go city traffic, which I understand would take more battery than freeway driving.

However, today I drove 90 miles, and it took 130 miles of the 170 miles of range the car said I had, which made for a very stressful last few miles. The SC said that there is nothing wrong with my battery, but that things like using the radio and climate control requires extra battery and depletes the range. Excuse me? The car battery was designed to use without climate control?

Is this problem of range estimation just with my car, or is it normal to be 35-50% off?

Pretty sure rated on the X is 335Wh/mi. My typical highway trip averages around 330-370Wh/mi, 370-410Wh/mi since it's been in the low 30s.

If you have 22" wheels, you're losing ~10-15% right there. Check your air pressure too, under 42-45psi is a range hit.

Anytime you hit your brakes instead of letting the car regen is lost energy, sometimes a significant amount. Elevation gains, driving into the wind all impact range significantly. Use the energy meter display on the 17" screen to watch your efficiency. The dashed line is the target for rated miles.

Climate definitely has an impact on range, heating more than cooling.

 

[Need]

So far I think we are getting about 85% to 90% of the estimated range. I am wondering when the range get very low.. 5 miles or something, does it really means 5 miles? Or it has a reserve like the ICE car? On my Lexus, if the range shows 0, I could drive another 100 miles easily. On the BMW, when it shows 0, it is really very very close to empty.

 

[TexasEV]

As you said, the displayed range is only an estimate. This is because the battery SOC can’t be measured directly. It’s estimated based on algorithms that can be more or less accurate, depending on your charging history. So you could have 5 miles, or more, but you could also have less. Don’t cut it so close, and especially don’t listen to those posters who brag about how far they’ve gone below zero and assume they’ve found a secret reserve. Next time they just as easily could be stuck on the side of the road.

 

[FarmerDave]

Cold weather is a bitch for BEVs. Today I drove at low speed (<40 mph) about ten miles through light snow and 15 degree air.

Averaged 605 Wh/mile!

 

[golfbern]

For me the biggest drain is always speed. I like to drive flow of traffic at 75-80 here in California and it kills my battery. Only draw back to having the tesla for me but has already made me a safer driver!

 

[Rocky_H]

Every winter there are several of these threads, and it really is just about heating. This is the down side of an electric motor being so very efficient--it doesn't generate a bunch of waste heat like a gas engine does.

So, people look at their display and they see "### rates miles", so they are thinking they have that many miles for driving. No. The battery is all one pool of energy for the car, so that is like ## miles for driving + ## miles for heating. It's like an little electric space heater you plug in at your house. You think that doesn't use energy? That's a pretty heavy draw. And that's what the car is having to run inside it to warm up the interior cabin, and that electrical draw is coming from the same pool of "rated miles".

 

[AWDtsla]

Winter - excessive battery range reduction...

 

[TexasEV]

Every winter there are several of these threads, and it really is just about heating. This is the down side of an electric motor being so very efficient--it doesn't generate a bunch of waste heat like a gas engine does.

So, people look at their display and they see "### rates miles", so they are thinking they have that many miles for driving. No. The battery is all one pool of energy for the car, so that is like ## miles for driving + ## miles for heating. It's like an little electric space heater you plug in at your house. You think that doesn't use energy? That's a pretty heavy draw. And that's what the car is having to run inside it to warm up the interior cabin, and that electrical draw is coming from the same pool of "rated miles".

It's not just about heating. Cold air is denser so it has greater resistance.

 

[Aljohn]

In daily driving, using the "rated" range on the dash is not a problem. However, if you are stretching between Super Chargers or in danger of reaching minimal battery, click on the "Energy" setting on the middle screen. This is where the Tesla extrapolates the actual wattage used to indicates the "projected range" on the right side of the graph. This seems to be what Tesla uses for the range/speed warning. My experience on long trip indicates that the two "projected range" and rated on the dash are equal only if you are driving using 230/watts per mile. That may be the EPA sweet spot.

Lesson learned is to watch the "Energy Screen" when trying to stretch to that destination. I limped into the Chattanooga Super Charger with 5 miles remaining using the Energy screen--interestingly at that point the rated and projected miles are equal. Using the Energy screen, however, made me adjust my driving to the projected range.... slower -- below 55mph going through the Tennessee mountains.