Knowing the Real World Driving Range of Your Tesla — No More ‘Range Anxiety’

[HMHM]

Knowing the Real World Driving Range of Your Tesla — No More ‘Range Anxiety’

After reading and writing about EVs with great interest and watching the evolution of sustainable mobility for years, I’m excited about joining the revolution. I finally took the delivery of my new 2023 Tesla Model Y, Long Range, Seven Seater this March. This latest technology marvel has a dual motor and a usable battery capacity of 75 kWh, with an EPA range of 326 miles.

Based on the driving conditions and usable battery capacity, the estimated real world range of my Tesla, without trigging any serious range anxiety, is about 175 to 200 miles (280 to 320 kms). My highway driving dynamics reveal that I must start heading towards a charger at about every 150 miles (240 kms), allowing enough time to precondition my battery pack.

 

[jjtdmd2003@yah]

Knowing the Real World Driving Range of Your Tesla — No More ‘Range Anxiety’

View attachment 939888

After reading and writing about EVs with great interest and watching the evolution of sustainable mobility for years, I’m excited about joining the revolution. I finally took the delivery of my new 2023 Tesla Model Y, Long Range, Seven Seater this March. This latest technology marvel has a dual motor and a usable battery capacity of 75 kWh, with an EPA range of 326 miles.

Based on the driving conditions and usable battery capacity, the estimated real world range of my Tesla, without trigging any serious range anxiety, is about 175 to 200 miles (280 to 320 kms). My highway driving dynamics reveal that I must start heading towards a charger at about every 150 miles (240 kms), allowing enough time to precondition my battery pack.

You say realistic range is 175-200 miles. Is this from 100% to 20% ? Or what parameters are you comfortable with? I'm assuming this is freeway driving? I've owned mine for less than a month and have no travel experience but was hoping I could comfortably go about 200 miles without anxiety. Like many others have said I'm very ready to take a break after 2-3 hours. Traveling in my ICE car I hardly ever let it get below 1/4 full yet when I used Tesla's navigation it prompted me to get to below 10% once and in that vicinity a few other times on a 1000 mile trip. That would make me, at this stage, to be a little apprehensive. Would appreciate your perspective on this. Thank you

 

[HMHM]

You say realistic range is 175-200 miles. Is this from 100% to 20% ? Or what parameters are you comfortable with?

I'm basing it on 90% to 20% SoC. However, I'm most comfortable with 80-20. On a longer road trip, charging up to 90% at a SC is not feasible due to lot slower charging after the 80% SoC. On the lower end, I try not to go below 20% for freeway long trips, and not go below 30% for routine daily driving. After a reasonable analysis, I have distilled the knowledge down to these practices.

My Charging Best Practices:

Maintaining Li-ion (NCM & NCA) Batteries - Real-world Recommendations for BEVs. The illustrated partial recharge cycle recommendations were revised recently in light of my extensive conversations with experts and long-time Tesla owners. LFP batteries should be charged to 100% at least once every week.

 

[scottf200]

That is a pretty reasonable chart. I do 70% daily and my kid that travels some days a week 100 miles roundtrip for work does 80%.
You do also have to keep into account emergencies and making sure that you SoC can always get you to hospitals even you are driving aggressively.
I don't think there is any genuine advantage to charging below 70% daily unless you are doing long term storage (ie. people that travel south for the winter).

I do a fair amount of road tripping and I regularly do 80%-10% (or 5% if I skip some Superchargers). At 90K miles I'm still at >90% battery range capacity on my 2017 X.

With the growing abundance of supercharges this is getting easier and easier. Impressive to watch this on a regular basis: supercharge.info

Predict range accurately good article: How to accurately predict range in a Tesla

 

[HMHM]

Thanks for your input. The lower SoC numbers are meant for driving ≤ 50 mi a day scenarios with enough buffer for any local emergency situations. The charging intervals in the third column are meant to minimize the numbers of partial charging sessions. I have learned from experts on the forum that every time we plug in for a shallow, medium or deep charging session, we are stressing the battery. I deliberately did not go below 30% SoC because a Tesla can die even at 4% SoC displaying. Furthermore, I recently learned that there is no such thing as a hidden 20 mi buffer at 0% SoC.

 

[scottf200]

Thanks for your input. The lower SoC numbers are meant for driving ≤ 50 mi a day scenarios with enough buffer for any local emergency situations. The charging intervals in the third column are meant to minimize the numbers of partial charging sessions. I have learned from experts on the forum that every time we plug in for a shallow, medium or deep charging session, we are stressing the battery. I deliberately did not go below 30% SoC because a Tesla can die even at 4% SoC displaying. Furthermore, I recently learned that there is no such thing as a hidden 20 mi buffer at 0% SoC.

Listen to Professor Jeff Dahn Tesla Battery Researcher the renowned expert in the field vs internet forums.

Title: Tesla Signs A 5 Year Exclusive Deal With Jeff Dahn, Possibly The Best Battery Researcher In The World
Tesla has extended the battery research deal it had with Jeff Dahn's Lab. The electric car market has also added two researchers as chairmen.

Tesla Signs A 5 Year Exclusive Deal With Jeff Dahn, Possibly The Best Battery Researcher In The World | Torque News

Tesla has extended the battery research deal it had with Jeff Dahn's Lab. The electric car market has also added two researchers as chairmen.

www.torquenews.com

From the following article on batteries "similar" to what Tesla is using.

Divide those number of cycles by 365 or 300 or whatever number of days per year you want. Pretty long.

"500 cycles? But that’s (relatively) low! Yes. But what is not shown on the spec sheet is that when you partially charge and discharge, degradation of the battery capacity is reduced. Thus, you can do over
40 000 charge/discharge cycles when going from 30% to 70% only. Or over
35 000 charge/discharge cycles from 20% to 80%;
28 000 cycles from 10% to 90%;
15 000 cycles from 8% to 92%,
07 500 cylces from 6% to 94%, and the capacity reduction goes faster and faster, finally reaching
00 500 cycles when recharging from 0% to 100%."

http://blog.evandmore.com/lets-talk-about-the-panasonic-ncr18650b/

 

[HMHM]

As per the battery industry standard practices, a 20% degradation is considered as the end of battery life. If the above cycle data is based on the industry standards, most of the threads related to battery life would be irrelevant. On the contrary, there are numerous cases of high degradation on this forum making us think about the importance of maintaining a medium SoC and keeping the partial charging cycles as low as possible.

 

[scottf200]

As per the battery industry standard practices, a 20% degradation is considered as the end of battery life. If the above cycle data is based on the industry standards, most of the threads related to battery life would be irrelevant. On the contrary, there are numerous cases of high degradation on this forum making us think about the importance of maintaining a medium SoC and keeping the partial charging cycles as low as possible.

It seems like I've heard 30% be more common in company warranty literature.

In any event, I generally listen to experts like Professor Jeff Dahn Tesla Battery Researcher that Tesla relies on.

 

[electric-donut]

20% is considered end of life if your not paying for the replacement. If you are paying for the replacement, I think you would claim 50% if you thought you could get away with it.

 

[ApexProxy]

I'm basing it on 90% to 20% SoC. However, I'm most comfortable with 80-20. On a longer road trip, charging up to 90% at a SC is not feasible due to lot slower charging after the 80% SoC. On the lower end, I try not to go below 20% for freeway long trips, and not go below 30% for routine daily driving. After a reasonable analysis, I have distilled the knowledge down to these practices.

My Charging Best Practices:
View attachment 950430
Maintaining Li-ion (NCM & NCA) Batteries - Real-world Recommendations for BEVs. The illustrated partial recharge cycle recommendations were revised recently in light of my extensive conversations with experts and long-time Tesla owners. LFP batteries should be charged to 100% at least once every week.

I mostly agree with this chart though I would recommend some tweaking at the low side of the scale. NMC and NCA cells prefer a SOC of 60% at any given time which is why it is considered a storage charge. That being said, the lowest two ranges dip lower than they need to and would likely create less wear cycles by increasing them both by 10%.