Lost 50% range on my battery

[NawkNad]

I have a Model 3 LR (vin 26,000) with 8,000 km driven. I live in Ottawa Canada. About a month ago my range suddenly dropped in half. I set my SOC to 90% and schedule charge at 5:30 am in my indoor garage. When it stops charging my stated range is 230 Km or 142 miles. I’ve been charging at 70% -80% but since watching a video by LikeTesla I’ve been going 90% SOC but nothing changes still only 230 Km. I’ve booked an appointment to drive 2 hours to Montreal for service. My wait was over one month long. I emailed today to confirm I could get a loaner car but after a string of emails I was told

“It’s your call on this one Daniel .. You could come in and get told by a tech that there is nothing wrong with your battery . This is the norm for a battery during the winter months ..”

Is this normal? I’ve search all forums and haven’t found anyone else with this complaint. Your help, thoughts and suggestion on how to deal with this would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[mtndrew1]

Which firmware version are you on and is your actual range in line with this screen?

 

[NawkNad]

Which firmware version are you on and is your actual range in line with this screen?

I’m on 46.2. No I still expericance winter loss on the 230 Km (142 miles). Because I’ve lost half my battery range I’ve been very frugal with the heat so I probably lose another 20% I estimate maybe 180 Km (120 miles) actual range

 

[mtndrew1]

As the Model 3 doesn’t have a “guess o meter” and simply multiplies available pack energy by Wh/km it seems like you may have an actual fault.

Maybe a couple 100% (don’t let it sit there long) to 5% and back runs just to make sure the BMS is calibrated could help but if they don’t I would take it in to the SC.

 

[coleAK]

My range is currently 131 (~211 km) miles when I recharge to 80%. I’m in Alaska and hovering around 380-400 Wh/mi so far this winter. Temp this AM was 10 F (-12 C). What is you Wh/km? If it’s around 250 Wh/km your battery is probably ok.

 

[Whisky]

You definitely need to charge to 100% and let the battery sort everything out before going to a SC. Drive immediately afterwards. The "this is normal during winter months" is outright inaccurate. Yes, range decreases in the winter time, but the stated rated charge should still go all the way up to 499km (or there-about).

Possible you're starting charging on an extremely cold battery?

 

[NawkNad]

My range is currently 131 (~211 km) miles when I recharge to 80%. I’m in Alaska and hovering around 380-400 Wh/mi so far this winter. Temp this AM was 10 F (-12 C). What is you Wh/km? If it’s around 250 Wh/km your battery is probably ok.

So my temperature in Ottawa has been comparable. My ave consumption 190-200 wh/km. The problem is I can’t get the miles above 140 miles at 90% charged. My actual winter driving range is about 110 miles with the battery charged to 90%.

 

[NawkNad]

You definitely need to charge to 100% and let the battery sort everything out before going to a SC. Drive immediately afterwards. The "this is normal during winter months" is outright inaccurate. Yes, range decreases in the winter time, but the stated rated charge should still go all the way up to 499km (or there-about).

Possible you're starting charging on an extremely cold battery?

No not really cold. Ottawa went down to -15 a few times this month but the M3 is always parked inside and the garage temp doesn’t fall past -3-5.
I’ll be draining to 5-10% and then charge to 90-100% all this week as I’m schedule to drive to Montreal on Monday for diagnostics. I want to make sure I do the re calabration before to knock it off the list of possibilities.

 

[Whisky]

No not really cold. Ottawa went down to -15 a few times this month but the M3 is always parked inside and the garage temp doesn’t fall past -3-5.
I’ll be draining to 5-10% and then charge to 90-100% all this week as I’m schedule to drive to Montreal on Monday for diagnostics. I want to make sure I do the re calabration before to knock it off the list of possibilities.

Yeah. Sorry to hear that, that sucks. My only other recommendation (and all this is a long-shot, really, I’m just guessing) is charge the car to 100% right after driving for a while so you know the battery is warm at the start of the charge. There are lots of similar issues posted with owners that charge to 70% regularly, but like you said, losing half your rated range is huge. Also, it’s really not normal.

Have they looked at your car via their remote diagnostic tools?

 

[dusdev]

That definitely does not look look correct. I recently charged to 99% before a road trip and range was shown at 491 km. Currently have ~5100 km on the odo.

 

[NawkNad]

Yeah. Sorry to hear that, that sucks. My only other recommendation (and all this is a long-shot, really, I’m just guessing) is charge the car to 100% right after driving for a while so you know the battery is warm at the start of the charge. There are lots of similar issues posted with owners that charge to 70% regularly, but like you said, losing half your rated range is huge. Also, it’s really not normal.

Have they looked at your car via their remote diagnostic tools?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Have you been across the border to the US recently? IIRC, there was a problem in the past when some Model S/X owners took their car across the border and then the units got messed up. I don't remember the details but maybe it is showing miles instead of kms? If you try to change your units to miles, does it still show 231 miles at 90%?

 

[Whisky]

Have you been across the border to the US recently? IIRC, there was a problem in the past when some Model S/X owners took their car across the border and then the units got messed up. I don't remember the details but maybe it is showing miles instead of kms? If you try to change your units to miles, does it still show 231 miles at 90%?

I dealt with this problem, but it was an issue with what the car displayed as the posted speed limit (displayed only, it did dive the correct speed limit with autopilot), but not a problem with range or the units being displayed. At least that was the case for me. There very well may have been another issue.

 

[dusdev]

Have you been across the border to the US recently? IIRC, there was a problem in the past when some Model S/X owners took their car across the border and then the units got messed up. I don't remember the details but maybe it is showing miles instead of kms? If you try to change your units to miles, does it still show 231 miles at 90%?

I was wondering the same thing... since the loss seems to be on the order of miles/kilometers. That could just be a coincidence though.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I dealt with this problem, but it was an issue with what the car displayed as the posted speed limit (displayed only, it did dive the correct speed limit with autopilot), but not a problem with range or the units being displayed. At least that was the case for me. There very well may have been another issue.

Thanks for the reminder of what the problem was previously. It could be a new bug this time...or something else entirely. At any rate, it wouldn't hurt for the OP to try changing units to see if it fixes it.

 

[EAlvarez]

Have about the same vin, a little less than 7 000 km, car stay outside in Quebec city (no garage) and at 80% of charge we have 400 km. Strange indeed.

 

[adaptabl]

Normal to lose 50% in Winter.

 

[Kirby64]

Normal to lose 50% in Winter.

It's not normal for the range shown on the car/app to lose significant range. Sounds like a pack failure to me. From what I've read, the range is calculated purely by the estimated BMS kWh size (which can vary a bit) * current pack % charge. Yeah, calibration can get a bit out of wack, but NOT 50%.

There was some P3D owner that complained he suddenly lost ~20% range one day and after taking it to the service center they determined one of the battery banks was just dead for some reason. He got got a new battery. Possibly the same problem here?

 

[GWord]

Normal to lose 50% in Winter.

Not from the *rated* range though. Seems like there is probably a legitimate problem here unless some sort of software bug is causing it.

 

[StellarRat]

I'd definitely call service on this one. Maybe you'd lose that much if it was -25 F outside, but something sure seems wrong to me. I did notice, the screen shows the car is only charged to 47%. If it were to actually reach 100% you would close to the right range.