Model 3 LR AWD - Two Year Snapshot

A year ago I posted a one-year snapshot of my 2022 Long-Range AWD Model 3 ( Model 3 - One Year Later ).

Now, with a second trip around the sun, here are some updated stats.

The most important thing is that this car remains an astonishing revelation. Anyone on the fence about buying a Tesla… should just do it! By far the most delightful automobile experience I have ever had.

Maintenance continues to be a dream compared to all of the many ICE cars I’ve owned. Like the first year, I refreshed the windshield washer fluid several times. For a lot of people, that would have been the end of the maintenance story.

Me, I had a bit of tire drama. Shortly after 21,000 miles, heading down my driveway one morning, my habitual glance at the TPMS as it awakened told me something was amiss. Stopping and backing back up, a careful examination of the suspect tire and a bit of spit revealed the reason: a nail in the sidewall junction. Over the next 24 hours that small nail brought home two important lessons: the tire repair kit I religiously carried was inadequate for the very rigid tires fitted to Tesla’s. And with my DIY option on hold, none of the local tire shops would repair the tire, given the location of the puncture.

All’s well that ends well, though. Amazon showed up a day later with the much improved repair kit I had ordered and soon enough I was able to fix the tire myself.

The story didn’t end there, though. A high percentage of tire punctures happen to worn tires. And that was true in my case. The Tesla Service Center had cautioned me months earlier to begin thinking about new tires when I had dropped by for my annual safety inspection. When the TPMS alerted me to that nail I quickly began making plans to to address that.

So, at 21,476 miles I had a new set of OEM All-Season Michelin’s installed. Most expensive set of tires I’ve ever put on a car. And the worst mileage. Definitely a cringeworthy moment.

That said, if expensive tires and poor tire life are the worst maintenance issues I ever have to deal with, I’ll take them!

Battery stats continue to remain good. The first year my nightly charge protocol was to bring the pack back to a nominal 62% SOC. For most of the second year I reduced that to 55%.

It’s easy to see the seasonal ebb and flow of efficiency, as ambient temps rise and fall. My efficiency took a hit around 11,000 miles heading into its first winter; and then again around 24,000 miles, as it headed into its second.

Likewise, Full Rated Range and battery degradation in general. The BMS will report slightly varying numbers, depending upon temperature and other conditions. I’ve seen Full Rated Range as low as 349 in cold temperatures. More typically it reports 350-351. Full Rated Range when new was 358 miles.

Same thing with Nominal Full Pack (NFP), as reported by SMT. The 78.1 kWh reported here is a probably a bit high. Just happened to be a happy couple of driving hours for the car yesterday, after which this two-year snapshot was taken.

As for battery degradation in general, there was a modest decline in pack capacity during the first year of ownership. That largely stabilized entering the car’s second year, and so far there has been little additional loss.

There were 20 software updates during the second year; for a total of 50 since picking up the car.

The Model 3 rocks!

 

[Bubbatech]

My 2020 M3P is at 94k miles now.
As I got it new it showed 499 km (310 miles) when I slid the charging limit to 100%.
Now I can't seem to find a way to visualise that. Even if I set to show my range in mi instead of percentage, sliding the charging limit up and down doesn't show a distance value any longer.
If I do a quick calculation, I'd say I'm down all the way to 450 km (280 miles).
I think that is quite appalling, especially based on what I am reading in this short thread.

I have a 2020 LR with about 35,000 miles. Last year I was seeing a range of about 264 which, obviously, sucks. Speaking to Tesla service, he said it would just get worse and when it got down to a certain point they would take care of it. He said there was nothing I could do. I did not believe him. I surmised that my charging regime which, at that time was 60-90% once or twice a week, was not providing a sufficient spread for the bms to model the battery discharge versus distance. Also, I was also beginning to believe that I was keeping the charge state much too high anyway. So I changed my charging regime to center much closer to the middle 50%. The calculated range immediately started to increase until it hit about 302 miles, where it has remained. Given that the original range was 317, the loss over 4 years has been 4.7%, which I think is very good. I suggest you try that.

 

[gottagofast]

I have a 2020 LR with about 35,000 miles. Last year I was seeing a range of about 264 which, obviously, sucks. Speaking to Tesla service, he said it would just get worse and when it got down to a certain point they would take care of it. He said there was nothing I could do. I did not believe him. I surmised that my charging regime which, at that time was 60-90% once or twice a week, was not providing a sufficient spread for the bms to model the battery discharge versus distance. Also, I was also beginning to believe that I was keeping the charge state much too high anyway. So I changed my charging regime to center much closer to the middle 50%. The calculated range immediately started to increase until it hit about 302 miles, where it has remained. Given that the original range was 317, the loss over 4 years has been 4.7%, which I think is very good. I suggest you try that.

You’re charging only to 50%? Or your charging slightly above 50% so that after you drive your car is at that level when you park

 

[cappo3]

I have a 2020 LR with about 35,000 miles. Last year I was seeing a range of about 264 which, obviously, sucks. Speaking to Tesla service, he said it would just get worse and when it got down to a certain point they would take care of it. He said there was nothing I could do. I did not believe him. I surmised that my charging regime which, at that time was 60-90% once or twice a week, was not providing a sufficient spread for the bms to model the battery discharge versus distance. Also, I was also beginning to believe that I was keeping the charge state much too high anyway. So I changed my charging regime to center much closer to the middle 50%. The calculated range immediately started to increase until it hit about 302 miles, where it has remained. Given that the original range was 317, the loss over 4 years has been 4.7%, which I think is very good. I suggest you try that.

Hi Bubbatech! Thanks for chiming in.

The car has been kept between 50 and 80% for the majority of its life, being charged to 100% maybe twice, maybe not even that.
I had the car sit for prolonged periods of time at different SoCs, in order for the BMS to get multiple readings.
20-30-40-50-60-70 and 80% SoCs were each done multiple times, the car sitting for at least 12 hours.
Since maybe 1.5 years I charge it to 55% and plug back it in at 40-45.
The displayed range keeps coming down, it was 450 km / 280 miles not 6 months ago, it would be 445 km / 276 miles now.

I keep an eye on the trip computer, putting the consumed kWh in relation to the used percentage. Based on this (admittedly very rudimental, but surely indicative) calculation, it seems my battery couldn't offer me more than 62-63 kWh in the best of conditions.

I am unsure if I should try to have it calibrate by charging it to 100%, or simply bring it to Tesla to have them run a battery of battery tests (pun unintended). Given my past experiences with Tesla service, I am sure they'd be of no use.

 

[Bubbatech]

To answer both questions above: I use a charge range of 25-80%. An important point is that it took quite some time for the bms to report 302 miles regularly. At first, it slowly progressed upward to 300 and then went down to about 285 and then over a period of months creeped back up. Given the way the bms models the battery, I think it takes quite a bit of data before the calculated range changes substantially. This, I think, is by design. The engineers wanted the bms to reflect reality as much as possible while obeying the dictum Thou Shalt Not Strand The Driver. So it is very conservative. After the initial increase and then decrease, it took many months to stabilize where it is now. Over time it would increase or decrease by 2-3 miles but slowly trended upwards. I would occasionally charge up to 85-90% to allow balancing, but I have charged to 100% only once, maybe twice in the last year. I now spend most of my time between 50-70, but I make sure to vary it on occasion.

 

[gottagofast]

To answer both questions above: I use a charge range of 25-80%. An important point is that it took quite some time for the bms to report 302 miles regularly. At first, it slowly progressed upward to 300 and then went down to about 285 and then over a period of months creeped back up. Given the way the bms models the battery, I think it takes quite a bit of data before the calculated range changes substantially. This, I think, is by design. The engineers wanted the bms to reflect reality as much as possible while obeying the dictum Thou Shalt Not Strand The Driver. So it is very conservative. After the initial increase and then decrease, it took many months to stabilize where it is now. Over time it would increase or decrease by 2-3 miles but slowly trended upwards. I would occasionally charge up to 85-90% to allow balancing, but I have charged to 100% only once, maybe twice in the last year. I now spend most of my time between 50-70, but I make sure to vary it on occasion.

My range hasn’t been going down or up since it reached 8% loss, I was doing 80-50 for a month and my displayed range hasn’t changed, now I started doing 70-40 in the last week and still no change

You think I need to go all the way down to 25%?

 

[Bubbatech]

My range hasn’t been going down or up since it reached 8% loss, I was doing 80-50 for a month and my displayed range hasn’t changed, now I started doing 70-40 in the last week and still no change

You think I need to go all the way down to 25%?

Initially, I did that. Going down to 20% or even slightly lower.