I was just commuting to work and tried a few quick acceleration tests just going from 80mph-90mph. It wasn't as impressive as I thought it was when I first got the car about 1 1/2 weeks ago when it seemed no matter what highway speed there was tons of torque. I have AB and had about 68% SOC at the time. I realize the 0-60 times are relatively much quicker. It's possible I just already acclimated to the acceleration especially at lower speeds. How much could SOC be affecting performance at those speeds? I don't remember what SOC it was when I previously tried accelerating at those speeds. Thanks.
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Model 3 LR with Acel. Boost 80MPH+ acceleration
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Its possible you acclimated to it some, and it is also possible that your battery was not fully warm. New owners specifically, are used to "its warm outside" or "I drove for 5-10 minutes the car should have been warm", thinking about their ICE vehicles.
I commute 40 miles each way to work. I live in southern california, where "cold" is not really that cold. My car is parked in a drywalled, enclosed garage with insulated garage doors, that during the height of summer is not warmer than about 90 degrees, and in the dead of "winter" is not colder than about 50 degrees.
When I commute to work, the battery in my car is not warmed up till I get close to work, and my commute from home to work includes a drive on a freeway that has average speeds of 80MPH when there is no traffic. Even driven at 80MPH for more than 20 miles, my battery is not fully "warm".
I provide the detail because people will usually say "well its summer, its warm outside now", and that doesnt have that much to do with the battery being warm enough to extract maximum power.
I suspect that, there is some of both happening here. You are getting used to it, and the car was likely not fully warm.
I commute 40 miles each way to work. I live in southern california, where "cold" is not really that cold. My car is parked in a drywalled, enclosed garage with insulated garage doors, that during the height of summer is not warmer than about 90 degrees, and in the dead of "winter" is not colder than about 50 degrees.
When I commute to work, the battery in my car is not warmed up till I get close to work, and my commute from home to work includes a drive on a freeway that has average speeds of 80MPH when there is no traffic. Even driven at 80MPH for more than 20 miles, my battery is not fully "warm".
I provide the detail because people will usually say "well its summer, its warm outside now", and that doesnt have that much to do with the battery being warm enough to extract maximum power.
I suspect that, there is some of both happening here. You are getting used to it, and the car was likely not fully warm.
Thanks for the reply. My car is plugged in overnight and I do schedule the departure time. Does charging right before departure get the battery sufficiently warm for max performance or it still needs to be driven as well? Also my total round trip commute is under 40 miles so I was only charging nightly to 70% but perhaps I should charge closer to 80% to eek out a little more performance. Also I did find some other threads about highway speed acceleration and it does seem that torque really does fall off over 80 so that is likely playing a large role too. Real world I'm not usually driving much faster than 80 but once it a while it does come in handy for a quick pass.
There are two things at play. First, as @jjrandorin indicates, battery temperature is a major factor in maximum battery power output so you might be limited. Second, State of Charge also influences the maximum power output. Someone did a dyno of an AWD+ at various SOCs:
As you can see, the difference in SOC doesn't appear until ~65kph (40mph) (unless you're at 10% SOC...) and is more pronounced at higher speeds. 80mph = 128kph, clearly in the range where your 68%SOC makes you lose good power.
EDIT: This was done on a 2020 (or 2019?) Model 3. Things might be different with the 2021 / new batteries... Take with a grain of salt but it gives some ballpark.
Link:
As you can see, the difference in SOC doesn't appear until ~65kph (40mph) (unless you're at 10% SOC...) and is more pronounced at higher speeds. 80mph = 128kph, clearly in the range where your 68%SOC makes you lose good power.
EDIT: This was done on a 2020 (or 2019?) Model 3. Things might be different with the 2021 / new batteries... Take with a grain of salt but it gives some ballpark.
Link:
Scheduled charging would help mitigate the "not fully warmed battery" thing I was talking about, sure, as long as you were not charging from 62% to 70% or something.
The very fact that you are "charging to 70%" tells me you have likely been down the battery "rabbit hole" here in the gigantic threads about battery life, etc. I charge to 90% all the time, and have done so for the 2.5 years I have owned my model 3 performance, and have more miles showing left than many people who have extensive "battery regimens".
Point being, if you want more speed, charge to 90%, but also know that, at that speed, punching it, you will not be blowing the doors of everyone. Going from 60-70 to "some amount of speed" will not automatically blow away any performance minded ICE vehicle, like you can from 0-60.
Thanks again. Yes I'm only charging from like 60-70% given my relatively short commutes so I guess not much battery warming time even if scheduled. 2 days after I got the car I took it on a road trip from Cleveland to Chicago and back so I imagine battery was plenty warm most of that time influencing power. I'm now reconsidering charging to 90% - might as well enjoy all this car has to offer. I don't tend to keep cars more than a few years anyway.
Re-assessed on my commute today. Did precondition which it seems from post above doesn't necessarily warm battery enough. Charged to 80%. I think acceleration is still quite good from 80mph. I think the most significant factor was likely just acclimating to the crazy 0-60 performance. When I relaxed my hands/arms on the steering wheel I clearly get pushed back into my seat and 90+ comes fairly quickly.
Sounds like you're ready to upgrade to the Plaid model
Yep. Will need to start playing the lotto for that one. I could tell my wife that the Plaid is an excellent value at only $150K since it competes with million dollar supercars but I fear that may lead to divorce. All kidding aside I'm thrilled with the M3 LR with AB performance. The steering/handling is also fantastic which actually surprised me. The fastest car I previously owned was a 2016 340i xDrive but this is in a different league.
so say you're tracking and the battery starts to heat up, that's gonna start restricting the power output along with the downgraded SOC?
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