I recently took a 220 mile trip and when I arrived home the car said I had used 60kWh's and had 14 miles of range left. I have the rear wheel drive long range Model 3. I was fine with the range since I was driving around 80 miles and hour for part of it and then stuck in LA traffic for a large portion and ran the heater the entire time. Does this seem correct? I expected more usable capacity than 60kWh. What are other people getting?
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Model 3 only 60kWh useable battery capacity
- Thread starter acevolt
- Start date
ratsbew
Active Member
Yes, I fully charged it prior to the trip. I really expected to use closer to 70kWh or at least have more miles left after the trip. I wanted to know what the maximum kWh that other people have seen on the trip computer. I wonder if I need to get the battery rebalanced or fully charge more often.
Uncle Paul
Well-Known Member
Most batteries have a unusuable reserve at the top and bottom of it's capacity. This is done to protect the battery from a short life.
Just as a hard drive has some capacity unusable. Your battery may only have 60 kWh usable.
Just as a hard drive has some capacity unusable. Your battery may only have 60 kWh usable.
When driving 80,switch to the energy view and see what your estimated range is.
Oh, how did you figure out that it only has 60kWh capacity? Taking the EPA numbers is pretty much the completely wrong way.
The right answer is probably that your driving habits are 75% as good as the posted numbers.
Slow down to the speed limits and you may get 20% better range.
Oh, how did you figure out that it only has 60kWh capacity? Taking the EPA numbers is pretty much the completely wrong way.
The right answer is probably that your driving habits are 75% as good as the posted numbers.
Slow down to the speed limits and you may get 20% better range.
ratsbew
Active Member
I measured about 73.5kWh by running my battery from 100% to 50%. I use a conservative 70kWh when doing Wh/mile calculations. I don't think the trip counter measures energy usage while the car is in park so if you pre-heated then that cabin.
timk225
Active Member
All summer, I'd blast around on local highways at 80+ mph, representing the Tesla brand in an excellent way, and I'd frequently be around 230-260 wh/mile. The same kind of driving with the heater running is more like 350 wh/mile.
I just looked at the trip computer to see what the battery useage was and saw 60kWh. Maybe that does does calculate for climate control. This was actually a trip my wife did. When I drive my Model S I rarely use climate control. She has to have it going all the time.
Also, don’t have the latest version 9 for some reason. Had the car since January and they have not pushed it, so I cannot see instantaneous energy usage.
No? What is the usable capacity of the Model 3 long range battery? I charged from 8% to 85% last night and added 63.4 kWh according to my charging station. Subtract 10% for inefficiencies and that turns into 57 kWh. 75 kWh * .77 (percentage of battery that I added, according to the display) is 57.75 kWh.
That said, I didn't look to see how much energy the car had reported using on that charge, so perhaps the vehicle is misreporting. Regardless, the amount of energy I actually added lines up nicely with what I would expect.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Since you weren’t doing the trip, are you 100% certain the trip was not split into two pieces? Were you looking at an actual resettable trip odometer or just the trip computer? Because the trip computer could have gotten reset if the car were stopped and parked briefly at some point during the drive.... And for the resettable odometer you’d need to be sure it was reset at 100% of course.
If all the data is good, it seems that you have 60kWh+14/310*75kWh = 63.4kWh usable battery which seems completely wrong, but there are additional caveats - see below.
I think it is pretty unlikely there is anything wrong with the battery...
I understand @TexasEV that you just want people to not worry about their battery capacity, but I feel like these responses need a little elaboration. The “no” was in response to fully charging/rebalancing, which is fair enough and certainly the correct answer.
As far as I can tell, the kWh that the heater/climate control uses IS included in the trip display as long as the car is moving. And the speed of travel is not relevant here; it doesn’t make a difference to the trip computer energy logging.
So, as I understand it, a full discharge from 100% to 0%, at around 50-60F external termperature, should show something quite close to 75kWh (the *approximate* battery capacity) on the trip meter EVEN if climate control is blasting. Is that not the case?
I am under this impression because the displayed Wh/mi on the trip meter so obviously includes climate control usage when you use it to monitor efficiency! So that usage must be included.
HOWEVER....
I believe this is correct. If the car is left parked and preheating, then I believe the battery use during that time due to climate control is not counted. However I have not carefully studied the exact behavior, as it isn’t all that interesting, and I don’t take long trips. Someone should be able to confirm this definitively though. Not hard to check!
Anyway this is another possibility for why the OP’s battery numbers don’t seem correct.
@acevolt I think basically we’re looking at a situation where there looks like there is diminished battery capacity, but really just some of the used battery energy was not counted on the trip meter you quoted for one or several of the reasons above.
Does this seem plausible to you?
I am amazed your Model 3 LR energy usage per mile is that low at 80mph speeds.
My Model 3 LR Dual Motor uses around 270Wh/mi at 65mph. I don’t go 80mph because that is way over the speed limit on California freeways. I realize the Dual Motor is not as efficient as the RWD.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Model
Model 3 RWD is the best version! They should have made it faster. Maybe they still will, or come out with another version later with a bigger and equally efficient motor. Off topic, I know...
80 on California freeways is the generally accepted “hard limit”.
Model 3 RWD is the best version! They should have made it faster. Maybe they still will, or come out with another version later with a bigger and equally efficient motor. Off topic, I know...
80 on California freeways is the generally accepted “hard limit”.
timk225
Active Member
Here in my area, speed limits are merely suggestions. At least for me they are, I'm special.
The state cops are only on certain highways.
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