75,000 mile (120,700 km) update for my Sep 2021 SR+ LFP. The car is now 2 years 5 months old and was originally rated at 253 miles on a full charge. The Tessie app shows a battery capacity of 51.1 kWh (down 6.4% from my original Oct 2021 post of 54.6 kWh), and a max range of 236 miles (down 6.7% from my original range of 253 miles, and down 1 mile since my 70,000 mile update). I've had Tessie since my first day or two or ownership, so this data shows the entire life of the car.
According to the car's screen, I'm averaging 211 Wh/mi over the life of the car (up from 210 at the 70,000 mile update). In cold winter weather I can expect 240+ Wh/mi when it's below 30f, and in ideal temps (75-85f) I routinely manage under 200 Wh/mi on my 100 mile round-trip commute. Assuming I could tap into the current 51.1 kWh battery at my lifetime average 211 Wh/mi efficiency, that gives me a real-world range of 242.1 miles.
My charging is mostly Level 2 from a Grizzl-E delivering 24 amps on a 40 amp circuit in my garage. I charge almost every day/night due to a long commute, typically to about 75% a few times per week and a 100% once or twice a week. I fast charge about twice per week on average, and over time I find myself fast charging more and more due to the growth of DCFC networks and the convenience of plugging in while I'm getting groceries or whatever.
Driving the same distance in my old Ford Focus would've cost $7,086 in gasoline. To a large degree, my car is sun-powered since installing solar at my home. If I'd kept my 2012 Ford Focus (37mpg), I would've used 2,029 gallons of gas to travel these 75,079 miles. At about 19 pounds of CO2 per gallon, that would've been 38,551 pounds of CO2. Prior to getting solar, my carbon emissions were about 35% of what I would've released in my efficient little Focus. But now that I have solar, that number is much lower, and it's pushing the car's lifetime average down every day.
To illustrate the power of solar, a couple days ago on 28 Feb, my panels generated 67.11 kWh of electricity. On the same day, I used 26.1 kWh to make my 100+ mile commute (it was a cold day so my drive was relatively inefficient). Just a reminder that any plug-in EV can be sun-powered.
We had a snow storm roll through the other day, and it took me four hours to get home from work. It was another reminder how good this RWD car is on icy roads, compared to gas-powered FWD and RWD cars. There were people spinning out all around me, and people who couldn't get up the slightest of inclines. It was a mess. But the weight over the Model 3 RWD has proven to be good in these conditions, and my car was planted throughout. I did stop and buy some bags of ice melt, and threw them in the trunk just to add a little more weight, but I'm not sure if that made any difference. Also, despite being stuck in traffic for hours, my battery percentage was only 2% lower when I got home than was originally predicted. So sitting in idle traffic made minimal impact on my range, even though I was using all the comfort systems.
I had a rare maintenance issue about a month ago. Tesla mobile service came to my home and rotated the tires, but the next morning two of those tires were flat. It turns out the service tech had loosened two of the valve cores, causing slow leaks. Eventually I got it figured out and it didn't cost me anything, but it was a bit frustrating in the moment and I didn't make it to work on time that day.
I'll try to post another update at 80,000 miles.
