Model S Battery Range only 251 miles. Normal?

[NYL12]

New MS 75D was delivered on Dec. 4. Minor issues that I hope to be resolved this week. (Door dent and scratches on center console). However I did notice that when I charge to a specific %, the corresponding mileage indicates a max battery of 251 miles and not 259. So if I charge to 80% the mileage shown is 200. Or 90% 225/226. So this is indicating a loss of 3.4749% of battery availability. Is this normal?

I understand the actual mileage I get on a charge may fluctuate based on driving and weather conditions, but I would still think that the est. mileage at a specific % immediately after charging would correspond to the original rated 259 miles for a car less than a month old. Thoughts?

 

[tyson]

In short.. yes most likely perfectly normal. You will see the most loss in the first year. Lots of threads on here about this if you search. After the first year/12,500 miles the degradation should slow down and or level off. If it drops suddenly by a large amount then you have an issue.

 

[TexasEV]

Also you don’t really know what the rated range is at 100% charge unless you charge to 100%. The BMS estimates SOC— it can’t be measured directly.

 

[Asterix187]

To be honest I have never looked in the same way I never filled my old petrol car up to the brim and checked whether it did 400 miles on a full tank.

 

[philgrocks]

Doesn't sound normal for a car that is less than a month old. Some degradation is going to happen, my 2014 Model S P85 had less than 6% loss in 3 years.

My 2017 P100 (now 19 months old) has only lost 3 miles.

In both cars, loss of range in the first 6 months was not noticeable at all.

 

[TexasEV]

In both cars, loss of range in the first 6 months was not noticeable at all.

Typically the first six months would have more range loss than any subsequent six month period.

 

[Snowstorm]

Range is only an estimate. To get a truer read, you will have to drain it to say 10% and charge it to 100%, do it maybe once a year or so to help with calaibration but I won’t do it regularly as deep discharge and sitting at full charge is stressful to the battery. Don’t sweat it too much, it isn’t like swallowing poison, more like how eating Big Macs and fries is not great for your health.

 

[No2DinosaurFuel]

267 miles at 100% after 2.25 years and 40K miles. This is from 286 miles at 100% new.

So 93.3% of new. The degradation rate has slowed but we will have to see how much longer this is the case.

So your case should be normal so far. If it drops more than 10% after more miles than my car, I would be worried.

 

[Tesomega]

To be honest I have never looked in the same way I never filled my old petrol car up to the brim and checked whether it did 400 miles on a full tank.

Yeah, this is very true. However the question is more towards understanding the Battery health and capacity it can hold as EV's in general its like the GAS Tank capacity reduces over time and since Tesla does not provide straight answer or ways to understand the health of the system it becomes very hard to understand your health of your Car.

 

[SSedan]

So a bit over a year ago my P85 originally rated 265 would charge to 257miles great for 65kmiles and 3years old.
After charging to 70-80% and shallow discharges for the year full charge was down to 237. Yesterday I drained it down to 7% and charged it up to 100% this morning and it rebounded to 243miles, I will drain it down and charge to full a few more times and see how much I regain.

Point being it is cummulative rounding errors in the calculations not an actual loss of capacity.

 

[Snowstorm]

BMS range is estimate. Let it go down and back up to 100% and see

 

[jlarmstr]

Yes, normal. Li ion batteries age and degrade over time, it is not linear. It is very rapid at first then levels off and goes down much more slowly. You can expect 5-15 more miles but it is estimated to last 500k miles or more.

 

[ucmndd]

Very normal.

 

[NYL12]

So an update. 2 months in and 3,500 miles my current 100% “rated battery capacity” is around 249-250miles. I never reached a rated level of 259 or even close. So when regularly charging to 90% my “gauge” shows 224 miles. I still find it interesting that out of the box my battery capacity was 3.47% lower than advertised.

I have even taken my battery below 10% then charged to 100% to see if that would recalibrate it. But got no change. Have others have the same issue?

 

[Joshker]

So an update. 2 months in and 3,500 miles my current 100% “rated battery capacity” is around 249-250miles. I never reached a rated level of 259 or even close. So when regularly charging to 90% my “gauge” shows 224 miles. I still find it interesting that out of the box my battery capacity was 3.47% lower than advertised.

I have even taken my battery below 10% then charged to 100% to see if that would recalibrate it. But got no change. Have others have the same issue?

Since day one mine has has been the exact same 3/2018 Build - 251 100%, 225/226 90% 11K miles, hasn't changed since new

 

[roblab]

In short.. yes most likely perfectly normal. You will see the most loss in the first year. Lots of threads on here about this if you search. After the first year/12,500 miles the degradation should slow down and or level off. If it drops suddenly by a large amount then you have an issue.

The battery is warrantied for 8 years and unlimited miles. The "first year" is one year, unlimited miles. 12,500 miles has nothing to do with battery degradation, and some of us put many, many more miles on our cars in a year. The battery degrades a few percent in a year, then tapers off to near 1% per year.

I personally think that your estimated range that is displayed may just be an estimate, although I don't know just how the battery figures your range after you charge. I do know that most people in the know here think that one needs to run the car down to, let's say 5%, then charge fully to 100% so the car can use its algorithm correctly. Most see their displayed range go up when that happens. My range is running around 265 (estimated 100%) right now at three years old on my 2015 Model S without doing the low discharge-high charge battery work.

 

[David29]

Range is only an estimate. To get a truer read, you will have to drain it to say 10% and charge it to 100%, do it maybe once a year or so to help with calaibration but I won’t do it regularly as deep discharge and sitting at full charge is stressful to the battery. Don’t sweat it too much, it isn’t like swallowing poison, more like how eating Big Macs and fries is not great for your health.

I absolutely agree. Some folks seem to obsess about what range is displayed by the battery SOC indicator, while the truth is that it is not an accurate indicator in the first place. In my 3+ years with my 70D, I have only charged to 100% once or twice (reportedly stressful for the battery so I avoid it), and I have the battery gauge set to percentage, as many of the more experienced owners seem to do. That eliminates obsessing about the stated range in miles. Plus it avoids being misled by the simplified algorithm Tesla uses to calculate the displayed range. Since I live and drive in New England where we have big variations in ambient temperature, the battery SOC indicator is at best inaccurate and at worst misleading. Use the energy application for range and you will be happier, believe me!

 

[shred86]

I posted this in another thread but I think the only true way to know your battery capacity is reading the total capacity off the CAN bus. The range estimate is, well, just an estimate and can be misleading.

Here’s an example of a 2016 Model S 70D (loaner) with 29k miles that I pulled the CAN bus data from:

100% charge advertised miles (new): 240
100% charge rated miles: 217

217/240 = 90.4%

If I’m just using rated ranges to try to estimate battery degradation (which I don’t really recommend), this would suggest this vehicle has a 9.6% degradation in battery capacity.

New kWh: 70 (assuming software limits exactly at 70, since it’s actually a 75 kWh pack)
Current kWh: 67.3

67.3/70 = 96.1%

I have no idea how the estimated range works, but I’d imagine it takes several factors into account and will adjust based on whatever algorithm Tesla is using. We’ve also seen users report different estimated ranges after updates, which I suspect is from an update to that algorithm. Additionally, even two brand new vehicles will likely have slight variations in total battery capacity. You have to remember there are several thousand 18650 batteries in the battery packs.