My new Model Y’s range is great!

[nate123]

Doesn't the Wh/mi reported by my car include the HVAC when driving? (I know it doesn't include pre-cool). If so, my 227 Wh/mi is well over the 316 mile rated range.

Googling around, it looks like sorta kinda?

 

[MrTemple]

Wife and I are 67+ every time we see a Rest Stop sign there's a good chance one of use needs a bio break. So our MY's 300+ range exceeds our bladders and old bones.

So now we look at where the SC'ers are and will stop as needed, a wee bit more range added is a bonus, and I can keep my battery in the sweet spot of 20% to 80% as well.

I pee what you did there.

 

[BlueMY]

Last weekend I drove from the DC area to PA and back. ~170mi each way. Supercharged at the beginning of my way back. With the autopilot on 80 mph, I got 305 Wh/mi on the way up and 292 Wh/mi on the way back. I am wondering if the difference was due to elevation change.

Because of the speed, I ran hot and almost didn’t make it home. I felt like Kramer in the Seinfeld episode. I wish you could adjust the rate to account for driving habits. I could have charged for another 10 min if I had known.

 

[ftmaybe]

I don’t understand all the focus on the highway/high-speed range. “I’m going to prove that the Model Y can’t go 316 miles at 70 mph!” 316 miles at 70mph is not an expectation based in reality. I don’t think Tesla is making that claim either. If you need to be able to hit 300+ miles at 70 mph then this car isn’t for you.

There seems to be a dismissive attitude towards mixed driving as if it doesn’t count towards real world range. Daily driving for most people isn’t 100% highway at 70mph. The majority of my driving is a healthy mix of city/rural roads and highways. This is why I posted my commuting numbers. For those who, like me, want to know what real world daily driving efficiency looks like.

“Yeah but how far can you go at 70?” Who cares. That’s what Superchargers are for.

I think there are multiple reasons why that matters:

1. generations of drivers who have experienced better range on the freeway than in the city. because the reverse is true with EVs, this is going to be a shock for some.

2. certainly one can supercharge, but it is still not comparable to a quick fillup at the pump like with a gas car. the better 70+ mph range, the fewer 30+ min stops you'll have to take. Personally I definitely need a break after 2-3 hours driving so 200 miles range at freeway speed is just fine to me, but I know people that will drive for hours on end without stopping and they would be disappointed to only get 2/3's of advertised range when traveling.

3. I'm not sure that if someone is given a "range" number on a car that their thought process is how long they can go between fillups via "mixed driving" in the city. I don't think if someone were to compare a 250 mile range with a 315 mile range that they think, "I will get the one with the higher range so I can skip 'filling up the tank' an extra 4 days during my regular use of the car". I believe that for any "range" number given, the majority of people are going to be interested in the range of non stop, freeway speed rather than mixed driving. Distance / freeway travel is what would drive anyone to go with an LR over an SR, IMO.

4. I think that Tesla should give numbers for city and hwy just like a gas car. I believe that they don't for marketing reasons. if they were to advertise less than 200 miles freeway, even with over 300 city, that might put some potential buyers off. Because EVs are new, they'd rather fudge some on the marketing of range in order to get more owners in the door.

 

[ftmaybe]

Doesn't the Wh/mi reported by my car include the HVAC when driving? (I know it doesn't include pre-cool). If so, my 227 Wh/mi is well over the 316 mile rated range.

In my experience it does. The last few weeks I have been doing quite a bit of testing on my wife's model 3, and a lot of my initial results were skewed by the HVAC. Ended up having to go back and redo some of my test areas with the HVAC off, which sucked.

But during that period of time, I could see that turning off the HVAC resulted in more consistent numbers, and depending on the conditions that day, could be responsible for a 20-60wh/mile difference in reporting when in use. ie, at 70mph I might get 190wh/mile with HVAC off, but 215wh/mile with it on. Same stretch of road and direction, back to back runs.

I actually wish tesla broke out these numbers better. A friend of mine has a Hyundai EV and it gives so much more detail on which systems are drawing power.

 

[cab]

"Lifetime" numbers for the Model Y w/o a full 4 seasons of driving are incomplete at best...#winterIsComing.

Looking forward to seeing the Model Y's heatpump coming into play once the colder temps hit.

 

[MY-Y]

I figure I'll need 74000 watts / 316 mi = 234 Wh/mi to hit rated range. Fortunately, I am below that on my normal commute.

279 Wh/mi seems to be about where the rated range line is on the energy screen. 74000/279=265. I don't know to reconcile that with the 316 mile rated range.

I got a pic of my Wh/mi perfectly aligning with the rated mileage. It is 252 Wh/mi. (My solid line Wh/mi is perfectly aligned, thus obscuring, the dotted "rated" line.) That would require a 79.6 KWH battery for 316 miles. Strange.

 

[KWST]

I’m pretty pleased with it in my daily driving. This is two days worth of commuting in the Northern Virginia/DC area. Yesterday and today. Half of my commute is surface streets at about 45-50 mph and a few stoplights. The other half is interstate at about 65-70. Temps were high 70s to low 80s in the mornings and low to mid 90s in the afternoons. I’m what I consider a responsible driver. I don’t drive like a grandma but because I spend so much time commuting I put a lot of emphasis on going with the flow. Tailgating, racing to fill a gap ahead, slamming on the breaks, weaving between lanes, etc. are not worth the mental toll to me. Good following distance and moderate accelerations are more my style when driving. I’m on autopilot for at least half of the commute. This is the Long Range AWD with Induction wheels and stock tires. I have the AC set to 70 in the morning and 68 in the afternoon. No rain either day.

Edit: started with 90% charge.

View attachment 575136

 

[KWST]

Wow. Lucky you! I also live in The NOVA/WDC area. I picked my Tesla up a week ago today. It had a 90% charge. At 75 miles it was down to 53%. I charged it back to 90% and 75 miles later, I’m down to 65%. An improvement, but not what I expected. I called Tesla and they told me mileage would improve - the car is still getting to know me. I don’t yet have a charger in my condo garage so am having to go to a supercharger. Any thoughts on this? Will mileage keep improving? Thanks!

 

[ftmaybe]

1. generations of drivers who have experienced better range on the freeway than in the city. because the reverse is true with EVs, this is going to be a shock for some.

There's another "highway range" post in teh Model 3 forums. Made me kind of wonder / expand on the above.

If you take some generic ICE car that gets mpg of 30 city / 36 hwy perhaps, not only would the highway range be better, its also capable of soaking an mpg loss due to high speed without the driver being bothered. ie, if "36mpg highway" is driving 65 or 70mph, then someone driving 80mph may lose 20% efficiency, but that would still put them at 30mpg which is what they are used to getting in town anyway. Effectively making it appear as though the car always goes the same distance regardless of speed.

Because that is not true with EVs, and you get worse efficiency on the highway due to speed / no regen, I can see where this would be disappointing / surprising to some people.

 

[mark95476]

Another datapoint from the Bay Area, CA:

1,216 miles
328 kWh
270 Wh/mi

 

[MY-Y]

What evidence will remove your suspicion? A screen shot of TeslaFi showing the 754 miles I've driven since signing up showing 227 Wh/mi?
View attachment 575611

My Wh/mi has been steadily improving, but even my lifetime, including every mile the car has ever driven is way below 300 Wh/mi. Hopefully this screenshot of my lifetime power usage will alleviate some suspicion. I expect my lifetime Wh/mi will drop below 250 within a few weeks. The MY with 19" wheels really is a very efficient vehicle.

View attachment 575612

It looks like my summer consumption will settle in a little below 250 Wh/mi. My lifetime consumption rate is still dropping, but is nearly stable. This will yield a ~300 mile range.