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New M3SR vs LR
- Thread starter moadel82
- Start date
louco73
Member
Well each to their own etc. and it depends on they type of driving you do.
For me, I never considered anything other than LR. I do regular drives between Sydney and Newcastle and Sydney and the mid north coast (e.g. Port Macquarie or Taree). Having LR means Sydney-Newcastle return is completely stress-free with no need to charge, no matter how aggressively you drive or the weather conditions.
And Sydney-mid north coast can be done one-way without charging (if you really did not want to stop to charge… but on a long drive I will stop anyway, and so why not charge then)? But we have done it once without charging - merely stopping to change drivers.
My wife has also done Sydney-Melbourne a few times, and has done that trip on occasion stopping only twice (but usually 3 times, since that would be recommended anyway purely to have breaks). I doubt Syd-Mel could be done in an SR stopping only twice.
To me, it makes a big difference when doing a road trip knowing you can drive 400+ km at highway speeds without needing to charge, versus only 300 km. And when you do stop to charge, charging to 80% is much quicker than charging to 90% or nearly 100%, which would be needed more often with an SR.
LR makes the car basically as capable as an ICE. Non-LR and you can’t be quite so blasé about it.
The RWD isn't a slow vehicle either. There are many posts already discussing the pros and cons of RWD vs LR. I recommend reading those.
The LR also has AWD, a higher maximum charging rate, and a longer Battery & Drive Unit Warranty (192,000km vs 160,000km).
Max Spaghetti
Member
Which is quite interesting, because most opinions appear to be that the LFP battery in the RWD will have greater useful longevity (too early for real world data on this, however).
The same number of km is less battery cycles in the models with more battery capacity, though.
When the LR gets the LFP batter it would be worth it for me. I don't regularly do long trips (just work and back and local stuff) so i can charge overnight to 100% as often as i want. When i went to test drive the SA asked why i wanted a LR, but i realized that i don't regularly do long trips, and if i do i like to stop every now and then anyway and charging is going to be fast enough. Charging to 80% of a LR for daily use wouldnt give you much more range than an SR for daily use so no real big deal for me. She actually talked me out of buying the LR, pre-update the difference was more than 10k.
If i go interstate i generally fly because im too old and lazy. A dual motor would kick ass at the lights though, forsure.
If i go interstate i generally fly because im too old and lazy. A dual motor would kick ass at the lights though, forsure.
![[Zombie]](/tmc/data/avatars/l/236/236453.jpg?1658216431){kind=avatar}
[Zombie]
Member
It's 629km vs 513km (WLTP) on the Tesla website which is 23% more
And it's a 27% larger battery (79kWh vs 62kWh)
I've read many posts of people saying this... "LFP can be charged to 100%, but NCA only 80%"... but it's not really true.
Either vehicle can be charged to 100%, and as far as I'm aware, charging to 100% is *also* harder on the LFP battery. The real difference is that the LFP battery *requires* a weekly'ish full charge. This isn't a positive, it's a negative.
It's required because of the voltage curve of the LFP chemistry... the battery management system cannot determine the correct state of charge of an LFP battery without regularly charging it to 100%. It's still a lithium battery though, and still suffers faster degradation from being fully charged.
I'm not trying to knock the LFP battery, just trying to clarify what seem to be misinformation.
For that matter, if you really want to slow degradation of an NCA battery, charging to 80% is also too high. The data suggests keeping it at 50% is healthier... and that's what I do.
All makes sense, I was just going by what the SA at Tesla was saying to me so I’m not sure if it’s misinformation. My neighbour has an older m3 and only charges it to 100% if he is going for a long drive which I think was the same advice. He keeps it lower than 80% more like 60% normally from memory. That would do my head in, but would have to learn.
If the advice for the new battery is to regularly charge to 100% and the warranty is the same, personally for my anxiety I’d prefer that. I’d Just leave it on the wall connector overnight
I thought the newer batteries charged faster? It would be good if Tesla published some better data so we didn’t have to speculate
The tesla guidance is clearly stated in the car manual, as is any special warranty requirements (none) as is the warranty (which will exceed my ownership of the car). I follow this and sold one of my 5 year old model s with zero loss in 90% range since new. The two I sold before that also lost no range and the current model S (5 years old) has lost 1km.All makes sense, I was just going by what the SA at Tesla was saying to me so I’m not sure if it’s misinformation. My neighbour has an older m3 and only charges it to 100% if he is going for a long drive which I think was the same advice. He keeps it lower than 80% more like 60% normally from memory. That would do my head in, but would have to learn.
If the advice for the new battery is to regularly charge to 100% and the warranty is the same, personally for my anxiety I’d prefer that. I’d Just leave it on the wall connector overnight
I thought the newer batteries charged faster? It would be good if Tesla published some better data so we didn’t have to speculate
There‘s a lot of hand-wringing when it comes to batteries… but what’s usually missing is a sense of perspective. Normal charging/discharging of your battery through driving you car, and calendar aging, are the dominant causes of battery degradation over time, not fully charging to 100%.
Sometimes reading these posts I get the impression that people think if you ever charge your car to 100% you should instantly start driving it, and leaving it on 100% even for a few hours might ‘damage’ it. That is not the case. A Li-Ion battery can stay at 100% charge for months before degradation might noticeably be accelerated.
Having said that, don’t charge to 100% with NCA or NMC if you don’t need to. The main disadvantage in doing so is loss of regeneration, so the car is less efficient until the battery is down to ~90%. But charging to 100% and having the car sit on that for a few days or even weeks is not going to cause problems. In any event, the car will use 1 - 2km per day just sitting there if you don’t wake it up, and more if you do. So the battery won’t stay on 100% for long anyway.
At the other end of the scale, my Tesla Powerwall Gateway died in 2020, and as a result the PW2 completely discharged. Obviously I called Tesla to arrange warranty repair, but I was a little concerned about the battery being empty for multiple weeks before the tech could come to fix it. I asked Tesla how long would it be OK for the battery to remain fully discharged. Their answer? And I quote: “Regarding the low state of energy for the Powerwall, it can last up to 6 months on 0% before they start to permanently deteriorate”.
And it’s worse for a Li-Ion battery to be on 0% than 100%. So, don’t sweat it.
