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Hi everyone! I really need your advice and forgivrpe this lengthy post. I have wanted a Tesla for so long and finally got mine last Saturday. I have been reading the threads and need some advice/reassurance, because my anxiety is preventing me from truly enjoying my new car.

(I’m still learning how to post here — posted this previously as a reply in another thread.

It's a Model 3 Standard Range Plus. I picked it up in St. Louis on Saturday. (That's where they found me one--I live in suburban Chicago). On my 295 mile trip home, I had to charge twice. I was really surprised by that. (Both were at Superchargers---which by the way took a really long time---as long as an hour).

Here were the conditions: Blinding rain, pretty cold (probably 40's), wipers and lights for much of the trip. Do those kinds of conditions really sap range? So much so that I needed to supercharge twice on a 295 mile trip?

Please, another example. I'm 28 miles from work. One day this week I started with my car displaying a range of 299 miles. It rolled off 40 miles on that 28 mile trip. Is that normal? (45 degrees, some drizzle, wipers for part of the trip --- and lights). Last night on the way home that 28 mile trip burned 35 miles.

Now---one last thing. I know this is controversial: I just really don't like the appearance of the aero covers or the gun-metal wheels below them. PLEASE DON"T FLAME ME ON THIS I paid extra for the 19" sport wheels because I just thought they look better. Are those really sapping my range? Or can someone reassure me that that number may be minimal? I've seen everything from 5% to 10% range reduction on the forums. I'm so worried I made a huge mistake.

Most of all everyone, I just want to start loving my car. This is all sort of hanging over me. I don't have range anxiety. I have "think about range all the time" anxiety.

Any and all advice/comfort you could offer would be very welcome. It is a beautiful car.

Thank you,
Phil Rogers
Chicago
The more time you spend driving your car, the less your anxiety will be. I bought my first Tesla in 2012. Today, not only do I have zero range anxiety but because there is so much less than can go wrong with a Tesla, today I have minus anxiety. Relax and enjoy the ride.
 
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The more time you spend driving your car, the less your anxiety will be. I bought my first Tesla in 2012. Today, not only do I have zero range anxiety but because there is so much less than can go wrong with a Tesla, today I have minus anxiety. Relax and enjoy the ride.

Thank you! I'm finding that even now. Please take a look at my post on page 3 of the thread---I just put it up....I'd be interested in your thoughts on what I observed on the energy graph this morning
 
OP
Hi everyone! I really need your advice and forgivrpe this lengthy post. I have wanted a Tesla for so long and finally got mine last Saturday. I have been reading the threads and need some advice/reassurance, because my anxiety is preventing me from truly enjoying my new car.

(I’m still learning how to post here — posted this previously as a reply in another thread.

It's a Model 3 Standard Range Plus. I picked it up in St. Louis on Saturday. (That's where they found me one--I live in suburban Chicago). On my 295 mile trip home, I had to charge twice. I was really surprised by that. (Both were at Superchargers---which by the way took a really long time---as long as an hour).

Here were the conditions: Blinding rain, pretty cold (probably 40's), wipers and lights for much of the trip. Do those kinds of conditions really sap range? So much so that I needed to supercharge twice on a 295 mile trip?

Please, another example. I'm 28 miles from work. One day this week I started with my car displaying a range of 299 miles. It rolled off 40 miles on that 28 mile trip. Is that normal? (45 degrees, some drizzle, wipers for part of the trip --- and lights). Last night on the way home that 28 mile trip burned 35 miles.

Now---one last thing. I know this is controversial: I just really don't like the appearance of the aero covers or the gun-metal wheels below them. PLEASE DON"T FLAME ME ON THIS I paid extra for the 19" sport wheels because I just thought they look better. Are those really sapping my range? Or can someone reassure me that that number may be minimal? I've seen everything from 5% to 10% range reduction on the forums. I'm so worried I made a huge mistake.

Most of all everyone, I just want to start loving my car. This is all sort of hanging over me. I don't have range anxiety. I have "think about range all the time" anxiety.

Any and all advice/comfort you could offer would be very welcome. It is a beautiful car.

Thank you,
Phil Rogers
Chicago

Did you happen to record your wH/mi on this trip? I'd be curious to see your consumption. I think the EPA rating on the Model 3 is based on 250wh/mi (or something close to that). So, if you're over that, the range will be less. As has been mentioned, slowing-down is a way to really boost your range. However, if there are superchargers en route, it's faster to use them, so long as you stay below the taper.
 
Most factors that affect EV consumption also affect gas cars but people don't mind it. Except heating which is way worse in our EVs as it's electric.

I don't think anyone mentioned elevation. Going uphill will augment your consumption significantly. Going down gives you some back but not all, regen is maybe 80% efficient...

Don't stress about it so much, don't charge to 100% unless you have to.
As suggested by others, abetterrouteplanner is much much better at estimating how much energy you'll need than your car, if you configure it properly.
 
Change your display to %age, and any trip of over 200 miles return spend a few minutes planning charging stops. Then stop worrying. I've had my M3P for 5 months now, done some long trips and never once worried about range. In fact 90+ % of the time I have nearly full charge when driving locally so think about it even less than an ICE car.
 
I think you just got the worst up front, nothing to worry about that we all do not face. Good suggestions here especially the % over miles.

But your experience does bring to bear something that caught me off guard too, and since I live in a warm climate, it took a while to sink in. Lots of people ask me if I like the car, etc., how far will it go and so on, and I always tell them I have driven it all over the western half of the US with no problems, and its the best car I have ever owned, and this is true. BUT I had never driven it in the winter - even in Texas - and I have to include that in my valuation of EV's in general. I am not sure I would be as happy as I am if I lived in the Great North, where cold weather kills range up to 30% or more... depends on how you plan to use the car I guess. But when asked these days about my satisfaction I always include this caveat - consider carefully if you live in a colder climate and understand the battery issues.
 
I live in the "great north", Quebec, Canada. Heating the battery and the inside of the car takes a lot of energy. Driving through snow augments consumption more than driving through rain. When buying the car I did take that into account and chose the LR for peace of mind, although a lot of people here have SRs and seem happy. In the worse moments on shorter rides my consumption was more than double the (too low) reference that Tesla uses for its range guesstimate guage. It's fine if you plan accordingly, and using abetterrouteplanner will reduce your anxiety a lot.

Would I do it again or recommend to others? Absolutely! Having a car that heats up instantly when I get in or heating it from an app, not feeling bad about the environment doing it, the instant torque... Those far outweigh the negatives.
 
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Reading this makes me worried about buying a Tesla. Live in a cold weather climate and travel quite frequently. If the mpg is that much lower than stated, then the range anxiety would be bad. Especially, on longer trips, trying to find a supercharger. Would love to get a Tesla, but on my BMW 530xi, I get about 32 mpg and 500 plus miles a tank, which is great for trips and drive it around 75 mpg or more on freeway trips. If I did that consistently on the Tesla, then it sounds like the mpg would be even worse.

Hopefully, as battery tech improves they can get the range much betters, so you can drive it like it’s meant to, since Tesla is a performance car and not have to worry about range as much. :)
 
If the mpg is that much lower than stated, then the range anxiety would be bad.

There is a quantum shift in
thinking that needs to be made when getting a Tesla (or any electric vehicle for that matter).

With an ICE car, you drive until your tank is "empty" (1/4 tank,
our whatever your personal threshold is). Then you go to the gas/petrol/diesel station and fill up.
With an electric vehicle, most people plug it in every night when they get home and in the morning, they have a "full
tank." For most of us, we rarely get below 50-60%

It's a completely different way of thinking. A vast majority of range anxiety is needless worrying. Yes, you need to plan for long trips, but this is easily done (just search this site for A Better Routeplanner - ABRP). But one thing you won't read much about is people getting stranded because they ran out of juice.
 
There is a quantum shift in thinking that needs to be made when getting a Tesla (or any electric vehicle for that matter).

With an ICE car, you drive until your tank is "empty" (1/4 tank,
our whatever your personal threshold is). Then you go to the gas/petrol/diesel station and fill up.
With an electric vehicle, most people plug it in every night when they get home and in the morning, they have a "full
tank." For most of us, we rarely get below 50-60%

It's a completely different way of thinking. A vast majority of range anxiety is needless worrying. Yes, you need to plan for long trips, but this is easily done (just search this site for A Better Routeplanner - ABRP). But one thing you won't read much about is people getting stranded because they ran out of juice.

Thanks for explaining that. Appreciate it. :)
 
If the mpg is that much lower than stated, then the range anxiety would be bad. Especially, on longer trips, trying to find a supercharger.
With an ICE car, you drive until your tank is "empty" (1/4 tank, our whatever your personal threshold is). Then you go to the gas/petrol/diesel station and fill up.
Yeah, @DBV1 the way you stated this shows you are still thinking in the mental gas station paradigm. You are used to just driving however you feel like until you see the fuel indicator being low first, and only then starting to look for a place to refill.

That's just not the method when traveling with a Tesla. The Tesla method isn't much worse, but is definitely different. The trip is basically divided into segments between Superchargers. So you have that in your navigation to the next Supercharger, and it shows a realtime updating estimate of what your arrival % is. You can pick your preference for what you're comfortable with, but something like 15-20% is pretty safe and comfortable, and then you just keep an eye on that occasionally as you drive. If it's dropping too fast, and you're seeing it getting down to like 10% or less, you should slow your cruise control by a few mph. Then it will recalculate the energy estimate, and that remaining buffer will adjust back up some. It sounds a little complicated just because it's a new process, but it's pretty simple when you just get used to doing it, and that one remaining % number is basically all you need to keep an eye on.
 
Reading this makes me worried about buying a Tesla. Live in a cold weather climate and travel quite frequently. :)

I live in Montana where the temperature can dip to -25f and is often below 0 for months. My P3D- does fine in the winter here, does well in the snow, and requires no special thought on my routine 150-mile commute. And this is in Montana where we don't yet have many superchargers. The only problem I have had is charging outside at work on a 120v circuit when the temperature is -10f or so. That is slow. Once our local installed supercharger is finally turned on, no worries. Of course here in rural Montana folks get range anxiety with ICE vehicles. You have to plan differently even for gas. Gas stations can be further apart here than superchargers in populated regions.
 
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Not to whip a dead horse, but here is a revised question. Once again, I just get the impression that range-wise, the car just doesn't really like rain. We had a driving rain storm this morning and I drove in those conditions to work, 30 miles, temperature 56 degrees, wipers and headlights. I started with an 80% charge. You see on the energy graph I averaged 235 with a projected range of 141. That's not great when you consider that my standard range plus is supposed to have a 240 mile range. (I know that's under ideal circumstances with a tailwind, but 80% of 240 is 192). The trip graph shows that by watching my speed I stayed very close to the line until the end where I actually improved a bit. The last shot is my car at arrival, which shows a Wh/mi of 243. What does everybody think? And thank you!

Energy graph.jpg
Trip graph.jpg
arrival metric.jpg
 
The more time you spend driving your car, the less your anxiety will be. I bought my first Tesla in 2012. Today, not only do I have zero range anxiety but because there is so much less than can go wrong with a Tesla, today I have minus anxiety. Relax and enjoy the ride.

Totally agree with this. "Range anxiety" mostly exists because we chose to be anxious. Long road trips (especially the first few on more unfamiliar routes when a new Tesla owner) might induce a little anxiety that can be mitigated by many of the tips and tricks described here.

Learning about the energy graph is cool if you want to geek out...but I've personally enjoyed my Tesla for 2.5 years and can probably count the number of times on one hand that I've ever looked at that graph. It hasn't been necessary for me one bit.

It's great to learn all the tips and tricks because on certain long trips, those can come in handy and whether you need them or not, they are all good to know.

But personally I wouldn't stress out at all for a 25-35 mile commute. Let's say you have 240 miles range. If your normal commute is 35 miles, then round trip all you need is 70. Rain, cold, wind will knock that down. But even if it doubled consumption, that is still only 140 miles of range, leaving you with 100 miles buffer. And even if you don't charge to 100% (and most experts will say for longevity purposes you should not), you'll still have plenty of buffer if you started at 200 miles range. 200 miles - 70 miles (normal commute) - 70 miles (wind+rain+cold+19" wheels) = 60 miles. You get home and still have 60 miles left. That's plenty. You don't get extra "points" for getting home with uber reserves of range :).

So, maybe you'll find you can charge to 80% daily and just do your normal commute. When you get back home you have 30 miles, 40 miles, 50 miles or whatever. Certainly enough "extra" to go to a grocery store or run an errand if needed too. Then you plug in overnight and do it all again the next day. No need to overthink things under most circumstances IMO.
 
Yes, inclement weather reduces range.
Yes, it's normal.
No, nothing is going to change that.

Bad weather does a number on ICE fuel economy too.

You've been told this a bunch of times. What is it, exactly, you are expecting?

Please don't get testy. I have a brand new car. I love it. I'm just trying to understand it. Especially if I take a long trip I want to make sure I understand all of the factors that impact range. If this is aggravating you, you might want to choose a different thread. And thanks for weighing in.