obvious PSA: don't count on a buffer

[Matias]

Range mode doesn't stop all pack heating? How many Watts pack heating uses?

 

[jerry33]

Range mode doesn't stop all pack heating? How many Watts pack heating uses?

No, it just limits pack heating to the amount required to protect the batteries. It doesn't limit pack heating from cooling the motor.

 

[billarnett]

In my case, I can pretty easily manage ~275Wh/mi @70MPH in warm weather. In cold weather, my energy usage for the same commute to work may be 400-500. Turning cabin & seat heating off reduces this slightly, and running in Range Mode will reduce it some as well.

150 Wh/mi * 70 mph = 10.5 kW. That's a hell of a Heater. Is it really that bad? If so , we really need some insulation under the pack in cold weather. (Not that *I* can all that much -- here in California 60F is really cold, I wore my shorts on my wildflower walk this afternoon.

 

[Mario Kadastik]

I've never had this anxiety. There are two things that I consider while driving to estimate if I make it or not. Firstly the last 10-25km usage is mostly spot on unless you hit really different weather suddenly so this gives you a far out look if you'll make it or not, the new 6.1 firmware estimate of destination battery % is useful too, but it varies 5-10% from when you start, but is usually about accurate after ca 30-40km of driving. Now if I see that I'm going to fall short ~5-10km I'll keep going, might baby it a bit (instead of 94km that I usually drive on the highway I might go 88km), but I have driven on countless occasions beyond 0.

What you do is you watch the power limiter. At around 50km to 0 it start to come on at around 250kW. It'll then slowly start to come down. I think around 100kW or so (past 0 already) the message comes on that heating will be turned off. And from reports on this forum the stopping point is when the limiter gets to about 40-50kW. I think my lowest is around 60-70kW limiter when I arrived home, that was about 12km past 0km on 5.9 which didn't really hide anything below 0km anymore (on 5.8 I drove 15km beyond 0 and still had about 3% of battery left on the battery screen and estimated I could have gone 15km more). It looks like 6.1 re-introduced some of this below 0 buffer as I too lost 10km of range going from 389km range charge to 379km range charge immediately after upgrade to 6.1 as I had to range charge mere hours after I got it and had done a range charge a week before as well. I've not needed the buffer after 6.1, but I'd again stop looking at the last remaining km and instead look at the progress of the power limiter, it's pretty predictable and you can get a gut feeling if you make it or not based on how fast it is approaching that 50kW region.

edit: oh and the 5.8 driving 15km past 0 was at -5C weather so no, cold doesn't really affect it...

 

[scaesare]

150 Wh/mi * 70 mph = 10.5 kW. That's a hell of a Heater. Is it really that bad? If so , we really need some insulation under the pack in cold weather. (Not that *I* can all that much -- here in California 60F is really cold, I wore my shorts on my wildflower walk this afternoon.

I believe I've heard the pack heaters can draw 6kW. I'm not sure what the cabin heater, seat heaters, blowers, etc... draw in addition... but the load is indeed non trivial.

I derate my expected mileage by roughly a third for the winter...