Only 110 miles of range on a full charge for a 14 S 85?

[drob3662]

I bought a 2014 Model S 85 with 105k miles a few months ago, I know its higher mileage but I got a steal on the car and it's in mint condition! I absolutely love it! For the most part I just charge to 90%, go on my daily routine, come back home and plug it back in, and never really paid attention to the range.

But I don't feel like this is right. I only charge to 212 rated miles at 90%. I decided to try and balance the battery by charging to 100% and driving it to 5%. 100% charge completed saturday night, and it took me exactly a week to get it down to 5%. Avg temps were probably in the 50s where I am and I didn't have the heater or anything crazy on, left it in range mode etc. I just don't feel like this is right

 

[ucmndd]

Long story short, it’s right.

Your car uses substantial energy sitting around doing nothing. Repeated short trips without fully heating the battery over several days are worst case scenario for range. Trying to extrapolate your actual range over a week like this is never going to give you accurate data. If you really want to know how far you can go, you need to do it in one long, continuous drive - not here and there over a whole week.

416 wh/mi is a good 50-60% over the EPA consumption figure your car’s range is calculated on.

212 miles at 90% is relatively normal for a higher mileage 85. That said, your car has no warranty against battery degradation, just failure. You’re almost certainly being range capped by the issue described in this thread:

Sudden Loss Of Range With 2019.16.x Software

You can always schedule a service visit and ask Tesla to perform remote battery diagnostics - but they are quite likely to tell you everything is normal and to have a nice day.

 

[snellenr]

I bought a 2014 Model S 85 with 105k miles a few months ago, I know its higher mileage but I got a steal on the car and it's in mint condition! I absolutely love it! For the most part I just charge to 90%, go on my daily routine, come back home and plug it back in, and never really paid attention to the range.

But I don't feel like this is right. I only charge to 212 rated miles at 90%. I decided to try and balance the battery by charging to 100% and driving it to 5%. 100% charge completed saturday night, and it took me exactly a week to get it down to 5%. Avg temps were probably in the 50s where I am and I didn't have the heater or anything crazy on, left it in range mode etc. I just don't feel like this is right
View attachment 617232

On my March 2014 P85 with 89,000 miles, the “rated” range at 90% charge is 217 miles, and Max rated range at 100% is 231 miles.

Update: that’s an improvement from the 204 mile 90% range I was getting immediately after the Tesla range cap cited above was imposed...

 

[garrett5688]

Long story short, it’s right.

Your car uses substantial energy sitting around doing nothing. Repeated short trips without fully heating the battery over several days are worst case scenario for range. Trying to extrapolate your actual range over a week like this is never going to give you accurate data. If you really want to know how far you can go, you need to do it in one long, continuous drive - not here and there over a whole week.

416 wh/mi is a good 50-60% over the EPA consumption figure your car’s range is calculated on.

212 miles at 100% is pretty low for an 85. That said, your car has no warranty against battery degradation, just failure. You’re almost certainly being range capped by the issue described in this thread:

Sudden Loss Of Range With 2019.16.x Software

You can always schedule a service visit and ask Tesla to perform remote battery diagnostics - but they are quite likely to tell you everything is normal and to have a nice day.

agree with everything here, great explanation, except think you missed the fact that it’s 212 at 90%. This puts 100% around 235, which is pretty normal for the older 85s (including mine).

 

[ucmndd]

agree with everything here, great explanation, except think you missed the fact that it’s 212 at 90%. This puts 100% around 235, which is pretty normal for the older 85s (including mine).

Indeed I did, thanks for that. Adjusted original post.

 

[DrComputer]

As everyone else has said, your findings are correct. Unlike gas cars that don't burn fuel while just parked, your Tesla is running several computers in the background all of the time (using energy) along with keeping the battery heated/cooled as needed. Taking a distance calculation over a week between charges doesn't take into account all of the energy used during that time to do all of those background tasks (computers running, heating/cooling battery, cell communications, etc).

 

[beatle]

ucmndd noted the high consumption, but I don't think anyone has offered a suggestion as to why his consumption is so high. That's crazy high for a RWD 85 in moderately cool temperatures. I have seen consumption above 400wh/mi, but that's averaging over 70mph and climbing ~1200ft with a slight headwind on relatively new 20" A/S 3+ tires. I also have a dual motor performance car which is less efficient. Further, on that high consumption leg of my trip, I consumed 62.91kwh of energy to cover 150.55 miles, and I still had 13% in reserve.

The range mileage estimate is basically useless as it seems OP now only has a ~49kwh pack based on consumption charts. The background systems to operate the car are pretty minimal and generally only about 300w or so. That's enough to make a dent of a few kwh per day, but otherwise it's trivial when compared to what it takes to propel the car down the road.

OP, I suggest picking up a diagnostic cable, an OBDLink, and using a tool like ScanMyTesla to check your NominalFullPack stat. This will always be lower than your battery's rated capacity, but it gives you an idea of what the car knows to be usable. For reference, my 85 kwh pack @ 62k miles has 75.9kwh of capacity. I'd think you should at least be over 70kwh.

 

[garrett5688]

He used 112 miles over 7 days, that averages to 16 miles a day. Lots of short trips will absolutely result in high consumption.

 

[jjrandorin]

I realize this is the model S section, not the model 3 section.... with that being said I have been reading some variation of this OPs post in the model 3 section pretty much every other day, since 2018.

The only difference is the actual range values. A Long range model 3 that has a 310 mile rated range, charged to 90% and driven like this OP describes (with similar higher than normal Wh/Mi numbers) would likely have about 160-170 miles from full to empty.

Said another way, OP, not only is this likely normal, it is similar to what someone with a model 3 would experience, so its not just a "model S" thing.

 

[ucmndd]

ucmndd noted the high consumption, but I don't think anyone has offered a suggestion as to why his consumption is so high. That's crazy high for a RWD 85 in moderately cool temperatures.

on the contrary, it’s exactly what I’d expect from a series of 5-20 mile trips spread over a week in cool weather, where the car is getting little to no regen. Add on a new owner still in the “instant torque” honeymoon phase, and it’s not suspicious at all.

The range mileage estimate is basically useless as it seems OP now only has a ~49kwh pack based on consumption charts.

if you subtract a week of vampire drain and also account for the fact that OP started this experiment at 90%, not 100%, it all seems spot-on.

OP, I suggest picking up a diagnostic cable, an OBDLink, and using a tool like ScanMyTesla to check your NominalFullPack stat. This will always be lower than your battery's rated capacity, but it gives you an idea of what the car knows to be usable. For reference, my 85 kwh pack @ 62k miles has 75.9kwh of capacity. I'd think you should at least be over 70kwh.

I respectfully disagree, and further assert that this sort of information is needlessly confusing to most people and in any case won’t be useful in proving something is “wrong” to Tesla or anyone else.

OP’s car is functioning as designed, or at minimum well within the range of normal currently observed among similar cars.

 

[snellenr]

on the contrary, it’s exactly what I’d expect from a series of 5-20 mile trips spread over a week in cool weather, where the car is getting little to no regen. Add on a new owner still in the “instant torque” honeymoon phase, and it’s not suspicious at all.

Exactly. I live in northern lower Michigan and made a quick trip downtown and back this week in a cold-soaked-at-38-degrees car. Zero-to-minimal regen for the entire trip and only broke below 400 Wh/mile towards the end. You’re not only running the motor, but also the cabin, battery, and even seat heater(s) as well...

 

[beatle]

on the contrary, it’s exactly what I’d expect from a series of 5-20 mile trips spread over a week in cool weather, where the car is getting little to no regen. Add on a new owner still in the “instant torque” honeymoon phase, and it’s not suspicious at all.


if you subtract a week of vampire drain and also account for the fact that OP started this experiment at 90%, not 100%, it all seems spot-on.

I don't know how I missed the week of use in the OP. That's pretty significant as I typically burn up 8-10 miles of range each day just sitting, though my car never sleeps.

I think it also depends on how much regen you try to use and how long the trips were. Instant and heavy use of power really only seems to contribute to a decrease in efficiency if you then have to use the friction brakes to suddenly slow down. The overall drivetrain efficiency of the car is excellent and rapid acceleration doesn't disproportionately consume fuel quicker as in an ICE car.

OP, how reduced is your regen in your trips and how long were they?

 

[BigNick]

IMO the only "true" way to know your actual range, is to charge to 100%, reset your trip odo and begin driving immediately after the charge completes, and drive it down to shutoff without stopping.

However, I do NOT recommend actually doing this (I did it once and will never do it again. Pushing a Tesla by yourself is very difficult, and I only had to push about two car lengths after dead-sticking it into a Sheetz parking lot where the SC was.)

Drive from 100% down to 20%. The trip odo readout is a "safe" range. Then multiply by 1.25 for a "stretch" range (and know that number is a stretch, because your car can shut down anywhere between 0% and 7% or so, especially with older/heavily used batteries.)

 

[comanchepilot]

OP says he only gets 112 miles per charge - was the 212 a typo??? Having the vehicle sitting around for a week should not lose 100 miles of range - 5-6 miles a day - but 15?

 

[ucmndd]

OP says he only gets 112 miles per charge - was the 212 a typo??? Having the vehicle sitting around for a week should not lose 100 miles of range - 5-6 miles a day - but 15?

No, he's really saying he got 112 miles of actual driving over a week of short super inefficient trips at an average of 416wh/mi.

Again, I'm not particularly surprised.

 

[demundus]

Dude's flooring it and getting half his rated range and double his rated expenditure. Your numbers line up.

 

[garrett5688]

...Add on a new owner still in the “instant torque” honeymoon phase, and it’s not suspicious at all.

You state this as if the instant torque honeymoon phase ever ends!

 

[rdrcrmatt]

Get ScanMyTesla and the ODBLink LX and an android phone. The car's estimation of your capacity is in the data on the CANBUS.

Also, the 100% to 5% trick needs to be done in a single drive.

The car uses energy while parked that isn't taken into account in the trip consumption data you took a picture of.