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Performance not performing

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This is an issue with 2021 cars as they are using different battery tech.

One theory is Tesla want some real world data from these cars before software updates will release their full potential.
I picked up my 2021 SR+ a couple of weeks ago and I have to admit I was a little disappointed with the accelaration. This is a strange thing to say as it's by far the quickest car I've ever owned (and I've had a BMW M3) but I never had a chance to test drive and I was basing my opinion on YouTube videos where people are pushed back in their seat and shocked by the acceleration. I have not had that experience. Yes, it's undeniable fast, but you are in no way pushed back in your seat and it's nothing like the rollercoaster experience I was hoping for.

Today I went for a drive (as a passenger) in a 2019 made in USA SR+ (pre-heat pump) and was blown away by the difference. It's substantially quicker off the line and I was really pushed back in my seat.

At this stage, I'm thinking of giving my car back and buying a 2nd hand pre-heat pump but Tels has convinced me to bring it in for a checkup first in case there is an issue with the heat pump.

Let's hope so as I love everything about the car - except everytime I put mu foot down hard I wish I had bought the LR when there was only £5K difference.
 
I picked up my 2021 SR+ a couple of weeks ago and I have to admit I was a little disappointed with the accelaration. This is a strange thing to say as it's by far the quickest car I've ever owned (and I've had a BMW M3) but I never had a chance to test drive and I was basing my opinion on YouTube videos where people are pushed back in their seat and shocked by the acceleration. I have not had that experience. Yes, it's undeniable fast, but you are in no way pushed back in your seat and it's nothing like the rollercoaster experience I was hoping for.

Today I went for a drive (as a passenger) in a 2019 made in USA SR+ (pre-heat pump) and was blown away by the difference. It's substantially quicker off the line and I was really pushed back in my seat.

At this stage, I'm thinking of giving my car back and buying a 2nd hand pre-heat pump but Tels has convinced me to bring it in for a checkup first in case there is an issue with the heat pump.

Let's hope so as I love everything about the car - except everytime I put mu foot down hard I wish I had bought the LR when there was only £5K difference.
I have a March 2020 LR and it’s the only family saloon that’s ever pushed my body into the seat and my head back to the restraint when I floor it.
with lockdowns, I’ve rarely got below 40% battery and even on a very cold (but not icy) morning it has never once failed to accelerate less than my best expectation.
it must be a heatpump/refresh thing.
 
I have a March 2020 LR and it’s the only family saloon that’s ever pushed my body into the seat and my head back to the restraint when I floor it.
with lockdowns, I’ve rarely got below 40% battery and even on a very cold (but not icy) morning it has never once failed to accelerate less than my best expectation.
it must be a heatpump/refresh thing.
2019/2020 LRs already have the heartpump
 
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I’ve got a 2020 M3P and have no such issues. As long as I’ve got a reasonable SoC and the car is warmed up appropriately, it goes like stink. Even if it isn’t properly warmed up, it still seems to fly.

The original poster’s experience doesn’t sound right. Either it is in chill mode, or there is something else not quite right.

Might be worth checking you have the latest software update and maybe a reset.

That car should be giving you a huge smile, not a banging headache.
 
Either the battery pack is different to the pre-refresh cars, or there is something else connected with the pack. In any case, isn't the refresh P fitted with a Panasonc pack?
The battery pack is different, until 2021 the LR and P had a BT37 battery. EU LR cars now get the BT38 battery, the US LR and all P cars, plus the few fremont M3P 2021 spec delivered in Dec ro the UK seem to get the BT42. If this is a 2021 M3P then it should have the same battery that lotss of US cars are running around in.
 
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Hi All. Excuse my first post, I'm not really one for forums but wanted to share and get some advice.

Middle of last week, I managed to get a 2021 Model 3 Performance that appeared on the inventory, an ex-demo. Grey, ubertubrines, looks beautiful.
Collected it in Manchester with my work colleague taking me there in his Long Range!

Have done just over 800 miles since then, but couple of nights ago it seemed to be dropping power, almost like it was restricted in some way. This got worse on the way home and as the battery level reduced.

Got in touch with tesla who downloaded the logs (?), and said the car is acting "within spec". whatever that means.

Looked through some threads here and see it was discussed previously (unbeknown to me before order), that the latest P model seems to limit power when the battery level passes through 50% and it's worse when cold.

Went back to tesla this morning with that info and they said it was designed that way to protect the battery and extend range, its within spec and I basically I have to live with it.

It's really put me off the car. Am i being unreasonable to not expect the battery to go into some kind of limp mode when it's cold outside and it's not fully charged? That feature isn't communicated anywhere so far as i know? My colleagues LR doesn't do it at all and thats a 2021 model ? Has anyone else experienced this?

I did some acceleration times last night just to post here. Was cold here up on the scottish border, battery was 8c. Not even that cold really.
At 60% the 0-60 was approximately 6 seconds, then just got more and more restricted managed to run it down to 20% by the time I neared home and at that level it was doing 0-60 in 12 seconds!!! This wasn't me just constantly doing 0-60 blasts either although I tried to do a few just to get some measurements. It was restricted across all speeds and you could really feel it being held back. Reminded me of an ICE car in limp mode!

So basically if you buy a Performance model then expect it to be worse than a long range for acceleration when your battery is below 60% and for 9 months of the year.

I raised a complaint with Tesla and asked to return the car but nothing heard back since. Anyone got any ideas or thoughts?

cheers
john
As I understand there should be some drop, but that is high. Do you see any difference in track mode? From what I can tell that keeps the focus on battery temp to ensure performance for longer. Would be interesting to see if that impacts anything on the lower end battery performance stats.
 
Screen Shot 04-20-21 at 01.39 PM.PNG

These are some interesting numbers.

You can see on a 2019 Performance - without heat pump - battery temps are stable at 28c, there is a marginal power drop from 60% SoC which doesn't really affect 0-100kmh times until a very low SoC, 10%. So no problem here.

Now look at the 2021 LR and P figures. Battery temp fall on the LR causes a moderate max power drop as the SoC decreases, but this does not affect acceleration too much (say 0.5sec), until a very low SoC, 10% it is 6 secs which is probably still acceptable.

Now for the killer. The 2021 P. As the battery temp falls the max power delivered drops off considerably.
At 40% SoC, the LR is actually producing the same power and 0-100 as the P.

At 30% SoC, the gap really opens up, with the P power down by HALF and producing LESS power than an LR.
At 20%, the P is limping along with a 9 sec 0-100.

Whilst these figures are much better than what the OP is reporting, it is clear that the P has some performance issues at lower SoC combined with cold battery temps.
 
I have 30k miles under my belt at the moment and this was my second winter with my 3. I have never ever noticed any under-performance regardless the external temperature and the SOC. I dont usually leave the SOC to drop a lot my I distinctively remember during January when I didnt charge for a day and was going back home with SOC around 20% and I had to overtake and I commended to my wife that the car went like a bat out of hell.
This must be a combination of the new battery pack and the heatpump not working well together.
 
Can confirm the car is not in chill mode, demo mode, and has the latest software update. All these things were checked by Tesla as soon as I reported it.

It was after that they downloaded the logs and said the car is within spec.

I spent most of yesterday researching this issue and found a ton of evidence that this is a known problem. For whatever reason the battery in the 2021 performance cannot deliver the power required when it is cold and the battery is sub 50%. My car seems to be the worst example.

Tesla have accepted my return request but asked if they can have an opportunity to rectify the issue before then. I'm not hopeful.