Picked up my Tesla in early December, worst car I've ever owned.

[Nolakai]

I will say, though, that we get better efficiency if we can pre-heat the car before leaving in the morning on cold days, and use the seat warmers instead of the heater whenever possible. I lived in Chicago for most of my life and lived in a high rise until 2016 when we moved to LA. If you can talk to your management company about having a charger installed in the garage, that would help a lot. You'd be able to charge at home, obviously, but also be able to have the car plugged in when it was warming up (and you could warm it up from your apartment -- always great in February!!). Two owners in our building had Teslas and paid to have chargers installed at their parking spots. Might be something you could get the association or management company to agree to, especially since there will be more and more EVs in the building in the coming years, no doubt.

 

[GtiMart]

When it's cold, you spend energy to heat the cabin but you also spend more energy to push through denser air. On highway drives in winter (under freezing) I can go in the 250wh/km (400wh/mile) range. I have a 2020 LR AWD+boost, so no heatpump, but 18" wheels with winter tires.
Charging speed at 35% SOC should have been faster, over 100kW. You need to navigate to the supercharger which will heat the battery while you drive. Note that this will consume more energy. Maybe you did this but not long enough beforehand. After 55-60% SOC you will be under 100kW though, whatever the temperature. Charge speed slows as the battery fills up., Typically stop at 65-80% SOC and drive to the next SC, it's faster than charging longer in one spot.

 

[maclean525]

OP your car is broken or your math is completely wrong, one of the two. None of what you posted is remotely normal. I just drove 187 miles this weekend when it was below freezing at 70mph+ and I have an SR+ with only 253 mile rated range. Post a picture of your charging information screen in-car or we're writing this off as BS.

 

[atxf13]

Wow. Maybe time for the lemon law. The inefficiency of your 3 doesn't make any sense. We have a Y on 20" induction wheels and we have a lifetime average of 272 wh/mi (odo at just under 10k) and usually make 60-70 mile trips under 250 wh/mi, even with a TON of highway driving at 80mph, mountains, etc. And it isn't always warm here. Even when it's in the 40s we get much better efficiency than you're getting. It really doesn't make sense that your car is performing so poorly and I don't blame you for being furious about it. I would be too.

Thank you. It's super annoying. All I hear is "21 inch wheels" and "cabin temp" as reasons why the range is like 35-45% of what it should be. It's just a blanket line people used to explain a

fair enough but it can't be 50% off right. If you go to your car and select "trips" it will break down your last trip since charge and then if you scroll lower you will see the cars total and Wh/mile average

View attachment 770357

Ahh, TIL. See attached. 440 lifetime Wh/mi

 

[Tiger]

When it's cold, you spend energy to heat the cabin but you also spend more energy to push through denser air. On highway drives in winter (under freezing) I can go in the 250wh/km (400wh/mile) range. I have a 2020 LR AWD+boost, so no heatpump, but 18" wheels with winter tires.
Charging speed at 35% SOC should have been faster, over 100kW. You need to navigate to the supercharger which will heat the battery while you drive. Note that this will consume more energy. Maybe you did this but not long enough beforehand. After 55-60% SOC you will be under 100kW though, whatever the temperature. Charge speed slows as the battery fills up., Typically stop at 65-80% SOC and drive to the next SC, it's faster than charging longer in one spot.

In my experience it's enough to stomp the accelerator pedal and it'll sure warm it up soon enough, no need to do any preheating or supercharger afterburners.

 

[Tiger]

Thank you. It's super annoying. All I hear is "21 inch wheels" and "cabin temp" as reasons why the range is like 35-45% of what it should be. It's just a blanket line people used to explain a



Ahh, TIL. See attached. 440 lifetime Wh/mi

That's like one bad day worth of mileage It might even out. Anyways, if you drive so little, what does it matter? Range or no range You probably just see cold range which is not real, it is calculated from frozen battery voltage and it goes up when it warms up, but if you never drive distance enough, the battery shows only cold voltages.

Can you show your energy curve? It probably shows a super high start and normal later.

 

[Nolakai]

Thank you. It's super annoying. All I hear is "21 inch wheels" and "cabin temp" as reasons why the range is like 35-45% of what it should be. It's just a blanket line people used to explain a



Ahh, TIL. See attached. 440 lifetime Wh/mi

Yeah. That seems absolutely wrong. The good news is you can sell it for what you paid, most likely, and then buy something else if you want. There are more EVs on the market now, if you want to stay with EV. The others might not perform the way you'd like, but most other brands are offering a couple of years of free charging, so that might make up for it, if you're just using the car to get around the city. Teslas are too expensive to put up with a lemon, in my opinion. But at least they're in high demand right now so you might not lose much money on it.

 

[GtiMart]

In my experience it's enough to stomp the accelerator pedal and it'll sure warm it up soon enough, no need to do any preheating or supercharger afterburners.

When your battery is cold (say 10C / 50F) and you want to bring it to supercharger speeds (say 40C / 104F), a few accelerations will not be enough.

 

[heavyD]

When I clicked on the thread title I was expecting a rant about panel gaps, UI issues, bad paint, etc so not exactly the rant I expected. I do feel this is a little bit on the buyer for not doing enough research as today's EV's aren't ideal for continuous highway driving because continuous aerodynamic drag with no braking means the battery pack is steadily being drained as opposed to city driving where regenerative braking recycles energy. You probably have to take a little responsibility here, that said I'm not sure why numerous posters felt the need to thumbs down your post.

 

[atxf13]

When I clicked on the thread title I was expecting a rant about panel gaps, UI issues, bad paint, etc so not exactly the rant I expected. I do feel this is a little bit on the buyer for not doing enough research as today's EV's aren't ideal for continuous highway driving because continuous aerodynamic drag with no braking means the battery pack is steadily being drained as opposed to city driving where regenerative braking recycles energy. You probably have to take a little responsibility here, that said I'm not sure why numerous posters felt the need to thumbs down your post.

Evidently a lifetime average of 441 Wh/mi is to be expected and being charged full supercharger rate for 66kW per hour average charge rate is fine too.

Now I know.

I guess after hearing many from the Tesla side make fun of the Taycan's 175 mile EPA estimated range I hoped my Tesla would be more in the 200-250 range given the EPA projects 315 for my exact model. Lesson learned.

 

[atxf13]

OP your car is broken or your math is completely wrong, one of the two. None of what you posted is remotely normal. I just drove 187 miles this weekend when it was below freezing at 70mph+ and I have an SR+ with only 253 mile rated range. Post a picture of your charging information screen in-car or we're writing this off as BS.

I posted the lifetime Wh/mi just as you posted, so you might not have seen it.

 

[heavyD]

Evidently a lifetime average of 441 Wh/mi is to be expected and being charged full supercharger rate for 66kW per hour average charge rate is fine too.

Now I know.

I guess after hearing many from the Tesla side make fun of the Taycan's 175 mile EPA estimated range I hoped my Tesla would be more in the 200-250 range given the EPA projects 315 for my exact model. Lesson learned.

I'm sure as battery capacity improves in time we will get much better highway range but at the present time all EV's struggle on the highway. Car & Driver actually just released this article on this topic.

Electric Vehicles Rarely Match or Exceed Their Range Rating in Our 75-MPH Highway Test​

EV Range: Everything You Need to Know

We explain EPA ratings, factors that affect range, how EVs have performed in our testing, and why it's all very complicated.

www.caranddriver.com

 

[Iain]

Evidently a lifetime average of 441 Wh/mi is to be expected and being charged full supercharger rate for 66kW per hour average charge rate is fine too.

Now I know.

I guess after hearing many from the Tesla side make fun of the Taycan's 175 mile EPA estimated range I hoped my Tesla would be more in the 200-250 range given the EPA projects 315 for my exact model. Lesson learned.

I think you would still be making fun of a Taycans range in your conditions. Hopefully it warms up a little and you see much better Kw/mile averages.

 

[EVEnergy]

Short trips will show a very high Wh/mi which drops the longer the trip is. 441 is really, really high..even in cold weather unless your trips are only a few miles. It's hella colder here and I easily get 200 miles in the dead of winter. I road trip across the country in mine with no problems.

Something doesn't add up.

 

[Darmie]

Blame it on the Winter blend of electricity. It will get better with Summer blend.

 

[atxf13]

Short trips will show a very high Wh/mi which drops the longer the trip is. 441 is really, really high..even in cold weather unless your trips are only a few miles. It's hella colder here and I easily get 200 miles in the dead of winter. I road trip across the country in mine with no problems.

Something doesn't add up.

But see that's the issue. I have terrible range (450-800 Wh/mi) on short 5 mile trips and people say it's too short, then I have terrible range on longer trips (450 Wh/mi for 120 miles averaging 68 mph) and people say it's too long.

This feels like Goldilocks.

 

[Nozferat]

I have, twice. They've stood by the range and told me that for my 5 mile trips around the city I should expect 100 miles total, and for my highway driving I should expect about 145 miles in 45 degree weather at 68 mph.

That's absolutely absurd with a battery size of that car. What on earth are they thinking? Man...I can't believe some are making excuses for this.

 

[jjrandorin]

Thank you. It's super annoying. All I hear is "21 inch wheels" and "cabin temp" as reasons why the range is like 35-45% of what it should be.

Model 3s come with 21 inch wheels from Tesla now? I am asking, as I have not been tracking that but thought they came with 20s.

I also have not seen anyone else get results quite as bad. I have a model 3 performance, on factory 20s, with a lifetime wh/mi of 272-273, over a period of 3+ years and 29k ish miles. I also dont have a heat pump.

The numbers you are reporting in your first post seem pretty excessive, given my own personal experience. I dont get real winter where I am, but that would not double my usage, and even if it did, it would still be lower than what you report.

 

[diamond.g]

But see that's the issue. I have terrible range (450-800 Wh/mi) on short 5 mile trips and people say it's too short, then I have terrible range on longer trips (450 Wh/mi for 120 miles averaging 68 mph) and people say it's too long.

This feels like Goldilocks.

Now that you have TeslaFi it should be able to show you consumption on trips. It is possible to get high consumption if you are really on the accelerator a lot and going quite fast. The newer cars have heat pumps so I cannot relate to cabin temp consumption with my PTC heater.

 

[Nolakai]

But see that's the issue. I have terrible range (450-800 Wh/mi) on short 5 mile trips and people say it's too short, then I have terrible range on longer trips (450 Wh/mi for 120 miles averaging 68 mph) and people say it's too long.

This feels like Goldilocks.

Yeah, you shouldn't have terrible efficiency on short trips unless you're going uphill, which since you're in Chicago, I know you're not. We take short trips all the time and have never had such lousy averages as yours when we get home (yes, we have really lousy numbers sometimes for a few miles after supercharging and heading on the highway, but it corrects really fast). Just yesterday we drove five miles round trip to go hiking. Went uphill on the way there, downhill on the way back home. The average was around 240 for the entire trip. Temp last evening was in the 50s. Even the uphill half of the trip was under 550.

I don't understand these commenters who are trying to blame you when this is clearly a problem with the car. You should NOT be having such lousy efficiency. Even if you drove with a lead foot, given how incredibly flat Chicago is, you should still be getting better efficiency than you are. My only suggestion would be to find destination chargers and see if things improve with slower charging, but really, I would completely understand if you sold it and started over. If you're going to get lousy range, you might as well buy a used BMW i3 or a Leaf and invest the extra $30k in something else.