Quite disappointment with my new Model 3's range. Should I be?

[charlieM3]

Dear Forum Members,

I hope you can help. I'm more than a little disappointment with the range I'm getting from my new Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor. I suspect this is a topic that has been beaten to death, but I'm having a bit of a sulk about it this morning. I took delivery of the car at the end of December and have been driving it on my daily commute for the last 4 weeks. I have extrapolated at my average battery consumption vs. distance travelled and find that the car is only getting ~250 - 260 miles (or ~80% of estimate). I attach some behavioral and performance data below:

Daily Commute:

• Charge at work during the day to 80% (charge at 6.16kwh/h)
• Inbound journey (29.8 miles) @ c. 7pm so avoiding stop-start traffic
  • 2.3 miles of sub-urban driving to freeway
    
  • 24.0 miles of freeway driving (avg speed 65 - 70 mph on the 101)
  • 3.5 miles of urban driving, upward gradient
• Battery at 68% after inbound journey
• Batter at 67% at the start of outbound

• Outbound journey (31.0 miles) @ 5:45am so avoiding traffic again.

• 2.5 miles of urban driving (down hill)
• 26.3 miles of freeway driving (avg. speed 65 - 70 mph on the 101)
• 2.2 miles of sub-urban driving to work

• Battery at 57% at the end

Based on these numbers, that's 60.8 miles per day, consuming 23-24% of the battery pack. Grossing these numbers up, that implies a range of 253 to 264 miles, which is substantially less that what I was hoping for.

I've tried to root-cause the issue, and I imagine it is either:

• Driving style (but I'm driving between San Francisco and the Peninsula on the 101 - so pretty gentle driving at or around the speed limit.
• Battery pack not storing the energy it should
• Some sort of power leakage somewhere that is depleting the battery pack.

I have a service appointment booked, but should like to get the collective wisdom of the community. What do you think? Am I being realistic in my expectations?

Thank you for your help!

Charles

 

[North75]

I was going to say that the range looked pretty good to me. Try living somewhere cold.
It is really only possible to achieve the full "rated" range or more by driving continuously under ideal conditions.
Anything less than ideal or letting the car sit will reduce that.
Not sure why you would be disappointed anyway. Range seems to more than enough for your needs and you aren't paying for the electricity (I'm assuming since you charge at work) What's the problem?

 

[sixela]

You're driving 80% of the EPA estimate. That's a mixed cycle with less freeways (and lower speeds on them).

By the way: if you rarely drive with the state of charge out of the 20%-80% range those state of charge percentages are also not that reliable; the BMC needs to have some cycles from fairly close to 0% to farily close to 100% to calibrate itself. Not too often, since it degrades the battery faster, but if you have none of those cycles the BMC's estimate for state of charge becomes more inaccurate as well.

It's also fairly cold and these are short drives (although my gues is that in California the effect is less severe). In other words: the extrapolation is probably slightly invalid for this reason as well. The hit on range from a cold battery when starting to drive for a short ride (and the fact that you usually heat your car) is quite severe (at least below 10-15° C).

 

[charlieM3]

That's very helpful! Thank you. Sounds like I'm being unrealistic. I appreciate it!

 

[ttdanimal]

What kw/mi are you getting?

 

[jesusbowls]

I don't see any problems here. It seems that the full range can be achieved by driving on a straight road at 45mph with no wind in 70-degree (F) weather. Any deviation from that reduces range.

I took delivery around the same time as you. My driving is mixed highway/suburban, I drive 75-80 on the highway, regularly put the pedal to the floor, and the temperature has been around 30-degree (F) plus or minus 10 degrees. I also pre-heat the car using cabin heating multiple times a day, and do lots of short (4 miles or less) trips. My range on a full battery is 180 miles at best, and most likely a little less than that. I was really bummed about this at first, but it mostly doesn't matter, because I'm charged to 90% any time I leave my office. I'll typically do one supercharger session each weekend, because I greatly prefer keeping the SoC between 60% and 90% as much as possible for performance/acceleration reasons.

 

[rickdogg82]

A quick calc and I am guessing you are 295ish Wh/mile which is high but not unreasonable depending on terrain and temperature. And that includes the 1% loss between drives. You'll need to be in the 230s to achieve the rated range.

In the summer your range will improve without doing anything and over time as you get accustomed to your car you will learn to drive in a way can improve range - easier on the accelerator, maintaining constant speed, and maximizing brake regen.

 

[DirtyT3sla]

Perfectly normal. Start-stop traffic would most likely increase your efficiency as you'd have more people to draft, you'd be going slower on average, and you would use more regen.

What's the temp? Anything below 70F I start to notice increased energy usage.

I drive 70 miles per day, car uses ~100-120 in the winter. 80-100 in the summer.

The funny thing is, most people don't get rated range in their gas car either, they just never pay attention. And with this car it's full every day for you without stopping anywhere else, so it's more convenient than gas normally!

 

[tvad]

...most people don't get rated range in their gas car either...

True. EPA mileage and rated range numbers are seldom achieved in actual every day driving except by "range optimizing" drivers who make a goal/game out of it. No offense to range optimizers out there.

 

[insaneoctane]

The displayed Wh/mi is ONLY for driving. But, the change in %SOC displayed in the GUI considers ALL of the energy usage. Things that reduce your %SOC but do not show up in your Wh/mi number are all energy while in park including AC, heater, battery preheating, fans, heated seats, lights, computers, and, of course, any "vampire drain". I have zero difficulty exceeding EPA numbers when driving, but when you factor in all the other energy expenditures (overall), I can't come close.

 

[derekmw]

Like others have said, have you looked at what your wh/mi average is? That will give a bit more insight into things

 

[Fresnel]

Dear Forum Members,

I hope you can help. I'm more than a little disappointment with the range I'm getting from my new Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor. I suspect this is a topic that has been beaten to death, but I'm having a bit of a sulk about it this morning. I took delivery of the car at the end of December and have been driving it on my daily commute for the last 4 weeks. I have extrapolated at my average battery consumption vs. distance travelled and find that the car is only getting ~250 - 260 miles (or ~80% of estimate). I attach some behavioral and performance data below:

Daily Commute:

• Charge at work during the day to 80% (charge at 6.16kwh/h)
• Inbound journey (29.8 miles) @ c. 7pm so avoiding stop-start traffic
  • 2.3 miles of sub-urban driving to freeway
    
  • 24.0 miles of freeway driving (avg speed 65 - 70 mph on the 101)
  • 3.5 miles of urban driving, upward gradient
• Battery at 68% after inbound journey
• Batter at 67% at the start of outbound

• Outbound journey (31.0 miles) @ 5:45am so avoiding traffic again.

• 2.5 miles of urban driving (down hill)
• 26.3 miles of freeway driving (avg. speed 65 - 70 mph on the 101)
• 2.2 miles of sub-urban driving to work

• Battery at 57% at the end

Based on these numbers, that's 60.8 miles per day, consuming 23-24% of the battery pack. Grossing these numbers up, that implies a range of 253 to 264 miles, which is substantially less that what I was hoping for.

I've tried to root-cause the issue, and I imagine it is either:

• Driving style (but I'm driving between San Francisco and the Peninsula on the 101 - so pretty gentle driving at or around the speed limit.
• Battery pack not storing the energy it should
• Some sort of power leakage somewhere that is depleting the battery pack.

I have a service appointment booked, but should like to get the collective wisdom of the community. What do you think? Am I being realistic in my expectations?

Thank you for your help!

Charles

I recommend you should charge to 90%. Also, your math is wrong 23% is not the battery pack. That's just what you're using from 57% to 80%.. So again charge to 90%.. Then you need to make sure you're doing other things like making sure the battery is preconditioned before driving. There's a few other things you need to learn about EVs. Read the forums, watch youtube vids, ask Tesla..

 

[jfinephilly]

I’m not sure why any of this matters unless you plan to travel to somewhere devoid of any and all charging stations. You clearly have enough for your daily commute and given where you live I doubt you will find yourself more than 50 miles from a charging station. I also received my LR AWD in December and cared for a bit until the kind folks here pointed all this out to me.

Range anxiety is just dumb if you live on either coast or within a major metropolitan area. These same concerns would never exist in an ICE car - another point made to me on this forum.

 

[Knightshade]

Also what's your tire pressure?

Elon Musk on Twitter

Elon mentioning 39 psi for best ride, 45 psi for best mileage

 

[derekmw]

I’m not sure why any of this matters unless you plan to travel to somewhere devoid of any and all charging stations. You clearly have enough for your daily commute and given where you live I doubt you will find yourself more than 50 miles from a charging station. I also received my LR AWD in December and cared for a bit until the kind folks here pointed all this out to me.

Range anxiety is just dumb if you live on either coast or within a major metropolitan area. These same concerns would never exist in an ICE car - another point made to me on this forum.

I don't think he is having range anxiety. He is concerned that there is something wrong with his battery and not getting the correct amount of capacity. If I owned the car, instead of leasing, I would want to make sure my batteries checked out and were able to get the full capacity that I paid for.

My Performance Stealth doesn't get anywhere near the 310 mile range but I don't do anything to try to achieve it. I never precondition, warm up while plugged in, I mash the pedal whenever I can safely, and drive with the heater on. On my Mid-Range I had before this, I bought it, not leased, so I was carefully trying to track such items to make sure my batteries were solid.

 

[charlieM3]

What kw/mi are you getting?

Getting ~250kw / mi averaged over the whole journey.

 

[nvx1977]

Turn off cabin heat for as much as you can tolerate, just as an experiment. See if that improves your efficiency. That's easily the biggest source of efficiency drain in colder weather.

Don't get too down on your efficiency for now. In April (or warmer), you might be ecstatic with your range.

 

[charlieM3]

These have been enormously helpful replies. Thank you so much. I was trying to 'like' them, but for some reasons I can't. Thank you again!

 

[dsgerbc]

Tires to 45psi, disable Sentry, use cabin climate control less.

 

[Rogue one]

Your usage is slightly above mine but I have the RWD long range that is more efficient than the AWD long range so that makes sense. I don’t see an issue with your car, driving at 65-70 mph will result in less range than the EPA estimate, as can may other variables this applies to all cars not only Tesla. Did you work out the precise MPG average on your previous gas cars? The way range is displayed and efficiency is traced makes it significantly easier to obsess over than most gas cars.