Range on Display vs Actual discrepency

[enjoey]

I picked up my new STD range plus Model 3 a few weeks ago and drive it once a week for doc office visits, so not a whole lot of miles given current "stay at home" order. I noticed this a few times.
1. When I left home my range was 220 miles. the doc office is 4 miles each way, totaling 8 miles. Even before I arrived at my destination, the range on the display dropped from 220 to 207. I drove back home and the range then showed 199 Per the range estimate, if I had only driven 8 miles, I was perplexed it showed 199 instead of 212 (a deficit of 13 miles on a 8 mile drive and >50% error rate). This happened at least a few times and was wondering if others had the same issue as I do. This means, the range is of no real use as it is not reliable. In other words, I am not sure I will ever go on a long drive (100 miles from home) as I think I may run out of charge even as there seems to be no relationship between projected range available and actual miles driven.

Thanks for your suggestions in advance.

 

[jdw]

The rated range is the EPA range which is a test made up of varying driving speeds over a longer distance. The results of the EPA test yields a constant (watt hours per mile or wh/mile) which is used to estimate, based on your battery capacity, how many miles you might travel if your drive conditions are similar to the EPA test suite.

Short drives tend to be inefficient, especially if using heat or AC or if the battery is cold. If you were to drive a longer distance over flat terrain at 65MPH at 65-70 degree weather with no rain or snow you would get close or closer to the rated range.

Consider displaying % charge instead of miles - all miles are not created equal and it saves you from thinking about your range this way. Most people are used to thinking about range in percent anyway - it's just like the gas gauge in an ICE car. If you need to estimate how far you can go either multiply the % showing by 2 (100% is about 200 miles; 57% is 114 miles) or enter a trip and use the consumption graph - it is quite accurate as it is based on your actual driving conditions, not the EPA constant.

And congrats on your new car!

 

[Seth2020]

Also if you pull up the energy graph (looks like this https://mytesladottips.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/range2.jpg?w=736),
then you can get an estimated range in miles based on your actual driving and conditions

Choose AVERAGE (not INSTANT)
And then select 30 mi for a range estimate based on your last 30 mi of driving

The range you are seeing on the battery display assumes your graph is a flat line at 235 Wh/mi (I think that is the nominal number... someone will correct me if I am wrong). As you can see on your graph, actually driving is not like that

 

[viennacoup]

Also if you pull up the energy graph (looks like this https://mytesladottips.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/range2.jpg?w=736),
then you can get an estimated range in miles based on your actual driving and conditions

Choose AVERAGE (not INSTANT)
And then select 30 mi for a range estimate based on your last 30 mi of driving

The range you are seeing on the battery display assumes your graph is a flat line at 235 Wh/mi (I think that is the nominal number... someone will correct me if I am wrong). As you can see on your graph, actually driving is not like that

The easiest way to do this is to press the right button on the steering wheel and say "open energy app."
This is your estimated range based on your previous 30 miles (my set up.) Very useful.

 

[jamessd661]

Question off of Seth’s screenshot of the average estimated range, is this the range that you still have left OR total range from 100% change (of course if you maintain the EPA efficiency of around ~230 Wh/mi)?

 

[KetchupKilla]

Depends on how you drive. If you gun it constantly, or drive too fast your wh/m will increase and less range. Cold battery will cause higher usage. Short trips since it's not warm. Winter time I was getting around 30% less range but longer trips in the winter I was getting around 15% less. When it is warmer out I get more than the rated range, but I also don't drive crazy fast and I rarely gun it.

 

[CertLive]

I picked up my new STD range plus Model 3 a few weeks ago and drive it once a week for doc office visits, so not a whole lot of miles given current "stay at home" order. I noticed this a few times.
1. When I left home my range was 220 miles. the doc office is 4 miles each way, totaling 8 miles. Even before I arrived at my destination, the range on the display dropped from 220 to 207. I drove back home and the range then showed 199 Per the range estimate, if I had only driven 8 miles, I was perplexed it showed 199 instead of 212 (a deficit of 13 miles on a 8 mile drive and >50% error rate). This happened at least a few times and was wondering if others had the same issue as I do. This means, the range is of no real use as it is not reliable. In other words, I am not sure I will ever go on a long drive (100 miles from home) as I think I may run out of charge even as there seems to be no relationship between projected range available and actual miles driven.

Thanks for your suggestions in advance.

Enjoey you are not alone and until this mileage claptrap displayed on the website is displayed in a more realistic seasonal manner people are more likely to ask these questions. I have an SR+ which was rated at purchase of 240 miles. Now I have not driven it in the summer yet but I can tell you in what the UK would call moderate start of October on motorway trips I would get 160 est 180+ if run low out of the percentage left with the air conditioning heating the car all the way through. Come cold, rain etc etc. You see there are so many factors to that 240 miles like if you are really not using any HVAC or driving at 50mph and so on. The car is just trying to give you a mile rating based on how much energy in and how much out. Obviously depending on your settings more can go out than just juice to the wheels.

The miles sold with the car are not real world usage miles at all but I would say out of all the EV,s out there the Tesla is the most likely to get close. I could get 300+ miles out of the rated 240 if I drove the car at say 50mph instead of 70mph the whole trip. My personal advice is you switch to percentage % and forget about miles. Then see how the car fits in your life with your trips. I found then mileage anxiety is then out the window. Trust in the software with superchargers to get you from A to B there is no better in the industry there.

Oh and BTW this single setting can give you a lot more range "recirculate" on your HVAC. You get tons more range with this on and I believe periodically it lets in some fresh.

 

[Kevy Baby]

There's an easy fix to this: switch to showing percentage. To do so, touch Controls > Display > Energy Display > Energy

My life has been much better since doing this.

 

[DaveRZ]

Like others have said, the first few miles you drive of each trip tends to use more power (quite a bit more in some cases). This is because the battery, motor(s), and you all like to be at a comfortable temperature and the computer will command any combination of heating or cooling to get to get all three of you to your happy place. You can control the HVAC in the car and save a few watts, but you have no say in what the computer feels the rest of the car needs to be at its most efficient or safe level. Once everything is at the right temp, then you'll see a much better efficiency provided you aren't driving really fast. Just expect those first few miles after sitting for a while to be inefficient.

This is why there's a feature (though it doesn't always work all that well) that allows you to have your car charged and ready to go at a certain time. If, once you're back to work from sheltering, you leave every morning at 7AM, you can set the car to be ready at 7AM. This way everything will be charged and warmed up using your house power rather than the car's battery power.

There is (unfortunately) a massive swing in battery usage based on your speed (both accelerating, and cruising speed), your HVAC usage, and of course the temperature outside. People living in colder areas tend to report about a 30% loss in range. People living in COLD areas report around 50% loss. This is both from heating the cabin, and the car needing to keep itself warm. This is just an artifact of how EV's work. Your last gas car wasted about 75% of the energy in gas as heat. Your EV is far, far more efficient, but that unfortunately means there isn't much wasted heat to use to heat the cabin, batteries, etc... So you must burn battery power for that.

The "range" displayed next to your MPH is based on EPA ratings, not on your current driving. The range displayed in the energy graph that others have talked about gives you your range based on your current situation. That's the graph you would look at on a long trip.

I agree with what you will undoubtedly hear over and over again on this forum. Switch your display to show percentage instead of miles. The miles display will drive you insane for no good reason. Most people don't achieve the rated range, just like most people don't achieve the MPG ratings on their gas cars.

Congrats on the new car. I know you'll enjoy it.

 

[Seth2020]

Question off of Seth’s screenshot of the average estimated range, is this the range that you still have left OR total range from 100% change (of course if you maintain the EPA efficiency of around ~230 Wh/mi)?

Based on ACTUAL battery charge.

 

[Rocky_H]

the doc office is 4 miles each way, totaling 8 miles. Even before I arrived at my destination, the range on the display dropped from 220 to 207

You are going to drive yourself crazy trying correlate this stuff on single digit miles. The first 4, 5, 6, etc. miles have a lot of initial energy use going into warming up the battery pack, so it is going to consume about twice the so-called "rated miles" for the first few, and that is going to make that ratio look really bad for the first several.

Keep in mind that the battery doesn't really store literal "miles". It's an amount of energy that is being divided by a constant to give you a ballpark of range. But remember that ALL energy has to come from that same battery, so it's not just providing "miles". It is HEAT + MILES.

 

[jamessd661]

Thanks for the input everyone!