Shorter range than expected?

[LuckyRT13]

Hi all, newbie 2022 Model 3 owner here. We always have our M3 fully charged by morning the next day. Full charge is 80% (approx 280 miles) for daily driving. My wife did a lot of driving today (mostly freeway and some city) and when she was all done, I looked at the Tesla App and I saw her battery was down to 20% (60 miles). I google mapped her routes and total mileage driven was approximately 157 miles.

Is this normal drain? I expected to be more battery percentage left, only driving 157 total miles. I know there are other factors that can lead to more drain but is this normal? No hills mostly flat freeway and city streets. Wifey drives 70-75MPH. The car is only 6 months old.

Thank you for help if there is an issue or its just normal.

 

[Tam]

...normal...

Yes. It is expected.

Humans are not robots so we don't replicate EPA numbers as a default.

It's possible to beat EPA numbers but those are specialists called hypermilers.

Thus, just learn how much more miles you need for your actual distance and plan accordingly.

 

[LuckyRT13]

Got it thank you.

 

[Braumin]

The range numbers from Tesla are based on EPA as @Tam said and they are not very accurate for real world. Highway driving is a big drain. 75 MPH is going to give you way less range than 60 MPH. Like far more than you would expect. If you have wind it also makes a big impact. Drag is by far the biggest reducer of range and drag increases with the square of velocity.

I was travelling last week at 120 km/h (75 MPH) into a ~70 km/h (45 MPH) headwind. I used 70% of my battery to drive 200 km (125 miles). Normally it would be closer to 50% for that distance.

I think the worst consumption I have ever gotten in my M3P was into a very strong headwind at -25°C. It was around 360 Wh/km or 576 Wh/mile.

You will basically need time to figure out what the actual range is depending on how fast you are driving and what the weather is like.

 

[LuckyRT13]

The range numbers from Tesla are based on EPA as @Tam said and they are not very accurate for real world. Highway driving is a big drain. 75 MPH is going to give you way less range than 60 MPH. Like far more than you would expect. If you have wind it also makes a big impact. Drag is by far the biggest reducer of range and drag increases with the square of velocity.

I was travelling last week at 120 km/h (75 MPH) into a ~70 km/h (45 MPH) headwind. I used 70% of my battery to drive 200 km (125 miles). Normally it would be closer to 50% for that distance.

I think the worst consumption I have ever gotten in my M3P was into a very strong headwind at -25°C. It was around 360 Wh/km or 576 Wh/mile.

You will basically need time to figure out what the actual range is depending on how fast you are driving and what the weather is like.

Thanks for the information.

 

[3sr+buyer]

Wifey drives 70-75MPH.

High highway speeds are less economical.

How did her economy compare to the EPA economy in previous cars?

 

[LuckyRT13]

High highway speeds are less economical.

How did her economy compare to the EPA economy in previous cars?

How do I find that?

 

[archae86]

While on ICE cars other things get into the picture, the main deal for a Tesla is speed. Slower gives better range. Down to slower than you are likely to want to go.

Enough air conditioning can hurt a bit.

Throwing away energy in braking instead of easing off earlier hurts a bit, though less when the braking is all regen. Friction brakes from more than a few mph is really bad (pity FSDb does it a fair amount these days, but in what I've seen it is too brief and mild to hurt much).

But speed is the thing. And if you like or need the speed, then consider the reduced range just to be the price.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

Let me offer my usual reality-of-electric-cars to you:

Most gas cars use a fuel tank of 15 to 20 gallons, and get maybe 25 to 30 mpg. This allows a range of 400 miles or so, with little change if you burn an extra gallon heating the car, driving unusually fast, etc.

Your electric car is incredibly efficient, using and re-generating energy to an efficiency of around 100 to 150 equivalent mpg. And it has a battery pack that holds the energy equal of about 3 gallons of gas.

Used well, it'll go 300+ miles on that tiny tank.

If you burn 1 gallon of "gas" on heating, or driving at 75+ MPH... range does down MUCH faster than what happens in a gas car - not because anything is wrong, but because the gas car was already so inefficient that extra losses in efficiency were harder to notice.

 

[RayK]

How do I find that?

I believe what @3sr+buyer is getting at is: what MPG was your wife getting in her previous car and what was the manufacturer's published city/highway MPG?

 

[jjrandorin]

Is this normal drain? I expected to be more battery percentage left, only driving 157 total miles. I know there are other factors that can lead to more drain but is this normal?

Yes

How do I find that?

I certainly cant speak for them, and am not trying to, but part of the point of asking "how did your wife drive vs EPA range before" is asking you if you knew, or cared, how your previous cars did as far as their EPA range. If you didnt track it before, there really isnt much reason to track it now (although some people really enjoy digging into this, its not necessary).

Your electric car is incredibly efficient, using and re-generating energy to an efficiency of around 100 to 150 equivalent mpg. And it has a battery pack that holds the energy equal of about 3 gallons of gas.

This is a point that most people dont bring up when these various range threads come up. Thanks for bringing it up. People are driving around with the equivalent of 3 gallons (ish) of gas, vs their 12-20 gallon tanks of gas they used to have.

 

[BitJam]

Is this normal drain? I expected to be more battery percentage left, only driving 157 total miles. I know there are other factors that can lead to more drain but is this normal? No hills mostly flat freeway and city streets. Wifey drives 70-75MPH. The car is only 6 months old.

Welcome!

If you do an image search for "EV range vs speed". You will see that the range at 70 mph is less than half the range at 30 mph. Between 70 and 30, for every 10 mph you slow down, you increase your range by roughly 12%. This is good to know if you ever need to extend your range to get to the next charger (or to get home).

The energy app in the latest software release (2022.36.2), shows you where all the energy is going and gives you tips for extending range. This is incredibly useful for figuring out what you should work on optimizing and what you can ignore. If you are in a cold climate, you can lose a lot of range in the wintertime. EVinsulate offers several products that when combined can cut wintertime range loss in half.

Also, the Trips app is very useful. It will show you the miles and time of your most recent trip as well as mileage and energy use since the last charge. Please ignore the range shown near the battery icon at the top of the screen. This is bogus. Just change it to percent (by tapping the battery icon) and keep it at percent. You can get the real numbers (based on how and where you drive) from the energy and trip apps. I encourage you to spend some time in the car exploring all the various screens and apps in the UI.

 

[LuckyRT13]

I believe what @3sr+buyer is getting at is: what MPG was your wife getting in her previous car and what was the manufacturer's published city/highway MPG?

2006 Mercedes-Benz ML350
EPA Fuel Economy	Premium Gasoline
16 MPG 14 19 combined city/highway city highway
6.2 gal/100mi
402 miles Total Range

 

[jjrandorin]

2006 Mercedes-Benz ML350
EPA Fuel Economy	Premium Gasoline
16 MPG 14 19 combined city/highway city highway
6.2 gal/100mi
402 miles Total Range

How did your wife drive in that vehicle vs those EPA numbers?

 

[LuckyRT13]

How did your wife drive in that vehicle vs those EPA numbers?

After 210,000 miles, burning oil and interior falling apart, it was time for a change and she wanted electric

 

[jjrandorin]

After 210,000 miles, burning oil and interior falling apart, it was time for a change and she wanted electric

That makes sense, but thats not what I was asking. I was asking How she did in that vehicle vs the EPA numbers, or more directly, if you didnt check that vehicles EPA numbers vs her commute, why are you focused on it in this one?

its a semi rhetorical question, as there is a 250page thread in this subforum with the same basic question you are asking, so I know the general answer is some variation of "because it has a battery and I am a new owner, so I am concerned its not working right".

Im just pointing out that you likely didnt check this carefully before, and if you didnt, you likely dont need to do so now.

Her previous car got 400 miles in 24 gallons. Your current car will get the equivalent of about 200 ish miles in roughly 2.25 to 2.5 gallons worth of energy (equivalent).

 

[LuckyRT13]

That makes sense, but thats not what I was asking. I was asking How she did in that vehicle vs the EPA numbers, or more directly, if you didnt check that vehicles EPA numbers vs her commute, why are you focused on it in this one?

its a semi rhetorical question, as there is a 250page thread in this subforum with the same basic question you are asking, so I know the general answer is some variation of "because it has a battery and I am a new owner, so I am concerned its not working right".

Im just pointing out that you likely didnt check this carefully before, and if you didnt, you likely dont need to do so now.

Her previous car got 400 miles in 24 gallons. Your current car will get the equivalent of about 200 ish miles in roughly 2.25 to 2.5 gallons worth of energy (equivalent).

Yes you are correct I didn’t pay attention to it then with the gas car. Im
still learning about our M3 and getting used to range etc.

 

[Braumin]

Totally normal. You didn't really check it on your Benz because the range was plenty, and there is a gas station on every corner. Now your range is less, and charging is less abundant (although in California you are better off than most) so you are more worried about it. All normal stuff as is the range you are seeing.

 

[jjrandorin]

Yes you are correct I didn’t pay attention to it then with the gas car. Im
still learning about our M3 and getting used to range etc.

Ok,

Back to your original thread question.

Yes, what you experienced was completely, 100% normal. No, you will likely never see a roll off of 1:1 on miles off the range meter vs actual traveled miles. This is due to various factors, like speed driven, weather, elevation, and is exacerbated by the fact that your car is moving around with so much less relative energy compared to what you had before.

The fact that you are charging at 80% tells me that you likely have been reading here or elsewhere about "how to take care of the battery" and while people love to dig into that stuff, its not super necessary unless you want it to be.

In round numbers, expect that "280 miles range" to be more like "220 miles" in actual usage. The range number pretty much doesnt matter though, unless you enjoy looking data, if you are not driving out the cars full range because you will be coming back home to charge it overnight.

Hope that helps.

 

[Tes3P]

I was under the understanding that the rated miles is from 100% to 0%. That would give you approximately 224 miles.