dunno. I’m in the sr+ category wishing I had of paid up for at least the lrawd....
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SR Purchasing Doubts
- Thread starter Metalmanstan
- Start date
dunno. I’m in the sr+ category wishing I had of paid up for at least the lrawd....
Sounds like an SR- is perfect for your use case. I believe they’re still available off-the-menu. You’ll love it after having the anemic Prius Prime.
The difference between the SR and the SR+ is about $4k, and may be worth considering. The range boost is a nice extra cushion.
Either way, it sounds like range isn’t going to be a serious issue for you. You can expect an average wintertime range hit of about 30%; it’ll be higher in inclement weather. I’m not sure how frequently you plan to drive out to do a hike in the middle of a blizzard, but if that’s your thing, you always have the ICE for backup
. Range anxiety is a perfectly reasonable thing to worry about but your situation seems well within the car’s capability. Lots of good advice in some of these replies for cold weather optimization, namely: use shore power when you can to heat up the car; minimize the HVAC and use the more efficient seat heaters; also, keep the aero caps on, as they’ll give you about 5% greater efficiency. It seems like you’ve done your research and know what you’re getting into. I can tell you, if you buy you won’t regret it!
Either way, it sounds like range isn’t going to be a serious issue for you. You can expect an average wintertime range hit of about 30%; it’ll be higher in inclement weather. I’m not sure how frequently you plan to drive out to do a hike in the middle of a blizzard, but if that’s your thing, you always have the ICE for backup
. Range anxiety is a perfectly reasonable thing to worry about but your situation seems well within the car’s capability. Lots of good advice in some of these replies for cold weather optimization, namely: use shore power when you can to heat up the car; minimize the HVAC and use the more efficient seat heaters; also, keep the aero caps on, as they’ll give you about 5% greater efficiency. It seems like you’ve done your research and know what you’re getting into. I can tell you, if you buy you won’t regret it!Probably a dumb question, but how do you preheat the battery in the 3 without a dedicated battery heater?
If you want to take trips of 150 miles (round trip) in winter unsure of available charging, get a long range.
On average, yeah 30% hit is about right. But when it’s really cold expect 50% (or more).
Example last night. Charged at SuperCharger from 20 to 80%. Battery is all toasty warm. Cabin all toasty warm. It’s 4F out. Drive 65 mph for 70 miles. No faster than 65 mph. I used 143 miles of range.
You also don’t want to go below 20% when it’s real cold out. You want safety margin. You also don’t typically charge to 100%. So right off the top you only use 70% of the range your battery (in good weather). Now in extreme cold you cut that in half. Now it’s 35%. My car is rated for 328 miles. That’s a 114 miles. And that is on a long range.
My commute is nothing. It’s the trips that it comes into play. And some SuperChargers are 50 or more miles apart.
It depends on where you want to go.
And even with 32A 240V it took 10 hours to get my battery back to 90%. I think I started at 35%.
This was with no wind on dry roads and fully preconditioned.
It was 20F today on the return trip and it was a 25% hit. I also carefully manage HVAC and use recirculate as much as possible. But I don’t use heated seats to compensate for HVAC. I don’t want a cold face, feet or hands for me or passengers.
My only wish is I had even more range than my long range. Only 240 miles of driving Over 24 hours and supercharged twice (about 70% 45 minutes x 2) and level 2 charge 32A for 10 hours for another 60%. That would have been a half a tank on my ICE. I also calculated just the 10 hour level 2 charge alone is $24.
On average, yeah 30% hit is about right. But when it’s really cold expect 50% (or more).
Example last night. Charged at SuperCharger from 20 to 80%. Battery is all toasty warm. Cabin all toasty warm. It’s 4F out. Drive 65 mph for 70 miles. No faster than 65 mph. I used 143 miles of range.
You also don’t want to go below 20% when it’s real cold out. You want safety margin. You also don’t typically charge to 100%. So right off the top you only use 70% of the range your battery (in good weather). Now in extreme cold you cut that in half. Now it’s 35%. My car is rated for 328 miles. That’s a 114 miles. And that is on a long range.
My commute is nothing. It’s the trips that it comes into play. And some SuperChargers are 50 or more miles apart.
It depends on where you want to go.
And even with 32A 240V it took 10 hours to get my battery back to 90%. I think I started at 35%.
This was with no wind on dry roads and fully preconditioned.
It was 20F today on the return trip and it was a 25% hit. I also carefully manage HVAC and use recirculate as much as possible. But I don’t use heated seats to compensate for HVAC. I don’t want a cold face, feet or hands for me or passengers.
My only wish is I had even more range than my long range. Only 240 miles of driving Over 24 hours and supercharged twice (about 70% 45 minutes x 2) and level 2 charge 32A for 10 hours for another 60%. That would have been a half a tank on my ICE. I also calculated just the 10 hour level 2 charge alone is $24.
pdx_m3s
Active Member
SR+ owner here in a cold-ish climate. The range loss compared to summer is about 30% (going from 225 Wh/m to ~295 Wh/m). It would be less if I parked it in the garage. It’s usually high-30s to low-40s here in the morning when I leave for work. I’ve never once worried about range in this car. Pre-heating in the morning is important... And it’s really easy with the scheduled departure feature.
Watts_Up
Well-Known Member
Don't Elon Musk mentioned in a tweeter to provide a new option for the SR?
Watts_Up
Well-Known Member
I imagine that you saw some of the Bjørn Nyland Youtube videos, such as Model 3 Standard Range Plus 1000 km challenge.
If you jump at the 30:00 time on that video, you can check that the 1,000 km (600 miles) trip was performed under 5 degree Celsius (40 F).
Also you can have a good idea of the heating consumption from this video: Tesla Model 3 camping in snow storm.
Norway must be quite similar to Northern NY State, so this is a good way to compare with your situation.
It seems that the SR is doable, however considering your location and weekend trips, I would try:
- to buy instead of leasing:
If you plan to keep you car for a long time, this would be worthwhile, especially considering that you can charge at home, which is economical.
- getting a 4WD instead of RWD,
because of the weather condition in your location.
getting a LR instead of SR.
because you have to consider also the battery capacity degradation after few years in your calculations.
Since you like hiking, I wonder if you should try to extend your lease and get a Model Y instead, just because the trunk size and hatch practicality?
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I'm guessing the Y will be out of my price range. The SR is the only one right now that is in my price range. I would think that the standard version, if there is going to be one, is going to be out of my range. Definitely buying instead of leasing. I have a great down payment for it and I want to keep this car for as long as I can!
Indeed. It's been over 200 days since they started construction, but last Wednesday, Tesla delivered supplies for the final put together. Should be up and running in less than a month hopefully.
Never heard of someone doing that. The big question is why?
I'm going to also post this to the Facebook page......so I can already see how ridiculous and mean they will be about this question. The facebookers tend to shame a lot for some reason. All these replies are amazing and have boosted my confidence in purchase one. Now the big deal is trying to get ahold of the store. Messaged MT Kisco in NY over 3 months ago with several other messages too, no response yet.
And more people with cold winter weather want to share their expectations with range loss? Once again, thanks for all the replies, you are all awesome!
Stash
RE: SR+ and downgrade to SR. if you don't NEED the range you can save $4K (or $1.5K if you keep AP) It allows you to a la carte. vs all in
Also you can safely charge the SR to 100% daily since it's a software lock so you only lose range for the trip setting.
Also you can safely charge the SR to 100% daily since it's a software lock so you only lose range for the trip setting.
TomB985
Member
Here’s some temperature efficiency data for my car over about 15K miles for reference. She’s thirsty when cold, but predictably so.
iwannam3
Active Member
As crazy as it sounds, there is equipment to do exactly that! Truckers are restricted from idling in most areas to reduce air pollution, so when sleeping in the cab they need a heat source. Espar heaters burn diesel and heat the cab. Mercedes Sprinters use them to pre-heat the engine coolant in cold weather. My RV uses one for cabin heat. Eberspaecher - Airtronic Air Heaters Air cooled Corvairs had a gasoline powered heater.
The price point of the SR is what brought me to the Tesla table when I needed to replace my ICE vehicle that I had driven into the ground. But as I considered weather the AWD and long range benefits convinced my frugal side to spend a little more money. For the OP it sounds like range is not an issue and the plan is to hold the car for a long time, but resale value and ability to sell the car factored into my final decision as I anticipated the demand in the used market will be higher for the long range AWD cars.
Why? Because you wish you had more range and better 0-60? If so, where is your regret going to end? You can get the LR AWD, but then you'll be slower than a LR AWD with boost, so you'll regret not getting that. Then there's the Stealth, then the Performance, but wait, there's the Model S that can go further and faster, so you'll regret all your Model 3 purchases.
As for driving in the snow/ice, I took my Texas 1975 Mercury Marquis to college in Massachusetts and drove it in all conditions. Most of the time, I didn't even have snow tires because I didn't have the money for that. This was a big block boat with all the weight over the front of the car, and what amounts to 1-wheel drive in the back without a locking axle. I did just fine. An SR with the latest snow tires and all the precise computer control of an EV is a million times better.
The cool part about the SR is that you're still getting a Tesla, but for only $35K, and it that is pretty cool. Kinda makes people like me that spent a lot more look like I didn't get as good a value.
And having more battery than you need is wasteful. As a matter of fact, I saw a video with Musk where he was asked about how to address the shortage of batteries that could hinder the EV movement, and his solution was to push more owners to get the SR models because that's all they really need and it's less wasteful in batteries.
So if you take joy in doing what's right for the environment, and helping the EV movement, then you'll take pleasure in getting a SR-/+, and you'll save some serious bucks on top of it.
And when you compare the SR to the other EV competition in terms of range and performance, it's a winner. And it looks incredibly cooler than most of the competitors.
So enjoy your SR+ for those reasons above and quit letting the LRAWD/Stealth/Performance people make you feel inadequate because they like to come on here to justify in their own minds the extra cost for buying a more expensive M3 at the expense of your happiness. Just remind them that they look lame compared to a top of the line Model S in performance, range, and comfort. They'll try the handling argument, but that's lame as they are already spending money to upgrade their suspensions (springs, shocks, control arms, sway bars), and you can do the same with a Model S.
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