SR+ Range Question - Advice from current owners

[ForeverFree]

If you are going up the mountain one way ... then range will be 30% less than rated ... maybe more ... and in sub zero conditions you can subtract another 30% perhaps. Rain, winds and speeds above 65 will also impact rated range. So 166 mi might not be possible in one shot. If there is a supercharger half way - for a top-up - then no issue.

My experience on a steep (7000-foot gain) mountain road here in LA: Going up uses roughly double miles ... and going down roughly zero.

Roughly 8 extra battery miles per 1000 feet gained. Almost that much recaptured on the way down.

Echo others’ advice: Buy the LR; you’ll never regret it. (Although your wallet may.)

 

[Saghost]

My experience on a steep (7000-foot gain) mountain road here in LA: Going up uses roughly double miles ... and going down roughly zero.

Roughly 8 extra battery miles per 1000 feet gained. Almost that much recaptured on the way down.

Echo others’ advice: Buy the LR; you’ll never regret it. (Although your wallet may.)

3800+ pound car, figure 1800 kg with driver to make simpler numbers and let us use metric units that avoid extra unit conversions.

Potential energy equals mass times gravity times height.

1800 kg * 9.81 m/s^2 * 305 m = 5.39 MJ = 1.5 kWh per thousand feet gained/lost.

 

[vickh]

Woo! Quite impressing analysis.

Looking at those number, especially if you are taking a loan, for not that much on each monthly payment, getting the LR really make sense.

(Just spend we minutes in the morning to prepare a snack for your lunch to save so money and avoid those costly restaurant bills : )

The battery is really the MOST critical component of any EV. If you plan keeping your car, get the biggest battery you can afford.

I beleive that the SR battery is about 55 kWh and the LR is about 75 kWh.

In few years, I imagine that the SR will be 75 kWh and the LR 100 kWh, look what happen with the Model S LR 40 kWh / 60 kWh / 75 kWh.

what if the SR+ battery is software limited like the Model S were ? Paid Upgrade in the future? Is there a way to know b/f buying?

 

[Watts_Up]

what if the SR+ battery is software limited like the Model S were ?
Paid Upgrade in the future?
Is there a way to know b/f buying?

Not sure if anyone can answer, but this older article shown that there should be two types of battery:

Tesla Model 3: Exclusive first look at Tesla’s new battery pack architecture (2017 08 27)

The standard 50 kWh Model 3 battery pack is made of 2,976 of those cells in groups of 31 cells per “brick”.
The bricks go into 4 separate modules (2 modules of 23 bricks and 2 modules of 25 bricks).

The 74 kWh ‘long range’ battery pack, consists of 4416 cells in groups of 46 cells per brick
and the same brick distribution in the 4 modules.

 

[Nocturnal]

If you want to be able to go for 166 miles that's too tight on the SR IMO unless you have an SC midway. (they are supposedly expanding heavily this year but you can't bank on that) Your daily drive of 40 miles is no problem at all. If there are chargers at the Denver airport you can probably make it fine on a nice day if you drive cautiously, but without onsite charging I'd be a little worried about the small amount of vampire drain while you are away.

what if the SR+ battery is software limited like the Model S were ? Paid Upgrade in the future? Is there a way to know b/f buying?

All the info I've seen suggests it is not. The SR may be software locked compared to the SR+ but the MR and LR batteries are physically different.

 

[Watts_Up]

If you are going up the mountain one way ... then range will be 30% less than rated ... maybe more ...
and in sub zero conditions you can subtract another 30% perhaps.
Rain, winds and speeds above 65 will also impact rated range.
So 166 mi might not be possible in one shot. If there is a supercharger half way - for a top-up - then no issue.

This is so true.

I do a lot of bicycle road ride, and I can tell you that any small elevation (semi-flat), frontal wind, wet road increase dramatically the energy needed.

One of the big issue for EVs is the weight of the car, affecting the range (Well you can may be get back about 50% when going down).

However, you can see on any Hwy all those big 18 wheels trucks going easeally at 65+ miles/hour on a flat road,
but suddently going at a snail pace when there is a hill.

Same thing with a typical ICE car with a 2 L 4 cylinders 150 Hp engine, when going up the hill with passengers,
like driving between LA and SF or LA and Las Vegas, as soon as there is a small hill it is difficult to stay above 50 miles/h
unless you have at least a 6 cylinders 3.5 l engine.

So, unless you plan to use your EV only as secondary car for local commute or going to the grocery store,
if you plan any long journey with passengers and luggages, getting a larger battery is a must.

 

[OCR1]

The basic takeaway is either get the LR RWD if you want to get the best value for your money and obviously if you can afford it or just stick with the SR. Again I am somewhat oversimplifying things but looking at the numbers this way at least is helping me with my decision making process...

I came to the same conclusion. The SR+ gives you an amazing car for $37K. The MR only gives you 24 more miles of range and a few extra perks on the interior for $3K. It’s was a tough sell for me. The move from MR to LR increases the range by 61 miles for an extra $3K, which is a lot of extra range for the money. So I initially placed an order for an SR+ but ended up cancelling it and going with an LR.