Sudden range drop if battery is around 65%

[Robmil]

I have this weird range drop condition for a while and I wonder if anyone observes something like this.

My car is 2018 LR RWD and whenever my car is parked with about 190~200 miles left (~65%), the next time I start the car (even within couple hours), it always drop about 10-15 miles. If I park the car with higher or lower range left, there is no such sudden range drop. This is really not a big deal but somewhat annoying.

 

[camalaio]

Just to not leave you hanging with no info: I have never heard of this incredibly specific behaviour. Nor can I come up with a theory to explain it (and oh boy do I love making theories).

Are you saying when you get in the car it's 10-15mi less? Or as soon as you push the brake pedal it drops down? And this really happens every time?

 

[Helmuth]

I don’t have a Model 3 but have the same behavior with our Model X.
The car loses around 6-8 miles within 20-30 minutes (without anything turned on and it being locked)!
The much weirder behavior is at around 47% SoC it gains between 1.5-2.0kWh while parked for about 30 minutes. Without being plugged in!!!

Since this started about 2 years ago I’m still trying to figure out (together with Tesla) what’s the cause for that. Because the charge rate at the Supercharger starts slowing down MUCH earlier if the car previously “lost” it’s range while parked...
It adds around 10-15 minutes of charging time from 20-90%SoC!

good luck figuring out what it might be!

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I have this weird range drop condition for a while and I wonder if anyone observes something like this.

My car is 2018 LR RWD and whenever my car is parked with about 190~200 miles left (~65%), the next time I start the car (even within couple hours), it always drop about 10-15 miles. If I park the car with higher or lower range left, there is no such sudden range drop. This is really not a big deal but somewhat annoying.

All I would ask for are some pictures before and after. It is strange.

I have heard of people losing massive numbers of miles when parking consistently, and then at different SOCs, gaining them back. I think it might have been @insaneoctane?

Seems like it could be a similar phenomenon. Certainly I have never seen such a thing. I can only suppose some sort of balancing behavior but really have no idea. (Can’t explain why this would happen due to balancing.)

 

[insaneoctane]

All I would ask for are some pictures before and after. It is strange.

I have heard of people losing massive numbers of miles when parking consistently, and then at different SOCs, gaining them back. I think it might have been @insaneoctane?

Seems like it could be a similar phenomenon. Certainly I have never seen such a thing. I can only suppose some sort of balancing behavior but really have no idea. (Can’t explain why this would happen due to balancing.)

I've seen up to 16 miles both evaporate and appear with little explanation. It happens pretty reliably when I drive 55 miles to work, but I haven't been doing that regularly since March. I think a few of Tesla's packs do this, but not many and they don't seem to care much about it.

 

[ElectricMozart]

I have this weird range drop condition for a while and I wonder if anyone observes something like this.

My car is 2018 LR RWD and whenever my car is parked with about 190~200 miles left (~65%), the next time I start the car (even within couple hours), it always drop about 10-15 miles. If I park the car with higher or lower range left, there is no such sudden range drop. This is really not a big deal but somewhat annoying.

You are not crazy. I have experienced this as well. After my drive home from work, I"ll park but not charge and after the first couple hours I'll check my range on the app and notice a 10-15 mile drop from when I initially arrived home. Whats weird is after that initial drop, I can leave my car parked for days and have very normal phantom drain. Unsure whats causing the initial drop. I figure a BMS adjustment of some sort but its repeatable within the mile range you described

 

[G35SWO]

I have the same issue on my 2022 MY LR. Started about 6 months after delivery. I see 2%-4% drop in state of charge ONLY when I’m parked with the battery reading between 55% and 65%. Doesn’t matter if I’m plugged in (not charging) or not. I’m actually sitting in my car right now, watching the battery go from 198 mi remaining to 187 mi. Sentry mode and climate of, touchscreen dimmed. I don’t usually care about the miles but in this case it shows the decrease better than %.

The attached photo shows a recent instance where there was a large drop while parked (dotted vertical line), then after a drive, indicated battery % increased. It’s really odd.

Brought it in for service and Tesla said the system isn’t producing any alerts so everything is fine. I disagree…

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I have the same issue on my 2022 MY LR. Started about 6 months after delivery. I see 2%-4% drop in state of charge ONLY when I’m parked with the battery reading between 55% and 65%. Doesn’t matter if I’m plugged in (not charging) or not. I’m actually sitting in my car right now, watching the battery go from 198 mi remaining to 187 mi. Sentry mode and climate of, touchscreen dimmed. I don’t usually care about the miles but in this case it shows the decrease better than %.

The attached photo shows a recent instance where there was a large drop while parked (dotted vertical line), then after a drive, indicated battery % increased. It’s really odd.

Brought it in for service and Tesla said the system isn’t producing any alerts so everything is fine. I disagree…

You resurrected an old thread so the circumstances have changed - now there is an app that makes these changes very apparent.

Yes this just happens. May have always happened or it may be new-ish. I see the same thing at a similar charge level.

Nothing to worry about, but I definitely would not trust the last 15 miles of rated range to be there if I need them.

In “unrelated” news: My rated range has also recently “recovered” to 300 rated miles rather than 285-290.

On the upside, sometimes the range will go up a similar amount when the car is sitting, with no appreciable change in temperature. As your picture demonstrates.

Nothing to do with any car functions. This specific behavior is pure BMS wackiness, that much is crystal clear. Nothing else can drain or add energy that fast (with climate off).

There are other recent threads about this.

 

[G35SWO]

You resurrected an old thread so the circumstances have changed - now there is an app that makes these changes very apparent.

Yes this just happens. May have always happened or it may be new-ish. I see the same thing at a similar charge level.

Nothing to worry about, but I definitely would not trust the last 15 miles of rated range to be there if I need them.

In “unrelated” news: My rated range has also recently “recovered” to 300 rated miles rather than 285-290.

On the upside, sometimes the range will go up a similar amount when the car is sitting, with no appreciable change in temperature. As your picture demonstrates.

Nothing to do with any car functions. This specific behavior is pure BMS wackiness, that much is crystal clear. Nothing else can drain or add energy that fast (with climate off).

There are other recent threads about this.

I tend to agree with you that it is BMS-related. My early theory was faulty cells, but I figured Tesla service would have caught that.

If this is normal behavior, I would have expected this to be a known issue and easily ‘explainable’ by Tesla service. Also, I’ve tracked my battery performance from day one using the Tessie app. This behavior only started after 6 months of owning the car.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

If this is normal behavior, I would have expected this to be a known issue and easily ‘explainable’ by Tesla service. Also, I’ve tracked my battery performance from day one using the Tessie app. This behavior only started after 6 months of owning the car.

No, Telsa service would have no idea. They don’t know anything about this stuff.

If your tracking data can detect this and it only showed up more recently, I would correlate it with a particular software update. This stuff changes all the time.

I doubt there is anything wrong with the car. It is just Tesla BMS folks throwing stuff at the car to see what sticks.

 

[gottagofast]

I tend to agree with you that it is BMS-related. My early theory was faulty cells, but I figured Tesla service would have caught that.

If this is normal behavior, I would have expected this to be a known issue and easily ‘explainable’ by Tesla service. Also, I’ve tracked my battery performance from day one using the Tessie app. This behavior only started after 6 months of owning the car.

I found this thread, my car does the same thing except 1 difference, I gain the miles back after I park a 2nd time

Here’s what happens

leave home with 65% charge arrive at work and park with 53%

I look at my Tesla app only 1 hour later and it shows my charge is now 48% instead of 53%

I leave work with 48% charge, and arrive at home and park with 36%

1 hr later after parking at home my charge is now showing 41%, I got back the 5% I lost after parking a 2nd time at home

So after parking at home I used the amount of charge it was supposed to for the total commute, I went from 65% in the morning to 41% at night when I got home, so what was with all the 5% lost and 5% gained in between all that for? It happens to me every day

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I found this thread, my car does the same thing except 1 difference, I gain the miles back after I park a 2nd time

Here’s what happens

leave home with 65% charge arrive at work and park with 53%

I look at my Tesla app only 1 hour later and it shows my charge is now 48% instead of 53%

I leave work with 48% charge, and arrive at home and park with 36%

1 hr later after parking at home my charge is now showing 41%, I got back the 5% I lost after parking a 2nd time at home

So after parking at home I used the amount of charge it was supposed to for the total commute, I went from 65% in the morning to 41% at night when I got home, so what was with all the 5% lost and 5% gained in between all that for? It happens to me every day

Dead reckoning error corrected by BMS, possibly incorrectly.

 

[gottagofast]

Dead reckoning error corrected by BMS, possibly incorrectly.

Maybe I need a new bms, seems like everyone’s car would do this if everyone had the same car

Why some would do this and some don’t doesn’t make sense to me

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Maybe I need a new bms, seems like everyone’s car would do this if everyone had the same car

Why some would do this and some don’t doesn’t make sense to me

Most do. No one cares.

Dead reckoning is not very accurate and it is not really the BMS. Just the meter measuring energy use.

5% is kind of a lot. I would be cautious and avoid driving below 5% to ensure that you only drop to 0% which is really 4.5%.

 

[gottagofast]

Most do. No one cares.

Dead reckoning is not very accurate and it is not really the BMS. Just the meter measuring energy use.

5% is kind of a lot. I would be cautious and avoid driving below 5% to ensure that you only drop to 0% which is really 4.5%.

The % isn’t consistent sometimes I only lose 3-4% and gain back 3-4%

5% is just the most I’ve lost at once before

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

The % isn’t consistent sometimes I only lose 3-4% and gain back 3-4%

5% is just the most I’ve lost at once before

You didn’t lose it you never had it and the discrepancy should show in out-of-whack consumption numbers though I have never checked. That’s the dead reckoning part is our current understanding.

Or the BMS could be wrong in the correction and then correct the error. It is hard to say.

 

[gottagofast]

You didn’t lose it you never had it and the discrepancy should show in out-of-whack consumption numbers though I have never checked. That’s the dead reckoning part is our current understanding.

Or you mean I never lost it because i got it back? That’s how I saw it

 

[KenC]

I found this thread, my car does the same thing except 1 difference, I gain the miles back after I park a 2nd time

Here’s what happens

leave home with 65% charge arrive at work and park with 53%

I look at my Tesla app only 1 hour later and it shows my charge is now 48% instead of 53%

I leave work with 48% charge, and arrive at home and park with 36%

1 hr later after parking at home my charge is now showing 41%, I got back the 5% I lost after parking a 2nd time at home

So after parking at home I used the amount of charge it was supposed to for the total commute, I went from 65% in the morning to 41% at night when I got home, so what was with all the 5% lost and 5% gained in between all that for? It happens to me every day

In my opinion, others may disagree, it's just due to the changing ambient conditions the BMS sees. The BMS calculates SOC and range based upon the temp at the moment when you "start", and doesn't recalculate until the next time you "start".

Because of that, you'll see on the energy graph, between drives, a change in the SOC estimate. Sometimes up. Sometimes down. Everything is the same in your battery, but the BMS estimate changes depending upon how the ambient changed from when you drove last.

So, in your case, your home/garage must be warmer than where you work. When your temp differential is greater, you see a greater change, and when the differential is less, you see a smaller change.

Generally you hear these complaints in Winter, because people notice drops. In Summer, when the SOC estimate goes up, you don't hear any complaints! That's my interpretation.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Summer, when the SOC estimate goes up, you don't hear any complaints! That's my interpretation.

I see it in all conditions. Similar starting and ending trip conditions. All seasons. Temp up vs. temp down seems to not directly affect direction.

I never pay attention.