Does chill mode save energy on cruising and relaxed driving? The difference I noticed with the chill mode is a much more latent throttle response, more like an ICE car than an EV. So I wonder if I drive gently in normal mode whether it would still use much more energy than if driving In chill mode.
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Tesla Model 3 in Australia
- Thread starter Electric_Blue
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- Australia Model 3 New Zealand
Priit
Active Member
That difference in the very high battery charge comes from regenerative breaking being disabled. Even when driving on the motorway with the road sometimes going down a bit or slowing for the cars in front of you, the car uses regenerative breaking and puts some power back to battery thus getting better average on the Wh/km display. It makes a massive difference. At about 90% the car will allow full advantage of regen to be put back in the battery.
When battery is full or near full, it will not accept extra charge at the rate regen would push it and so the extra power is lost.
Acceleration is slower, 6.8s 0-100 and no downshifting so still leave most cars for dust.
Main impact on energy in urban driving is if you are accelerating hard a lot, yes. If you are cruising and accelerating slowly and smoothly, you'll use about same amount of energy covering the same distance in 15 minutes or 30 minutes in stop/start traffic.
That’s what I figure, I just just leave it in standard mode even when I am stuck in traffic, for the occasions when I need an instant burst of acceleration...
tessiestraya
Member
Eek, I've used about 180wh/km average on my Performance+ with around 2600km's
Although that may be due to me smashing it around roads in the Dandenongs.. and Daylesford... and Apollo Bay... and the freeway..
Maybe this wasn't the right car for me.
Although that may be due to me smashing it around roads in the Dandenongs.. and Daylesford... and Apollo Bay... and the freeway..
Maybe this wasn't the right car for me.
tessiestraya
Member
I have just been informed I hurt the feelings of the car.
Therefore I am declaring it was the perfect car.
Maaaaaaybe just need less of a lead foot.
Thanks for the explanation. I do indeed recall a message saying something to the effect "Regen Braking unavailable" when I set off. So one cannot really extrapolate < 90% Wh/km across the full battery capacity. The first 10% wlll in theory always be markedly less which is exactly what I was seeing.
Be interesting to see how your Wh/km goes for the first 10% of a full charge.
I am still a little sceptical about heating being a significant cause of high consumption on yesterdays drive. Sit any car with glass sunroof outside, windows closed during the day in 15C and I would have thought radiation alone would heat the cabin to the mid 20s. Sure I understand if it really is cold out, but raising it from 15 to 22 with the assistance of the sun does not seem like a big ask. Perhaps I should do the return trip in bare bones mode with everything off to see how it compares.
Priit
Active Member
From all the reports I have read, the heating does take considerable amount of energy, so you could test if the temperature is not too bad in the car and use seat heating instead of heating the air in the car, apparently seat heating takes only a fraction of energy that the heating in the car takes. I personally have not used heating yet as I got the car in September and so far there has not been a temperature in my area that would have warranted any heating in the car.
It prevents you driving like a lunatic just for the sake of it.
Like overtaking cars by instantly getting to 140+km/h
Or joining a freeway and flooring it because you can.
That's how I drive.
If I could control myself I'm sure there would be no difference between chill mode and standard.
But this car is too much fun, and I abuse it.
I've never managed to exceed 400km from a full charge with this car.
Kiwiadventure
Member
Agree as I can drive my Tesla 3 like a BMW M3 but costs me hardly nothing to charge as well no noise so the cops cannot hear me coming.
Yeah I will give it a go without the AC running at some point. I would have thought setting a slightly warmer temp in the car than is indicated outside does not necessarily mean HVAC heating is in use. Good tip about the regenerative being off above 90% charge BTW. I found this article about the regenerative braking dots. Seemingly I would have had the double whammy of full & cold battery when I set off. This most likely lead to the initial 220Wh/km that I saw for the first 45min or so.
Candleflame
Active Member
yeah heating is way more inefficient than AC. Easy for me to say, I do not need heating all year, but it is better to just put the seat heaters on full blast and leave the cabin maybe at 18-19 degrees.
Resistive heating is dumb, it doesn’t matter much how much temperature increase you are seeking, just turning it on will use a lot of power.
I have the original Gen 1 LEAF which has resistive heating (subsequent models have reverse cycle A/C) and turning on the heating reduces the range by about 20%. The LEAF has really efficient A/C (it only uses about 250W according to the dash energy meter) but its resistive heating uses ten times that.
We’ve already seen posts here about how much of a power hog the A/C is in Model 3, and its resistive heating might be similarly bad.
shhhAgree as I can drive my Tesla 3 like a BMW M3 but costs me hardly nothing to charge as well no noise so the cops cannot hear me coming.
this is all our secret!!!
bay74
Member
I have ~135Wh/km average over about ~4600km, done since September 30, including a trip Mel-Adel return over Christmas. I noticed that on the freeway with AC on (basically the Adelaide trip), consumption was about 150-160 Wh/km.
The considerably lower long-term average was because we don't often need the AC here in Mel and I have never ever intentionally had the heater on (stupid thing comes on by itself, unwanted, on cool mornings when the AC was set to e.g. 23 the previous day; wish there were a "Heater OFF" button like there is for AC). Usually I set temp to LO and adjust fan speed manually for fresh air flow (fresh air being a bit scarce the last few days).
Sometimes I floor it but of course that only lasts a second or three and unless you are subsequently braking unnecessarily I would guess it's not really using much more energy than accelerating more slowly in arriving at the same speed (kinetic energy is the same then, and resistive losses musn't be significant; not like in an ICE ey!). Hence I don't bother with Chill Mode anymore.
Cheers, A.
The considerably lower long-term average was because we don't often need the AC here in Mel and I have never ever intentionally had the heater on (stupid thing comes on by itself, unwanted, on cool mornings when the AC was set to e.g. 23 the previous day; wish there were a "Heater OFF" button like there is for AC). Usually I set temp to LO and adjust fan speed manually for fresh air flow (fresh air being a bit scarce the last few days).
Sometimes I floor it but of course that only lasts a second or three and unless you are subsequently braking unnecessarily I would guess it's not really using much more energy than accelerating more slowly in arriving at the same speed (kinetic energy is the same then, and resistive losses musn't be significant; not like in an ICE ey!). Hence I don't bother with Chill Mode anymore.
Cheers, A.
Yup- accelerating to a speed from which you then have to brake is a major waste of energy. You get really good at avoiding that with practice- quick wzzzz up to 60 then sit there...
It would be nice if it was possible to only have the fan on, and let the air in from outside.
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