Tesla Model 3 Range

[jordanair45]

Hey guys.

I searched but never got a definite answer

I just purchased a SR M3 with aero wheels.

The battery milage has been way off, like, driving down the block and losing 3 miles of range...

Today I did a commute. Left work with 160 miles of range. Drove 27 miles and got home with 121 miles of range.

Most of the trip was on auto pilot, radio and AC on (90+ in Nor. cal). Highway mostly flat. In

But the range has been really bad. I left climate on over night and my range dropped about 60 miles with the AC on over night.

Is this normal or should I call Tesla? The car is 2 days old. The screen reboots often also. Maybe I got a bad car?

Just want to make sure before the 7 days is up. Going to try fully charging it to 100% tomorrow to see if that improves anything at all.

 

[ronm2948]

The screen reboots are not normal for me, but can happen and may fix itself with a software update.

For the range, aircon will hurt range somewhat, but driving speed makes a huge difference. If you want to see if anything is wrong, try driving with climate control off at a speed of 55mph or so for a while and see what your range looks like. You should be at or better than the expected range. You can look at the wh/mile, and it should be around 240 to get the expected range.

As with ICE cars, the real range / mileage you get is usually less than advertised, and vary greatly depending on how you drive.

 

[ElectricLee]

Its normal. Think about an iPhone, each user will tax the battery differently (3D games or Maps, just looking at Text or email and finally the GPS or cell signal). But for a car it’s hills, heavy foot, head winds, tailwinds, GPS mapping, regeneration brakes. ETC....

Mainly, drive your new toy and enjoy EV freedom!

 

[ewoodrick]

The battery display is the one number that will probably never be correct. Look at the energy graphs for a much more realistic number.
If you are driving 75-80 mph, that easily explains it, but the car does use more at the beginning of a trip as it pre-conditions car.

Stop worrying about it. Don't even think about it until you take a trip at least 100 miles, more like 300 miles.

You've got severe battery anxiety. Just got to get over it.

 

[Tam]

...But the range has been really bad. I left climate on over night and my range dropped about 60 miles with the AC on over night...

That's not bad for leaving your HVAC on overnight. 60 miles loss to gain your dog's comfort is a bargain!

...auto pilot, radio and AC on (90+ in Nor. cal). Highway mostly flat...

You didn't say what your speed was. The higher the speed the faster you loos your energy.

...Left work with 160 miles of range. Drove 27 miles and got home with 121 miles of range...

160-121=39 battery miles

You spent 39 battery miles for an actual trip of 27 miles.

39-27=12 extra battery miles

You spent extra 12 battery miles for the 27 mile trip .

Now that you know you might plan to have an extra range in your battery for your trips.

You might want to test on a freeway at 65MPH on autopilot for about 100 miles and see if the numbers improve.

If not, you just take note of the consumption and plan your future trips with what you learned.

 

[Dana1]

Hey guys.

I searched but never got a definite answer

I just purchased a SR M3 with aero wheels.

The battery milage has been way off, like, driving down the block and losing 3 miles of range...

Today I did a commute. Left work with 160 miles of range. Drove 27 miles and got home with 121 miles of range.

Most of the trip was on auto pilot, radio and AC on (90+ in Nor. cal). Highway mostly flat. In

But the range has been really bad. I left climate on over night and my range dropped about 60 miles with the AC on over night.

Is this normal or should I call Tesla? The car is 2 days old. The screen reboots often also. Maybe I got a bad car?

Just want to make sure before the 7 days is up. Going to try fully charging it to 100% tomorrow to see if that improves anything at all.

There are dozens of threads on range. First off, what does your energy consumption graph say? Just like gas cars the faster you go the more energy is required and the energy required is an exponential curve. If you want rated range your energy consumption needs to be around 230 wh/mile. Mileage, just like in a gas car, is an estimate. Percentage is accurate. Your last gas car when filled up had, say, 20 gallons of gas when 100% full. How many miles you get varied. Your phone battery at 100% might get you 1000 minutes of talking or 500 minutes depending on how you use the phone. Leaving the AC on constantly requires energy. Sentry mode requires energy. Third party apps require energy. Your owners manual is a great place to start with understanding your car.

 

[ElectricEel]

I have an SR and yes that's normal, I typically get about 180 from a full 220. I leave my ac on 72, I have sentry on. I drive 80 all the time. You'll get used to it.

 

[Neo101]

I have an SR and yes that's normal, I typically get about 180 from a full 220. I leave my ac on 72, I have sentry on. I drive 80 all the time. You'll get used to it.

Does you car actually show 220 range at 100% charge? I recently downgraded to SR and my 100% went from 239 miles to 209 miles . You are the first person I have seen on forums saying you get 220. Tesla said it should normalize to 220 but it doesn’t make sense to me. Seems like they locked more battery than intended.

 

[ElectricEel]

Does you car actually show 220 range at 100% charge? I recently downgraded to SR and my 100% went from 239 miles to 209 miles . You are the first person I have seen on forums saying you get 220. Tesla said it should normalize to 220 but it doesn’t make sense to me. Seems like they locked more battery than intended.

Oh no no, it didn't say 220 even when it was new. I max out at about 205 usually. And yes I recall seeing the Excel form that showed how the SR+ got better real world mileage than the SR, which like you mention leads me to believe they locked way more than they were supposed too.

Also...how the hell did you 100% go down 30 miles??? Lol. I still find is Incredibly odd that the SR is losing mileage when the car has never been actually charged to 100%.... something fishy with the coding.

 

[woof]

The reported range available is just a guess multiplied by a guess multiplied by a guess. Guess 1: Determining the state of charge (SOC) of the cells in the battery is true black magic; exceedingly difficult to determine under perfect laboratory conditions when the cell isn't being used--even more difficult while under power, with current flowing in and out constantly. Guess 2: summing up all the cells and trying to determine the balance between the best cell and the worst, and calculating an overall usable SOC of the pack, in an attempt to never overcharge nor undercharge a cell. Guess 3: How much power flowing out from the pack, plus power back in to the pack from regenerative braking is actually going to be needed to move the car a given distance, under unknown conditions in the future.

So, take it for what it is: a best guess at what distance might be possible to achieve given various assumptions. Variations from reality are to be expected.

 

[acarney]

The screen reboots are not normal for me, but can happen and may fix itself with a software update.

For the range, aircon will hurt range somewhat, but driving speed makes a huge difference. If you want to see if anything is wrong, try driving with climate control off at a speed of 55mph or so for a while and see what your range looks like. You should be at or better than the expected range. You can look at the wh/mile, and it should be around 240 to get the expected range.

As with ICE cars, the real range / mileage you get is usually less than advertised, and vary greatly depending on how you drive.

You actually need to be more like ~210 watt/mile to get the rated 240 mile range.

As others have said, screen resets should not be frequent. I’ve had the car for over a month now and haven’t experienced one.

You probably should see 240 to 250 watt/mile at 45 to 55 mph if you’re running the AC and not driving gently (fairly brisk acceleration and not letting off the accelerator to let the car slow it’s self down via regen if you see a stop sign or stop light coming up)

I think that means that every mile driven is really about 1.15 miles of rated range. So if you go 10 miles and started with 180 miles range you’ll probably be down to 168 miles rated range.

Cruising on the freeway at 70 mph with ac on (not blasting, but on) I see about 255 watt/mile.

Around town going gentle with acceleration and almost never touching the brake (letting the regen do all the work) I’ll see about 180 to 200 watt/mile when the max speed is 35 mph.

If you can’t recreate that (probably with a +/- 15% range) then there might be something wrong with the car.

 

[SoManyM3s]

This is normal

 

[KenC]

Hey guys.

I searched but never got a definite answer

I just purchased a SR M3 with aero wheels.

The battery milage has been way off, like, driving down the block and losing 3 miles of range...

Today I did a commute. Left work with 160 miles of range. Drove 27 miles and got home with 121 miles of range.

Most of the trip was on auto pilot, radio and AC on (90+ in Nor. cal). Highway mostly flat. In

But the range has been really bad. I left climate on over night and my range dropped about 60 miles with the AC on over night.

Is this normal or should I call Tesla? The car is 2 days old. The screen reboots often also. Maybe I got a bad car?

Just want to make sure before the 7 days is up. Going to try fully charging it to 100% tomorrow to see if that improves anything at all.

If you use energy, that's going to affect your range. Driving on the highway at highway speeds and AC in 90+F is going to sap your energy so that your range is below EPA estimates. What's your Wh/m rate during your 27 mile commute?

 

[ElectricEel]

So this is odd....I got autopilot today and used it on the freeway my wh/m went from 240 to 189, I notice I'm now way more patient, I'm ok with doing 65-75 so long as autopilot takes over.

Basically the obvious driving like an animal was putting me at 250 wh/m

 

[acarney]

So this is odd....I got autopilot today and used it on the freeway my wh/m went from 240 to 189, I notice I'm now way more patient, I'm ok with doing 65-75 so long as autopilot takes over.

Basically the obvious driving like an animal was putting me at 250 wh/m

It’s certainly the acceleration and using friction brakes that eats the most energy. Cruising at a steady speed and using the regen to slow down (if someone moves in front of you or a corner is coming up, etc) is going to be more efficient.

 

[Dan203]

Just like gas cars the faster you go the more energy is required and the energy required is an exponential curve.

Actually gas cars are almost the complete opposite. Because of the transmission once a gas car is up to speed it actually uses less energy than it required to get up to speed. In fact some cars even have a fancy system that will turn of several of the cylinders while at highway speed. With an EV the amount of energy used goes up linearly with speed. So the faster you go the more you use, and you continue to use that much the whole time you're going that speed.

I think as EVs mature they'll figure out some way to get gearing back into the mix so they can use less energy at highway speeds. From what I've heard the new Plaid drive train might actually use different gearing in the rear motors vs the front motor and dynamically shift how much power is going to each one as speed increases. This will allow it to achieve a higher top speed but should also reduce how much energy it needs to use at those higher speeds.

 

[Neo101]

Oh no no, it didn't say 220 even when it was new. I max out at about 205 usually. And yes I recall seeing the Excel form that showed how the SR+ got better real world mileage than the SR, which like you mention leads me to believe they locked way more than they were supposed too.

Also...how the hell did you 100% go down 30 miles??? Lol. I still find is Incredibly odd that the SR is losing mileage when the car has never been actually charged to 100%.... something fishy with the coding.

Let me explain. I had SR+ for about 5 months. Charged to 100% a coule of times and car would show 239 miles. Elected to downgrade to SR about 2 weeks ago and it only shows 209 at 100% charge. I get that the range is an estimate and all but how do you explain this discrepancy at 100% charge? Only thing I can think of is Tesla locked more capacity than they should have. This is their offical response... “I have been informed by my developers that when your vehicle's range was downgraded, this forced the range estimation algorithm to re-calibrate itself, since the capacity of your vehicle changed. Your estimated range should normalize after 3-4 weeks of normal driving.” Will be reaching out to them in 2 more weeks if it doesn’t “normalize”.

 

[ElectricLee]

I would enjoy the marvel of a fresh take on an Automobile and just have fun, worrying about battery levels and range is not needed. Analysis paralysis will keep you from taking your family out and enjoying the freedom of travel with your Model 3. If you only get 50 miles on a full charge when is should be 220, 240, 310, or 325... then go crazy. But if its just works, just have FUN.

 

[Neo101]

I do enjoy the car but I do want to get to the bottom of this. I went back and forth on the decision to downgrade and having 220 miles of rated range is important. Losing extra 11 miles will hurt in winter (i am in Wisconsin after all) and on trips. And Tesla advertises 220, so...

 

[ecarfan]

I do enjoy the car but I do want to get to the bottom of this. I went back and forth on the decision to downgrade and having 220 miles of rated range is important. Losing extra 11 miles will hurt in winter (i am in Wisconsin after all) and on trips. And Tesla advertises 220, so...

I reviewed your posts in this thread and do not see where you ever stated what your Wh/mi figure was for a trip where you accurately described the conditions (average speed, distance, elevation change, weather).

The EPA range figure that Tesla advertises is based on a specific test. Just like with ICE cars, it does not readily translate into real world conditions. The way most people drive, gas or electric, they do not get the EPA mpg rating or EV range.

Try this: find a 50 mile route that is as flat as possible and where you can drive a steady 60mph, or something close to that, with as few stop/starts as possible, on a non-windy dry day. Set one of the trip odometers to record that route and report back with the Wh/mi figure.

This is their offical response... “I have been informed by my developers that when your vehicle's range was downgraded, this forced the range estimation algorithm to re-calibrate itself, since the capacity of your vehicle changed. Your estimated range should normalize after 3-4 weeks of normal driving.” Will be reaching out to them in 2 more weeks if it doesn’t “normalize”.

Okay, let us know...