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Wished I’d understood RANGE MODE better a year ago when new
- Thread starter quickstrike12
- Start date
Pentium2004
Former Vendor
Real men don’t read manuals lol
If you're purely talking reducing battery cycles, yes (technically), but how much more efficient is range mode? My understanding is it's pretty minimal, so it would take a really, really, really long time before you see "savings" in terms of battery cycles.
There's videos showing range mode increasing the battery temperature (via CAN bus data) from 30C to 40C while driving, so it definitely increases the battery temperature. This article on Battery University states:
"All batteries achieve optimum service life if used at 20°C (68°F) or slightly below. If, for example, a battery operates at 30°C (86°F) instead of a more moderate lower room temperature, the cycle life is reduced by 20 percent. At 40°C (104°F), the loss jumps to a whopping 40 percent, and if charged and discharged at 45°C (113°F), the cycle life is only half of what can be expected if used at 20°C (68°F)."
These numbers are probably not exactly the same with the Tesla battery/BMS and you have the realize this is over the entire life cycle of a battery which, in Tesla's case, is very high because they're great batteries. In other words, it's not really something to be concerned with. I think @gaswalla is a great example of a high mileage Tesla and the battery is still ~90% capacity (the life cycle is considered reached at 80% capacity). I bet it would take a loooong time for him to reach 80% capacity. Most of that degradation occurs early on and then starts to taper off.
So did having range mode on for a year accelerate battery degradation? Sure, but the science and anecdotal data suggest it's very, very minimal and nothing to be concerned about. It's easy to read discussions on these forums and think something is an issue but if you look at it in the context of how long you'll realistically own/drive the vehicle,
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⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️
Village Idiot
If you want to see brutal you should get on the “Nextdoor” app. This is child’s play compared to that forum.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
smorgasbord
Active Member
Apparently, there's a misunderstanding of what a charge cycle really is. Wikipedia has a decent explanation, including a reference to Apple: a charge cycle means using all the battery's capacity, but not necessarily by full charge and discharge; e.g., using half the charge of a fully charged battery, charging it, and then using the same amount of charge again count as a single charge cycle.
There are other informational threads on what Range Mode really does. This is a good post: Interesting finding about Range Mode , although I disagree with the speculation that in this mode they're actively heating the battery. What I suspect is happening is that they're not cooling the battery down as much. Batteries heat up as you use them
So, why is this bad? Hot batteries expand, which can cause internal fractures that reduce the capacity of the battery. On the Roadster, for instance, Range Mode heavily cools the battery while charging, and for as long as the car remains plugged in. When driving, it allows for a higher battery temperature before cooling kicks in. While Model S is certainly different, the principles of saving energy to not heat/cool the battery remain.
Actually it is F’n manual. Fine is just a more recent P.C. way of translating it. It all depends on the audience of which way I translate it for someone.
RTFM - Wikipedia
