Pleasantly surprised at range after 30,000 miles

thefortunes · Apr 7, 2014

So, I am about to turn over 30,000 miles on my Roadster.

Because I was running up to our lake house this weekend I decided to do a full range charge (I wasn't sure if the garage would be accessible since I knew there was still snow up there and I just put the summer tires back on). This was the first range charge I have done since I bought it last August with about 12,500 miles on it.

On a standard charge I get 185-186 ideal miles (it seems to fluctuate without rhyme or reason, not that I am complaining about 1 mile :smile

.

The range charge completed at 242 ideal miles. If my memory serves, full range when new was 245 miles, correct?

Pretty amazing for a car with almost 30,000 miles.

wiztecy · Apr 7, 2014

Always awesome news to hear! Sounds like you're really using it too from the miles you put on it in a year, only way to have it. If you're not using it, to me, you're abusing it. These cars don't want to sit around, they want to be driven practically every day and I don't mind it one bit.

What's your CAC looking like?

widodh · Apr 7, 2014

My colleague's Roadster has 53.000km on it. CAC is still about 153Ah if I remember correctly.

It's 3 years old now.

thefortunes · Apr 8, 2014

wiztecy said:
Always awesome news to hear! Sounds like you're really using it too from the miles you put on it in a year, only way to have it. If you're not using it, to me, you're abusing it. These cars don't want to sit around, they want to be driven practically every day and I don't mind it one bit.

What's your CAC looking like?

Yep, I commute about 110-120 miles per day (even through the Wisconsin winter for all but a day or two). The nice part about the commute is that I can take an interstate most of the way when the weather is bad or roads are slick (most of the winter) or there are a couple "back ways" that are really enjoyable in the Roadster.

My CAC has jumped around quite a bit since I bought it 8 months and 17,500 miles ago. It started at 155.7, dropped to a low of 150.3, recovered to a high of 157.1 and is currently at 154.7. I posited in another thread that I believe that CAC is affected by the pack balance (although I'm not sure how my pack, having a daily standard charge with at least an hour to balance, could get out of balance).

dhrivnak · Apr 8, 2014

Please add your results to the Roadster owner battery survey. Plug In America

wiztecy · Apr 8, 2014

thefortunes said:
My CAC has jumped around quite a bit since I bought it 8 months and 17,500 miles ago. It started at 155.7, dropped to a low of 150.3, recovered to a high of 156.7 and is currently at 154.7. I posited in another thread that I believe that CAC is affected by the pack balance (although I'm not sure how my pack, having a daily standard charge with at least an hour to balance, could get out of balance).

The CAC does tend to be bumpy at times, mostly in the winter. As for getting the pack out of balance, its not that hard. I did 2 std mode charges and failed to allow it to balance. With that you'll find you're going to have to leave the roadster balance for quite some time. I usually allow 30 mins to balance the pack after every charge, but lately I had to just unplug and go before the pack had a chance to balance. I allowed the pack to balance normally for 1/2-1 hour and it wasn't enough. I waited today starting the charge start 4 hours earlier than usual, and still it needs balancing. I'll allow another 4 extra hours to balance tonight.

wiztecy · Apr 9, 2014

This morning I gave the Roadster another extra 4 hours to balance. Started my charge at 2am and drove off at 10am. I had the last 2 zero's in the balancing grid disappear right before I departed off to work. It appears my CAC is climbing back up again and possibly the reason why it took a fair amount of time to balance. Typical Roadster behavior, drops CAC in the winter, gains it back in the spring/summer.

Jackyche · Apr 9, 2014

Am I missing something? What balancing grid?

Is there's a balancing option on the VDS? I thought it was something like drive down to 10% on a single key turn and range charge. Am I wrong?

wiztecy said:
This morning I gave the Roadster another extra 4 hours to balance. Started my charge at 2am and drove off at 10am. I had the last 2 zero's in the balancing grid disappear right before I departed off to work. It appears my CAC is climbing back up again and possibly the reason why it took a fair amount of time to balance. Typical Roadster behavior, drops CAC in the winter, gains it back in the spring/summer.

thefortunes · Mar 13, 2015

An update...

About to turn over 50,000 miles.

Still standard charging to 184-185 miles, with CAC this morning at 155.3.

My last range charge was in October, which yielded 237 miles.

Guess I won't be needing the 3.0 battery for a while (knock on wood).

samcarney · Mar 13, 2015

thefortunes said:
An update...

About to turn over 50,000 miles.

Still standard charging to 184-185 miles, with CAC this morning at 155.3.

My last range charge was in October, which yielded 237 miles.

Guess I won't be needing the 3.0 battery for a while (knock on wood).

I thought I read somewhere on the forum that range is more affected by the battery age then the mileage.
My battery is 6 years old with 41k miles. A range charge gets me 225-230 miles.
But I do range charge approx. 6-8 times per year. Right now my battery is way out of balance due to being in Storage mode all winter. My CAC is 141.98

tonybelding · Mar 14, 2015

samcarney said:
I thought I read somewhere on the forum that range is more affected by the battery age then the mileage.

The Plug In America survey concluded that mileage is the more important factor.

Mine is a 2010 YM with 20K miles, standard charge nets 167-170 ideal miles. It has actually nudged upward to 170 due to balancing, I assume. That puts it somewhat below average, according to the survey.

Doug_G · Mar 14, 2015

In fact the Plug-in America survey couldn't detect any impact of pack age on capacity. All that mattered seemed to be pack cycles, and mileage is a good proxy for that.

m0rph · Mar 17, 2015

The charger makes also a few miles difference. Since I have installed my 230V/32A charger, it charges 4 miles less on standard mode than on the slower 230V/13A charger. I will have 230V/63A soon and I expect it to stop charging even earlier..

Also, a non-balanced pack can sometimes charge way further than a balanced pack, as the cut off is based on the lowest brick. I once was able to charge it up to 406km in range mode (that is 253 miles!!). Also saw 336km on standard mode (= 210 mls). I left it balancing after that, and it dropped to 306km (191 mls).

djp · Mar 17, 2015

m0rph said:
Also, a non-balanced pack can sometimes charge way further than a balanced pack, as the cut off is based on the lowest brick. I once was able to charge it up to 406km in range mode (that is 253 miles!!). Also saw 336km on standard mode (= 210 mls). I left it balancing after that, and it dropped to 306km (191 mls).

That's odd. The cut-off is based on the highest brick when charging and the lowest brick when discharging (otherwise it would fry the highest brick, or brick the lowest brick). The BMS probably miscalculated the capacity and needed some balancing time to bring it back into line.

hcsharp · Mar 17, 2015

djp said:
That's odd. The cut-off is based on the highest brick when charging and the lowest brick when discharging (otherwise it would fry the highest brick, or brick the lowest brick). The BMS probably miscalculated the capacity and needed some balancing time to bring it back into line.

I thought it was odd, too, the first time I saw it. I'm pretty sure m0rph's theory is right. It doesn't go so far over that you would fry the higher cells, especially in std mode. When it does it in range mode the effect is less dramatic to avoid stressing the higher cells. The only times I've seen this happen are when the pack is out of balance and it always has a long balancing period afterwards.

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