FHM magazine 117 mile test around Londons M25

Seems clear to me that was starting at a Standard charge 90% level, and his stated miles remaining was what's remaining to the 10% charge level.

Tdave said:

Seems clear to me that was starting at a Standard charge 90% level, and his stated miles remaining was what's remaining to the 10% charge level.

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Sounds to me like a reasonable test for daily motorway driving. I mean, we're not going to charge in Range mode everyday, right? In the video the driver seems to be keeping up with traffic so he's in the 60mph zone, at which the expected range is certainly not 240miles.

I like the little tension towards the end, wondering if he'll make it. One of the very few issues with a pure electric. Haven't we all been there yet?
:smile:

But the premise of the test is this (direct quote from the video):

The people from Tesla say that the Roadster can do 230 miles on a single charge. Some of our friends in the media seem to think it's less so. So to test out Tesla's claim, we're going to try and drive the 117 miles around the M25 in one charge.

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If the purpose is to test Tesla's claim, they didn't do it. Tesla's claim is based on a Range mode charge. If you're going to push the range limit for a trip, then you use Range mode. That's the whole point.

Tesla's claim would be adjusted to 184 miles for a Standard Mode. They drove 117 miles and had 15 miles left, so they got 132.

Now I'm guessing that they didn't even start with a full Standard charge. I've never gotten as badly as 132 mile range on Standard charge. The worst I've done is around 145, and that's with some pretty damn aggressive mixed driving. The video didn't show much aggressive or fast driving.

So did he charge it full right there at the service station on the M25? Or did he drive it there first from where it had been fully charged?

toutizes said:

In the video the driver seems to be keeping up with traffic so he's in the 60mph zone, at which the expected range is certainly not 240miles.

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I drove the Roadster to Indianapolis from Chicago (180 miles) and my avg speed was around 60mph. I left fully charged in range mode and my remaining charge showed 60 miles (Ideal & Actual) left upon arriving. During the trip I accelerated up to 70 mph a few times to pass, drafted a few trucks going 65 or so and had to accelerate out of toll booths. I think 240 miles is possible in the 60mph zone.

After charging for the ride back (~24 hours @ 15amps on MC120), I left Indianapolis with only 200 miles showing on my range, picked up a friend on the way in Zionsville at the exit on I-65. I was diligent about not exceeding 55mph and accelerating slowly out of the tolls. We made it back on "fumes" with about 4% charge left in the battery. It was a nail biter!

I watched it a second time, and the very first time he mentions the range he says it's at 150 miles. To drop from 244 miles down to 150, I would think he would have already made it at least halfway around the 117 miles loop.

A short while later he says it's 80 miles to Heathrow and the range is showing 76 miles.

He could not have possibly started with a full range mode charge, and I seriously doubt he started with even a full standard charge. If he actually started with about 150 miles of range, then the numbers work out about right.

The biggest problem with this video is he never mentions if he fully charged the car or if it was in range mode. It would have helped if he just mentioned what range estimate he started with.

I've heard a first hand driver's report of a 240mi RangeMode charge from SanLuisObispo to SantaClara on Hwy101, cruise control at 55mph, no truck drafting, occasional A/C use (total maybe 20% of the time) and some slightly "cracked" windows during a 4 hour 195 mile drive in 80-90F sunny weather, arriving with 32miles. So that's a pretty close match (95% actual miles versus predicted IdealRange). Very little regen ... some hills (up to 1,400 feet) but most of that is returned on the way back down.

stopcrazypp said:

It would have helped if he just mentioned what range estimate he started with.

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Slightly more than 150. I'd put good money on it, based on existing evidence and our analysis.

Just watched the vid and that is VP30 which is currently in Chicago!

It is bad storytelling/filmaking. There should have been shots of the readout(s) at the beginning, middle, during the "tense part" and at the end.

A shot of the display would also tell us what mode he was in even if he did not want to complicate his banter.

OK, I have some further info about the drive:

They picked the car up from the London store fully charged in standard mode. They then drove west on the M4 to the M25, did one lap of London and then drove back along the M4 to the store. It's about 15 miles from the store to the M4/M25 interchange, so add 30 miles to the 117 reported in the video. I'm told that at one point they also made a wrong turn.

Those not familiar with the geography click here.

So they drove 147 miles, still had 15 miles left, and would have had another 40 had they used Range mode, as would have been appropriate since they stated they were testing Tesla's claim of a 230 mile range.

The results were actually quite good, the car indicated it could do 117+30+15+40=202 miles. Unfortunately, the message to the viewer is that the car claims 230, but can just barely do 117. That's a very different thing entirely.

Or using all Standard mode numbers. The car gave them 162 miles compared with a Tesla claim of 182 ideal miles.

117+30+15 = 162
230 * 0.8 = 182 (converting Range mode to Standard mode miles)

Tdave said:

Or using all Standard mode numbers. The car gave them 162 miles compared with a Tesla claim of 182 ideal miles.

117+30+15 = 162
230 * 0.8 = 182 (converting Range mode to Standard mode miles)

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Or to put it another way, the actual was only 11% less than the ideal miles. Not bad at all!

Yet the casual viewer might come away with 117/230, only 50% of the claimed range.

Finally got around to watching this video :biggrin:

If you know the M25 as well as I do, it's chock full of continuity errors.

At one point he talks about a sign for Heathrow saying 80 miles - I can't say I know where that one is on a 117 mile circuit (if you want the airport, turn around, surely?)

They start off in a service station car park. There is no service station anywhere near Heathrow on the M25. I'm pretty certain the service station in the video is Clacket Lane services, in the south east sector of the motorway and ~40 miles from Heathrow. This would be at or just after any 80 miles to Heathrow sign

The "we've hit traffic comment" shot is of the queue for the Dartford Crossing toll. It's ~60 miles from there back to Heathrow. So he claims to have more range left there than the earlier location...

Why he is where he is at 3:43 I have no idea - maybe that is the wrong turn mentioned, but how you can do that on a circular motorway is beyond me.

He's not the quickest driver. Judging by the speed of some of the overtaking vehicles in clear traffic shots, I'd guess he's 5-10mph under the speed limit.

I'm not sure what you can really take from this.


Finally, why reverse the picture in the sequence where he tries to get in and the car is locked?

dpeilow said:

Finally, why reverse the picture in the sequence where he tries to get in and the car is locked?

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I'm guessing it's a cheap way of making the writing on the truck unreadable. Blurring takes time. It's a LHD car.

dpeilow said:

Finally, why reverse the picture in the sequence where he tries to get in and the car is locked?

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I would guess he didn't want to upset the sensibilities of his UK viewers by his walking up to the wrong door. (I guess he failed in your case:tongue