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obvious PSA: don't count on a buffer

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0 means 0. do not pass go. do not collect $200. sorry :/ lesson learned. I hope others stop trying to get mileage past 0. Some people on here go around saying 'oh yeah theres a 10 or 20 mile buffer past 0'. Well that's BS and 0 means 0 and the car will shut down. sorry to burst everyone's bubbles. yes some people have got some mileage past 0. but theres also people whose car shut down even before reaching 0. basically everyone should really try their hardest never to go below 10 or 20 miles just to never ever every run into this situation.
 
There certainly is a buffer but if you are able to use it or not depends on a few factors. Mostly temperature and how you draw power. Many people have gone passed 0 miles and have done so several times. If it's cold or you have to go uphill at the last few miles, your chances are pretty slim. If it's warm and you baby the accelerator for the last 30 miles you most likely will have a few more miles.
But never ever plan on it. If you see it getting tight, find a plan B right away. Don't keep driving and panic at the last 3 miles.
 
I hit zero and it's not big or clever.

In my defence I got stuck in a sudden snow fall, and 2 inches of fresh snow halved my range over the last 40 miles home :( I had 5 miles left on the clock when I did finally get home, but couldn't get to up my drive and comfort of my home charge point due to the snow... I drove 3 (real world) miles to my friends and it hit 0 just before I got there.
 
I hit zero and it's not big or clever.

In my defence I got stuck in a sudden snow fall, and 2 inches of fresh snow halved my range over the last 40 miles home :( I had 5 miles left on the clock when I did finally get home, but couldn't get to up my drive and comfort of my home charge point due to the snow... I drove 3 (real world) miles to my friends and it hit 0 just before I got there.

Yeah, sometimes stuff just happens.
 
Last week i had to go from Tilburg to Bonn in Germany, i plannen taking some reserve but the highway south for me was blocked three lanes and closed for the day, I left Bonn that afternoon with 108 km on my screen and the road to the charger on the way back was 120 kms.
I decided to drive conservative on the Germany highways.
Just driving about 62 miles an hour and just having succeeded getting to about 5 miles short to the SC in Stein it started raining and I had to go even more conservative.
I reached Zero about 4 miles away from the charger and the 6.0 software now did put in red Charge Now and I reached the charging point without problems.
Zero for my P85 is not zero.
I also remember that going to 6.0 my car lost about more than 10 km as I went from one day onto the other from 406 km to 392km and I personally feel Tesla did get far too much exposed to cars stopping too close to chargers.
It may have been cold when you lost drive electricity, have you been heating at the same time and also been using the airco unit as it is at auto standard on.
I decided driving a cold cabin and did get cold feet and it was only caused I was only able taking a load of KW on my way home.

Hope this helps others, when having lack of range do drive slower and do not heat the cabin.
 
I've been to 0 ~3 times... once I drove for ~3 miles at 0... all three times the last 4-5 miles were spent crawling @30 mph on the shoulder... beats waiting for a tow :redface:

Think you're gonna be short? Slow down... Still think you're gonna be short? slow down... The car uses A LOT less energy/mi @ 30 mph than it does at 60mph...

GYcvN.jpg


~62k miles... never been towed due to a lack of charge... once for a blown tire :crying:
 
Yesterday heard a service centre guy stating he drove the cat minus 30 miles and he did that 20 times not understanding why the car was not stopping, it may be that these service centre cars are less limited.
After the 20 times it failed and the battery pack had to be replaced.
Think that occasionally you can get to a chargepoint with a negative range but the lesson is that it is pretty bad for the pack.
 
Because of this I think you can always reach your destination if you had enough charge in the beginning. If you slow enough you can compensate for headwind, snow or rain. Of course it can demand driving VERY slow, but it is still better than waiting for towing.

Well, if you have enough charge, then yes, you always would.:wink:

The trick is having barely enough and how to stretch what you have to make sure you get there.

While that chart does indeed indicate that if you go quite slowly you can extend your range, what it doesn't account for is when the thermal management system load may become the dominant factor in your energy usage.

In my case, I can pretty easily manage ~275Wh/mi @70MPH in warm weather. In cold weather, my energy usage for the same commute to work may be 400-500. Turning cabin & seat heating off reduces this slightly, and running in Range Mode will reduce it some as well.

But even if you drop your energy usage down to 150 Wh/mi by driving very slowly, it's still possible that as much, or more, energy will be used by the pack heaters as is used to provide locomotive force.
 
I've been to 0 ~3 times... once I drove for ~3 miles at 0... all three times the last 4-5 miles were spent crawling @30 mph on the shoulder... beats waiting for a tow :redface:

Think you're gonna be short? Slow down... Still think you're gonna be short? slow down... The car uses A LOT less energy/mi @ 30 mph than it does at 60mph...



~62k miles... never been towed due to a lack of charge... once for a blown tire :crying:

Amen.

Last year @ TMC Connect, one of the speakers had driven his Model S over 425 miles on a single charge, while driving @ the car's sweet spot of 23.5 mph.
(No, he did not accomplish this feat during really cold weather.)

I am not suggesting that it is advisable to drive that speed on a highway, just the reality that if your car has very limited remaining range, and whether it might be close if you make your destination (or not) -- simply slowing down has a huge effect on the amount of range your car can achieve.
And slowing down sooner (first half of the trip) rather than later gives you more confidence in the range of the car.
Yes, extreme cold tends to sap extra range as the battery pack tries to heat itself.
And you have very little control over that aspect of the car's system.

If you are planning a trip and it has a long leg between charges, learn to effectively use the tools that are in the car and vigilantly monitor the situation and the conditions.
It may take a little longer, but you will make it.

Over 33K miles... never below 20 miles remaining range.