range questions

[fraccy]

Just to reiterate the above, particularly regarding charging on low amp supplies, I had a conversation with my service guy shortly after I got it when I noticed range was dropping off. I had been driving pretty short bursts and plugging it straight in again and the max had been ticking down. His recommendation of driving it to less than 25% battery, leaving it 30 minutes, and then doing a full range charge completely addressed it then and has since.

[chris22104]

Just an update....I still can't get the car on the road for a week or two, but it does seem to be balancing and going up steadily. As I mentioned, I've been keeping it plugged into my 110v, and it's now up to 165 ideal miles in standard mode (up from 139, 148.) Does anyone have a hpc or 220v 14-50 cord for sale?

[dsm363]

Were you able to get a 50A outlet installed? You can of course buy a new one from Tesla's website but don't know of any used ones for sale.

[daniel]

What sounds like the battery coolant pump has been on since last night

FWIW, the pump will come on any time you open the door or unplug the car or open the trunk. Anything to make the car think that maybe you're going to drive it, the pump comes on. So if you're opening the door to check the screen, pump on. A solution might be to take the top off. Then you can look inside without opening the door. I don't suppose it does any harm, though, for the pump to come on. It's just a detail that annoys me a wee bit.

[chris22104]

Hi guys,
I know I can buy a new 50 amp cord from Tesla, but I'd rather find someone with an extra new one, or a used one in good working order. After paying $705 for a 110v cord from Tesla, I'd like to save some on the 220v 14-50 cord this time around, if I could! I can have the 50 amp service run to the garage at anytime. The car is now up to 167 ideal miles in standard mode today (165 yesterday.) It seems to be going up 1 to 2 miles of range each day (continuing to rebalance.)

[bolosky]

I decided to try a little experiment. I charged my car to full in range mode, waited for a while for balancing, and then hit top off. It had 238 miles of ideal range.

Then I went out and drove the car with the intent of running it down to the bottom of standard mode (~25 miles in range mode). I wasn't trying to be efficient, so I ran the heat and drove on the freeway at traffic speed (60-70 MPH depending on where I was).

The disturbing thing was that I only got 170 miles total range. This wasn't because of limited battery capacity, it was because the car was consuming lots of energy per mile. Some of that was heat and some speed and some possibly the outside temp (~40F). Still, it seemed to be pretty low.

The total energy used was just under 50 kWh, which seems roughly right or even a little high for having 10% of the battery left after a full charge.

I charge the car to a full range mode again, and it came out to the same 238 miles. I drove it and charged up in standard mode, and it came out to 187, which is also what it was getting before.

So, at least for my car, running the battery from full to close to empty back to full did nothing to the ideal miles estimated.

[Tesla 940]

I'm not too surprised by your actual miles and actual kWh. That is approx 294kWh/mile - considering you were using heat (you didn't say seat heaters or forced air heat - a difference in usage), the outside temp, and max 70mph. I'm not sure I've ever gotten over 238 or 239 in Range and maybe only once or twice over 190 in Standard.

[daniel]

I decided to try a little experiment. I charged my car to full in range mode, waited for a while for balancing, and then hit top off. It had 238 miles of ideal range.

Then I went out and drove the car with the intent of running it down to the bottom of standard mode (~25 miles in range mode). I wasn't trying to be efficient, so I ran the heat and drove on the freeway at traffic speed (60-70 MPH depending on where I was).

The disturbing thing was that I only got 170 miles total range.

The attached Range vs. Speed graph was published somewhere, probably on this chat board. Note that the range at 70 mph is just over 175 miles. That would be without agressive driving or use of the heater. Your 170 with heat was actually a little farther than I'd expect. Your car is doing fine.

And since your range figures are as expected, your pack is already balanced, and further balancing won't give any added range.

Drive at 55, no heat or A/C, no agressive starts or stops, to get the published 245 miles per charge in Range mode, or the 186 + or - in Standard.

I like to drive it hard, so I never come close to the ideal range. But I never have any reason to drive much over 100 miles, and even that's only to enjoy cruising the countryside on a nice sunny day with the mesh top on.

[dsm363]

That chart is from an old official Tesla blog post.
Roadster Efficiency and Range | Blog | Tesla Motors

[vfx]

FWIW, the pump will come on any time you open the door or unplug the car or open the trunk. Anything to make the car think that maybe you're going to drive it, the pump comes on. ...

Juat bumping the car will cause the pump to go on.