Greetings!
Like many others I've noticed a drop in range on my 2018 LR RWD Model 3. The loss is about 8-10% over the last few months. I assumed that it was due to the new Version updates, vampire loss or a combination of both. When I brought my car to the Tesla service center to rotate my tires I mentioned it to the tech. He offered to check my battery, which he did, and his comments surprised me.
He said that Telsa has a Battery Management System (BMS) in all of its cars, and that the purpose of that system is to balance the battery load. It does this by various readings, but the key point is that if you don't discharge your battery below 20% capacity the BMS system is dormant. That means that it begins to sense that your capacity is being limited so it gradually decreases your range (I may be explaining this incorrectly). The point is that his instructions to restore full range were very different from what I thought was proper battery management.
I typically keep the battery charged from 30-80%, rarely going below 20% or above 90%. He said that will maximize battery life, but not maximize range. To do that you have to "cycle" the battery to use most of its range. He suggested that I NOT plug in the charger whenever the car is in the garage. Instead run the battery down to 10% or less then charge it up to 90% or more. Repeat this process for several cycles. The BMS will sense the changes in the battery usage and gradually restore the full range.
He noted several things:
1) My battery capacity hasn't been permanently lost. The BMS is curtailing range and following his procedure will help restore full range (he assured me that the Tesla battery test on my car shows that I have at least 8% more capacity than is being made available in normal use).
2) If the battery charger is plugged in the BMS doesn't work! You MUST keep the car disconnected from any charger to engage the BMS system.
3) Using the Supercharger after the BMS is reset does not decay the battery capacity or range on the M3 in any way. The car is designed for this type of use.
This is very different from what I thought was best practice, especially the part about not charging when I'm not driving the car. I'm not saying that he's right and everyone else is wrong, but I'm certainly going to try what he suggested and I'll report back after several cycles to let you know what I find. Frankly, it makes sense to a degree. There isn't any other way to explain my range loss.
It may also be that many of us who have blamed software or other losses on decreased range can regain the lost range by actively engaging the BMS program through the process I just described.
Hope it work for all of us!
Like many others I've noticed a drop in range on my 2018 LR RWD Model 3. The loss is about 8-10% over the last few months. I assumed that it was due to the new Version updates, vampire loss or a combination of both. When I brought my car to the Tesla service center to rotate my tires I mentioned it to the tech. He offered to check my battery, which he did, and his comments surprised me.
He said that Telsa has a Battery Management System (BMS) in all of its cars, and that the purpose of that system is to balance the battery load. It does this by various readings, but the key point is that if you don't discharge your battery below 20% capacity the BMS system is dormant. That means that it begins to sense that your capacity is being limited so it gradually decreases your range (I may be explaining this incorrectly). The point is that his instructions to restore full range were very different from what I thought was proper battery management.
I typically keep the battery charged from 30-80%, rarely going below 20% or above 90%. He said that will maximize battery life, but not maximize range. To do that you have to "cycle" the battery to use most of its range. He suggested that I NOT plug in the charger whenever the car is in the garage. Instead run the battery down to 10% or less then charge it up to 90% or more. Repeat this process for several cycles. The BMS will sense the changes in the battery usage and gradually restore the full range.
He noted several things:
1) My battery capacity hasn't been permanently lost. The BMS is curtailing range and following his procedure will help restore full range (he assured me that the Tesla battery test on my car shows that I have at least 8% more capacity than is being made available in normal use).
2) If the battery charger is plugged in the BMS doesn't work! You MUST keep the car disconnected from any charger to engage the BMS system.
3) Using the Supercharger after the BMS is reset does not decay the battery capacity or range on the M3 in any way. The car is designed for this type of use.
This is very different from what I thought was best practice, especially the part about not charging when I'm not driving the car. I'm not saying that he's right and everyone else is wrong, but I'm certainly going to try what he suggested and I'll report back after several cycles to let you know what I find. Frankly, it makes sense to a degree. There isn't any other way to explain my range loss.
It may also be that many of us who have blamed software or other losses on decreased range can regain the lost range by actively engaging the BMS program through the process I just described.
Hope it work for all of us!