Did you select your model 3 based on 70% battery life?

[Atari2600]

When I purchased my car in 2018 I made sure I would be happy with 70% of the stated range since that is the warranty threshold. In this case I assumed my 310 mile rated AWD will possibly some day only charge to 217 miles range. I am wondering if anyone else did this.

No way I would buy a SR or SR+ due to longer trips in the winter that I take. But those were not options then. As a second car I would consider a SR for local town driving but wife wants something bigger. The SR would have to go under 155 miles range for warranty replacement.

 

[Big Earl]

I intend to sell and replace it before degradation reaches that point. 70% of the original range would make my extended travels take too long to be practical.

 

[acarney]

I based mine on about 10% degradation. That seems to be able what the S/X averaged at 100k miles or so. I figure 100k miles would be 9-12 years and hopefully we’re in an entirely different world when it comes to EV’s by then.

I did however calculate my highway driving with a usage of about 265 wh/mi. I also made the assumption that the pack was 50kW (50,000 Wh) which might be a little low... many people use 54kW as the number for the SR+.

Using all that data I get close to the ~70% compared to rated range when I did my estimates on if the SR+ would work for me.

Its my only car so maybe I’m in a brave new world since I didn’t go LR (to expensive at the time) but I’m also banking on Tesla continuing to build our superchargers. Primary travel routes (interstate) in the Pacific Northwest is getting pretty good with the average superchargers closing in on like 80 or 90 miles apart. There are a few expectations, but with another 10 or so well placed build-outs in WA/OR/ID those states should be really well covered for point to point travel (across the state or into the city, etc).

As long as I can reliably make 100 miles in winter conditions (~300 Wh/mi) I figure I’m safe (as long as superchargers remain very reliable). I would have to be in seriously bad condition with the battery to not be able to do that...

I will say that I’m a little bit worried now about Tesla’s build out of superchargers. If our economy is bad for an extended time (1-3+ years) we might see Tesla begin to pull back very fast on “unnecessary” spending. I’m worried that will include supercharger building. As long as someone can physically get between two points Tesla might decide the route is “safe” and stop building on it. I’m banking on them filling in those 100-120 mile distances to more like 80 miles and adding redundancy.

 

[Atari2600]

I will say that I’m a little bit worried now about Tesla’s build out of superchargers. If our economy is bad for an extended time (1-3+ years) we might see Tesla begin to pull back very fast on “unnecessary” spending. I’m worried that will include supercharger building. As long as someone can physically get between two points Tesla might decide the route is “safe” and stop building on it. I’m banking on them filling in those 100-120 mile distances to more like 80 miles and adding redundancy.

I agree. I would expect Tesla to concentrate on big cities and forget about places like south central Ohio, which still has no charging period of any kind - J1772, supercharger etc. My wife told me to sell the Model 3 and get the Cybertruck if I want it. I may just get a 500 mile range one and call it a day. 500 x .7 = 350.

 

[TMThree]

I knew it would be unwise to drop the car below 10%, and it would be unwise to charge above 90% daily. There would also be additional losses from cold, rain, etc. I knew I'd likely drive the car harder than the EPA test would. I figured the car would typically be charge to 70 or 80%, then subtracted the rest from it. Then accounted for another 10% or so loss after owning it a number of years due to degradation.

Additionally, the number of charge cycles the vehicle will go through will be increased with a smaller battery. So as is tradition, you should always buy the largest battery you can afford (Unless you are using it for the city or plan to have a second car for longer range).

I only planned to have one car household, though I may end up having two when CT comes out.

so.. no, planning for 70% would be way too simple a measure. No one charges to 100% daily and then assumes 30% capacity loss over time. Though you would be more likely to see the 30% loss if you did so.

 

[Wennfred]

When I purchased my car in 2018 I made sure I would be happy with 70% of the stated range since that is the warranty threshold. In this case I assumed my 310 mile rated AWD will possibly some day only charge to 217 miles range. I am wondering if anyone else did this.

No way I would buy a SR or SR+ due to longer trips in the winter that I take. But those were not options then. As a second car I would consider a SR for local town driving but wife wants something bigger. The SR would have to go under 155 miles range for warranty replacement.

You make it sound as if the SR at 220 mile range is limited to local driving only like a 2011 Nissan Leaf at 72 mile range. The SR can go anywhere in the US with no issues due to the awesome Supercharger network, yes you might have to do 2 or 3 extra stops to charge but it’ will still take you coast to coast. 2019 SR+ at 235 mile range now; no range anxiety what’s so ever.

Fred

 

[RayK]

I bought mine when there really was no other choice (June 2018; LR RWD). Sure I could have waited longer but I got impatient. I don't think that 70% degradation will occur in my case. Since that's the warranty threshold, I'd be willing to bet that Tesla calculated the expected drop and then added an additional percentage as a safety. After all, if they thought that a significant number of batteries will lose 70% of their capacity over time, they would be foolish to set that as the limit.

 

[Atari2600]

You make it sound as if the SR at 220 mile range is limited to local driving only like a 2011 Nissan Leaf at 72 mile range. The SR can go anywhere in the US with no issues due to the awesome Supercharger network, yes you might have to do 2 or 3 extra stops to charge but it’ will still take you coast to coast. 2019 SR+ at 235 mile range now; no range anxiety what’s so ever.

Fred

Please plot a course using these locations and tell me the best charging strategy for an SR or AWD at 70% capacity aged battery in the winter.

1. Cincinnati Ohio
2. Lucaville Ohio
3. Chillicothe Ohio
4. Lucasville Ohio
5. Return to Cincinnati Ohio

FYI, I do this from time to time

 

[Wennfred]

Plenty of CHAdeMO stations (Electrify America) to cover those areas where Superchargers are cutting it close. The cap on those is 50kw and you will see around 30kw, it’s still will cover your distance.

Fred

 

[TMThree]

At highway speeds, its unlikely you'll get the EPA rating. And for supercharging, its not time effective to charge to 100%, so charging to 70% or so works massively in favor of the longer range battery in terms of charging time, even without looking at range.

 

[Wennfred]

You look pretty covered

 

[strykeroz]

I also based it on 10% degradation which seemed to be a decent guess based on others' experience. And we're happy we'll probably keep it as the 2nd car ongoing after it gets further than that.

What was interesting is once we started looking at EVs it's when we started paying attention to the degraded range on our ICE vehicles. The 2001 CRV we traded on the 3 was down to 400km a tank, around 25+% degradation over new, but we didn't remember when we started getting used to that. Our 10 year old diesel ICE is down to at 20% less than new now. It really is a case of YMMV.

 

[Atari2600]

Plenty of CHAdeMO stations (Electrify America) to cover those areas where Superchargers are cutting it close. The cap on those is 50kw and you will see around 30kw, it’s still will cover your distance.

Fred

Is that a reply to me? Here is plug share with all fast charge stations. Hint: there are none.
A Better Route Planner suggests I drive maximum 43 MPH for the entire trip. OR drive to Grove City Ohio and supercharge between the Chillicothe to Lucasville trip added 2.5 hours to the trip. "He friends, I need to take a 2.5 hour detour to Grove City and Supercharge before I take you guys back to Lucasville and go home. Sorry!"

 

[Wennfred]

Murphin Ridge Inn has a Tesla wall Charger heading into Lucaville. Maybe calling ahead to see if they are ok with using it if you really need too.

 

[Wennfred]

 

[ellett]

User experiences say that we are more likely to experience battery life reduction on the order of 10% than 30%, but I factored in only charging to 90% and keeping 10%+ "in the tank" in all my plans, and losing another 10% because I do a significant portion of my driving at "highway speeds". That gives me a 60% long-term useful capacity. That leaves me with a range a little bit shy of 200 miles for my LR AWD Model 3. If I'd gotten an SR+, my long-term range would be closer to 150 miles, which wouldn't have been enough for my needs.

My short-drive needs are all within the San Francisco Bay Area, for which an SR+ would have been fine, but my longer travels tend to be things like driving from the Bay Area up through Yosemite and the Tioga Pass, where Superchargers are nonexistent and even level 2 chargers are very scarce. YMMV

 

[StealthP3D]

At highway speeds, its unlikely you'll get the EPA rating. And for supercharging, its not time effective to charge to 100%, so charging to 70% or so works massively in favor of the longer range battery in terms of charging time, even without looking at range.

Our LR RWD Model 3 gets the EPA rated range at 65 mph as long it's 45F or more outside. But we use the Aero wheels and don't let the tire pressure get too low which helps a lot.

Here's a little known fact:

Since battery degradation is primarily a function of battery cycles, the Aero wheels will reduce battery degradation by about 5% if you do a lot of freeway miles.

 

[SlimJim]

I bought a SR because it was cheaper.
I do longer distance travel with ICE.
I will sell my SR within 50k miles/5 years, well within battery warranty period.
I get tired of driving the same car and have never kept the same car more than 4.5 years.
My next EV will have superior battery technology than what is available now for sure.

 

[afty]

Not really. I selected my LR AWD because I wanted the faster acceleration of the dual motor model, but I wasn't willing to step all the way up to the P. I didn't really want or need the larger battery.

 

[Twiglett]

I took the pessimistic route for my range calculation.
It starts with acknowledging that you will never, ever attempt to use maximum range, so take 10% off
Then acknowledging that you will very rarely charge over 90% - another 10% off
Then remove winter/rain/heating/lead foot etc - about 20%
That gets me about 60% realistic range expectation - so about 186 realistic miles for my early LR-RWD
In practice my bladder interferes before then, which seems to work.
In the real world, the longest segment I've done is 195-200 miles in one shot, both in TX, from Cisco->Childress or Fort Davis->Ozona, most of the others are in the 160-180 range. But have done several long road trips without issue.