Model 3 - range

[Archerfield]

I’ve just completed a road trip between Glasgow, Derby and Edinburgh.

I was very disappointed in the range of my model 3 when driving at around 60 mph.

My final charge was Scotch Corner to home, broadly 150 miles. The charge showed 250 mile range on setting off. Despite Driving around 55 to 60 I got home with only 20 miles of range on the battery.

Is this performance normal? It was quite chilly and very wet but on the flip side it was in the middle of the night so no traffic.

I love the car but the range is proving a bit of an issue.

 

[Latibes]

Lots of things can affect range. Temperature, rain, hills, wind etc. Low temperature is the biggest factor, and can drastically reduce range!

 

[Jason71]

Lots of things can affect range. Temperature, rain, hills, wind etc. Low temperature is the biggest factor, and can drastically reduce range!

Cold especially if it means you have the heater on. Heater seems to be a real killer from what people are saying. Max seat heaters minimum cabin heating seems to be the way to go for optimal range.

 

[Artiste]

I knew that cold and wet weather would have an impact on range, but I was still surprised at just how much. I never expected to get the quoted WLTP range of 329 miles on my M3P, but on the other hand I never imagined for a minute that there would be any conditions in this country that would bring the range down to significantly under 200 miles, especially when I’m trying to be gentle with my right foot.

Motorway driving can be particularly bad for range, not only because of the higher speed but also because you’re recouping very little energy through regenerative braking. And on an ICE car heat is a by product that can be used to heat the cabin, whereas on an EV heating the cabin is another drain on the battery.

There are, unfortunately, still some significant compromises in driving an EV.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

The car probably has an average power consumption just to power the motor(s) of around 10 kW to maybe 15 kW. The heater could easily be around 2 kW to 4 kW, so you can expect anything from maybe a 20% to 25% reduction in range with the heater on. The same is true for all cars, it's just less noticeable on an ICE car as around 70% of the energy in fuel is used to generate waste heat, so using some of that waste heat to warm the interior doesn't have such a big impact.

 

[davidmc]

I’ve just completed a road trip between Glasgow, Derby and Edinburgh.

I was very disappointed in the range of my model 3 when driving at around 60 mph.

My final charge was Scotch Corner to home, broadly 150 miles. The charge showed 250 mile range on setting off. Despite Driving around 55 to 60 I got home with only 20 miles of range on the battery.

Is this performance normal? It was quite chilly and very wet but on the flip side it was in the middle of the night so no traffic.

I love the car but the range is proving a bit of an issue.

Derby has that effect on my car too!

 

[Kiwiadventure]

I’ve just completed a road trip between Glasgow, Derby and Edinburgh.

I was very disappointed in the range of my model 3 when driving at around 60 mph.

My final charge was Scotch Corner to home, broadly 150 miles. The charge showed 250 mile range on setting off. Despite Driving around 55 to 60 I got home with only 20 miles of range on the battery.

Is this performance normal? It was quite chilly and very wet but on the flip side it was in the middle of the night so no traffic.

I love the car but the range is proving a bit of an issue.

Surly you have read all about this before you purchased an EV.

 

[Jason71]

The car probably has an average power consumption just to power the motor(s) of around 10 kW to maybe 15 kW. The heater could easily be around 2 kW to 4 kW, so you can expect anything from maybe a 20% to 25% reduction in range with the heater on. The same is true for all cars, it's just less noticeable on an ICE car as around 70% of the energy in fuel is used to generate waste heat, so using some of that waste heat to warm the interior doesn't have such a big impact.

Not sure that is true. As far as I am aware in an ICE car using some of the waste heat to heat the cabin has no effect on fuel consumption since its waste. the fan will have an affect but that is minimal and is used just as much in the summer.
Once an ICE car is upto temperature not sure cold weather has much of an impact at all does it? In theory engines can run better on cold damp air since the moisture turns to steam and it helps to cool the engine which increases efficiency, increased air density is also good for engines ( though not for aerodynamics). Not sure how that works out in practice though. It's The long warm-up period that is the real killer for ICE efficiency in the winter (lights, heated seats, heated rear windscreens, heated mirrors etc don't help of course ).

 

[ME_UK]

I’ve just completed a road trip between Glasgow, Derby and Edinburgh.

I was very disappointed in the range of my model 3 when driving at around 60 mph.

My final charge was Scotch Corner to home, broadly 150 miles. The charge showed 250 mile range on setting off. Despite Driving around 55 to 60 I got home with only 20 miles of range on the battery.

Is this performance normal? It was quite chilly and very wet but on the flip side it was in the middle of the night so no traffic.

I love the car but the range is proving a bit of an issue.

I'm noticing a drop in range with the temperature and weather change in my SR+ and I have a regular 50 mile each way commute to work out (with TeslaFi) what's going on. Very much in agreement with the other posters - my most efficient drive (100.1%) had me keeping the cabin temperature at around 18 degrees (instead of my preferred cosy 23) by using the fan for about 20% of the journey, and a lot of speed variance on my motorway section and road section- outside temperature was 11 degrees.

On a 'clear run' with little traffic, sub 6 degrees, heater blasting and seat warm. I'm seeing about 80% on the same run, and the same route.

I would say that the 'perfect' efficiency is probably achieved without the heater, and at 55mph - I don't really need to worry on my regular trips - I think I could drive it like a racecar/sauna cross and still get home with 50 miles of range.

 

[ACarneiro]

Cold and (very) wet is a particularly terrible combination for a BEV.
Thank you for your figures. My 100 mile commute has used a bit more power but nothing as dramatic as what you’ve seen.

Out of interest, what did that journey equate to in kWh/mile?

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Not sure that is true. As far as I am aware in an ICE car using some of the waste heat to heat the cabin has no effect on fuel consumption since its waste. the fan will have an affect but that is minimal and is used just as much in the summer.
Once an ICE car is upto temperature not sure cold weather has much of an impact at all does it? In theory engines can run better on cold damp air since the moisture turns to steam and it helps to cool the engine which increases efficiency, increased air density is also good for engines ( though not for aerodynamics). Not sure how that works out in practice though. It's The long warm-up period that is the real killer for ICE efficiency in the winter (lights, heated seats, heated rear windscreens, heated mirrors etc don't help of course ).

I wasn't clear, sorry. I meant that the interior heating still took the same amount of power in an ICE car, but that the effect was less noticeable as it came out of the heat that would ordinarily just be wasted.

Cold air performance increase with ICE comes mainly from increased air density. Increased air density is also a significant reason for cars having poorer economy in cold weather, as drag increases a fair bit in colder air.

 

[Archerfield]

Surly you have read all about this before you purchased an EV.

the range drop is from when I initially got the car back in September. Apologies if I wasn’t clear but the issue is comparing now to three months ago.

 

[davidmc]

Warning - DATA OVERLOAD BELOW!

Here is my readings from teslafi since late Aug - You can see the tailing off with Temp and efficiency

Also battery charge state/capacity changes with Temp (you can see the warm days and estimated range change as it gets colder):

When i started to now (missed out the middle bit as to long)

 

[gangzoom]

I never expected to get the quoted WLTP range of 329 miles on my M3P, but on the other hand I never imagined for a minute that there would be any conditions in this country that would bring the range down to significantly under 200 miles, especially when I’m trying to be gentle with my right foot.

And the proper winter hasn't even started!

This is why after living with an EV since 2015, and done 55k EV miles I've come to the conclusion we still need to keep the petrol hybrid on the driveway.

Unless your a true eco warrior EVs in some situations are still a compromise too far. Those situations are not common, but when they do arise it seems mad your paying a premium for an EV compared to a combustion car but having a worse experience.

Its like paying for a buissness class ticket but than told you have to stand up for the flight whilst those who paid economy gets a seat!

 

[davidmc]

I just noticed something odd about my readings above - please see below (anyone else noticed this?)

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Part of any reduction in winter range will just be the seasonal change due to temperature. Back when I bought my first hybrid in 2005, I was doing a 40 mile each way commute every day, and I started logging fuel consumption. This is the plot from back then:

The seasonal correlation seems pretty clear from this, and amounts to a variation of ~ 10% or so, and this is for a car that's heated by waste heat from the engine. That 10% seems to correlate fairly well with the seasonal variation in air density, due to temperature changes, too. Much of the drag that a car experiences when moving comes from aerodynamic drag, and this is proportional to air density. The equation for aerodynamic drag is D = 0.5*ρ*Cd*A*V², where ρ is the air density, Cd is the drag coefficient, A is the projected frontal area of the car and V is the velocity.

Air density at 20° is about 1.2041kg/m³, whereas at 0°C it has increased by about 7.3% to 1.2922kg/m³, not far off the variation seen above in seasonal fuel consumption. Much the same variation will be seen with any EV, in terms of reduced range in cold air, plus there will be the impact of running the cabin heater as well.

 

[Big Earl]

the range drop is from when I initially got the car back in September. Apologies if I wasn’t clear but the issue is comparing now to three months ago.

It’s only going to get worse as temperatures get lower this winter. My typical winter range reduction can be anywhere from 25% to up to 40% depending on weather and driving conditions. Cold, wind and rain all have a significant range impact in electric vehicles ( internal combustion vehicles, too). Short trips have a larger impact that long trips because of the energy required to get the vehicle up to temperature.

You can try to micromanage you HVAC usage and/or hypermile it or you can accept it for what it is, charge a little more often and enjoy the car.

 

[Derek25]

I just noticed something odd about my readings above - please see below (anyone else noticed this?)


View attachment 474473

The estimated range at 100% is a constant rating and effectively measures your battery degradation. That’s a fair drop and appears to have been precipitated by a software update.

 

[Archerfield]

Thank you all so much for the detailed responses. The answer seems to be that the Tesla stays in the garage for long trips over the winter.

 

[Big Earl]

Thank you all so much for the detailed responses. The answer seems to be that the Tesla stays in the garage for long trips over the winter.

Why? Teslas perform very well on long trips - it just requires an extra few minutes at the Superchargers. Are you traveling significantly outside the range of the Supercharger network? I have no problem covering 500+ miles in a day even in bad winter weather (subzero with snow).