New owner here. Got a question…

[GeorgeSymonds]

Most people have said the obvious, it looks to be energy loss when you’re not driving, your consumption of 260 is about 25% higher than EPA rated but you should still be getting 150 miles or more. I saw a video recently that compared real world to EPA and over the long term taking hundreds of samples, the LFP cars averaged the EPA rating almost exactly but depending on various factors could be + or - 30% over the last 30 miles, so you’re kind of within that.

A couple of other options:

Have you had the car connected to wifi? It could be due a software update and it’s not letting itself sleep.
Have you tried a reboot or 2? It maybe again something stopping it sleeping
If you look at the energy screen, it tells you what’s using more or less energy than expected, although it doesn’t help much when you’re not driving. Anything obvious in there?

It’s unlikely to be battery degradation and more likely to be something weird about your use which you can change or a software glitch, it’s just finding it.

 

[pg85]

I see where you’re all coming from. I have done longer journeys in it and still felt surprising to lose that many % for the miles I drove but on that occasion I don’t remember the whpm or anything. I’m on 38% left and have done 69 miles so once I get to near 0 I’ll photo all the graphs etc to see if anything sticks out.

 

[Oxid8ter]

I see where you’re all coming from. I have done longer journeys in it and still felt surprising to lose that many % for the miles I drove but on that occasion I don’t remember the whpm or anything. I’m on 38% left and have done 69 miles so once I get to near 0 I’ll photo all the graphs etc to see if anything sticks out.

The best advise in my opinion of is that of @GRiLLA - Check the Energy App, it will tell you where your power is going.

I note you said about forgetting Sentry and turning it off - did you turn it off in the car or the app? If in the app, it will revert to on the next time that you use the car. For it to be fully off you need to change it to off in the car.

 

[KCH1984]

Off topic...but you can't drop in that you've got a CSL and not supply pics!

That sounds like an ideal garage to me, Tesla M3 for the mundane day-to-day stuff and a "proper" M3 for fun

 

[Burley]

I suspect the main issue here is doing multiple short journeys. It has been colder these past few days and the car will comfortably use 2kWh or more just warming up the cabin AND the battery. Remember, every time you drive, if the battery is cold (below 10-15 degrees) it will use some energy to get heat into the pack to make it work more efficiently. The car doesn't know you're only planning a short commute, so you will be using more energy than you expect. If you look at your trip meter, you'll notice the first mile or two will be pretty high, like 5-600 Wh/m.

Once you get a home charger fitted and you fully charge and pre-heat before going on a long drive you'll see much better range.

 

[Buzzliteyear]

I realised about sentry mode and it’s now off. I charge when needed currently as waiting for a charger install.

It’s the figures that don’t seem right, which is what my original point was… the whpm seems to suggest I should be getting more but not.

I’ve charged it to full at least once a week to balance BMS.

Try running to 0% first, then charge to 100% since it’s LFP.

 

[pg85]

Thanks. Yeah I can’t figure out the preheating… it says to always preheat the battery but if I preheat at scheduled departure, my commute uses more percentage than if I just drove from cold.

I assume it’s due to city driving but it doesn’t say this in the manual, it says always preheat for efficiency…but my efficiency definitely suffers!

 

[kelvin 660]

You only need to preheat, if you want to get maximum range, when going on a long trip for example. For general, day to day, drives it doesn't really help and leads to poor efficiency.

 

[FastLaneJB]

Thanks. Yeah I can’t figure out the preheating… it says to always preheat the battery but if I preheat at scheduled departure, my commute uses more percentage than if I just drove from cold.

I assume it’s due to city driving but it doesn’t say this in the manual, it says always preheat for efficiency…but my efficiency definitely suffers!

I think it generally means preheat while plugged in so it can use power from the charger and not battery to heat up. If you think about it, if you preheat from battery or drive and let it heat, that's going to use battery power regardless.

Also if you preheat for a while on battery but only drive a short distance. Not preheating and driving that short distance will use less power as it just probably won't get the battery as warm.

Preheat if plugged in to a charger, preheat for a long journey or just heat if it's bloody cold as it's one of the big benefits of an EV. Otherwise don't bother for a short journey.

 

[pg85]

Fair enough, appreciate the comments!

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

You’re being bombarded with stuff, if it helps it does get a lot easier

 

[pg85]

I did a lot of research before buying anyway so it’s getting easier to absorb

 

[Adopado]

I think it generally means preheat while plugged in so it can use power from the charger and not battery to heat up. If you think about it, if you preheat from battery or drive and let it heat, that's going to use battery power regardless

This ^
It’s one of the advantages of always being plugged in. Also whenever you wake the car with the app all the systems boot up and use some battery just doing nothing if you’re not plugged in. Certainly the last few days here with low night temps it’s been more like winter driving, for consumption, if you don’t precondition from the mains before leaving.

 

[MrBadger]

Just be aware that pre conditioning when plugged in is not cheap as it’s likely to be peak rate electricity and potentially higher carbon than an off peak charge, especially something like an Octopus IO charge that may have been optimised for carbon.

Tbh, we dont bother pre conditioning unless we need to max out the range which would s rare.

 

[pg85]

That’s interesting. All my reading people were going on about how much you should precondition… make sure you precondition etc. it’s surprising to hear someone say they don’t bother as I feel that matches my opinion!

 

[MrT3]

That’s interesting. All my reading people were going on about how much you should precondition… make sure you precondition etc. it’s surprising to hear someone say they don’t bother as I feel that matches my opinion!

I’ll preheat the cabin for 5 mins if it’s cold outside but I don’t preheat the battery unless I’ve charged fully and I’m going on a long trip. For normal journeys don’t bother.

 

[FastLaneJB]

That’s interesting. All my reading people were going on about how much you should precondition… make sure you precondition etc. it’s surprising to hear someone say they don’t bother as I feel that matches my opinion!

I preheat or well precool for mine and my family's comfort in the car. Never done it to try to improve the efficiency of the car.

The theory at least on cold days is sound especially with the heat pump cars. That heat you put into the battery it can then suck some of that out the keep the cabin warm. Effectively that heat is a replacement for using electricity to have to generate heat.

I guess if doing a very long trip in the cold, it could be worth it. However on shorter trips you might have put more heat into the battery than it can suck out to heat the cabin because your journey ends too soon. Hence you've overheated it and that a waste of energy also from your house. As MrBadger says, could also be at a peak rate so not as cheap.

So preheat or cool for your comfort. Otherwise just hop in and go like any old regular car.

 

[init6]

It's a moot point if you're using mains power or battery power to heat the car unless you're needing the range. You are still using the same amount of electricity, although as @MrBadger says potentially at a higher cost.

I await the "why do I have a low wh/m reading but a huge electricity bill" thread

 

[pg85]

Does anyone know if regenerative braking has changed recently? I picked the car up in temperatures of 1-2deg, but now it is positively mild at 12-13deg and can drive 15+ miles and still have the regen braking reduced notification.

I definitely didn’t have any of this when I picked it up, for at least a couple of weeks. Now I’m using my brakes a hell of a lot as the car won’t stop very well with regen.

 

[FastLaneJB]

Does anyone know if regenerative braking has changed recently? I picked the car up in temperatures of 1-2deg, but now it is positively mild at 12-13deg and can drive 15+ miles and still have the regen braking reduced notification.

I definitely didn’t have any of this when I picked it up, for at least a couple of weeks. Now I’m using my brakes a hell of a lot as the car won’t stop very well with regen.

Don’t have an LFP pack to know what might be different but when regardless when they are 100% charged there’s no real place for regen to go so it’s extremely minimal. In our car it’ll stay reduced up until about 95% then it should be back to normal.

Also if the battery is cold, you’ll see dots on the regen line to show that it’s limited, it cannot regen as strong when the pack is cold either.

They have an option in the car in the US that when it cannot regen as much, the car blends in the normal friction brakes automatically so the regen always seems the same. I think this would be a nice addition but no idea why they don’t offer it here. Predictability in how the car functions I think is pretty important, especially say for my wife that will forget I told her what the low regen icon means and be surprised it’s not slowing as much as normal.