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The quest for the ultimate efficiency.

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I have been trying to see what I can do to improve efficiency with my 2022 Model 3 Performance. I changed from the 20” Uberheavy wheels to 18” wheels with Michelin PS4S tires and that helped efficiency significantly. It was an almost 6% improvement in efficiency over stock @ 60 mph average speed.

However, I really wanted to recover the range I had lost from degradation. My Teslogic app is showing 12.3% degradation when reading the Canbus data.

Therefore, I switched to 235/45/18 Hankook iON EVO AS tires and that gave me almost 10% more gain in efficiency over the stock 20” wheels and tires in my controlled testing. However, that was with brand spanking new tires and full tread depth.

I have been able to break the tires in now and finally on my daily commute this morning I hit basically the best efficiency I think I will ever get.

Temperatures have warmed up and the battery was at the ideal 72.5 degrees F when I started. Temperatures outside have warmed up quickly so my tire pressures were a little high at 34 psi cold and 36 psi warm. There was no wind at all.

I achieved 130 wh/mi in a Model 3 Performance for 12 miles in 13 minutes. I always record my GPS average speed and it was 54.2 mph because of construction on the highway.

This is definitely the most efficient I have ever been and probably ever will achieve. The efficiency has definitely improved as these tires have worn down slightly. I will try to do my controlled testing with it again to see if I can beat the 202 wh/mi I originally got with the new tires @ 60 mph average GPS speed in my controlled testing.

We have much slower speed limits on highways in my area so that really allows the efficiency improvements of different tires to shine. The lower the speeds the bigger the rolling resistance impact is. At higher speeds rolling resistance still matters some but not nearly as much as drag coefficient does then.

I know these aren’t realistic numbers for most people that have much higher speed limits but it is interesting to see that I have pretty much negated the effects of degradation just by swapping the wheels and tires out.

I can easily average 220 wh/mi or less each month now. That should allow me well over 300 miles of range in a Model 3 Performance even with the degradation.

Ironically, I still drag race often with these All Season tires and my times are less than .1 seconds slower than they were with the lighter Michelin PS4S tires.

I even won $1,000 for winning my category at the last event so that paid for the tires.😉

We officially got 0.0 inches of snow this year so I can’t comment on their winter handling but they were great even in the chilly rains that we got. Much better than the summer only tires would have been.

If anyone can get better efficiency than this with a Model 3 Performance then definitely let us know what you did to achieve that.

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Please note that the efficiencies achieved in this particular test were at lower speeds where rolling resistance is the dominant factor in efficiency. At higher highway speeds the effects of changing tires will become less apparent. It would be extremely hard if not impossible to average 160 wh/mi in all scenarios. However, I have been able to maintain 220 wh/mi or less in pretty much all scenarios except for Drag Racing with my current setup.

Nice! I would love to get 220wh/mi on my highway drives. I get around 275 wh/mi (2022 M3 Long Range w/ 19" wheels). I might have to try these tires, and possibly go with the 18" rims too! I can get around 220 wh/mi when I'm driving casually on 45 MPH back roads, but I'd like to get around that all of the time.. Especially on the highway (@ 70-75 mph, if possible)
 
Nice! I would love to get 220wh/mi on my highway drives. I get around 275 wh/mi (2022 M3 Long Range w/ 19" wheels). I might have to try these tires, and possibly go with the 18" rims too! I can get around 220 wh/mi when I'm driving casually on 45 MPH back roads, but I'd like to get around that all of the time.. Especially on the highway (@ 70-75 mph, if possible)
Definitely 18” with better more EV focussed efficient tires and wheel covers can overall yield at least 10% improvement in efficiency.
 
Nice! I would love to get 220wh/mi on my highway drives. I get around 275 wh/mi (2022 M3 Long Range w/ 19" wheels). I might have to try these tires, and possibly go with the 18" rims too! I can get around 220 wh/mi when I'm driving casually on 45 MPH back roads, but I'd like to get around that all of the time.. Especially on the highway (@ 70-75 mph, if possible)
Speed limits in NC are limited to 70 mph or less so that is different than a lot of other states. If you are expecting to get 220 wh/mi while averaging 70-75 mph that won't happen. However, if you are going 70-75 mph while passing and averaging closer to 60-65 mph then you can definitely get 220 wh/mi with the setup I have currently.

Also, preconditioning ruins efficiency completely. If you are expecting to average this kind of efficiency while preconditioning for Supercharging you won't come close. I have seen preconditioning for Supercharging pull 11 Kw before. That is about as much power as is required to move the car at 60+ mph.

The tests I have done are designed to isolate the affects of changing the rolling resistance and seeing what that does. In colder states that also have much higher speed limits you would get vastly different results.
 
Speed limits in NC are limited to 70 mph or less so that is different than a lot of other states. If you are expecting to get 220 wh/mi while averaging 70-75 mph that won't happen. However, if you are going 70-75 mph while passing and averaging closer to 60-65 mph then you can definitely get 220 wh/mi with the setup I have currently.

Also, preconditioning ruins efficiency completely. If you are expecting to average this kind of efficiency while preconditioning for Supercharging you won't come close. I have seen preconditioning for Supercharging pull 11 Kw before. That is about as much power as is required to move the car at 60+ mph.

The tests I have done are designed to isolate the affects of changing the rolling resistance and seeing what that does. In colder states that also have much higher speed limits you would get vastly different results.

Thanks for the reply. I would still love to get 220 wh/mi @ 60-65 on the Highway... I'm still probably 250+ wh/mi at those speeds. I definitely feel that it could be my tires. I recently bought the car and there is just a random set of tires on it (probably not EV or LRR specific), Goodyear, Eagle Touring
 
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Thanks for the reply. I would still love to get 220 wh/mi @ 60-65 on the Highway... I'm still probably 250+ wh/mi at those speeds. I definitely feel that it could be my tires. I recently bought the car and there is just a random set of tires on it (probably not EV or LRR specific), Goodyear, Eagle Touring
Changing the tires especially when going from 20" to 18" can definitely make a very significant difference. There is no question about that.
 
It would be interesting to know what the efficiency would be using the super-skinny BMW I3 tires

View attachment 1035137
Curious about this also!
Even if only to understand how effective that profile could be compared to a more traditional aspect.

The weight on those is fairly low IIRC, even if the large diameter is reducing some of the benefit.

Despite the clear detractors I wonder how much a wheel profile like that would increase available range VS stock aspects and weight?
 
Here's my best stretch of work commute in 4 days in 2022 M3LR stock 18" w/ Aero Cover:

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  • San Diego - Suburb
  • ~50% highway
  • Max speed of 70mph
  • ~500ft of elevation change (800ft - 300ft)
  • 65F - 75F
This is only achievable if I drive like an old lady with slow acceleration and gentle regen-braking.
 
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Here's my best stretch of work commute in 4 days in 2022 M3LR stock 18" w/ Aero Cover:

View attachment 1035277
  • San Diego - Suburb
  • ~50% highway
  • Max speed of 70mph
  • ~500ft of elevation change (800ft - 300ft)
  • 65F - 75F
This is only achievable if I drive like an old lady with slow acceleration and gentle regen-braking.
That’s still pretty good efficiency. It can get better though. Which tires do you have?
 
My car is still doing the lost range when parking

It doesn’t matter if it’s 40 degrees or 80 degrees outside, when I get to work in the morning and the car is parked for 2 hrs I always lose 10-13 miles of range after it’s parked

And then when I drive back home I get those miles back after I’ve been parked for 1-2 hrs
 
My car is still doing the lost range when parking

It doesn’t matter if it’s 40 degrees or 80 degrees outside, when I get to work in the morning and the car is parked for 2 hrs I always lose 10-13 miles of range after it’s parked

And then when I drive back home I get those miles back after I’ve been parked for 1-2 hrs
I wonder of your heat controll system isn't working g?
 
Original stock, which is probably Michelin. You think Hankook can do better? I only have 15.6K miles on the car but already thinking about tire replacement, since the Discount Tire guy told me Tesla tires typically don’t last more than 30k.
I do think the new Hankook iON EVO AS 235/45/18 tires are the most efficient tire in that size that you can buy right now.
 
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Please note that the efficiencies achieved in this particular test were at lower speeds where rolling resistance is the dominant factor in efficiency. At higher highway speeds the effects of changing tires will become less apparent. It would be extremely hard if not impossible to average 160 wh/mi in all scenarios. However, I have been able to maintain 220 wh/mi or less in pretty much all scenarios except for Drag Racing with my current setup.
My apologies for the mistype. I meant to say under 260 wh/mi, not 160. That would be an insane expectation.
 
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Lots of people said lighter wheels wouldn’t make the car quicker too. I can tell you that judging degradation by the EPA reading on the screen is a futile exercise. It isn’t remotely close to being accurate.
I argued that and lost :)
Bjorn Nyland did a video on it. TLDR is that you need to drive the car from 100 til dead to find out for sure.