Tesla Model 3 - V3.0

You will be guessing by trying to extrapolate actual usable capacity from charging sessions.

The 2 best ways to determine usable capacity are:

1) Use the Scan my tesla app, but this requires a piece of purchased hardware

2) Call Tesla and ask them - this is cheaper but you will be taking their word as being correct

The 3rd way would be to get in your car when it's fully charged and drive it continuously until you get down to 0%. Look at the trips screen and see what the used energy figure for that trip is - it will always be rounded down to the nearest whole number. This is how i knew my battery was nowhere near what i believed. I have never seen the total used energy go above 51kWh. Others have said that they are getting 55kWh+ but i have yet to see any screenshots to back this up.

On a side note i noticed that in the patch notes for the next software upgrade the energy app is going to show figures for energy used while driving, when idle and other activities non-driving related that use battery. Hopefully it will be decent and provide an insight.

I agree but it's a lot better than trying to extrapolate out figures from the app or your charger as there are way too many variables there and unknowns. I'd say if you could look at the coding in the Tesla app you'd be surprised where it gets its figures from, that's all i can say on that.

Drive from 100% to 0% during the day with no heating or lights on and no phones plugged in or whatever and your energy consumption will be very close to the actual energy used. I've seen videos online and this is certainly the case - also remember that the M3 has a heat pump which drastically reduces the energy the battery used for heating the cabin.

If you want an example of this, take a look at this video below - i have timestamped the link to the exact part - ok he didnt drive to 0% but he has extrapolated out the real world test and uses the trip data as his source. I did the same test yet i drove to zero and could only manage 51kWh - this also ties in with what Tesla have told me is usable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnD_UZ5Jurs&t=687s

Yet in the above video in a car delivered approx 10 months earlier than mine the usable battery is closer to 57kWh. So quite obviously a way smaller buffer in the end of 2021 model.

Tesla have decreased the usable battery size by approx 5kWh since then (or at least in my particular car) but they have not decreased the WLTP advertised range. Maybe they expect us to all drive to about -10% to achieve this.

Last night it said it took 57kWh from 5% to 100 which just isn't right. I genuinely think the app just works off 100% = 60kWh and works back from there which is totally misleading.

Let's take today for example. I charged to 100% and drove down and back from Dublin with no a/c and no lights. 30 mins stop off to meet a man about a dog and then straight home.

At 50% remaining I had used 25kWh energy but it was at 25kWh for a few minutes so probably closer to 26. So extrapolated out that's almost 52kWh if I ran it down to zero. Totally consistent with what tesla have told me and from my own previous tests.

I'm still waiting for others to post figures on a similar test but no one has yet.

If someone can post some energy usage on a similar test showing more that 52kWh energy usage then I'll definitely be getting back on to tesla. I probably will anyway.

My average energy usage is 150 wh/km which equates to 6.67km per kWh

That means for me the car is a 345km range without having to drive past zero percent. When it should actually be 380km if the battery had a usable capacity of 57kWh like late 2021 lfp have.

Like the battery capacity is 60.5kWh and the usable only 52kWh so I'm lugging around extra weight that can't be used. The buffer is pretty crazy.

I'd appreciate if others could actually post some stats from their trips but no one seems to be coming forward yet but are happy to question my calculations without actually providing their own evidence.

Ant takers?

I will charge to 100% tonight and I will have 200kms done by Friday morning and I will let you know how I get on... I took delivery on 17th Sept and mine is also a RWD LFP.

Mike

70% stats here if that helps. September RWD. By my calculations this would give 51.4kWh and 343km for 100%.

Would it make any difference, in a practical sense, if the battery is actually 60kwh but the buffer is, say, 8kwh? I mean, the battery capacity is still there, and you barely won't get to 55kwh (if you had a buffer of 5kwh instead of 8kwh) very often? It would be too close to 0%, and nobody does that really.

That is of course, considering the battery is 60kwh in total, regardless of the distribution between usable and "buffer".

This seems to be more of a battery life management strategy than something else from Tesla?

But sure that's like saying why don't we just have a 40kWh battery and that doesn't make any difference that a 50kWh. Of course it matters - ok the margins may be small enough but it all counts.

I understand that it may be a battery management issue but if you need to pack in a 60.5kWh battery to only have 52kWh usable, that seems crazy.

There is already a 2.5~3kWh "hard buffer" on the LFP's so adding another 6 seems excessive.

However, more to the point is the advertising - Tesla increased the WLTP advertised range 409km to 448km to 491km over the past 3 years. I want to know what the 491km was based off as it coincided with the usable battery for late 2021/early 2022 models being increased to 57kWh (4.5kWh buffer). That's the range that i was advertised and bought. However that range has been reduced by reducing the usable battery size to 52kWh. On the face of it the product has been mis-sold with an incorrect WLTP range.

I understand where you're coming from, but as far as i know Tesla don't advertise battery size in their specs, so technically they're not misleading anyone. It is a 60Kwh battery but they currently have it locked as a buffer & will probably unlock the additional buffer in the future

Next software update I believe the "energy" app is going to include all of this data.

However on a dry day, no Aircon, no phone charging and no sentry is when I've done the tests so very little in reality is going to anything other than powering the car.

As I've said before tesla have actually confirmed the massive buffer to me. Just looking for confirmation from a wider sample size that got rwds delivered in September 2022.

Quick question.

Tyre size on the car is 235 35 20.

Anything stopping me from going 235 45 20?

Basically forget about trying to extrapolate out from what your charger says or the cars says when it comes to charging, you're guessing with waaaay too much margin for error.

Either:

Get tesla to verify your usable battery

Use the scan my tesla app

Or do the real world test I have outlined last night

Cheers.

No one yet has been able to post any data to refute my calcs using any of the above parameters so it is looking like September rwd m3's are all at a usable battery of circa 52kWh

Sorry but that's not what we are looking for.

Out of interest what did u get charged for I.e. in the app how many kwh were u charged for?

If u have a screenshot of your trips screen before u charged that would also be interesting