180 Mile Real World Winter Range - Lariat ER

[Nate977p]

Hello All!

Been away from here for a bit, but as I had my first true cold winter road trip (and I'm waiting for an EA stall to open), I wanted to share the experience for others.

The colder days of 30-40 degrees were having a noticable impact, with my Guess-o-meter averaging about 220 to 240 in the winter - this I expected.

TL;DR What we found on a road trip during a cold day - I will be using 55% of rated range as usable in the winter, meaning I expect about 180 miles of real range from 100% --> 0%.

So today was our first road trip in the cold to give us good data.

Parameters:
-95% Highway, very minimal traffic, average speed 65-70.
-Temp started at twenty, ended in low teens.
-We did stop and "idle" to go into store and get coffee for about 20-30 minutes.
-2 adults/2 dogs/bunch of gifts.
-We had some elevation change, but mostly netted it out; efficiency was the same on flat roads too.
-On studded snows (to compare, the same tires increase our efficiency in our model 3).

Overall, we averaged an efficiency of about 1.4 mi/kWh.

We travelled 133 miles on 73% of the battery (99% -->26%). Full charge would've netted about 182 miles.

Based on that math, I am estimating about 57% (I'll be rounding down to 55% for safety) of rated range is usable in the cold.

Just wanted to give this as a heads up to others to plan. As I haven't been around here recently, not sure if others have been seeing the same. It wasn't crazy cold up here either compared to other places right now.

Hope this helps others plan!

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[Nate977p]

Efficiency pictures attached

 

[SilverBrewer]

I need to know more about wind? In my ICE I drove today about 180 miles at 65 and averaged 14.5 mpg I’m assuming the headwind winter blend. For the record it’s a powerboat that does this route pretty regularly and normally hits about 24 in the spring and summer so it’s a huge drop lol

 

[Nate977p]

I need to know more about wind? In my ICE I drove today about 180 miles at 65 and averaged 14.5 mpg I’m assuming the headwind winter blend. For the record it’s a powerboat that does this route pretty regularly and normally hits about 24 in the spring and summer so it’s a huge drop lol

Very calm, no real wind at all. Along the route, weather was reporting 10-12 mph max.

 

[SilverBrewer]

Ah thanks for that! Helping me with my route planning. I was dealing with a 40mph headwind this morning it was brutal.

 

[LightningShow]

Today was the first day with sustained sub-20 degree temps here. I didn't do any driving so I can't comment on that. I reset one of my trip meters about six weeks ago when temps started routinely getting into the 20s/30s. My overall efficiency has been 1.9 since then. From August through October it had pretty consistently been 2.3-2.4. So I'm seeing 20% drop on average. I'm more like 1.6-1.7 for sustained highway driving right now. I could definitely believe 1.4 when temps are in the teens.

 

[Texas Dan]

The explanation of your experience doesn't give a real picture of anything. Just using the basic temperature rule of thumb of 1% range loss for every 4 degrees F indicates that you should have only lost 10% range with the temperature at 30 degrees F. To get such poor performance I suspect that there are contributing factors that you failed to mention like excessive speeding, driving uphill for long periods of time and/or driving against a strong headwind.

Estimating the range of an EV is now a pretty exact science and is pretty easy to calculate for anyone that wants to take the time to do so. If you don't want to do your homework and just throw caution into the wind when driving an EV, then you should always expect poor performance. But please don't bad mouth EVs just because you want to drive irresponsibly.

 

[Nate977p]

Today was the first day with sustained sub-20 degree temps here. I didn't do any driving so I can't comment on that. I reset one of my trip meters about six weeks ago when temps started routinely getting into the 20s/30s. My overall efficiency has been 1.9 since then. From August through October it had pretty consistently been 2.3-2.4. So I'm seeing 20% drop on average. I'm more like 1.6-1.7 for sustained highway driving right now. I could definitely believe 1.4 when temps are in the teens.

Wow that's great efficiency! My lifetime average over 6.5k is 2.1; about what I hoped for! I was regularly seeing 1.7 to 1.8 as things were getting colder. Not too bad!

 

[Nate977p]

The explanation of your experience doesn't give a real picture of anything. Just using the basic temperature rule of thumb of 1% range loss for every 4 degrees F indicates that you should have only lost 10% range with the temperature at 30 degrees F. To get such poor performance I suspect that there are contributing factors that you failed to mention like excessive speeding, driving uphill for long periods of time and/or driving against a strong headwind.

Estimating the range of an EV is now a pretty exact science and is pretty easy to calculate for anyone that wants to take the time to do so. If you don't want to do your homework and just throw caution into the wind when driving an EV, then you should always expect poor performance. But please don't bad mouth EVs just because you want to drive irresponsibly.

Woahhhh coming off hot here. Did not mean to offend you or anyone, just rather share the data from one trip.

I did not mean for this post to be negative; I don't think I said anything negative here, just my experience. This experience should not be taken as a rule. As you said, there are many variables. I posted it to inform others what I am seeing to give a data point.

That being said, I do not appreciate being attacked and told I drive inappropriately? No reason for character assassination for someone posting their experience.

I have a very informed experience with EVs. The lightning is our 3rd full EV (we also had a Plug-In). Our Model 3 has about 100k miles on it, and our primary charging was SuperChargers (about 60% of charging) until we got L2 home charging when the Lightning arrived. I have many experiences both locally and on many road trips calculating charges (MANY times rolling in with 0-3% range and never being stranded). I am very well versed in calculating range, which is why I shared calculations for people who may not be. This drive was expected to have poor performance and no issues arose as I had plenty of buffer.

Regarding this trip, only variable I can think of not mentioned earlier is a net elevation change of 458 feet, which is not huge. As I stated, and provided pictures of, average speed was 65-70. As I mentioned, from looking up weather, highest wind I saw on our route was a 12 mph max.

I hope you have a wonderful Holiday Weekend.

 

[Silenze]

Great post. That is real world information. And exactly in line what everyone else has been seeing in the "cold". 30 degrees is not the winter for half the USA. It was -10 last night here in Wisconsin

 

[JBauer]

Just started doing some short trips these past couple days where’s in been -5 or colder.

Always start with a remote start before getting in, I’m seeing about 1-1.4 miles/kWh.

About a week ago I did a 30 mile trip in the mid 30s going 65 with the heat mostly off and relied on the heated seats and steering wheel. Pulled off 2.6mi/kWh. The return trip with the heat on was 2.1mi/kWh.

 

[SilverBrewer]

Woahhhh coming off hot here. Did not mean to offend you or anyone, just rather share the data from one trip.

I did not mean for this post to be negative; I don't think I said anything negative here, just my experience. This experience should not be taken as a rule. As you said, there are many variables. I posted it to inform others what I am seeing to give a data point.

That being said, I do not appreciate being attacked and told I drive inappropriately? No reason for character assassination for someone posting their experience.

I have a very informed experience with EVs. The lightning is our 3rd full EV (we also had a Plug-In). Our Model 3 has about 100k miles on it, and our primary charging was SuperChargers (about 60% of charging) until we got L2 home charging when the Lightning arrived. I have many experiences both locally and on many road trips calculating charges (MANY times rolling in with 0-3% range and never being stranded). I am very well versed in calculating range, which is why I shared calculations for people who may not be. This drive was expected to have poor performance and no issues arose as I had plenty of buffer.

Regarding this trip, only variable I can think of not mentioned earlier is a net elevation change of 458 feet, which is not huge. As I stated, and provided pictures of, average speed was 65-70. As I mentioned, from looking up weather, highest wind I saw on our route was a 12 mph max.

I hope you have a wonderful Holiday Weekend.

I don’t get why people on this forum get so offended when people post stuff. It’s like they designed and built the battery themselves. Great write up and sharing of information. I can’t wait to get my vehicle.

edit -i would like to add it’s not only this forum. Im still scared of the Tesla sub Reddit lol

 

[Nate977p]

I don’t get why people on this forum get so offended when people post stuff. It’s like they designed and built the battery themselves. Great write up and sharing of information. I can’t wait to get my vehicle.

edit -i would like to add it’s not only this forum. Im still scared of the Tesla sub Reddit lol

Haha that was going to be my first response! When did this forum turn into 2018 Tesla forum.

 

[Pioneer74]

I don’t get why people on this forum get so offended when people post stuff. It’s like they designed and built the battery themselves. Great write up and sharing of information. I can’t wait to get my vehicle.

edit -i would like to add it’s not only this forum. Im still scared of the Tesla sub Reddit lol

The ignore function works wonders. Start blocking people until you find the site enjoyable again. Worked for me.

 

[Amps]

I hope you have a wonderful Holiday Weekend.

You, too! Thanks for the real world numbers.

What did the energy screen breakdown show between Propulsion/Climate/Temperature, etc.?

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