Thoughts on a Tesla Model 3

[EVA]

It doesn't hurt to put the daily charging at the far right end of Daily, or roughly 90% (if that's what they said it is). There are people with hundreds of thousands of miles on the clock that have seen virtually NO battery degradation. Personally, I can see maybe 1 or 2 miles lower after 4 years and 60,000 miles. It is really not worth the trouble to even think about those lower charge settings. When you need a full charge to 100% (you're headed on a trip), just do it. I'd guess 20% of those miles were on 100% charges.

Hey 220 miles is healthy range, far more than you're used to. However, you don't want to find yourself in a spot, well if I'd put it at 90%, had say 250, I would have gotten where I wanted to go without thinking.

The energy use charts - I'm surprised they wouldn't carry those over. There should be an Energy button in the menus. If you start up a trip, there should be an energy charge with a predicted use, and an actual (% charge Y axis, miles X axis). That chart has a tab for trip and consumption. The chart I'm talking about is the consumption chart.

[EVA]

The Nav does give you supercharger stops, and how long to charge. When you are at the stop, the app tells you when you've charged enough to continue your trip.

It is not a bad exercise to use Supercharge.info and Google maps to plan your trip. The first two years I had the car, I spent a lot of time working out stops. It is a great mental exercise. A lot of people use evtripplanner. Personally I hate it. Have never figured out how to use it and how to dial in the factors exactly right. Then the output was weird, something I don't understand.

Our first long trip was from Chicago to Phoenix. The whole trip was 5,000 miles round trip. There were hardly any superchargers back then. Had to take the far northern route (Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona). It was a gorgeous trip where we saw things we would have never stopped to visit. Today, the supercharger route takes you down the shortest Google map route to Phoenix.

That trip took a lot of planning, which chargers to use, what was nearby, and where to stop for the night along the way. Today you'd have a much easier time.

The reason for pre-planning, sometimes the nav will tell you to stop in strange places, too early, or too far away. Knowing your options is a good thing. In theory, you can put your destination in the nav, follow the advice, and drive.

LOL All good advice for any long duration trip EV or not! (I do something similar when taking an RV trip--obviously not with all the EV websites, but roadtrippers, etc.).

Now I get to dirty this Tesla thread: I pulled the trigger on a Bolt today

You traitor. How can you work at Ford and drive a Chevy!!!!!

Yeah, I had a hard time seeing you driving anything with a gas engine in it!

[jmueller065]

You traitor. How can you work at Ford and drive a Chevy!!!!!

Yeah, I had a hard time seeing you driving anything with a gas engine in it!

Technically I don't work for Ford, some close family does (and they didn't want to go with me to the Chevy dealer ! LOL).

It did feel odd being at a Chevy dealer instead of a Ford dealer--all the procedures are the same though; so the oddness disappeared pretty quickly once I got into the process. (Especially odd when I parked the C-Max dead center in front of the dealership LOL.)

[triangles]

Now I get to dirty this Tesla thread: I pulled the trigger on a Bolt today

BURN THE HERETIC!!!

[triangles]

Did your car get the ota update for the brakes? Or was it new enough to have it applied at the factory already. Ive read that it makes a noticeable difference.

i suppose it did. It got an update the day I picked up the car. I rarely touch the brakes except when rolling up to a stop. I haven't tried to quick stop and don't intend to do so intentionally.

[jmueller065]

Now I get to dirty this Tesla thread: I pulled the trigger on a Bolt today

BURN THE HERETIC!!!

LMAO! Well technically I am staying local as the Bolt is assembled in Lake Orion--a little farther from me than the Michigan Assembly Plant (about 40 miles vs 5). (Although some components of it do come from South Korea.)

[triangles]

As much as it pains me to say it, the bolt seems like a really good car. I hope they sell a lot of them and you get years of dependable use out of yours.
Personally though, I just can't bring myself to ever buy another GM product.

[jmueller065]

As much as it pains me to say it, the bolt seems like a really good car. I hope they sell a lot of them and you get years of dependable use out of yours.
Personally though, I just can't bring myself to ever buy another GM product.

Well it does have its own "stop safely now" problem, however LOL
https://insideevs.com/chevy-bolt-battery-cell-failure/

[triangles]

Now that it's been a few weeks, the "vampire drain" I had read about and mostly ignored thinking it wouldn't apply to the TM3 is very real and very unacceptable! The manual says, "Never allow the Battery to fully discharge. Even when Model 3 is not being driven, its Battery discharges very slowly to power the onboard electronics. On average, the Battery discharges at a rate of 1% per day. Situations can arise in which you must leave Model 3 unplugged for an extended period of time (for example, at an airport when traveling). In these situations, keep the discharge rates in mind to ensure that you leave the Battery with a sufficient charge level.

Discharging the Battery to 0% may permanently damage the Battery. To protect against a complete discharge, Model 3 enters a low-power consumption mode when the charge level drops to 5%. In this mode, the Battery stops supporting the onboard electronics to slow the discharge rate to approximately 4% per month. Once this lowpower consumption mode is active, it is important to plug in Model 3 within two months to avoid Battery damage.

Note: When the low-power consumption mode is active, the auxiliary 12V battery is no longer being charged and can completely discharge within 12 hours. In the unlikely event that this occurs, you may need to jump start or replace the 12V battery before you can charge. In this situation, contact Tesla."

I'd say my vampire drain is more than 1%/day, probably 2-3% and that's leaving it in a 71F climate controlled garage. I have my TM3 set to charge to 71%. I didn't pay attention to the exact timing but in less than 2 days, maybe 36ish hrs, it dropped to 68% and then charged back up to 71% since it was still plugged in. I downloaded an app called "Tezlab" that supposedly helps track power usage. We'll see if it is useful or not. Silly me for thinking Tesla would have solved this problem before getting to the TM3. Next time I let the car sit for a while I may disconnect the 12V battery and see if that stops the vampire drain. Some posts on Tesla forums seem to indicate that disconnecting the 12V battery completely powers down the car making it equivalent to a "battery sitting on a shelf."

As awesome as Tesla's batteries are I simply cannot comprehend that they designed the car such that the battery will simply self destruct if the car is left alone for a few months! Not to mention, by design kill the 12V battery in as little as 12 hours when the HV battery gets down to 5%. At the very least they should have a "storage" mode that allows for long term storage of the vehicle. Looks like a 12V battery disconnect switch for my TM3 is in my future.

[jmueller065]

Now that it's been a few weeks, the "vampire drain" I had read about and mostly ignored thinking it wouldn't apply to the TM3 is very real and very unacceptable! The manual says, "Never allow the Battery to fully discharge. Even when Model 3 is not being driven, its Battery discharges very slowly to power the onboard electronics. On average, the Battery discharges at a rate of 1% per day. Situations can arise in which you must leave Model 3 unplugged for an extended period of time (for example, at an airport when traveling). In these situations, keep the discharge rates in mind to ensure that you leave the Battery with a sufficient charge level.

Discharging the Battery to 0% may permanently damage the Battery. To protect against a complete discharge, Model 3 enters a low-power consumption mode when the charge level drops to 5%. In this mode, the Battery stops supporting the onboard electronics to slow the discharge rate to approximately 4% per month. Once this lowpower consumption mode is active, it is important to plug in Model 3 within two months to avoid Battery damage.

Note: When the low-power consumption mode is active, the auxiliary 12V battery is no longer being charged and can completely discharge within 12 hours. In the unlikely event that this occurs, you may need to jump start or replace the 12V battery before you can charge. In this situation, contact Tesla."

I'd say my vampire drain is more than 1%/day, probably 2-3% and that's leaving it in a 71F climate controlled garage. I have my TM3 set to charge to 71%. I didn't pay attention to the exact timing but in less than 2 days, maybe 36ish hrs, it dropped to 68% and then charged back up to 71% since it was still plugged in. I downloaded an app called "Tezlab" that supposedly helps track power usage. We'll see if it is useful or not. Silly me for thinking Tesla would have solved this problem before getting to the TM3. Next time I let the car sit for a while I may disconnect the 12V battery and see if that stops the vampire drain. Some posts on Tesla forums seem to indicate that disconnecting the 12V battery completely powers down the car making it equivalent to a "battery sitting on a shelf."

As awesome as Tesla's batteries are I simply cannot comprehend that they designed the car such that the battery will simply self destruct if the car is left alone for a few months! Not to mention, by design kill the 12V battery in as little as 12 hours when the HV battery gets down to 5%. At the very least they should have a "storage" mode that allows for long term storage of the vehicle. Looks like a 12V battery disconnect switch for my TM3 is in my future.

That kind of points to Tesla not being a traditional car company as most of the OEMs have specifications for current draw when the car is sitting with the key off for any length of time.

(I know a German OEM I had once worked for spec'd battery draw less than 100 ua during key off.)

Funny, I just put a 12V battery disconnect on my Bolt (If I want to tow it behind our RV I need to disconnect the 12V battery).

oh and there is this: https://insideevs.com/tesla-model-3-vampire-drain/