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“In March, Alexandre Ponsin set out on a family road trip from Colorado to California in his newly purchased Tesla, a used 2021 Model 3. He expected to get some
by cudgy 3y ago
“In March, Alexandre Ponsin set out on a family road trip from Colorado to California in his newly purchased Tesla, a used 2021 Model 3. He expected to get something close to the electric sport sedan’s advertised driving range: 353 miles on a fully charged battery.
He soon realized he was sometimes getting less than half that much range, particularly in cold weather – such severe underperformance that he was convinced the car had a serious defect.”
He simply does not understand how batteries and power delivery work. Driving through the Rocky mountains will reduce mpg significantly for an internal combustion engine as well. Colder temperatures require a heater and less efficient for batteries due to increased viscosity of electrolyte fluid. All a perfect storm for poor EV performance.
- paulryanrogers 3y agoPerhaps the range advertised should call out the variance, or use a more pessimistic number? Much like MPG is denoted as city vs highway.
- mdgrech23 3y agoThey come up w/ the range under absolute perfect driving conditions that don't actually exist. The driving conditions should reflect normal driving conditions.
- cudgy 3y agoThe problem is what are normal driving conditions? Another poster mentioned having efficiency numbers by the grade of the road, which would provide more information to buyers.
- oatmeal1 3y ago> Driving through the Rocky mountains will reduce mpg significantly for an internal combustion engine as well. Do you mean it will reduce the mpg because of reduced air density, or because of temperature as well? I thought the efficiency of an ICE was dependent on the difference in temperature it creates between the combustion and the coldest part of the cycle. It seems efficiency would improve in cold temperatures because less energy would be wasted cooling the engine since the incoming air is doing that.
- cudgy 3y agoEV batteries are less efficient cold weather and hot weather too. Yes, ICE would be more efficient in cold due to cooler/more combustable air entering the combustion chamber as evidenced by the use of intercoolers in turbos to cool the hot compressed air from the turbo mechanism.
- danudey 3y agoSure, but the system continues to make extremely optimistic (and unrealistic) estimates about your range until you hit 50% battery, at which point it tries to be more realistic so that it doesn't strand you in the middle of nowhere. It should be giving you the more realistic estimate as soon as possible, so that you can plan better, rather than misleading you for half your trip.