Not true! The brake lights do come on. I believe they’re tied to an accelerometer, so easing slowly off the accelerator won’t trigger them, but max regen will. I’m not sure about the exact threshold, but I haven’t heard of any rear-ending problems.
The batteries may also expend current keeping warm. My Volt does, and GM recommends keeping it plugged in even if fully charged; I’m sure this is true for Teslas.
I was responding to what was posted regarding cold weather and low battery charge. I have lost tool batteries to cold weather and questioned what happens to an EV. 2.3% loss per day needs to be taken into consideration during winter. The higher discharge rate in cold weather is certainly due in part because the car has to keep the battery warm. “Don’t leave the car sitting around on low charge in winter” comes under the heading of great care.
I own different cars for different purposes. I routinely leave them sitting around for weeks if I don’t need them. Cold temps have no effect on a low gas tank. I think it’s important to note the need to maintain a certain level of charge on an EV in the winter.
Once again when EV’s are the topic, you seem to have the conclusion that there are no concerns to be addressed.
Well, I keep my IC car plugged in when the weather’s like this anyways, so I’m not seeing needing to keep an EV plugged in as a disadvantage. 
“Great care?” Give me a break. I might as well call filling up your gas tank a “hazardous handling of toxic materials that require extraordinary safety precautions for which inexperienced people could easily kill themselves.”
Didn’t someone post that you can adjust the regen rate?
By the way, you know what my car warns me of when it’s 20 degrees out, I have a low battery, and I turn the car off? It displays a warning to not leave the car at a low state of charge for a long period of time.
And you know what happens when it’s 85 degrees out, I have a low battery, and I turn the car off? The exact same message.
So not leaving the car at a low state of charge is just not done under any circumstances. It’s as common sense to an EV owner as it would be for an ICE owner not to leave their car running in their garage all night. But, I guess ICE owners just exercise “great care” not to poison their whole family with CO. Right?
uh huh. An EV will maintain battery temperature in cold weather to keep it from being damaged. That takes power. If you let an EV sit in subzero weather without charging it then it’s going to damage the car at some point.
It’s senseless not to take steps to avoid this damage and you seem intent on doubling down on this unnecessary exchange.
Good to hear about the brake lights coming on.
Not sure if I’d try to get used to that vehicle standard regen rate or adjust it closer to what I am used to so I could “coast” to the light. Keeping it at the high level would definitely alter my driving style. My daughter was in the car with me and complained of nausea …
It’s only common sense if you’re made aware of it and even then people manage to pour hot coffee in the lap and blame someone else even though everybody knows hot coffee is hot.
Common sense would tell you to expect a drop in EV range in the winter yet without knowing how much of a drop it’s a guessing game until that information becomes known. Leaving a car sit for weeks is not a problem for ICE cars so people need to know it’s an issue with EV’s.
Yes, Tesla has a low and high regen setting.
There’s an adjustment period but eventually it becomes second nature. Initially, it’s easy to drive in a somewhat uncomfortable manner if you expect it to coast like a gas car. Eventually you learn to ease off the accelerator instead of just lifting your foot immediately. You can also enable “chill mode”, which has basically the same effect (for acceleration and deceleration), but really it’s just better to just learn how it works and modulate the accelerator appropriately. Not flooring it at every light also helps passenger comfort, but it’s tough to restrain oneself :).
In the Model 3 there are only two settings, regular and low. A bit more time in the driver’s seat and you will get used to keeping your foot on the accelerator just enough to achieve the level of deceleration you want.
The Model 3 does not have a battery heater, and will do nothing to maintain the battery temperature when the car is idle and it is cold. It does circulate coolant through the motors and battery, and is capable of passing current through the motors without generating torque, so that it only generates heat. The coolant can then carry this heat to the battery, but there is no controllable mode to heat the battery. As far as I know, the only time this is even used is if it is necessary to raise the battery’s temperature to charge. In that case it is using external power, not battery power, to heat the battery.
The damage is caused when charging a cold battery, which is why regen is reduced when cold. The battery can still discharge when cold, though the rate and amount of discharge may be reduced.
Electric, gas, and diesel cars all are different and it should be no surprise to anybody that under different conditions they will behave differently. Internal combustion cars produce a tremendous amount of waste heat. Some of that heat can be used to warm the cabin and defrost the windows. Electric cars do not produce nearly as much waste heat, so they require electrical heaters to do the same. This affects range.
Current battery chemistry loses some charge over time. There are also lots of computers in the Tesla which consume battery power, too.
How did the gas heaters on old VW Bugs affect range? (That’s a serious question, I can’t imagine they burn much gas, but has to be some.)
The brake lights on the onscreen car come on when the brake lights are on, so you can tell whether they are on or not. Apparently this is hard to see if your Model 3 is red.
I spent my first week with regen set to low, and acceleration set to Chill, and the transition was pretty easy. For ice/snow, it is recommended to drive with regen set to low, otherwise I have it on the higher setting now that I’m used to it.
Well this is interesting. A business called Quality Control Systems sued NHTSA to get the data that the Feds used to publish the report that Tesla’s Autopilot made cars 40% safer. They looked at the data and they assert that NHTSA made serious errors, such that Autopilot may make cars be 59% more likely to get into crashes.
I have no damned idea about the math or the conclusion, but I do think it is dishonest of NHTSA to use data to make a safety-related claim, and then try to bury the data.
I took a look at this data, and I think it is impossible to interpret if my assumptions are correct. Explanation below.
Several numbers are reported which the raw data gives weird names, but here is what they are in more understandable terms:
[ol]
[li]Odometer reading at the end of data collection (total miles)[/li][li]The last odometer reading taken before autopilot was installed[/li][li]The first odometer reading after autopilot was installed[/li][/ol]
QCS only uses the data for cars where the value of 2 and 3 (above) are the same. This is where I make new assumptions:
[ul]
[li]Autosteer can only be enabled when data sharing is also enabled. This is how things work on my Model 3 now, if it is not how things worked when autosteer was first introduced, then my whole conjecture is wrong.[/li][li]Some privacy minded people will have disabled data sharing, and thus not have consistent odometer readings. This is supported by some cars having, for example, 463 miles as the last reported reading prior to autosteer being installed, and 20,147 miles as the first reading after autosteer is installed. My interpretation is that data sharing was disabled after 463 miles, and re-enabled at 20,147 miles.[/li][li]Some of those people will want to use autosteer, so they will then enable data sharing, as in the example above.[/li][li]Therefore (and this is where I disagree with QCS) the correct odometer reading to use when determining pre-autosteer mileage is the first reading after autosteer has been installed. Even if autosteer was installed many miles before that, autosteer was not usable until data sharing was re-enabled.[/li][/ul]
The airbag deployment is reported as two variables:
[ol]
[li]Was the airbag deployed before autosteer[/li][li]Was the airbag deployed after autosteer[/li][/ol]
And this is where my problem lies in interpreting this data. My cutoffs used to make the before/after determination are different from what the NHTSA and QCS use. The odometer reading at airbag deployment is not provided.
QCS makes a big deal about not knowing the mileage at the time autosteer was installed, but I believe that the first odometer reading after autosteer is installed is going to coincide with when autosteer was actually enabled by the owner. QCS also draws their conclusions based on about 5,714 out of 43,781 cars. To me, that does not seem like a representative sample. The question is, does whatever makes those 5,714 cars different from the rest correlate with airbag deployment?
So, until the NHTSA releases the data with the odometer reading at the time of airbag deployment, I do not think any conclusions can be drawn from this data.
I’m sure there’s some error in my logic or my data manipulation, as this is just something I did while eating lunch. Here is the raw data as released in an Excel spreadsheet (the worst possible data analysis platform).
Here’s a mystery.
For several months now, the Tesla order page has stated that the Standard Range battery (~220 miles) would be available in 4-6 months. It’s said that since roughly October. This weekend, the reference to the Standard Range battery was eliminated.
There’s two theories: first, that Tesla is basically backing off of this $35,000(ish) version of the car, because it just isn’t doable at this point. This camp points to how the Full Self Driving option disappeared from the order screen quite some time ago, because that feature seems to be indefinitely delayed as well.
The other camp says that maybe this is a sign that the Standard Range version is imminent, and Tesla doesn’t want to cannibalize its orders for the ~$43k Medium Range car over the next few months, since people may decide they would rather wait to order the Standard Range car in a few months and save 10% or more of the purchase price.
Tesla isn’t commenting so far.
Looks like the second theory is correct. The real $35k Model 3 is available for order now. 220 mile range, as promised, and a real sans-rebate $35k price. They also have a “partial premium” interior for a couple of grand more. The LR/PUP model also seems to be back.
I’m finally able to figure out how much it cost me to get the long range one, instead of waiting for the short range one, which was my original plan. After factoring in the lost tax credit, the maintenance I would have had to do to my old car, and the gas savings ($400 in 6 months), it cost me $8-9000 net to get the long range instead of waiting.
For that extra money I got the car 6-9 months earlier, dual motor, big battery, and full premium interior which includes free streaming music. The dual motor is great, and I would have been disappointed it’s not offered on the short range version. The bigger battery and premium interior are nice, but probably not worth thousands to me. We use the streaming music all the time, but it’s also probably not worth that much to me.
I’m very happy about the options. I’d like to know what the difference is between the basic navigation (on the SR models) and the enhanced navigation (on the MR and LR models). If it isn’t a huge difference, I might go with the partial premium… if it is a big difference, then the MR.
I see that they tweaked the Autopilot offerings, so the cost has gone down but features stripped out, such that it’s $3k for adaptive cruise control. If you want navigate on Autopilot, parking, and summon, you now need to buy Full Self Driving for $3k plus $5k.
Doesn’t really apply to me, though, because I am just not interested, but a notable change. And oh yeah, Tesla is closing the vast majority of its showrooms in order to lower prices on cars. I think that’s a good idea.
The package description says “Satellite-view maps with live traffic visualization and navigation”. The satellite view looks nice but doesn’t have any real utility value (it’s just like the satellite vs. maps view in Google Maps). The live traffic is more useful but I guess it depends on how often you drive through uncertain traffic situations.
The store closings make sense to me. Apparently the vast majority of purchases were online to start with. Combined with their new 7-day/1000 mi return policy, there’s just a lot less need for a physical presence. People can rent a car on Turo if they really want to try out a car with no hassle.
The market didn’t seem happy with the announcement, particularly that they’d have a Q1 loss, but that was always in the cards. They’d previously said that they hoped to make a small Q1 profit, with the caveat that one-time losses might put them in the red. It sounds like they’ll have some moderate one-time costs in Q1 with the store closings, severance pay, etc.