Recently a discovery is shared by a well-known Tesla hacker green (@greentheonly). It shows that Tesla seems to be taking “cross/headwinds, air density and humidity” into account from the vehicles. He notes that the automaker seems to be taking additional factors into consideration whenever it is available.
While it seems most new EV owners love their cars as a whole, it’s not uncommon for them to note that they aren’t getting the EPA-estimated range. As you may know, there are loads of factors that impact an EV’s range, so you can’t rely on the EPA’s estimate.
The interior cabin radar finally starts to get signs of life so might come live relatively soon? (on s/x cars)
Trip energy accounting now takes into account cross/headwinds, air density and humidity when available (possibly China only for now?)
— green (@greentheonly) March 16, 2022
The same is true of mpg for gas cars – and range as well, though most people don’t seem to pay any attention to gas car range. We’ve bought many gas cars over the years based on their impressive “mpg,” only to never, ever achieve it. At any rate, as you can see from the tweet below, green references Tesla’s trip energy accounting. He notes that he’s discovered that the automaker appears to be now taking the additional factors into account when available.
Parameters
Green makes it clear that he’s not sure if the new range parameters will only be in China-made Tesla vehicles for now, or all the brand’s EVs. For clarity, and for those who don’t take to Twitter to look into these embedded tweet threads, green opened the above thread with the mentioned tweet.
Further analyzing 2022.8.2:
TX-made (2022Q1 dated) ModelY SR+ is added so I guess that would be the first car configuration out of that place pretty soon.
Several new battery types added too (I don't dig in ECUs so I don't know what exactly they are)— green (@greentheonly) March 16, 2022
It’s important to note that different automakers use different testing cycles to estimate an EV’s range. Moreover, the tests that Tesla uses for the EPA are also different from rivals’. For this reason, some people have worked to prove that while Tesla’s vehicles don’t often live up to their EPA-rated range in real-world driving, some competing EVs actually exceed the range estimates, especially in the most ideal conditions. Tesla’s vehicles aren’t set up this way. Owners can choose to look at the car’s remaining range, which isn’t a “range estimator” like that of almost all other EVs. Tesla owners can also choose to switch to another mode that shows the battery percentage remaining. Most Tesla owners we’ve talked to have suggested paying attention to the percentage to have a better idea of how much range you have remaining.
Tesla may be tweaking its range calculations going forward. Especially as the competition is increasing and automakers are coming up with higher ranges. If not now, in coming years increasing the range is essential.
