Getting Maximum Range
Factors Affecting Energy Consumption
While driving:
- Elevated driving speed.
- Environmental conditions such as cold or hot weather and wind.
- Using climate controls to heat or cool the cabin.
- Uphill travel: Driving uphill requires more energy and depletes range at a faster rate. However, driving downhill allows your vehicle to regain a portion of its expended energy through regenerative braking (see Regenerative Braking).
- Short trips or stop-and-go traffic: It takes energy to bring the cabin and Battery to a specified temperature when starting the vehicle. You may see a higher average consumption when the vehicle is used for very short trips or in heavy traffic.
- Heavy cargo load.
- Windows rolled down.
- Wheels and tires not maintained.
- Customized settings or third-party accessories (roof or trunk racks, third party wheels).
While parked and not plugged in to a charger:
- Preconditioning the cabin or using climate controls.
- Vehicle infotainment and climate controls system.
- Sentry mode.
- Tesla or third-party mobile app requests.
Tips to Maximize Range
You can maximize your driving range using the same driving habits you use to conserve fuel in a gasoline-powered vehicle. To achieve maximum range:
- Slow down your driving and avoid frequent and rapid acceleration. Consider using Chill Mode (touch ).
- If safe to do so, modulate the accelerator pedal instead of using the brake pedal when gradually slowing down. Whenever Model 3 is moving and you are not pressing the accelerator pedal, regenerative braking slows down the vehicle and feeds surplus energy back to the Battery (see Regenerative Braking).
- Limit the use of resources such as heating and air conditioning. Using seat and steering wheel heaters (if equipped) to keep warm is more efficient than heating the cabin using climate controls.
- With your vehicle plugged in, use the mobile app to precondition your vehicle to ensure the cabin is at a comfortable temperature and windows are defrosted (if needed) before your drive by touching Mobile App). and customizing your preferences (see
- Touch Schedule, (also available on both the charging and climate control screens) to set a time when you want your vehicle to be ready to drive (see Scheduled Precondition and Charge).
- Ensure the wheels are aligned to specification, the tires are kept at the recommended inflation pressures (see Tire Care and Maintenance), and are rotated when needed (see Maintenance Service Intervals).
- Install aero covers (if equipped) to reduce wind resistance (see Removing and Installing Aero Covers).
- Lighten your load by removing any unnecessary cargo.
- Fully raise all windows.
- Features such as Sentry Mode and Cabin Overheat Protection can impact range. Disable features when not needed.
- To prevent an excessive amount of energy consumption while the vehicle is idle, keep the vehicle plugged in when not in use.
It is normal for estimated range to decrease slightly over the first few months before leveling off. Over time, you may see a gradual, but natural, decrease in range at full charge – this depends on factors such as the mileage and age of the Battery. Your Model 3 will inform you in the unlikely event a hardware issue is causing excessive Battery or range degradation.
The power meter on the touchscreen provides feedback on energy usage.
Range Assurance
The driving range displayed in Model 3 is an estimate of the remaining battery energy based on EPA-rated consumption. It may not account for your personal driving patterns or external conditions. The displayed range on the touchscreen may decrease faster than the actual distance driven. To view estimated range based on your recent energy consumption, open the Energy app to display the graph.
Your vehicle continuously monitors its energy level and proximity to known charging locations.
When you are at risk of driving beyond the range of known charging locations, the touchscreen displays a message giving you the opportunity to display a list of charging locations that are within range. When you select a charging location from the list, Model 3 provides navigation instructions and the turn-by-turn direction list displays the predicted amount of energy that will remain when you arrive at the charging destination.
Trip Planner (if available in your market region) routes you through Supercharger locations to minimize the amount of time you spend charging and driving. To enable, touch .
Energy App
The Energy app provides a visual representation of your vehicle's real-time and projected energy usage.
- Locate the Energy app in the app launcher (the three dots) in the bottom bar.
- Touch to open the Energy app
and choose from the different tabs. The energy chart's colored line
represents your actual driving energy consumption whereas the gray line
represents predicted usage.NoteYou can customize the chart values by touching.
-
Drive: Monitor the
amount of energy being used while driving. You can track the real-time energy
consumption broken down by categories, compare against different baseline
projections, and view range tips tailored to your drive to understand how to improve
energy efficiency.
- Choose Trip while navigating to a destination to compare the actual usage against the estimated projection.
- Choose Rated to compare the actual energy or range usage against the estimated driving distance (or energy) available.
- Choose between Current Drive to view data from your current drive or Since Last Charged to include data since the vehicle was last charged.
- View Range Tips to understand impacts on battery consumption and suggestions to maximize range and efficiency.
-
Park: Monitors the
amount of energy lost while Model 3 is parked.
- Choose between Since Last Drive or Since Last Charge.
- View how much idle energy has been consumed while your vehicle is parked and suggestions to decrease energy loss.
-
Consumption: Compare
your vehicle's actual energy consumption to Model 3's rated consumption over the
last 300 km. Consumption is measured in watt-hours per
mile (Wh/mi). Lower values increase range, higher values decrease it.
- Your average consumption is an average of how much energy your vehicle uses per mile and varies based on your driving route, habits, and environment.
- Rated consumption is a constant value based on standardized driving conditions set by the EPA. This value is used to determine remaining battery energy on the touchscreen if the display is set to distance ( ).
Projected range is calculated using remaining battery energy and your average consumption. Use the Drive tab to learn more about how range can be increased.