According to a recent discovery by Tesla "hacker" green (@greentheonly), which was shared by Electrek, it appears Tesla is starting to take "cross/headwinds, air density and humidity" into account as its vehicles calculate range.
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 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.
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 following tweet:
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.
Moreover, if you own a car like the Chevrolet Volt or Bolt EV, you know that your car's range estimates take many variables into account. They change based on your driving style, the outside temperature, the terrain, etc.
Meanwhile, 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.
With all of that said, it's encouraging to learn that Tesla may be tweaking its range calculations going forward. Many more people are becoming interested in EVs, but range anxiety still exists. Clearly, having a more accurate idea of your car's range at any given time during real-world driving will prove very helpful.
As always, we encourage you to scroll down to the comment section and share your thoughts about this topic. Do you think Tesla should tweak how it estimates range?
