We drove 1,600 km in Tesla Model 3: it is not the autonomy that counts, but the efficiency

Clean Automobile is a community information site that is dedicated to everything related to the automobile and the environment. The most popular themes of our Auto Blog are the electric car and hybrids, but we also approach the GNV / GPL car, hydrogen car, political and environmental aspects related to the automobile. Internet users are invited to react to blog articles in the comments, but also in the various forums that are made upon them. The most popular of them is certainly the electric car forum which centralizes discussions relating to the arrival of these new vehicles. A lexicon centralizes the definitions of the main technical words used on the blog, while a database of cars (marketed or not) lists electric and hybrid cars.

Tesla Model 3 autonomy

How many kilometers can I travel with the Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle ?

The autonomy of the Tesla Model 3 electric car is 354 km at 602 km, with a single load, depending on the WLTP standard.

Real autonomy can then depend on several elements: battery load level, the type of course (highway, city or mixed), air conditioning or heating, the weather, the elevation.

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Configure your Tesla Model 3 vehicle or ask for a free trial.

Version	Battery capacity	Autonomy
Propulsion	57 kWh	491 km
Performance	76 kWh	547 km
Great autonomy	76 kWh	602 km
Standard autonomy	50 kWh	354 km
Standard Plus (2020)	53 kWh	448 km
Standard Plus (2019)	50 kWh	409 km
SR+ 60KWH	57.5 kWh	491 km

Tesla Model 3 autonomy simulator

Use the simulator below to estimate the autonomy of the electric vehicle Tesla Model 3 Depending on the different criteria offered:

Version

Battery level
Air conditioning / heating

Autonomy

Highway (Moy. 120 km/h)
Strong rain or snow

The values ​​are calculated from WLTP autonomy. With this value is calculated the theoretical autonomy according to the selected criteria. Real autonomy is given as an indication and has no contractual value. This data is not provided by the manufacturers. More or less 10% error margin.

* Autonomy in 100% electric driving

Try Tesla Model 3 ?

Configure your Tesla Model 3 vehicle or ask for a free trial.

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We drove 1,600 km in Tesla Model 3: it is not the autonomy that counts, but the efficiency

We rolled very exactly 1,608 kilometers aboard the cheapest of the Tesla Model 3, without ever fear for autonomy. For what ? Because efficiency is there.

Autonomy is undoubtedly the first obstacle to the acquisition of a 100 % electric car. And it’s completely legitimate: nobody wants to end up with an empty battery in the middle of the way. This is already the case with a phone, which has become a vital object in our daily life (this is not necessarily a good thing). When it is easy to anticipate a full of petrol with a thermal vehicle, a 100 % electric car requires a completely different organization, more provident focused.

Numerama was able to test the Tesla Model 3 Standard – the one that has increased a little price ago – on long journeys, in this month of 2022. We drove from Lille to Strasbourg, more than 500 kilometers – while the car is technically not able to ensure such a route without plugging (510 kilometers, according to the WLTP cycle which does not reflect reality). Have we feared the breakdown ? Not at all. Two reasons explain this insurance: the network of superchargers, but above all the efficiency of Model 3, that is to say its ability to use as little energy as possible when it rolls.

Forget autonomy, the real argument of a 100 % electric car is its efficiency

Efficiency is essential, in the sense that it makes it possible to best optimize the energy capacity provided by a battery. This is a fairly exact science, otherwise the manufacturers would make the following bet: install the largest battery possible, to obtain the greatest possible autonomy, taking into account weight and size constraints. Efficiency is obviously governed by a number of more or less controllable factors. There is the technological know-how of companies, which can design a less energy-consuming engine, for example. There are also external conditions, driving itself, speed or the use of comfort functionalities.

The consumption of an electric car is expressed in kWh per 100 kilometers, that is, concretely, the energy that the vehicle needs to perform these 100 kilometers. For a thermal vehicle, we are talking about liters of fuel consumed. The scheme is the same: the lower the fuel or kWh consumption, the longer the car will run.

The actors of the automotive market obviously seek multiple ways of improving efficiency, to avoid stupidly increasing the size of the battery. They can go through visible equipment (example: aerodynamic rims) or invisible (example: a heat pump, which recycles hot air for better management of the habitacle temperature). In short, there are levers to develop efficiency in the right direction. On this point, Tesla is really one of the good students.

16.9 kWh for 100 kilometers

We have rolled for very exactly 1,608 kilometers, consuming 272 kWh in all. Which gives a consumption of 16.9 kWh per 100 kilometers. This is an excellent result, especially since we have mainly rolled on the highway without trying to save energy (we stayed at the maximum authorized speed). On the fast tracks, maintain the car at a high speed – 130 km/h – consumes a lot of energy (this is the same for fuel, by the way). In this exercise, the Model 3 was very comfortable.

Here is the details of some of our journeys ::

% battery at the start	% battery on arrival	Kilometers	Consumption (for 100 km)
Route 1	100 %	80 %	72 km	16.3 kWh
Route 2	100 %	59 %	139 km	17.1 kWh
Route 3	100 %	88 %	54 km	12.5 kWh
Route 4	87 %	41 %	141 km	19.1 kWh
Route 5	100 %	85 %	55 km	16.3 kWh
Route 6	85 %	38 %	161 km	16.7 kWh
Route 7	98 %	45 %	171 km	15.5 kWh
Route 8	90 %	19 %	241 km	16.8 kWh
Route 9	92 %	51 %	143 km	16.8 kWh
Route 10	90 %	26 %	234 km	15.6 kWh

As you can see, we have never exceeded a consumption of 20 kWh/100 km. For comparison, the XC40 Volvo recharging oscillated between 22 and 24 kWh per 100 kilometers during our test while the Ford Mustang Mach-E was around 19/25 kWh. That is to say how much the Model 3 does better, while retaining more than honorable road performance (0 to 100 km/h in 6.1 seconds).

You will also notice that we were able to travel more than 200 kilometers on the highway without stopping and, above all, without ever fear of not arriving at destination. It should also be noted that Tesla offers the choice between displaying the percentage of remaining autonomy or the number of kilometers that the car can still travel. At no time did we privilege the second, more anxiety -provoking option – another proof of the confidence granted to the Model 3. Especially since the journey planner integrated into the car GPS is super reliable and relevant (we enter his destination and he will himself define the load stops).

Certainly, we took advantage of a clearer weather than in the middle of winter. Read: when temperatures are lower, consumption increases. But we are not in summer either.

And how much does that cost ?

There are several ways to recharge your Tesla:

• At home, on a domestic socket, with a cost that depends on your energy contract (approximately 15 cents per kWh);
• On a terminal, with a cost that depends on the terminal.

Tesla has its own network of superchargers, and this is the option to favor when you embark on a long journey. The price per kWh depends on the place where the terminal integrated into the manufacturer’s network is located.

Here are the prices of the superchargers on which we connected during our 1,608 kilometers:

• Senlis, € 0.46/kWh;
• Namur, € 0.39/kWh;
• Metz, € 0.46 /kWh;
• Achern, € 0.46/kWh;
• Arlon, € 0.49/kWh;
• Lille Lesquin, € 0.46/kWh.

Which gives an average of € 0.45 per kWh. If we bring this rate back to our consumption of 16.9 kWh, the 100 kilometers will cost around € 7.6. If we compare to a thermal sedan that consumes 8 liters of petrol per 100 kilometers, the advantage is clearly in favor of the Model 3, even more when the prices at the pump fly away (€ 7.6 against fifteen D ‘euros for petrol). In short, on the highway, ride in Tesla divides the invoice by two.

Upon arrival, it is less autonomy than efficiency, associated with a network of efficient supercomposes, which allows the Model 3 to ensure long smooth journeys (including in its standard variant). This allows Tesla to no longer make autonomy an issue and Elon Musk to assert that a model with 1,000 kilometers is useless.

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