Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter this past weekend that Tesla’s vehicles maintain a reserve of 5 to 15 miles of range even after the in-dash display shows that the battery is fully empty.
The tweet came in response to a tweet from Tesla YouTuber DÆrik who was in the middle of an attempt to hit a new range record in a Model 3 which he ended up doing in splendid fashion, driving just over 606 miles in a mind-numbing 32+ hour marathon around Denver, Colorado.
In a curious twist, the record breaking trip pushed the Model 3 to the limit when the car finally just stopped in a parking lot but showed that the 75kWh car used only 66kWh of power. It’s hard to argue with 606 miles on a charge, but the kilowatt-hour reading leaves a bit of a question mark hanging over the event.
Can the 75kWh Model 3 actually use all 75kWh of the battery, and if so, what portion of that is the reserve? The learnings that come out of events like this, adventures that push the limits of the car’s battery literally until it dies, are often the ones that lead to new features, new tweaks to the software, or new information from Tesla as it explains how its vehicles actually work at a more technical level than we might otherwise learn.
On that note, we reached out to Tesla to confirm what, exactly, the usable battery capacity is of the Model 3 and if the reserve is included in that. As always, we’ll update the article if and when we hear back, but until then, it will be up to the rogues and rule breakers to find out where the limits are and just how capable (or incapable) this new breed of vehicle is.
Current #tesla hypermile update. 374.3 miles in, 33 kWh remaining @ 112 Wh/mi should give us a total of 669.54 miles on a single charge. Going to go for 670+! @Tesla @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/izBFLN0mBN
— 🔋Erik🔋 (@teslainventory) May 26, 2018
Either way, Elon’s confirmation that Tesla’s vehicles have life after death is great news and will surely push hypermilers to the next level to break electric vehicle endurance records with the Model 3 and beyond.
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