Calibrating battery in Model 3 part 2

[@JRo250]

Bjørn, I've been watching your channel for years and would like to honestly thank you for all the hard work you put in. Changing a parameter or two in a test scenario and then having the will to drive for 4, 6, 8 hours to prove and document it is invaluable current and future EV owners. Thanks!

[@luisfernandes4145]

Listen to uncle Bjørn, he does things to his cars, so we don't have to do... 😊

[@Mvan559]

Hi Bjorn thanks for the info! Scan my tesla is awesome, keep up the great work my friend.

[@Stlaysix_27]

Thanks for that Bjorn. Any advice or help to plug the cable for ODB access or maybe a video to explain ?

[@_TbT_]

So the big M3 battery basically seems to have 70 usable kWh which communicates in percentage and range and 74 in total, where 4-5 “hidden” kWh are a buffer at the low end. Great testing and going “the extra mile” for us (in this case many many miles ;-) ). Thank you a lot!

[@Amund7]

@@chrisgeorge1337 New LR's also have 3,3 kwh buffer, I have had 2 new ones in 2019.

[@_TbT_]

@@chrisgeorge1337 Thank you for that update and even more insight. Sounds like a quite good and quite flat degradation curve to me.

[@JimArnold6]

@@chrisgeorge1337 I've been running ScanMyTesla for a few months now. I only have 7,427 miles on my LR RWD. I'm still showing 77.6 kWh Nominal Full Pack and 3.5 kWh Energy buffer. Another SMT user reported 77.9 kWh NFP when new. I'm surprised I haven't lost more as my car approaches its first birthday. I have to wonder if it's a combination of not all packs are created equal and my charging habits? I've supercharged about 35 times, but mostly stay between 70-30% SOC and store my car at 50% SOC. Have charged to 90% a few times (never past that yet) and only dipped into the 20's once. Car still hits all 324-5 miles of range for any SOC when calculated out.

[@JimArnold6]

@@chrisgeorge1337 My LR RWD is almost identical at 152 Wh/km (245 Wh/mi) on the lifetime trip meter I set. That lifetime trip miles exactly matches the odometer on the car. But, I have a mystery involving 14 kWhs missing. At 7,672 miles (12,347 km) the trip meter reported 1,876 kWh . In ScanMyTesla the Drive total is 1,890 kWh. That 14 kWH difference has existed as long as I been tracking the numbers the last few months. Am I looking at the correct SMT value to compare these? Have you seen the the reports @Mcarbon has recently done on his LR RWD at 115,000 and 130,000k miles? He was showing 303 miles of range at 130K miles. twitter.com/MCarbon/status/1241859340937633807 - He never saw any of the range updates of the Model 3's and showed 310 miles when new. What's really interesting is he Super Charges 98% of the time but keeps his SOC between 70-30% SOC whenever possible.

[@AnthonyWoodruffe]

I haven’t charged my LR AWD that often. I have just over 1700km. 3x Supercharger 2x 50KW charger 5x 22KW/11KW ac 3x 2,7KW domestic charge I have no idea how many kilometres range my car has. I just keep it in percent and work out my range based my overall consumption (191wh/km). This means I have potentially 392km range, which I think is realistic for Autobahn cruising. I made a trip on Monday where I left with 32% and arrived with 18% SOC and consumption was a little over 130wh/km. I plugged into a 50KW charger and had lunch and the battery was charged to 92% in that time. I think 10 miles/km range discrepancy here and there is a very minor issue. I will get more concerned when I start seeing 100km differences as this makes a big change to when to charge the car on long trips. Once again Björn, thank you for the video(s)

[@proman]

Looking forward to charging with trackmode! Did it myself and 5kW was going somewhere...

[@kwdavids1]

Thanks, Bjørn. Now I don't have to worry about battery calibration.

[@DanielDuese]

Thanks a lot for your videos! I learn a lot about my car 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@lackokalman]

Actually, I've just got back my range with the latest update, so all good now.

[@geekandi]

and that update is .. what?

[@deantoska8985]

great video, thanks Bjorn

[@kehletten]

Cool video Bjørn !!!

[@frodedahl3494]

0,2 kWh difference: This means that the batterytest you did on my car is robust even without the scan my tesla app? (done a few days before you start using the app) That’s impressive 👍

[@bjornnyland]

Yes, it confirms that whenever I test battery capacity in an Ioniq, e-tron, e-Golf or something else, I can trust those numbers. For example, I estimated available energy in e-tron 55 (95 kWh gross) to be 83.5 kWh. Later I read in official documents from Audi that the available energy (net capacity) is 83.6 kWh. Spot on!

[@volkerblume238]

I can fully confirm your observations.You don’t need to calibrate and balancing the battery actively. It is very clear that the car is doing the balancing by itself over the bleeding resistors at any state of charge. With the balancing it is obvious that a calibration is not any more needed as the voltage (with no consumption) gives directly the state of charge. For the driving scenario you need to consider the actual current in combination with the voltage to determine the SOC. Driving not below 10% SOC is also my recomendation as the voltage drop of the cells comes suddenly and leads to shut downs by BMS. I think there is a Norwegian KZbinr who has experience with sudden shut downs while a few km rest were displayed.

[@markfitzpatrick6692]

The movie the current war about Tesla and Edison is in theatres Friday at least in USA hopefully everywhere

[@kwdavids1]

There was a indy video game a few years back called "Tesla the Weatherman" about Tesla trying to save the world from a mad Edison and his DC robots.

[@DirtyTesla]

Hey Bjorn, I don't know if you noticed this, but during my "calibration," mileage below somewhere around ~40% was almost exactly accurate for 310 mile range... Meaning at 100% I have ~295 miles, but at 30% I have 95 miles, and 20% I have 61 or 62 miles...

[@ishankhaparde6686]

So you had the perfect ratio at all soc. For me, my range at low soc (

[@sebastianwloch4795]

Hello, I noticed something interesting: I have a SR+ and my rated range dropped from 376km to 355km over only 9 months and 12000km. I thought this was a lot of battery degradation. Then I noticed on Teslafi that the car was still charging about the same amount of kWh but the rated Wh/km seems to have slowly increased. So I tracked all my trips over 9 months and indeed: the rated Wh/km slowly but regularly increased from 133Wh/km to 141Wh/km at a rate of about 1Wh/km per month. I always thought this number was a constant but it did actually change, slowly but by more than 5%... Is the rated Wh/km linked to driving habits or temperature or did Tesla change that number with updates?

[@FancyaBevMate]

Unless it's in the manual I'd never do anything. Manufacturers love to invalidate warranties for any excuse ;) some even love to not cover warranty items in warranty eh Nissan!

[@Isaac-un4cn]

Only 400 km from a full charge? I guess I didn't follow closely - why the bad efficiency? Is it because of rain / temperature?

[@Hundredthldiot]

So what is the conclusion about the decrease in the range number? Increased bottom buffer, degradation or change in range calculation? In early tests you calculated Hammer had a usable capacity of 73 kWh, I think, and now it is "down" to 69.something?

[@M1kke78]

So, Teslas don't have ANY top buffer (100%=4.2V)? Didn't know that.

[@DerBlauzahn]

This is why they didn't recommend charge to 100% (except for instant trip).

[@Honeypot-x9s]

They typically do, at-least did before some software update. Used to be 4.12V I believe

[@michelcote]

Is the app calculate the internal resistance of the battery ?

[@akersjon278]

Holy Tesla nerd ninja skillz Bjornman, shieeet!!

[@CFG39]

Have you heard of the CAC reset? I have been told that’s the only real way to reset the range displayed.

[@effemmelle]

so there is officially a 4 kWh bottom buffer?

[@DerBlauzahn]

Great work! Thank you so much!

[@dangerdackel]

What is your reference standard against which you are calibrating?

[@cepaposible]

Bjørn any conclusion on the loss of range caused by software update? Is it a real thing or not? Thanks.

[@bjornnyland]

It's caused by software. I guess about 2 kWh was hidden.

[@hengkhoonboey7991]

@@bjornnyland What does this mean to actual real world range? The 2kWh which is hidden, is this an additional buffer we can use when the car reaches 0%?

[@hengkhoonboey7991]

@@raleedy So, Tesla hid an additional 2kWh because they need more protective envelope? Wonder why this happening as the Model 3 has been out for some while now in the US. The rest of the World are getting it now. Anyway, good job of @Bjørn Nyland

[@timr.6864]

Hi Bjørn, how about going 262 km/h on the Autobahn as long as possible with the App running? 👍🏻

[@_TbT_]

"As long as possible" can be quite short, only smaller stretches at a time. A lot of Autobahn is limited to lower speeds, there is a lot of road works and even if you are on a free stretch, you can only use your top speed until the next, way slower (130 km/h) car decides that it needs to overtake a truck and thinks that that small point in the rear view mirror really would need some time to reach her/him. Some numbers at top acceleration / top speed would indeed be interesting however.

[@timr.6864]

TbT I think Björn is experienced enough to know this and plan accordingly e.g. find a good part on the autobahn in eastern Germany and drive on a Sunday night / early morning. As a German myself I can say that Bjørn is quite a good “Autobahn”-driver. It will be very interesting to see if the front induction motor overheats and what the max temperatures for all components are. Also Voltage during continued high power draw will be quite interesting!

[@timr.6864]

Daniel Brice It is unlikely most of the time, yes. Still possible though!

[@TeslaTurkvlog]

Björn you should actually get your car rooted somehow and use it with root access. Then you can see exactly the capacity remaining from BMS. The Typical km announced is actually directly proportional to capacity. For example my EU MS 90D 2017 shows 424km when full with 300wh/mi for 'Typical' setup given in the BMS. When you multiply I have 79kWh energy in the 90 pack. I never expect more than 74-75kWh per charge in my trips because the figure includes the roughly 4kWh buffer. (A whole another arguing topic in TMC forums) My car is at 82,000km now and when I got it at 41,000km it was 438km = 81,6kWh. With your case you measured your usable (after buffer capacity) to be 69,8kWh. Add to that the alleged 3,3kWh buffer of Model 3, you actually have 73,1kWh capacity. 73,1/483 = 151Wh/km Typical consumption. Is this accurate you think?

[@bjornnyland]

No, it's not correct. The displayed km counts from 100-0 %. Therefore you can't count the buffer below zero when you calculate Wh/km for 1 km.

[@TeslaTurkvlog]

Bjørn Nyland There is no buffer below zero. There are calculation errors. Car shuts down at a specific cutoff voltage and the percentage is an estimation gained by coloumb counting and high tech resistince measurements. If you still can drive after 0 it means it underestimated. If it shuts down before 0 it is overestimated. When you get root access BMS tells it all. Hence full capacity estimations change overtime, hence the typical/rated km.

[@afelso]

Good work, Bjorn, thanks! One question though: why does the app show 370km and 181Wh/km while the car shows almost 380km and 177Wh/km?

[@Go_Digital_Gr]

Did anybody try if this app works in another EV like e-golf or leaf?

[@vhog666]

For e-Golf you should use another app called OBD11. And for Nissan you should use Spyleaf.

[@Mariuswow69]

Salut Alex Badea 2:03 :)

[@foersom5928]

10:45 Calibration and balancing is NOT the same thing. Calibrating is for the GOM to know the capacity of the battery. Balancing is to bring each cell (or cluster of cells) to the same voltage. With an older LiIon battery balancing is needed often when you want to use most of the capacity of the battery. If you only use 10-80% SOC of the full battery capacity balancing is rarely if ever needed.

[@bjornnyland]

Tesla has no GoM.

[@foersom5928]

@@bjornnyland So that is another reason why calibration was not needed on that car.

[@jnb1976]

Shiiiiiiiiiit! Keep Up The Very Good Work!

[@RubenKelevra]

It just confirmed what I always told people who talked about battery calibration: It's made up nonsense.

[@abyssunderground]

From personal experience, battery calibration is a real thing, just clearly not for a Tesla because it uses a much more complex method to do it compared to say a laptop or cellphone. It's much more of a big deal for a car than it is for a laptop to be correct so it has to be more accurate and reliable. I have calibrated the 'fuel meter' in my laptop and my cellphone a couple of times where it would cut off before 0%. After that, charging it up again to 100% appeared to re-calibrate the battery meter to a normal 0-100% range, and it works but only because what it is doing is very crude. Its basic coulomb counting and nothing more, and on small batteries it's more likely to go out of whack based on how you use it (or abuse it). This happens because of how quickly the battery degrades given that it's only meant to last a couple of years. I imagine Tesla's system is much more complex, using more than just coulomb counting to determine the real charge level. Even Apple now are catching on with the battery degradation bandwagon by implementing smart charging. My understanding is it will charge to 80% then top the last 20% off based on your usage habits, e.g. you wake up at 7am every day so it makes sure to continue charging that last 20% an hour before you wake up. Most phones otherwise would spend most of the night at 100%. I couldn't tell you if Apple are being smarter with their calibration though.

[@RubenKelevra]

@@abyssundergroundmy Phone is 2 years old and I never thought about removing the calibration data. It just works. My laptop is 9 years old and I recently replaced the battery, because it would hold just 1-2 hours of charge. But not because any estimate was wrong.

[@jerryfan4883]

Thanks for the video Mr. Nyland. So now I think it is more like a BMS firmware bug. It makes no sense to protect the battery by limiting the bottom. If Tesla wants to prevent fire, then they should limit the top.

[@darktemp_de]

My guess why nothing changed is, that you stopped discharging at 0%. Maybe it's only learning the lower end if energy is used below 0%. In the first video while discharging at 0% there was (several times) briefly -0.17% visible which quickly changed to 0% again. Maybe that's adjusting the lower end. But theoretically it should already learn it with the cell voltage, so I guess that my guess is wrong^^

[@300rivers7]

A quick shout out to the i3 over there!

[@iss9875]

There is no such thing as battery calibration in Tesla. What you do is just one more attempt to regain something that was lost due to degradation. If you see temporary range increase it is most likely your BMS calculation issue.

[@bjornnyland]

Exactly. You just said it yourself. BMS calculation = calibration.

[@jamesellis4899]

i think waste of time- just drive it- Both the 3 and the S fluctuate little but I think it is so silly- the cars both go much farther than I need. waiting around for 100% is such a WASTE of time. Juice up fast 20% to maybe 60%-80% and get on with life. That is the fastest sweet spot. never sit around charging to "Top off"

[@windchange2175]

you charge the battery too much, I advise you not to charge it more than 90%.

[@bjornnyland]

Uh...