UPDATE: Tesla Model 3 Sets New Range Record At 606.2 Miles
9 H BY STEVEN LOVEDAY 33
Well, the second Tesla Model 3 hypermiling attempt has come to a close and we’re pretty impressed.
Let me just say that Domenick Yoney is officially our “special assignments” guy. However, he was too busy this holiday weekend watching his grass grow, so tuning in to the round-the-clock coverage of this epic hypermiling attempt fell on me (sadly, the paint at my house was all dry, so I didn’t have a good excuse). Don’t feel bad though, at least I wasn’t in the 108-degree Tesla Model 3 with Sean Mitchell and Erik Strait (DAErik) driving in circles for 32 hours.
***UPDATE: We reached out to Sean to see if more details were available yet. It seems that they don’t have any answers, but the car is currently being towed to a Tesla Service Center:
Getting our hypermile #Model3 towed to the Service Center. After leaving it charged overnight at a Supercharger it is still not taking a charge. @teslainventory pic.twitter.com/QicQbnnWrF
— Sean M Mitchell (@seanmmitchell) May 27, 2018
More Information
The guys found a route near Denver, Colorado with only a 10-foot elevation change. It was essentially a one-mile loop in what appears to be a hotel park near the Denver International Airport. So, they just drove around the block at some 20 to 30 mph until the battery died. Let me tell you, it was fascinating to watch. Domenick should be jealous, since we’re sure his grass didn’t grow very much during this attempt.
The guys were not only out to beat Sean’s previous Model 3 range record (which we believe was the only record before now), but also to set a new production EV range record by beating Tesla Owners Italia’s 670-mile Model S 100D feat. They were hoping to earn a spot in the Guinness Book of World Record.
The pair started in the late afternoon on Friday, May 25. They stopped minimally to use the bathroom, but otherwise, kept driving. For food and beverage pickup, they used a fishing net and had their friend David throw the goodies into the net as they drove by. It took them a total of 32 hours and they hit 606.2 total miles.
Weirdly, the car was showing a lower percentage than expected and died at 66 kWh instead of 75. Additionally, when they were done they ran into difficulties charging the vehicle.
When we have more information, we’ll update this post.
Wow, amazing Tesla hypermile drive happening https://t.co/jJWufZ98C9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 26, 2018
Hey @elonmusk, @teslainventory and I figured out how to catch @Chipotle burritos on our #Model3 hypermile attempt without stopping. Perhaps you should hire us as interns for @SpaceX. 😂 pic.twitter.com/8nRfJAQro0
— Sean M Mitchell (@seanmmitchell) May 27, 2018
Final #Model3 hypermile numbers from @teslainventory and I: 606.2 miles (975 km), 66 kWh, and 110 wh/mi, and 32 hours of driving. At its peak it was 108F in the cabin with no a/c running. Thank you @Tesla and @elonmusk for making such an incredible piece of machinery! pic.twitter.com/Z1LJk4Ligk
— Sean M Mitchell (@seanmmitchell) May 27, 2018
Source: The Denver Post
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33 Comments on "UPDATE: Tesla Model 3 Sets New Range Record At 606.2 Miles"
Stopped for bathroom breaks? They obviously aren’t real hypermilers
Go by any aviation supply shop, they have “portable johns”, a bottle designed for use from a seat. Airplanes can’t just pull over.
How about a box of Depends?
Or ask NASA for astronaut diapers?
Two words: That’s disgusting…
Need to relieve the hips n back by standing…dumb n bad for bod to sit in same position for many hours
Looks like there were 2 guys in the car for the entire test. Why? If they took turns driving they could reduce weight by 150-200 pounds.
So that means 625 miles might be doable?
Probably wouldn’t make a difference. “A body in motion tends to stay in motion”.
9.1 mi/kWh! That seems incredible. But if it checks out, WOW!
Lights out crazy! My eGolf if driven prius style will get close to 6 …and that’s it.
But, did they indeed brick it? If so, that’s not a very impressive fail safe design.
I agree if true the car should have shut down before the battery got destroyed.
I doubt that most engineers of gas cars expect their cars to go similar distances compared to their ratings, though!
However, the 2 times I have drained it dry in an ICE, once was a bit of a screw up, about a mile from the pumps; the other was a range test on a Prius! With the prius, I had to pull over, & wait fir a gallon of gas from AAA, on my CAA Membership, but the Pure ICE, a 1981 Chevy Citation, I was able to use a Fuse to jump the Clutch Lock Out Circuit, and Drive it Electricly enough to get over a little rise in the road, then coast it in to the pumps, on pure Silent Mode! (Strong Starter Motor & Good Battery! My first Ever “EV Drive!”)
Bot incidents were without further adue, after I added Go Juice! Startet up within 1-2 Seconds!
I suspect, this particluar “Hypermile Event” will provide some extra Data for Tesla Engineers, & might result in a software update, to not let you get to 0%! (Surprising that it let them get there, anyway!)
They drove quite a few miles at 0%, maybe the 12v battery was too low to operate the BMS, and once charged will let the HV battery take a charge?
Congratulation Sean Mitchell and Erik Strait.
Fantastic.
So we can expect a real world mileage of 350 miles easily in a gentle 60 – 70 mile driving.
That means even for a 300 mile trip, we can charge up to 90% and finish the trip with 10% charge left as a buffer.
Maintaining between 10 – 90% is safer and will let the battery last longer.
Or, charge it up to 80%, drive 80 Mph, for 180-200 miles, supercharge for 15 Minutes, and do the last 170-150 Miles!
If you do not need interior climate controls, are not going up a lot in elevation, and don’t exceed by a ton the payload of the two smallish, slender dudes in this test above.
“Additionally, they ran into problems recharging the vehicle.”…..
Why would a statement be put in a story without an explanation? What Problems. The title page seems to indicate they COULDN’T recharge the vehicle. Assuming they eventually got it going again, what did they do to GET it going?
At about three in the morning our time, the video was ending. They were trying to charge the car at different locations, some stations were blocked or not working, they were trying to do a hard reset because the car wouldn’t charge. Everyone was very tired and it wasn’t immediately clear what the problem was. There were ICE cars parked in the Tesla destination charger spots. They continued to make different attempts unsuccessfully. They said they were going to leave the car plugged in at a free charger at the hotel and check back in the morning, after which they would update everyone on the situation. We embedded the last several hours of the video in the post, so people can watch the end and make their own conclusions. We didn’t provide a conclusion like the battery was bricked, or the charger was malfunctioning, or the charging station wasn’t working, because we didn’t have any clarification of those details.
They said to tune in to Sean Mitchells Twitter account today to get more information on what was going on. We collected details throughout the entire 32 hours, plus tuned in at 3 a.m. last night to get the final information. We’ve been checking Sean’s Twitter account throughout the day so that we can update the post. Even the article that was following them in the Denver Post wasn’t updated until recently and still did not have that information available.
It looks like it would not take a charge, and has been towed to the service center… I think if they charge the 12V battery, the BMS will open up the HV battery for charging.
Makes sense.
Very curious if that’s the case too. You would think a car as advanced as this would prevent this from happening.
All of the controls run off the 12V battery, so if that is too low, nothing works, there have been quite a few Tesla’s broke down when the 12V battery gets too low, if I recall correctly, Marques Brownlee had this problem a long long time ago? Since these guys were running at night with headlights and flashers, power windows all running off the 12V battery, that could have been enough to discharge it and put the BMS in a safety mode? Just my thought.
From the screenshot, the car was having some issues determining how much charge had been used, .. so you have to wonder if it knew when to shut down to prevent damaging the battery. …. I guess we’ll find out
Elon contacted them on Twitter and told them they could take the battery down to zero and continue driving 5 to 15 more miles until the car would not drive, and this would not damage the battery. The issue they’re having was even though the car told them they had several kilowatt-hours left, it was showing a very low percentage remaining. Their calculations were based on the fact that the car has 75 kWh usable, which has been confirmed on multiple occasions. However at 66 the car failed to operate any longer.
We emailed Sean and are waiting to hear back. He just posted an update on Twitter. We’ve updated the post, but there still isn’t any concrete information.
The car has been towed to the service center.
They left it plugged in hopefully charging overnight?
That battery is confused.
Wow.
Have to think back to what happened in the storms when Telsa unlocked extra capacity. Dave’s note about the 12volt battery makes sense. Time for another attempt at hypermiling but with one person and provisions. AV level 4 will help these efforts.
It would de interesting to see, also using a larger area to test, and cooler temps might improve things.
Please use some method to you article structure. I’m 4 paragraphs in, still don’t know what the article or is about and feel dazed and confused from all the jumping around
With one person in the car and less stops 630 miles should be possible. Sone owners showed usable energy 72.5kwh with that much should equal the record of Model S.