October 2019. California.

I bought a 2018 Long Range RWD Model 3 in April 2018. I have fully charged the car 5 times. At 24,000 miles a 100% charge gave me the full advertised rated range of 325 miles (520 km). At 43,000 miles a full charge gave me 300 miles of rated range. At 5 years and 67,000 miles I got 291 miles of range.

Tesla made this a little complex since my car was released in 2018 with 310 miles of range, and one year later increased the range to 325 miles through a software update, which I believe increased the usable portion of the battery pack.

The first couple of 100% charges each gave me the full rated range* advertised by Tesla. When my car was 18 months old and had 24,000 miles on the odometer it got the full 325 miles of rated range.

My next 100% charge wasn’t until my car was 3 years old and had 43,000 miles on the odometer. I got 300 miles, which is down 3½ percent compared to the initial 310 miles of rated range when the car was new; and 8% down compared to the 325 miles of rated range after the software update.

After 5 years and 67,000 of driving I did another full charge and got 291 miles, which is down ~ 6.2% from the initial 310 miles, or 10.5% from the 325 miles of rated range. I suspect that Tesla dialed down the usable portion of the pack through a subsequent software update because my rated range dropped pretty quick from 325 down to 300. In the past 2 years I’ve lost another 9 miles of range.

In terms of kWh: Total capacity of the battery pack was 80.5 kWh when new (EPA calc), with ~74.5 kWh usable. The software update increased the usable portion to ~78.2 kWh. I estimate that I’ve got about 70.5 kWh usable after 5 years.

In terms of battery pack care: my car usually operates between 40-70% SOC and I’ve only done the full charge 4 times. Most of my charging (~88%) is Level 2: I charge at home on a 240 volt 30 amp clothes dryer outlet. The remaining 12% was from supercharging on road trips. I park in cool places in hot weather. I called Tesla about my battery pack status and they said it’s 0.4% below average compared to similar models.

300 miles of real world driving on a single charge is achievable for me in mild and hot weather – EVs are very efficient when it’s warm and AC is not a big power draw. But that range is not possible in cold weather. As a good example of real world range, in 2019 I did a full charge at home before leaving that gave me 325 miles of range. It was 48F degrees that morning and I used the seat heater to keep me warm. I drove 223 miles to the first supercharger averaging 60 mph for that leg of the trip and still had 110 miles of rated range remaining in the pack.

I haven’t needed 300 miles of range in the real world – 238 miles is the furthest I’ve driven between charging sessions so far. However, 300 miles of range gives you flexibility, removes the idea of range anxiety, and makes the Model 3 a good car for road trips.

*Rated range is the estimate of how far you can drive based on the amount of energy stored in the battery pack.