Tesla's on-board range estimates handle temperature differently
While all EV batteries are affected by extreme temperatures, we have to call out Teslas as a special case. In most cars, the on-board range estimate changes a lot when it is very cold or very hot. However, Tesla controls for temperature effects very tightly and often does not make them obvious to the driver, i.e. the dashboard range often does not reflect temperature effects. Tesla does this in two ways. First, they use a robust thermal management system to keep the battery within a healthy operational temperature range, warming it in the winter and cooling it in the summer. The second thing that Tesla does is calculate its on-board range by using a fixed efficiency value, rather than using a dynamic value based on external factors. That means that Tesla range estimates often look the same in any temperature, even though Tesla drivers know they can change quite a bit. Recurrent is working to ground truth Tesla range predictions in hot and cold weather and will update our community as we do.