Quote:
Originally Posted by Vman455
Gas cars do this too. When Cadillac introduced digital fuel gauges for the first time, they got a number of complaints that the gauge dropped from 18 (full) to 17 too quickly. The next model year, they changed the programming so it displayed 18-18-16, skipping 17 entirely. The complaints went away. Gas gauges aren't linear, and I suppose manufacturers don't want to make battery reserve gauges linear either for the same (entirely psychological) reasons.
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I can think of one reasonable explanation besides that too. Capacity decline occurs more rapidly at first, and then slows over time. They could program the bars to decline at a more linear rate of time rather than a linear rate of capacity loss. It might take the same amount of time to lose the first 15% as it does to lose the next 8%. Obscuring the rapid initial capacity loss from the customer probably makes sense. Other cars have built in reserves to cover the initial capacity loss, and I bet that helps to insulate the customer from feeling that their car is rapidly wearing out.
One of the reasons I was interested in the Model 3 standard range is that it has the same battery as the standard+. That means it naturally has a buffer that will maintain full range for a longer period of time. At some point not too far into the future, both the standard range and standard+ will have the same usable range even though people paid more for the standard+