Tesla Model 3 driver shocked after checking their battery percentage after driving just 95 miles in Arizona heat
Published on Sep 13, 2025 at 2:15 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Sep 10, 2025 at 4:35 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
A Tesla Model 3 owner was shocked after seeing how much power he’d used to drive just 95 miles in 118°F Arizona heat.
The man had used his Model 3 to run a few errands in the blistering heat.
After clocking up less than 100 miles, he stopped to check his battery percentage.
And he was shocked by just how rapidly it had gone down.
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The Tesla Model 3 owner was surprised by how much juice he had used
When it comes to an EV’s range, there are plenty of factors at play.
Of course, the make and model of the car are the main consideration.
But other things, like how fast you drive, the terrain you’re driving on, payload or cargo weight, the outside temperature, and battery health, can all have an impact.
One Tesla Model 3 owner recently noticed just how big an impact outside factors can have after driving just 95 miles in 118°F heat in Arizona.
In a post on Reddit, he explained that when he set off, his Model 3 was sitting on 80 percent battery.
But after about an hour, and 95 miles on the road, the 80 percent had dropped drastically to just 24 percent.
“This is my 2022 Model 3 Long Range I picked up last October,” he wrote in the post.
“It was 118°F the other day [in] Phoenix, and I had to drive across town to run some errands. By the time I got back, I had only 24 percent left.”
He said that most of the miles had been ‘highway driving at 78mph’.
The driver went on to explain that he had been blasting his air conditioner on 70°F for almost the entirety of his journey, but was still ‘kind of surprised’ to see the range drop so much.
“I guess this is the most extreme heat a Tesla could be [in],” he added.
What has the biggest impact when it comes to EV range?
While the Tesla Model 3 driver above appears to blame the hotter-than-average temperatures for his drop in power, a study has shown what the biggest impact on EV range actually is.
The study from Geotab found that by far the biggest factor when it comes to range loss is speed.
Researchers found that using the air conditioning system makes very little difference, particularly during longer trips, but that even moderate speed increases could cause significant range losses.
The results showed that an EV fitted with a 65kWh battery doing 50mph could expect around 143 miles of range, but increasing the speed to 60mph knocked the range to 121 miles.
Add on another 10mph, and the range fell to 103 miles, and by the time the EV was doing 80mph it was averaging around 88 miles of range between charges.
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Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Claire covers a wide variety of topics, with a special focus on cars, technology, planes, cryptocurrency, and luxury.
