Connect with us

Lifestyle

Tesla Model 3 travels 515.7 miles on single charge in hypermile run

Published

8 years ago

on

A Tesla Model 3 driven by Denver Tesla Club president Sean M. Mitchell just set a hypermile record, traveling 515.7 miles (830 km) on a single charge. The trip, which lasted 18 hours, started from Denver, CO and ended in Topeka, KS.

In a statement to Teslarati, Sean noted that the hypermile run’s result is actually very conservative, considering that the Model 3 still had roughly 10 kWh left when he decided to finish the trip. Ultimately, the Tesla enthusiast noted that his 515.7-mile record should be easy to beat. With a better route and much more deliberate planning, he believes that the Model 3 could surpass the 600-mile mark — the distance he was originally aiming for.

The results of the Model 3 hypermile run are impressive, nonetheless. Tesla, after all, lists the long-range RWD Model 3 with a range of 310 miles per charge. As could be seen in the Denver Tesla Club president’s trip, however, the electric car could travel 205 miles more than its rated range, under purpose-intent conditions.  

In order to get the most out of the electric car’s battery, Sean opted to travel at a consistent 30 miles per hour, which were determined by running tests on the electric car’s battery consumption while traveling at pre-determined speeds. In order to maintain the vehicle’s speed, cruise control was engaged. Autopilot was not activated during the hypermile run.

The Tesla enthusiast shared some additional details of the trip with Teslarati as well. According to Sean, he opted to turn on Chill Mode during the trip. Regenerative braking was also set to Low. Last but not least, the Model 3 he used for the hypermile run was equipped with Tesla’s 18-inch Aero Wheels, which are designed to extend the electric car’s range.

Advertisement
-
-

Last month, Ben Sullins of YouTube’s Teslanomics channel tested the Model 3’s range as well. Unlike the Denver-based Tesla enthusiast, the Teslanomics host’s trip was simply a test to determine the limits of the Model 3’s battery. During that particular run, which involved the electric car traveling at highway speeds, the Model 3’s battery was fully discharged after 281.1 miles. As noted by Ben in his video, however, the fact that his vehicle was equipped with a modified suspension and 20-inch Turbine-style aftermarket wheels could have easily played a part in the reduction of his Model 3’s range.

The Tesla Model 3 is proving to be an electric car that is capable of impressive feats. In track performance alone, the Model 3 has been showing signs that it could last in high-speed, high-performance driving. Last month, the Model 3 was driven on the Autobahn at 130 mph (209 km/h) without losing any stability. Even more recently, a Model 3 recently showcased its prowess on the track, where it impressed with its acceleration and handling.

Related Topics:

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

Advertisement
Comments

Firmware

Tesla unlocks in-car web conferencing to extend Google Meet, Teams and beyond

Tesla’s Summer Update lets owners join Google Meet, Teams, and Discord calls via cabin camera.

Published

3 days ago

on

July 29, 2026

By

tesla-zoom-meetings

Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, which just began rolling out to customer vehicles, now links the built-in web browser with the in-cabin camera feed and microphone input, thereby letting owners join video calls on nearly any browser-based service instead of just Zoom.

The change appears in Tesla’s own release notes for software version 2026.26 under “Web Browser,” which states that the vehicle can now use its interior camera and cabin microphone when a website requests access, with permission granted the same way a desktop browser handles it. As NotATeslaApp notes, this feature opens the door to Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Discord, and other webcam-enabled sites to activate the in-car cabin-facing camera. The feed automatically crops and zooms to center the driver in frame.

Tesla has offered in-car video calling before, but only through a dedicated Zoom app that launched at the end of 2022, a stripped-down browser preloaded with Zoom’s own web client and gated behind Premium Connectivity. Opening the full browser to any camera-requesting site removes that walled garden. Elon Musk first called video conferencing “definitely a future feature” back in 2020, when the pandemic pushed remote meetings into daily life, so this update effectively finishes something Tesla has been promising for six years.

Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features

The feature keeps the same restrictions that applied to Zoom on Tesla vehicles. It only works while the car is parked; shifting into Drive disables the camera feed, according to the release notes. It is also limited to vehicles running Tesla’s AMD Ryzen infotainment hardware, meaning older Intel-based Model S and Model X units, along with early Model 3 and Model Y builds, don’t get it.

Turning the browser into a general entry point for the in-cabin camera, rather than routing everything through one local app, widens the number of third-party sites that can ask for access, even though Tesla’s permission prompt.

With the Summer update only days into its rollout, be sure to stay with us on TikTok and X to see the latest video demonstrations.

Advertisement
-
-
Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s answer to Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey got way more specific

Published

1 week ago

on

July 23, 2026

By

Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”

In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.


When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”

The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”

Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.

Advertisement
-
-
Continue Reading

Cybertruck

Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love

Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.

Published

1 week ago

on

July 22, 2026

By

Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.

The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”

The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.

The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.

Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more

Advertisement
-
-

It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.

Continue Reading