Ideal charge %?

[Lasttoy]

Charge it till it explodes. It's under warranty

 

[rudedawg78]

He actually says 30% is better.





Tesla: "To maintain service life, the battery pack should be stored at a state of charge (SOC) of 15 to 50%."

I leave my CT plugged in all the time (as the owner's manual suggests) and the lowest charge % you can set is 50%. So, while 30% might be the "best", it is hard to maintain that percentage since you can't set below 50%.

So, I am with @CyberGus , 50% charge, 100% awesome!

 

[Killlbox]

First off, thank you all for the wonderful information. Lots of great stuff here!!

The Beast gets driven about 10 miles a day M-F then we usually go on day trips during the weekend. It looks like we should charge to 30% during the week then up to 80% on the weekends.

 

[HaulingAss]

First off, thank you all for the wonderful information. Lots of great stuff here!!

The Beast gets driven about 10 miles a day M-F then we usually go on day trips during the weekend. It looks like we should charge to 30% during the week then up to 80% on the weekends.

There is no advantage to charging your battery less than 50% or else Tesla would allow us to set the charge limit to values below 50%. It would absolutely cost them nothing to make the lowest charge limit 30%, if that would make your battery last longer. This is not some conspiracy to get you to trash your battery so you will buy another new Tesla when your old one dies.

If you are only making short trips through the week, just set your charge limit to 50% and keep it plugged in (assuming you have a charging station at home).

People are over-thinking this. How many people worry that their ICE car's engine and transmission might "only" last 300,000 miles when buying a new car? That's not even on anybody's mind because ICE cars are typically costed out over 150K to 200K miles. After that many miles, the value of an ICE car has already depreciated to next to nothing. The whole "expensive battery replacement" narrative is just another false narrative designed to make you think buying a new EV is somehow risky or a bad value because the battery will fail eventually. When, in fact, they tend to last longer than ICE cars without any major repairs. Why don't media stories worry about the cost of engine and transmission replacements when discussing new vehicle purchases? Yeah, because most cars are sent to the recyclers before they get new engines and transmissions.

Now cue all the people who will tell you how their Toyota is on it's third engine/transmission and approaching a million miles. And that replacement only cost $500 each time. Because it's so easy and cheap to rebuild engines and transmissions.

 

[Killlbox]

There is no advantage to charging your battery less than 50% or else Tesla would allow us to set the charge limit to values below 50%. It would absolutely cost them nothing to make the maximum charge limit 30%, if that would make your battery last longer. This is not some conspiracy to get you to trash your battery so you will buy another new Tesla when your old one dies.

If you are only making short trips through the week, just set your charge limit to 50% and keep it plugged in (assuming you have a charging station at home).

People are over-thinking this. How many people worry that their ICE car's engine and transmission might "only" last 300,000 miles when buying a new car? That's not even on anybody's mind because ICE cars are typically costed out over 150K to 200K miles. After that many miles, the value of an ICE car has already depreciated to next to nothing. The whole "expensive battery replacement" narrative is just another false narrative designed to make you think buying a new EV is somehow risky or a bad value because the battery will fail eventually. When, in fact, they tend to last longer than ICE cars without any major repairs. Why don't media stories worry about the cost of engine and transmission replacements when discussing new vehicle purchases? Yeah, because most cars are sent to the recyclers before they get new engines and transmissions.

Now cue all the people who will tell you how their Toyota is on it's third engine/transmission and approaching a million miles. And that replacement only cost $500 each time. Because it's so easy and cheap to rebuild engines and transmissions.

Very true.
We’re just new to the EV thing and want to do the right thing from the start.

 

[Outdoors]

Very true.
We’re just new to the EV thing and want to do the right thing from the start.

Sweet. Driving my S with 290k with my brembo rotors and new pads in the back. Don't need them, but I think it's time.

Yet it's not time to start charging to 50 %. I just did what Tesla told me to do while some people interpret that as the maximum. I viewed it as my opportunity to use all those miles everyday and I almost do.

11.2% degradation. Slightly better than what Tesla advertises, but not by much. Go with Tesla and you can always blame them. A go with the internet and you can blame no one. Despite whatever ulterior motives they supposedly have. I also have goblins in my basement.

 

[cyberos]

Set my charge limit to 65%. My commute is like 12 miles each way and I'm never more than 50 miles from home. Road trips we do in my wife's hybrid

After reading this thread I realized I can get back to 65% charge before peak energy pricing

 

[eswimm]

I charged my 2016 Model X to 90% every day for 8 years and had 94% of the original capacity when I sold it for the CT. I've been and will continue to charge the CT to 90% daily. I'm not going to cripple myself by 20% (or more) of my battery so I can maybe save 2-3% over 8 years.

 

[DJAlan2000]

R


When are you ever gonna use those modes for an extended period of time to get the full drain from them? Are talking about having the truck in a garage overnight where sentry mode is required? I never use cabin overheat protection.
50% is to prolong the life of your battery. I paid a premium for the truck, going to keep it going to keep it long term, so I want to get the best lifespan out of the battery.

I actually 'forgot' to turn off Sentry Mode when I went on a 2 week trip and because it was parked 'on the street', it recorded every time someone walked past it... I had parked it with 74% and when I was almost done with vacation I checked in on it only to find that it was down to 18% and I still had 3 days to go before I would be driving it!! Really worried me that it lost 56% of it's charge in 11 days... I figured that if it was losing 5% per day that I was going to be LUCKY to have 3% left when I got there... So, I went into the settings to turn off Sentry Mode... But it was already off!!

Seems that when Sentry Mode see's that it's down to 20% battery it automatically shuts down to save battery... Needless to say, when I got to the car 3 days later it had 15% left... whew... PLENTY enough to get me to a Supercharger to 'fill up' for the trip home... Oh, and because it was at 10% when we got to the Supercharger it charged up REALLY quickly to 50% (didn't want to pay any more than I had to)... About 8-10 minutes at most...

That was all about a year ago, since then they have updated the software so that Sentry Mode doesn't use as much battery (or so they say)... I will test it out in a few months when we're on another longish vacation...

 

[MyFirstElectricTesla]

...

That was all about a year ago, since then they have updated the software so that Sentry Mode doesn't use as much battery (or so they say)... I will test it out in a few months when we're on another longish vacation...

You've got your CT a year ago?

 

[DJAlan2000]

You've got your CT a year ago?

I wish!! We still haven't received it... Hoping any day now we'll get the VIN... That was all with my Model Y-LR... I thought I said that in the message... Guess I didn't... Oh well, it was on the 'side' under Vehicles... hehe...

We've been waiting just over 2 months since doing final 'config' and paying the extra $1000... We actually first ordered it way back in late Nov. 2019 (along with about half a million others!)...

 

[THEgasMAN]

Just enough to get the wife in labor to the hospital. Then to the bar, and back to hospital. That's how I calculate it. Set then forget it.

only if self driving is available so that you wouldn’t be driving from the bar to the hospital

 

[BannedByTMC]

If you want to hear from an actual battery chemist, Dr Jeff Dahn, who works with Tesla, this is informative. TLDR, higher SOC, (voltage), causes more stress on the cell and shallow cycling is best for longevity. Most of the time I charge My Model 3 to about 75% and recharge around 45%, close to his optimal recommendation.

 

[MisterChilidog]

I have the truck charging to 80% in the garage. It’s what the Tesla folks set it at when we got it.

Is that the correct number, should I change it to something else?

80% is a good everyday limit to set. When road-tripping, you'll want to charge just enough to get to your next supercharging location (but give yourself a few % pad). That way, you're not charging for a longer time than you need to be, and your next charging session will begin at a deeper discharge, which will translate to a higher rate of charge for more of your charging session. The idea (when traveling) is to get the energy you need at the highest charging speeds possible.

 

[BoiseCT]

I charged my model 3 LR for 6 years to 80% daily. It is still within 3% of original range (99th percentile on Recurrent). 80% likely won't hurt anything.