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Apps and battery usage

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Worth also adding that certainly with recent iOS, the v4 version of the app (similar but different with v3) has a couple of (swipe left) widget options that allow you to quickly see a recent car charge without waking the car. It’s not quite the latest but it won’t change much unless you wake the car…

I presume that a similar think may exist on Android or will soon.

Take your pick
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It’s an app I’ve been using for the last 6 years. It just puts a number on my Apple Watch of the car’s range.

It may not be that app causing the issue. It may be one of the other 2 apps.

My point is, when I logged out of ALL apps the battery drain was DRASTICALLY better not just a bit better.
If you report excess drain to Tesla, the first thing thing they will tell you is to log out of all apps. It's not the apps draining the battery, its the apps keeping the car awake and THAT drains the battery.

Here is my simplistic understanding of how the apps interact with the car.
1/ Using the API. When the car is awake it sends a stream of data to the Tesla servers and then onto the Tesla App. This contains location, current battery charge, speed, etc. Apps like Teslamate read the stream between the servers and the Tesla app (ok they pretend they're the Tesla App) and display the info. The downside is you only get data when the car is awake*. The upside is that the app never wakens the car.

2/ Poll the car and ask for the data. This will waken the car if its asleep and result in battery drain because the car has got to keep all its system up and running. IIRC the car will try to sleep after about 20 minutes of no interaction. But that's 20 minutes of drain every time the app connects to the car. Most recent apps (Teslafi folks keep me right here) stop polling the car after a preset time and let the car sleep.

Now in situation 2, if you have more than one app polling the car, then there's a very good chance that the timings won't be aligned. So each app will poll the car in the hope that it's fallen asleep only to discover that the other app has just polled the car. Rinse and repeat.

*As others have said, there is no need to keep checking the range on the car when it is parked. The vast majority of the power is still going to be there the next time you use the car. If you think you have vampire drain then best not to have apps running at all - or at least get some that use the API.

Think of it like you're waking your spouse/partner/significant other throughout the night to see if they've had enough sleep. I bet you'll only do that once :)
 
The only App I have is the Tesla one. It tells me enough and I certainly don't need my watch telling me the remaining range...
I certainly will not pay for Apps that provide me with lots of interesting, fascinating, but ultimately useless information.
I could probably live with a more basic version that simply opened the car.
 
I had 3 apps installed.

Stats. EV Watch and EV Energy.

When I uninstalled all 3 my car sat at about 104 miles range for 3 days on my drive last week.

I have now re-installed EV Watch and EV Energy and after my car finished charging last night it had lost 12 miles before the morning.

I only use EV Watch for the Apple Watch complication to show my car range. If this draining my car so much I can live without it.

I guess there is no easy way to find out the battery drain of each app.

I used the same apps on my cars for the past 5-6 years and I’ve just accepted the phantom drain as a part of life.

What I have never witnessed before was my car not losing an ounce of energy over a 3 cold weather day period.
12 miles per day is about 3 kWh of energy, or 1 megawatt hour of energy annually to display the car’s current state of charge on your Apple Watch.
 
I’m logged out of everything at the moment. If the drain stops like it did before I’m happy to have no apps.

One app I’m unsure if it polls the car frequently is EV Energy which is used for scheduled charging (and gives rewards). I’d like to keep that installed.
 
It works with any IIRC.. if it knows the tariff it sets up the off peak times itself otherwise you can enter them manually.

I've not noticed any particular drain from using it.. in fact if I start the app half the time it can't contact the car first time because it's asleep..
 
I’m logged out of everything at the moment. If the drain stops like it did before I’m happy to have no apps.

One app I’m unsure if it polls the car frequently is EV Energy which is used for scheduled charging (and gives rewards). I’d like to keep that installed.
 
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That’s great to hear because I don’t mind it polling then because it’s plugged in!
 
It’s an app I’ve been using for the last 6 years. It just puts a number on my Apple Watch of the car’s range.

It may not be that app causing the issue. It may be one of the other 2 apps.

My point is, when I logged out of ALL apps the battery drain was DRASTICALLY better not just a bit better.
The car takes 15-20minutes after the last ping to go to sleep so 1 app pinging once every 20 minutes can keep the car awake 24-7. When awake an M3 uses 200-300wh/h while parked more than it does if asleep so if your app was keeping it awake all day. on a day where you did not drive that would be 5-7.5kwh per day lost. So yes one app can make a drastic difference.
 
Havng spent some time looking at the API, the car won't wake up unless its asked to with a specific request.


Any other command sent to the car appears not to wake it up and lets it sleep.

Apps can work perfectly well without waking the car however there is a noticeable time lag for the car to respond if it is asleep. Logging apps are probably better than "action" apps as there is no need to wake the car, just asking for the status will not wake the car, whereas an app that prides itself on opening the door or starting charge may well want to keep the car awake so the commands respond quickly (it's obviously down to the way the developer has coded it, a logging app could be really bad and an action app good, but the motivation to keep the car awake only really exists for the apps that can do actions)

I use teslamate and you can see if the cars sleeping which is what you want for low vampire drain

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It's got nothing to do with the interaction of the apps, they all go through the same API and its down to the commands being sent.

EDIT to add: Having read Jasons comment about frequent requests stopping it going to sleep, there may be something in that but I've not experienced it.

As an aside, software updates can leave the car in a state where it won't sleep so it's worth keeping an eye on it and rebooting the car if necessary.
 
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The native Tesla APP (which you have to use to communicate with Tesla Service), keeps the car awake. I've noticed significant drain, with the Tesla App running in the background. On that note, I second @GeorgeSymonds recommendation of using Teslamate. It is super useful for observing your cars behavior/performance without waking it.

My stats over the past 2 days is as follows :
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No range loss while sleeping over the past 8 hours.

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I don't use my LR much so its on my drive, unplugged, for days at a time.
I regularly take a "peek" at it via TeslaFi and the pattern seems to be sleep for approx 24 hours after its last drive, wake for 11-12 minutes (no loss indicated) then repeat a 24 hour sleep and 11-12 minute wake.
Today was different, it stayed awake for an hour before sleeping and dropped 1%.

I rarely use the Tesla App because it does waken the car though, if you do no more than check things, the car will sleep again usually within 15 minutes then repeats the 24 hour sleep/11 minute wake cycle. I use TeslaFi in monitor only mode (no control functions).

It does take longer to go to sleep after a drive - I guess while things are cooling down.

I'm too lazy and don't have a PHD in 'geekness' to run Teslamate so use the 'ready-cooked' TeslaFi web program.