Best Daily and Long Drive Charging Options

[deepakti]

Hello,

I read lot of posts regarding charging and for my below questions I not able to find the direct and clear answers, so I am requesting if you could please advise on the answers to below questions:

1. I have a town charging place that is free and I charge overnight every 10 days my MY and M3 (end up every 5-7 days each car). I usually charge to 90% for my regular daily use, is this fine? Or should I limit my charge to 80%?

2. While going to short weekend trips sometimes before reaching home and re-charging overnight at the town ports, I go down to 20%, is this fine? Or should I limit to 30% minimum.

3. I am planning on driving for long trip on Thursday and want to use the town charging on Tuesday night and charge to 90% and the rest on Thursday morning. Is this good? or should I charge to 95 % / 100% on Tuesday night, so when I pick up on Wednesday morning it would be good enough charge.

The town has Chargepoint Level 2 charges and always available to use. This is only 1.2 miles from my home.

Thanks and appreciate in advance

 

[jcanoe]

Tesla recommends only charging up to 90% daily but you can charge to 100% when taking a longer trip. Actually you would rarely need to charge to 100% even on a trip as you would be able to stop every 120 to 140 miles to charge at a Supercharger.

You only charge your Model Y to 90% every 10 days so most of the time the battery state of charge (SOC) is under 90%. For the Model 3 you say you charge every 5 to 7 days to 90%. Again, most of the time the battery SOC in the Model 3 is under 90%. This is fine.

There is no issue with returning from a trip with 20% charge remaining in the battery. 30% would give you a little more cushion before you would need to charge.

For the upcoming trip just charge to 90% as you normally would. (You could charge to 95% or 100% but there is no need.) Plan your route using the Tesla Navigation system or A Better Route Planner (ABRP). You will find that you only need to drive about 2 hours, 120 to 140 miles to reach the first Supercharger location.

When using a Supercharger it is best to arrive at the Supecharger with no more than 20% to 30% SOC and end the charging session when the battery is at ~70% (but no more than 80%.) This strategy will minimize the time spent charging. Ideally each Supercharger charging session will be no more than ~20 minutes.

A Better Route Planner (ABRP) is free for the standard version. ABRP is available as a web-based application and as a phone app.

A Better Routeplanner

 

[deepakti]

Tesla recommends only charging up to 90% daily but you can charge to 100% when taking a longer trip. Actually you would rarely need to charge to 100% even on a trip as you would be able to stop every 120 to 140 miles to charge at a Supercharger.

You only charge your Model Y to 90% every 10 days so most of the time the battery state of charge (SOC) is under 90%. For the Model 3 you say you charge every 5 to 7 days to 90%. Again, most of the time the battery SOC in the Model 3 is under 90%. This is fine.

There is no issue with returning from a trip with 20% charge remaining in the battery. 30% would give you a little more cushion before you would need to charge.

For the upcoming trip just charge to 90% as you normally would. (You could charge to 95% or 100% but there is no need.) Plan your route using the Tesla Navigation system or A Better Route Planner (ABRP). You will find that you only need to drive about 2 hours, 120 to 140 miles to reach the first Supercharger location.

When using a Supercharger it is best to arrive at the Supecharger with no more than 20% to 30% SOC and end the charging session when the battery is at ~70% (but no more than 80%.) This strategy will minimize the time spent charging. Ideally each Supercharger charging session will be no more than ~20 minutes.

A Better Route Planner (ABRP) is free for the standard version. ABRP is available as a web-based application and as a phone app.

A Better Routeplanner

Thanks this is helpful

 

[Big Earl]

Hello,

I read lot of posts regarding charging and for my below questions I not able to find the direct and clear answers, so I am requesting if you could please advise on the answers to below questions:

1. I have a town charging place that is free and I charge overnight every 10 days my MY and M3 (end up every 5-7 days each car). I usually charge to 90% for my regular daily use, is this fine? Or should I limit my charge to 80%?

2. While going to short weekend trips sometimes before reaching home and re-charging overnight at the town ports, I go down to 20%, is this fine? Or should I limit to 30% minimum.

3. I am planning on driving for long trip on Thursday and want to use the town charging on Tuesday night and charge to 90% and the rest on Thursday morning. Is this good? or should I charge to 95 % / 100% on Tuesday night, so when I pick up on Wednesday morning it would be good enough charge.

The town has Chargepoint Level 2 charges and always available to use. This is only 1.2 miles from my home.

Thanks and appreciate in advance

1. Yes, charging to 90% every few days is perfectly fine.

2. Yes, running it below 20% on trips is perfectly fine as long as you're comfortable with that amount of reserve.

3. It really won't make a difference - do whatever is most convenient for you without hogging the charging station. As @jcanoe said, given the density of Superchargers in the northeast, charging to full before a trip is largely unnecessary.

Cheers!

 

[deepakti]

1. Yes, charging to 90% every few days is perfectly fine.

2. Yes, running it below 20% on trips is perfectly fine as long as you're comfortable with that amount of reserve.

3. It really won't make a difference - do whatever is most convenient for you without hogging the charging station. As @jcanoe said, given the density of Superchargers in the northeast, charging to full before a trip is largely unnecessary.

Cheers!

Thanks

 

[Mulkogi]

Also if you charge past 90% it will slow you down a lot. Most efficient way to road trip is to charge and make use of the fast charging speeds used in between 15~80%.

 

[Fourdoor]

You don't have to baby these batteries too much, your routine of charging to 90% and then re-charging after you hit 20% is fine. I wouldn't do the full 100% charge and let the car sit at that SOC before your long trip though, if you really need that 100% go ahead and charge to 90% the night before, and then top off that last 10% just before you leave. Even better would be to find charging along the way that does away with the need to go all the way up to 100%.

I drove my Chevy Bolt back and forth to work for 3 years before they put in some chargers, now that they are here I charge my MYP to 60% each day, and when I arrive back to work the next day I am at 40%... then before days off I charge to 90% before I leave and usually that gets me through my weekend driving and I get back to work at around 20% after the weekend. I have a Clipper Creek 32 amp charger at home if I need more range over the weekend. For my upcoming vacation (down to Florida, Up to North Carolina, then back to Arkansas) I will fall somewhere between Kyle Conner (arrive at 2%, charge to 50%) and what the Tesla software plans (arrive at 20%, charge to 80%+) I plan on leaving home on a 90% charge, not 100% and arriving at Superchargers around 10% and charging to 70ish and do one planned meal stop per day, where I will figure on arriving at 5% and charging to 90%+ to have the time to do a nice sit down meal.

Good luck, and enjoy the cars

Keith

 

[deepakti]

You don't have to baby these batteries too much, your routine of charging to 90% and then re-charging after you hit 20% is fine. I wouldn't do the full 100% charge and let the car sit at that SOC before your long trip though, if you really need that 100% go ahead and charge to 90% the night before, and then top off that last 10% just before you leave. Even better would be to find charging along the way that does away with the need to go all the way up to 100%.

I drove my Chevy Bolt back and forth to work for 3 years before they put in some chargers, now that they are here I charge my MYP to 60% each day, and when I arrive back to work the next day I am at 40%... then before days off I charge to 90% before I leave and usually that gets me through my weekend driving and I get back to work at around 20% after the weekend. I have a Clipper Creek 32 amp charger at home if I need more range over the weekend. For my upcoming vacation (down to Florida, Up to North Carolina, then back to Arkansas) I will fall somewhere between Kyle Conner (arrive at 2%, charge to 50%) and what the Tesla software plans (arrive at 20%, charge to 80%+) I plan on leaving home on a 90% charge, not 100% and arriving at Superchargers around 10% and charging to 70ish and do one planned meal stop per day, where I will figure on arriving at 5% and charging to 90%+ to have the time to do a nice sit down meal.

Good luck, and enjoy the cars

Keith

Thanks

 

[Rocky_H]

I read lot of posts regarding charging and for my below questions I not able to find the direct and clear answers,

I see a lot of posts like this that ask these same questions and are saying, "I just want one simple answer!" Well, you can't find one, because there isn't one. There's no one setting that is best for all things. It's a varying spectrum with what is most ideal for the battery being a bit at odds and in conflict with how much range people need to practically use.

Using a more middle state of charge range like 30% to 80% is barely slightly better for the battery long term. But trying to stick to that really strictly is just going to stress you out and make the car unusable, so use a wider range than that as you need.

I will say that with the way the physics and chemistry of this works, it's not a linear effect from the ends. In other words, you get a pretty large benefit from that first 10% down from the top end, and then less so from the next 10% down, etc. So you're already getting most of the bang-for-the-buck with trying to stay below 90% most of the time.

 

[deepakti]

I see a lot of posts like this that ask these same questions and are saying, "I just want one simple answer!" Well, you can't find one, because there isn't one. There's no one setting that is best for all things. It's a varying spectrum with what is most ideal for the battery being a bit at odds and in conflict with how much range people need to practically use.

Using a more middle state of charge range like 30% to 80% is barely slightly better for the battery long term. But trying to stick to that really strictly is just going to stress you out and make the car unusable, so use a wider range than that as you need.

I will say that with the way the physics and chemistry of this works, it's not a linear effect from the ends. In other words, you get a pretty large benefit from that first 10% down from the top end, and then less so from the next 10% down, etc. So you're already getting most of the bang-for-the-buck with trying to stay below 90% most of the time.

thanks