Charge at 50kw or Supercharge at 350kw?

[RJUK]

Hi folks, I've had my M3P for 3 years now and have extended my lease for another year. In that time I've never used a Supercharger. My reason being that I mostly charge from home and when I need to charge in public I tend to go for a 50kw charger from Pod Point or similar rather than a 350kw Supercharger from Tesla. I always figured that I'd rather wait an extra half an hour whilst I check emails and eat lunch and also keep my battery healthier by charging at a slower speed.

Is that thinking right? I'm going to be doing close to 800 - 900 miles over the next 3 days so was wondering if I should try a Supercharger or if it's better for the battery to just carry on with the 50kw.

As much as people on the internet seem to think Tesla has some special sauce battery management in their chargers, I suspect that nothing they can do will actually prevent the inevitable harm that comes from charging your car 7 times faster. I also suspect all the chargers from all brands have some degree of battery management that monitors things and does it's best to keep your battery happy (or that the car's BMS will do that regardless of whether you're on a Tesla charger or another brand's charger).

Am I correct in that thinking? I know the act of Supercharging a handful of times will probably have a negligible impact on the battery, but I figure that if I'm stopped checking emails etc anyway, I might as well be as kind as possible to the battery...

 

[Jason71]

You are over thinking. Go with the supercharger. Any negative effect if there is one will be negligible and you don't even own the car so do what is most convenient.

 

[qwickshot]

I thought I’d be the first to say it’s a lease so don’t worry about it.

50kw vs super charging isn’t going to move the needle in reality. P.S. super chargers are 250kw max on a V3 and 150ish on a V2.

The same applies to charging to 100%, it’s fine as long as you don’t leave it there for a significant amount of time. If I was traveling outside the cars range, I’d charge to 100% every time.

In all seriousness, why are you worried if the battery is at 95% or 94% at the end of year 3/4? That’s what we are talking about here. You are spending all this time and worrying about potentially preserving a few watt hours in a car that you are renting. Rather you than me.

 

[Mr H]

It's a lease therefore it's not your problem and as the battery has an 8 year warranty just go for the quickest option

 

[Buzzliteyear]

Personally it's a case of How far I'm going, on a long distance which is rare then I'll supercharge. Local trips I'll use the UMC and 50KW if I change my plans whilst out, plus the Superchargers are not close by.

 

[NewbieT]

Your thinking does work- for those occasions you want to take a 1h lunch. For every other occasion, use the SuC!

 

[GRiLLA]

Chargers don't have battery management, your car has battery management. The charger tells the car what it can offer and the car tells is how much power it wants based on the temperature, state of charge and health of the battery. I'm not sure what would suggest that 50KW is better for the battery than 250KW (Tesla don't have a 350KW charger), certainly Tesla consider them the same when the car is recording the amount of DC charging.
100% overthinking, go for whatever is more convenient to you, car will be fine.

 

[Buzzliteyear]

These days I think about cost over speed, especially in the winter where you use more with having the heating on.

 

[Jason71]

These days I think about cost over speed, especially in the winter where you use more with having the heating on.

Post the price cuts are there many 50kw chargers out there cheaper than a supercharger anyway?

 

[Buzzliteyear]

Post the price cuts are there many 50kw chargers out there cheaper than a supercharger anyway?

I could have worded my reply better. At home is the cheapest now. Previously I did use the Podpoint chargers before the last price increase and which was cheaper than charging at home.

 

[Dan9571]

Just do what's convenient.

 

[RJUK]

I would think that 250kw is worse for the battery than 50kw, as it'll inevitably generate more heat. Generally the faster you charge the worse it is for a battery.

Anyway, I used a Supercharger and the whole time I was on it it didn't go above 47kw, so I needn't have worried. (It was cold and somebody else was charging on the same unit.)

However, how do you find out the cost? Nothing came up on my car's screen or my phone and in the car where it says about your last paid-for charge it's still blank...?

 

[WannabeOwner]

I would think that 250kw is worse for the battery than 50kw

I'm sure that is true ... but how much worse?

If you charge your battery at very high kW, say, 10% of its miles you are unlikely to be able to quantify the additional degradation. There is data from airport taxis that drove 200K mile over a year or two, Supercharged repeatedly each day and charged to 100% every night, and left sitting like that overnight, and even then the degradation they showed was not significantly more - and that was on much earlier battery chemistry than current.

I don't think it is worth bothering about - just be as kind to your battery as you can - I only charge to 100% shortly before a trip, and if I return at less than 20% I charge to 20% immediately, rather than waiting for off peak.

It might be arguable that preconditioning on mains before departure has more impact - reducing battery cycles used only for climate at departure

 

[GRiLLA]

I would think that 250kw is worse for the battery than 50kw, as it'll inevitably generate more heat. Generally the faster you charge the worse it is for a battery.

Anyway, I used a Supercharger and the whole time I was on it it didn't go above 47kw, so I needn't have worried. (It was cold and somebody else was charging on the same unit.)

However, how do you find out the cost? Nothing came up on my car's screen or my phone and in the car where it says about your last paid-for charge it's still blank...?

For an unregulated battery then yes, more power would mean more temperature. However you are talking about an advanced battery management system that's controlling a significant thermal management system in the battery. Without taking specific measurements I wouldn't be too sure that the cell temperature is any different between 50KW and 250KW.

250KW is nearly a myth anyway, it might hit that for a few minutes if you are super lucky that you battery temperature is high enough and SOC is less than 20%, because the car is accurately controlling the charging speed to avoid battery damage. It would seem just as likely to me that 50KW charging will delay the point at which the battery reaches the ideal temperature and cause damage that way.

Look in the App under Account, Charging to see your cost and invoice.

 

[4Monty]

I've charged at 7kw pretty much the entirety of my 20k miles. According to Teslafi, 80% have a higher range than me. Don't worry about it

 

[WannabeOwner]

According to Teslafi, 80% have a higher range than me.

Have you charged (fully - until completion) to 100% / recently?

If not might be worth doing once in a while as it may recalibrate range

 

[WannabeOwner]

P.S. And TeslaFi can filter only e.g. 100% charges for its battery degradation report