Charge complete at 90%

[paulvinh]

My tesla app shows charge complete at 281mi. As soon as I get into the car it shows 274mi. Is this normal? Ive had the car for about a week, is the battery degrading already?

 

[Yggdrasill]

The battery is always degrading, but it shouldn't be noticeable at this point. My guess is that you need to look at your settings.

- What have you set the charging limit to?
- What happens if you change the range display from miles to percent?

 

[goto10]

How long between when the charge completed and when you got into the car? If it was several hours then the 7 miles lost are high but not outside the range of reported idle losses.

 

[fasteddie7]

Look and see if you have your settings set to ideal or rated milage

 

[gaswalla]

This is 'normal' and inconsistent day to day for Model 3. This is NOT degradation - this is 'vampire' loss. Really nothing to worry about from battery degradation or quality issues - if anything, seems related to software version

 

[goto10]

Look and see if you have your settings set to ideal or rated milage

The Model 3 doesn't have this option. It always displays the EPA rated range.

 

[paulvinh]

The battery is always degrading, but it shouldn't be noticeable at this point. My guess is that you need to look at your settings.

- What have you set the charging limit to?
- What happens if you change the range display from miles to percent?

Charge limit at suggested 90%, one notch down from 100%.

I did not know you can change display to %. Ill try that later.

 

[paulvinh]

How long between when the charge completed and when you got into the car? If it was several hours then the 7 miles lost are high but not outside the range of reported idle losses.

I just installed 240v outlet yesterday. So about 7 hours from charge complete to getting in ththe car.

 

[paulvinh]

This is 'normal' and inconsistent day to day for Model 3. This is NOT degradation - this is 'vampire' loss. Really nothing to worry about from battery degradation or quality issues - if anything, seems related to software version

I see. So I will still get vampire drain even if the car is still plugged in and reached charge completion? It doesnt reactivate charging?

If I go on vacation and leave car at airport parking, i can potentially come back with a problem?

 

[d21mike]

I see. So I will still get vampire drain even if the car is still plugged in and reached charge completion? It doesnt reactivate charging?

If I go on vacation and leave car at airport parking, i can potentially come back with a problem?

With my Model S I have my charging scheduled to start at 12 midnight. It is usually done by 1:30am. And when I get in my car the next day I loose maybe 1 or 2 miles. I believe I would loose more if not plugged in. It will not start charging again until 12 midnight next day because of the schedule.

 

[goto10]

I just installed 240v outlet yesterday. So about 7 hours from charge complete to getting in ththe car.

Then this is on the higher end of normal and just something to keep an eye on.

Teslas have two low power modes - "idle" and "sleep". When idle many internal systems are awake and consuming power, about 1 mile of range per hour. This is the mode the car is in shortly after you get out of the car after a drive or a charge completes. After a period of inactivity it should go into sleep mode which has much lower power requirements - 2-4 miles per DAY.

Whenever you use the app to check on the car it will wake it up to get you the stats about the current range, cabin temperature, etc. The car also will tend to toggle between idle and sleep based on circumstances that are not obvious to the end user. Tesla may occasionally wake it up to collect Autopilot data or update the software in the car. In my experience these "random" wake-ups tend to happen for 1-3 hours per day. The amount of time spent sleeping vs idling can vary day-to-day and owners have reported that different firmware versions have been better or worse in terms of how much the car sleeps.

7 hours of range loss in 7 hours would suggest that the car never went to sleep after charging.

I see. So I will still get vampire drain even if the car is still plugged in and reached charge completion? It doesnt reactivate charging?

Yes. Once charging completes it will not restart unless the charge depletes significantly. I'm not sure how much that is - maybe 10%?

If I go on vacation and leave car at airport parking, i can potentially come back with a problem?

Potentially yes. Though when it's sleeping correctly it shouldn't lose more than a few miles per day. Tesla says that normal is 1% per day.

 

[drawfour]

If I go on vacation and leave car at airport parking, i can potentially come back with a problem?

Yes, you can. Make sure you have enough charge to account for expected vampire drain, and some extra in case it gets hot/cold while you're gone. Plus of course enough to get you home/to a charging station. Really, it's best to just get in there with a pretty full charge if at all possible (just not topped up to 100% because you don't want it sitting topped up to full).

 

[swaltner]

I see. So I will still get vampire drain even if the car is still plugged in and reached charge completion? It doesnt reactivate charging?

If I go on vacation and leave car at airport parking, i can potentially come back with a problem?

It will deactivate the charger, but only after it drops 3%. In your case, when it reaches 87%, it would top off to 90%. With the 90% number you gave, 281 miles, it would top off the battery when it drops to roughly 271 miles. (281 / 0.9 * 0.87)

 

[TexasTeslaRacing]

My tesla app shows charge complete at 281mi. As soon as I get into the car it shows 274mi. Is this normal? Ive had the car for about a week, is the battery degrading already?

Mine does the same thing. Not a problem.

Are you using Teslafi or third party apps? When in your house is your phone still connected to the car via bluetooth?

 

[goto10]

To be clear, your battery is not degrading but you are experiencing higher than normal vampire losses. Again, I'd keep an eye on it for a bit. If it continues to lose charge consistently at this rate for a week or two I'd contact Tesla.

 

[paulvinh]

To be clear, your battery is not degrading but you are experiencing higher than normal vampire losses. Again, I'd keep an eye on it for a bit. If it continues to lose charge consistently at this rate for a week or two I'd contact Tesla.

Yeah I plan to keep an eye on it to see what happens for the next two weeks.

 

[agbot]

My tesla app shows charge complete at 281mi. As soon as I get into the car it shows 274mi. Is this normal? Ive had the car for about a week, is the battery degrading already?

I see identical behavior. It's not vampire drain, my rated range can change one minute after charing completes. If you switch the battery display to percentage, you'll see it's only rated range that changes, not the battery level.

As I'm charing to 90%, it consistently ends up right at 282-ish miles, which coincidentally works out to ~310 miles range at 100%. Once charging stops and I refresh the app or start the car, it will sometimes update to something a bit lower (277 today). I figure this is due to the software using "just make the percentage work out to rated range of 310" while charging, but then re-calculates based more on my actual recent usage. And I've been accelerating "less than efficiently" let's say.

 

[goto10]

It's been my experience that percentage tracks range in miles. When I lose more than a few miles for any reason my percentage decreases by a corresponding amount.

 

[paulvinh]

Then this is on the higher end of normal and just something to keep an eye on.

Teslas have two low power modes - "idle" and "sleep". When idle many internal systems are awake and consuming power, about 1 mile of range per hour. This is the mode the car is in shortly after you get out of the car after a drive or a charge completes. After a period of inactivity it should go into sleep mode which has much lower power requirements - 2-4 miles per DAY.

Whenever you use the app to check on the car it will wake it up to get you the stats about the current range, cabin temperature, etc. The car also will tend to toggle between idle and sleep based on circumstances that are not obvious to the end user. Tesla may occasionally wake it up to collect Autopilot data or update the software in the car. In my experience these "random" wake-ups tend to happen for 1-3 hours per day. The amount of time spent sleeping vs idling can vary day-to-day and owners have reported that different firmware versions have been better or worse in terms of how much the car sleeps.

7 hours of range loss in 7 hours would suggest that the car never went to sleep after charging.

You are right! I charged last night without checking my app and the car stayed in sleep mode. When I got into the car this morning it showed 281mi. I guess checking the app too many times could keep your car in idle mode. That night I checked at 1am, 7am and did not get into the car until 9am.

Haha im sure the whole checking the app often will phase away in a few weeks. But everything about this car has been so much fun!

I think they should have a button to keep car in sleep or put car back in sleep mode on the app.

I will continue keeping track and check on vampire drain without it plugged in.