Charge or not?

[Paul Singer]

So I've had my M3 AWD Long Range for a week and I'm loving the car but I'm still confused over the charging.

I'm charging to 80% except for one day when I did a long trip (200+ miles) and therefore charged it to 100%.

People say to charge it every night but today I only drove 24 miles so it's still at 72%.

Should I still be charging it from 72% to 80%?

With my old Leaf, I ran it down to 30% before charging it all the way back to 100% to balance the cells and after 22,000 miles and 2 years it still had full range and battery capacity with no loss of bars.

I know Tesla is different but it seems too soon to charge after only 8% has been used.

 

[drtimhill]

So I've had my M3 AWD Long Range for a week and I'm loving the car but I'm still confused over the charging.

I'm charging to 80% except for one day when I did a long trip (200+ miles) and therefore charged it to 100%.

People say to charge it every night but today I only drove 24 miles so it's still at 72%.

Should I still be charging it from 72% to 80%?

With my old Leaf, I ran it down to 30% before charging it all the way back to 100% to balance the cells and after 22,000 miles and 2 years it still had full range and battery capacity with no loss of bars.

I know Tesla is different but it seems too soon to charge after only 8% has been used.

It won't do any harm. Best basic charge regime is (as you are doing) charge to only 70-80% normally, leaving those "max charge" sessions for long trips etc. As Tesla say, just leave the car plugged in to charge (to 70/80%) when you are not using it. I tend to make sure I let my car go down to the30- 40% mark from time to time to give it a deeper charge cycle. In 18 months I've seen almost no range loss using this regime.

 

[Tam]

...connfused over the charging....I know Tesla is different but it seems too soon to charge after only 8% has been used.

Lithium batteries have the same principle.

It's never too soon to charge it back up to your desired SOC either for 8% or 0.8% more.

...Should I still be charging it from 72% to 80%?...

Your owner's manual specifically says that there's no advantage to wait and it prefers charging whenever possible.

If you watch your Model 3 charging habit, once it reaches your set SOC like 80% it will frequently recharge it back (because of idle loss) from 79% to 80% or 80% to 80% and it does not wait for a deeper discharge number to recharge it back up.

You can verify that with a monitor program like TeslaFi.com

 

[jrweiss98020]

Just go by the manual (p. 179):

Model 3 has one of the most sophisticated battery systems in the world. The most important way to preserve the Battery is to LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE PLUGGED IN when you are not using it. This is particularly important if you are not planning to drive Model 3 for several weeks. When plugged in, Model 3 wakes up when needed to automatically maintain a charge level that maximizes the lifetime of the Battery.

 

[Candleflame]

there are some anecdotal advantages to letting the car sleep at various % however we are all theorizing. I would personally not charge above 85% if you dont need it as a daily range. the benefit is small compared to 90% but it is probably there.

Bear in mind that from Model S we know that people with the least degegradation actually charged to 92% every day.

 

[XLR82XS]

Just go by the manual (p. 179):

Thank you for that sir. Seems like lots of users here don't like to read the manual.

 

[PDB2655]

Have my Model 3 two months now and leave it at 80% and charge every night that way. Went on a 3000 mile trip prior to leaving I did a 100% charge it got me about 210 miles to my 1st charge went from Stuart Fl to New York ,NJ, PA .Did a lot of super charging I waited a extra 10 to 15 mins to get to 100 % on each charge, Loss a lot of time doing that then I realize when my screen started saying to continue on your trip I was wasting a lot of time. Lessons learned I be a little more prepared the next trip. Read the manual it helps

 

[miimura]

We charge our Model 3 when it drops to about 50%, then charge it up to 80%. This is usually a whole week of use.