Charge to 100% - Do U Really Need To?

[SilentWarp]

This is best for the battery, AFAIK. However, is the battery the most important thing, or is convenient road tripping more important to the reader?

I would never "charge only enough to get to the next charger" since it makes no sense to interrupt my lunch to go unplug and move the car before I finish. I will do that to avoid idle fees, but otherwise I will let it supercharge to 100%.

Read again, I said "on long trips, you should only charge enough to get to next charger (+ a bit more)". I was not referring to daily usage .
Yes, agreed that you shouldn't make a big deal about degradation since 90% of Tesla owners will certainly move on to next shiny thing before degradation makes a big difference in your lives.

 

[ngng]

I supercharge to 90% weekly and will charge to 100% if I'm headed out of town. I don't NEED 100% to get to a charger, but it gives me options when choosing whether to skip my next charging stop.

 

[henderrj]

Charging to 100% before leaving also means that you won't have to charge as long at your first supercharger stop. If you are at 80 you'll have to spend more time at the first super charger to get to the next. This is assuming that the first super charger is the same in either event.

Might make a difference to some people.

 

[ngng]

I don't have range anxiety but I often proactively charge more than the car suggests. I've often encountered aggressive 30+ knot headwinds driving north from Santa Barbara that turned what typically would be a ~300Wh/mi trip average into a 600+

 

[IvesSM]

My wife's range anxiety on a trip always wins out at any supercharger stops when the screen says we've charged enough to get to the next SC.

I duly note the screen and relax and go back to thumbing my phone for a while longer as the car continues to quench its thirst for electrons. After a while we move on.

Happy wife, happy life.

-stew

 

[henderrj]

I don't have range anxiety but I often proactively charge more than the car suggests. I've often encountered aggressive 30+ knot headwinds driving north from Santa Barbara that turned what typically would be a ~300Wh/mi trip average into a 600+

I know Tesla's trip planner is supposed to take into account winds, but I too don't think it does it sufficiently. Have you any comments on that? Do you think it's improved at all?

 

[ngng]

I know Tesla's trip planner is supposed to take into account winds, but I too don't think it does it sufficiently. Have you any comments on that? Do you think it's improved at all?

I think it does take into account winds, but it can only forecast or model to a certain degree. The trip planner showed us arriving with +30% extra. We were literally watching the battery drop percentage points.

 

[flixden]

Two questions come to my mind on this topic:
(1) Should we charge to 100% every now and then anyways, for battery balancing reasons?
(2) Charging at home to 100% would reduce the total supercharging needed on a given trip. The question is: which is worse for the battery? 100% charge right before leaving vs more supercharging?

 

[Ciaopec]

Two questions come to my mind on this topic:
(1) Should we charge to 100% every now and then anyways, for battery balancing reasons?
(2) Charging at home to 100% would reduce the total supercharging needed on a given trip. The question is: which is worse for the battery? 100% charge right before leaving vs more supercharging?

The very question which kept Stephen Hawking awake at night.

 

[flixden]

The very question which kept Stephen Hawking awake at night.

Which one? First or second question?

 

[NewbyMaybe]

Hawking had nightmares about superchargers opening up to the public. What if you have to charge to 100% after waiting hours to hook up?

 

[ewoodrick]

Two questions come to my mind on this topic:
(1) Should we charge to 100% every now and then anyways, for battery balancing reasons?
(2) Charging at home to 100% would reduce the total supercharging needed on a given trip. The question is: which is worse for the battery? 100% charge right before leaving vs more supercharging?

1) Not a bad idea
2) Neither is "bad" for the battery. They are expected. Tesla designed to car for it.

 

[Ciaopec]

Which one? First or second question?

How can you lie awake at night thinking about the second if you're not thinking about the first!
I say worry less about the small nuances and enjoy more. With over 160,000 miles on my 2016 90D battery and lots of supercharger miles (75+%) I have about 10% degradation. I do whatever I need to get to where I want to go. I realize some people don't have that luxury.

 

[Ciaopec]

Hawking had nightmares about superchargers opening up to the public. What if you have to charge to 100% after waiting hours to hook up?

In 6 years of OH-FL round trips I've only had to charge to 100% once and that was before the proliferation of superchargers in about 2016 when I wanted to take off through the mountains of TN and NC. For my purposes I don't have to charge to 100%. Your experience and driving habits may dictate otherwise.

 

[agmonaco]

E90alex - thanks for your reply.

We have 2 TESLAS. 1 with 3 yr free Supercharging and the other is charged @ home.

The free supercharge car goes to the supercharger about once a week and charges to 80%. The home charging car gets plugged in when my wife gets home after her day and is generally down to 30-40% SOC and gets charged back to 80%. The home charging happens about 2-3 times per week. Our rate is about 0.16 cents per kw which includes generation and delivery charges.

We are lucky here in PA. We get to shop for our electric provider so we can go with the lowest bidder and depending on the plan, switch without penalty whenever we like. It just takes a bit of time to evaluate all your options and clicking to switch.

Over the years we have saved over $3k in electric charges by switching to a cheaper supplier.

Let me throw the question back to you E90alex. What do u do and pay for electric?

-stew

Wow that's cheap. I pay .21 per KWH in Pittsburgh with Duquesne Light. Who is your provider?

 

[DCGOO]

Wow that's cheap. I pay .21 per KWH in Pittsburgh with Duquesne Light. Who is your provider?

I am paying 2.3¢ per kwh in Indianapolis, off-peak. Special rate only for EV charging. Requires a separate meter and service entrance. Normal rate is around 12¢ flat.

 

[IvesSM]

Wow that's cheap. I pay .21 per KWH in Pittsburgh with Duquesne Light. Who is your provider?

Agmonaco - I think we are on Frontier for electric. Have you shopped for power @ PAPowerSwitch.com - b careful if you Google it. There will be a lot of other sites (advertising sites) come up first before you see the real site.

I only go with FIXED RATE, NO CANCELLATION PENALTY, NO FEE sites.

BEWARE, you have to put a reminder in your calendar to change suppliers after your FIXED contact times out otherwise your going to pick up their variable rate and it's way more expensive.

I generally lock in a 12 month term so I don't have to go back to it that often but if rates go down I'll switch out in an instant. Doesn't cost anything and it's cheaper.

Good luck. Let me know how it turns out.

-stew

 

[AAKEE]

If the wife's car were charged to 90% and charged every other day then the fewer cycles would be better for the pack.

Nope.

In general, cycles wear much less than calendar aging. Much less.

So, keeping the SOC in the range where calendar aging is less will reduce the degradation much more than any other option.

 

[AAKEE]

Two questions come to my mind on this topic:
(1) Should we charge to 100% every now and then anyways, for battery balancing reasons?
(2) Charging at home to 100% would reduce the total supercharging needed on a given trip. The question is: which is worse for the battery? 100% charge right before leaving vs more supercharging?

There are a lot of battery myths.
One of the most common is that 100% is very bad for the battery and that you need to drive asap after a 100% charge. Neither is true.
The NCA batteries can do about 650 full 100-0% cycles, before loosing 25% capacity. Thats some 200K miles. Charging full like that and discharging all the way down to 0% is about the most stressfull thing for the battery so any drive that is not 100-0% is causing less wear.

Theres no need to be afraid of using 100% when needed.

Calendar aging is the wear from time. 100% is not much worse than 80-90% and in many cases it is causing the same rate of wear or even less.
As calendar aging doesnt cause more wear than 80-90% in many cases, you can leave it at 100% if you need to.

Calendar aging is causing the absolute most wear on our batteries, so the cyclic aging is a minor part.
Keeping the SOC low is the melody for reducing calendar aging.

Just sold my M3P ’21 after about 2 1/2 years. It was kept at low SOC and had mostly small cycles for the daily commuting, but also quite much long trips and about 55 supercharging sessions and 35 charges to 100%.

Still it had very low degradation compared to other M3P ’21.

 

[henderrj]

There are a lot of battery myths.
One of the most common is that 100% is very bad for the battery and that you need to drive asap after a 100% charge. Neither is true.
The NCA batteries can do about 650 full 100-0% cycles, before loosing 25% capacity. Thats some 200K miles. Charging full like that and discharging all the way down to 0% is about the most stressfull thing for the battery so any drive that is not 100-0% is causing less wear.

Theres no need to be afraid of using 100% when needed.

Calendar aging is the wear from time. 100% is not much worse than 80-90% and in many cases it is causing the same rate of wear or even less.
As calendar aging doesnt cause more wear than 80-90% in many cases, you can leave it at 100% if you need to.

Calendar aging is causing the absolute most wear on our batteries, so the cyclic aging is a minor part.
Keeping the SOC low is the melody for reducing calendar aging.

Just sold my M3P ’21 after about 2 1/2 years. It was kept at low SOC and had mostly small cycles for the daily commuting, but also quite much long trips and about 55 supercharging sessions and 35 charges to 100%.

Still it had very low degradation compared to other M3P ’21.



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Not questioning you, genuinely curious. From where did you get the data that led you to this conclusion?