Charging 100% for Model 3 Standard

[badaoui51]

I just had an interesting conversation with the Tesla support team.

The question I posed was this:
Since the Tesla Model 3 standard is identical to the Standard Plus with software locks, namely battery capacity, if you set your charging capabilities to 100% on the App or on the car, are you really charging to 100% of battery capacity?

The answer:
Since the battery is software locked, you can never actually charge it to 100% (unless you upgrade the car to the Standard Plus).

Therefore you can set charging on your Standard to full capacity, and it should not affect battery degradation because you are never charging to 100%. I was warned that this level of charge will limit regenerative breaking until the battery is depleted enough to store the energy.

Here is the conversation with their support team:

 

[MP3Mike]

But you will still get warnings from the system that charging to 100% everyday is bad for the battery, even though you aren't actually charging to 100% physically.

 

[badaoui51]

But you will still get warnings from the system that charging to 100% everyday is bad for the battery, even though you aren't actually charging to 100% physically.

True, but good to know for those needing to have maximum charge regularly.

 

[ngogas]

That is good to know. And it's only a warning. No harm no foul.

 

[OCR1]

Yup, we assumed this to be the case but nice to see the support team confirming it. Which leads back to the question why would anyone pay an extra $1,500 for the SR+ when you will most likely only be charging it to 90% for daily use anyway and you could just buy the SR and charge it to 100% and save $1,500. Fog lights and immersive sound doesn't justify the extra cost.

 

[ngogas]

There are always that percentage that would want just a bit higher trim then a standard trim.

 

[raptor5244]

Yup, we assumed this to be the case but nice to see the support team confirming it. Which leads back to the question why would anyone pay an extra $1,500 for the SR+ when you will most likely only be charging it to 90% for daily use anyway and you could just buy the SR and charge it to 100% and save $1,500. Fog lights and immersive sound doesn't justify the extra cost.

I don't think anyone even knows what all the differences are yet. It looks like some range, acceleration, some audio, fog lights, leather seats with power adjustment. I think the SR was supposed to be a cloth car but there were not enough orders or something to justify it so they are still working through some customization of the SR vs SR+ trims. It seems to change all the time. Soon, I expect to see a menu in my Tesla account where you can buy features a la carte.

How does the Tesla Standard Range Model 3 compare to the other Model 3 variants?

 

[Celledral]

I'm hearing from a few people on this forum say that the battery is actually locked on the bottom end, meaning when you're charging to 100% it's actually 100%. The difference being the reported battery remaining will reflect the standard range estimate, so basically locking that 5kw on the bottom end. Can someone comment on this?

 

[darth_vad3r]

Fog lights and immersive sound doesn't justify the extra cost.

I would agree with that statement.. but you missed some other features. I don't think the SR gets heated seats or custom driver profiles, do they? I mean originally the steering wheel and seats were actually supposed to be different and not be power-adjustable, but now I think everything is just software-locked, so they are probably only able to lock the driver profile feature ... LOL ... you have to be able to power-adjust the wheel/seats since you can't otherwise do it manually

Also the extra 10% range for trips is a useful feature for some. For daily commuting use you probably could get away with 1/2 the range anyways ... the max range is mostly useful for people for trips.

 

[OCR1]

Differences attached.

 

[ucmndd]

I'm hearing from a few people on this forum say that the battery is actually locked on the bottom end, meaning when you're charging to 100% it's actually 100%. The difference being the reported battery remaining will reflect the standard range estimate, so basically locking that 5kw on the bottom end. Can someone comment on this?

Yes, I can comment. It’s not true, never has been that way for any of Tesla’s software locked batteries. You can test it for yourself by supercharging - you’ll notice far higher rates than the 1-2kw you normally see between 99 and 100% when charging a non-locked battery to a true 100.

After Tesla dropped the price from $7k to $2k to OTA unlock my Model S 60, I charged the 60 to 100% then immediately initiated the upgrade. Tesla pushed the new profile to the car, it rebooted, and immediately became a “75” with an 85% state of charge. There’s zero reason to believe the 3 SR is any different, and lots of reasons for it to not be.

 

[GregBallantyne]

There is likely more than one type of margin being protected by the software lock. One type would be a bottom end charge margin, the other would be a top end non-charged margin. It is most likely that both are in place. The bottom end margin is there to protect from complete discharge, and the top end margin is there to protect battery life. It has been estimated that the Model 3 LR battery is an 83-85 kwh battery, of which about 73 kwh is available for the car's 0%-100% range. The rest would be allocated to the two margins at both ends.

 

[ucmndd]

There is likely more than one type of margin being protected by the software lock. One type would be a bottom end charge margin, the other would be a top end non-charged margin. It is most likely that both are in place.

Yes there is an anti-brick buffer in all Tesla batteries, but it has nothing to do with the software locked capacity being discussed in this thread.

It has been estimated that the Model 3 LR battery is an 83-85 kwh battery

I’m not sure who estimated that but they’re quite wrong.

 

[GregBallantyne]

Yes there is an anti-brick buffer in all Tesla batteries, but it has nothing to do with the software locked capacity being discussed in this thread.

I’m not sure who estimated that but they’re quite wrong.

Well, whoop-dee-do.....

 

[Webeevdrivers]

Why would regen be limited if you are not actually charging to 100 percent.

 

[MP3Mike]

Why would regen be limited if you are not actually charging to 100 percent.

Why would they let you charge/regen past the capacity you paid for?

 

[Webeevdrivers]

Why would they let you charge/regen past the capacity you paid for?

Huh? No. I don’t own a Tesla but rather a Leaf. There is no regen until you get down to around 95 percent. If Max charge on the model 3 SR is say 90 percent (software limited) then why would there not be regen at full charge. Does it work different on a Tesla?

 

[MP3Mike]

Huh? No. I don’t own a Tesla but rather a Leaf. There is no regen until you get down to around 95 percent. If Max charge on the model 3 SR is say 90 percent (software limited) then why would there not be regen at full charge. Does it work different on a Tesla?

It works the same. But a 100% charge on a SR is only physically 90%. Why would Tesla let you charge/regen past 100%? You didn't pay for that extra 10% capacity so you can't use it. Are you saying that they should let you regen all the way up to 111%?

 

[Webeevdrivers]

It works the same. But a 100% charge on a SR is only physically 90%. Why would Tesla let you charge/regen past 100%? You didn't pay for that extra 10% capacity so you can't use it. Are you saying that they should let you regen all the way up to 111%?

Yah. This is out of my league. I thought the reason regen was limited is because they couldn’t feed current into a full battery....which a model 3 SR would never be. What you are implying is that regen is strictly limited by software and has nothing to do with the charge of the battery.

Not an engineer. Know nothing about this stuff other than what I pick up on boards like this.

 

[ucmndd]

Why would regen be limited if you are not actually charging to 100 percent.

On my Model S, regen strength starts to be limited after ~90% SoC.

Technically a 220 mile software locked model 3 SR is ~92% of the 240 mile SR+ battery, so I suppose it’s feasible that regen would be limited (not completely disabled) at the very top of the charge.