Clarification on charging to 100%

[Mikedfw]

Just want to clarify how this is bad for the battery. I've always seen not to charge past 80-90% unless you are doing a road trip or something, but I've seen more recently that the only reason to not charge to 100% (at least at home, not supercharger) is if it will be sitting at that charge for an extended period of time.

So if I were to charge to 100% daily would that cause my battery to degrade more rapidly than charging to 90% daily, even though the vehicle would never sit at a full charge for more than an hour or two?

Thanks.

 

[ChrisMPK]

If you have a Lithium Ion battery only charge to 80-90%. If you have a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery charge to 100%. If you have a Lithium Ion battery and are going on a trip, charge to 100% but use scheduled departure to finish charging within 30-60 minutes of your estimated departure. If you need more info than that, read through 1,000 threads on this topic.

 

[jjrandorin]

So if I were to charge to 100% daily would that cause my battery to degrade more rapidly than charging to 90% daily, even though the vehicle would never sit at a full charge for more than an hour or two?

Thanks.

Yes. There is no reason to charge to 100% daily for these cars unless you are going to be driving your entire range out daily. If thats the case, then plan on replacing the car sooner. As far as I know, there are no model Ys with the LFP battery, so 100% should be left for "trip" not daily, because THAT (charging to 100% for a non LFP battery) is not good for the battery on a repeated basis.

The car will tell you not to do it if you try to do it 2 -3 days in a row, and its likely that tesla would consider that excessive if you experience enough degradation for a battery claim.

 

[jcanoe]

There are degrees of bad when charging (or not charging) the battery in the Tesla Model Y. Actually the Tesla Model Y Owner's Manual is remarkably silent when it comes to guidance on what level you should charge the battery. The Owner's Manual stresses leaving the Tesla vehicle plugged in but even that is vague. Does Tesla mean every time you arrive home you should plug in or is once a day a best practice? The exception is the Owner's Manual cautions to never let the battery state of charge fall to 0.

The Tesla charging screen has a slider graphic with brackets for daily charging between 50% and 90% and above 90% for trips. It is true that it is most stressful for the battery if it is charged to 100% and stored at higher temperatures for extended period (undefined.) If you need to charge to 100% for a trip then don't hesitate to do this. It is fine if you time your departure so that charging completes right before you start driving but there is no need to time this to the minute or hour.

There are currently 32,000 Supercharger stalls worldwide and Tesla continues to build out the Supercharger network. In most places in the US you would rarely be more than 140 miles from a Supercharger. This makes charging to 100% before starting out unnecessary as does charging at a Supercharger above 80% (takes too long.)

Also, when charged above 90% up to 100% you effectively have limited or no regenerative braking available. That can be reason enough not to charge to 100%.

 

[roblab]

After a decade or more of driving Teslas, I have NEVER FOUND THE NEED TO CHARGE TO 100%. Where do you people live where you don't have superchargers? And where do you work where you have to have all these miles every day? I can see there might be a few people who might have a commute of 300 miles in a day, or even 250, but it beggars the imagination that there are more than one or two people in this category. Charging to 90% and using down to 10% would give a Model 3 roughly 250 miles of usable range. What a commute!! And you need more???!

Maybe I didn't understand. You can't charge at home because you live off grid, and your workplace won't let you charge there, either. You can only charge at a Supercharger when in town, two days a week. And you use the car as an Uber vehicle. What am I missing? This seems like a way over the edge case.

Now to hear from those two people who don't agree and simply must charge at a supercharger because their home electricity has been turned off because they can't afford a Model 3 AND electrical service.

 

[jcanoe]

Reasons why you may need to charge to 100%: sub-zero temperatures; Texas (it's really big, another country).

 

[STS-134]

The car will tell you not to do it if you try to do it 2 -3 days in a row, and its likely that tesla would consider that excessive if you experience enough degradation for a battery claim.

I'm not aware of anything in the warranty that allows Tesla to decline replacement for charging to 100% too many times. But of course, if they guarantee 70% capacity and your battery only declines to 70.1% before the warranty expires, you're out of luck, so it's probably not a good idea to try it.

 

[KSBA farmer]

If you have a Lithium Ion battery only charge to 80-90%. If you have a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery charge to 100%. If you have a Lithium Ion battery and are going on a trip, charge to 100% but use scheduled departure to finish charging within 30-60 minutes of your estimated departure. If you need more info than that, read through 1,000 threads on this topic.

How do I determine which type of battery is installed?

 

[jjrandorin]

How do I determine which type of battery is installed?

This is the model Y subforum so if you have a model Y you do not have the battery that is ment to be charged to 100% daily. To verify this, however, you can do so by looking in the car and seeing if the charging screen still says "Daily" and "Trip". If it does, you do not have a LFP battery. If it does not have daily and trip (in the car, not the tesla app), then you have a LFP battery.

 

[jcanoe]

How do I determine which type of battery is installed?

In the US Tesla is not yet building any Tesla Model Y with the LFP battery. The only Tesla vehicle in the US with the LFP battery is the current Standard Range RWD Model 3.

 

[Mikedfw]

After a decade or more of driving Teslas, I have NEVER FOUND THE NEED TO CHARGE TO 100%. Where do you people live where you don't have superchargers? And where do you work where you have to have all these miles every day? I can see there might be a few people who might have a commute of 300 miles in a day, or even 250, but it beggars the imagination that there are more than one or two people in this category. Charging to 90% and using down to 10% would give a Model 3 roughly 250 miles of usable range. What a commute!! And you need more???!

Maybe I didn't understand. You can't charge at home because you live off grid, and your workplace won't let you charge there, either. You can only charge at a Supercharger when in town, two days a week. And you use the car as an Uber vehicle. What am I missing? This seems like a way over the edge case.

Now to hear from those two people who don't agree and simply must charge at a supercharger because their home electricity has been turned off because they can't afford a Model 3 AND electrical service.

I typically drive on average 200-220 miles per day for work. Sometimes less, sometimes as much as 300. It isn't uncommon to have long commutes in texas, but yes, mine is more than most.

I have restaurants that are all far apart. There is one supercharger on my route that is only 15 miles from my home.

I drive between 40k-50k miles per year and only keep vehicles for 2-3 years. I can afford the vehicle and can charge at home, but don't always know how much I'll have to drive. Range is important.

 

[Mikedfw]

Thanks for the responses everyone. The battery types explanation cleared it up for me.

 

[jjrandorin]

After a decade or more of driving Teslas, I have NEVER FOUND THE NEED TO CHARGE TO 100%. Where do you people live where you don't have superchargers? And where do you work where you have to have all these miles every day? I can see there might be a few people who might have a commute of 300 miles in a day, or even 250, but it beggars the imagination that there are more than one or two people in this category. Charging to 90% and using down to 10% would give a Model 3 roughly 250 miles of usable range. What a commute!! And you need more???!

Maybe I didn't understand. You can't charge at home because you live off grid, and your workplace won't let you charge there, either. You can only charge at a Supercharger when in town, two days a week. And you use the car as an Uber vehicle. What am I missing? This seems like a way over the edge case.

Now to hear from those two people who don't agree and simply must charge at a supercharger because their home electricity has been turned off because they can't afford a Model 3 AND electrical service.

(Note: This is not a moderator note. This is also not ment to represent TMC moderators, TMC or anyone else other than jjrandorin the regular poster, not jjrandorin the moderator)

I know you are pretty passionate about some of these topics, but I am not sure you are aware how many of your posts on the topic of range, vehicle speed etc come across, when you post them. They come across either as very dismissive of other peoples wants / needs, or, alternatively, as if the way you use the vehicle is the best for everyone.

Many times, you are asking "why do you need to go faster?" or "why do you need to charge faster?", or "Why do you need more range?" and everyones wants and desires are personal. You have a lot of knowledge to share with your experience around teslas, and I am grateful for you sharing it, but I thought I would give you this feedback because this isnt a one or two time thing, and because I think it may be causing people to disregard some of your other points, because of the way in which you deliver that message.

As I said, this isnt ment to be a moderator note, or anything other than feedback on something I have noticed over time, feel free to disregard it, etc.

 

[Undecided_2]

Reasons why you may need to charge to 100%: sub-zero temperatures; Texas (it's really big, another country).

Where I live we get cold weather throughout the year - Scotland and on the coast. We’re new to Tesla/EV and trying to gauge how much to keep it topped up as a 50 mile round trip hits the battery fairly hard. We’re not going to compromise on heating the cabin as switching off the heat and wearing thick coats is no fun regardless what type of car you drive. We’ve no intention of babying it.

However, so far we’ve worked out that we don’t need 70% SOC - we started out at 100% (twice) then 90%(once) and now it’s at 70% but it’s obvious we can let it drop to 60% and maybe lower for our daily/weekly needs.

As I mentioned we’re still learning as sentry mode requires a lot of energy and not needed at home and making sure we let the car sleep by not having our phones access it regularly. Which is still hard as we are enjoying the car and it’s tech! We leave it plugged in to the home charger.

When we had the ICE we would always fill it up 100% and let it drop to 25% and then fill it up again. We’re just changing 100% to 60~70% and won’t let it drop below 15~20%.

The post from @roblab is not at all helpful. New EV owners are getting used to a new way of living and it’s a big change coming from an ICE. We’re probably all used to filling up at a station without fear of not finding one.

One thing that I’ve learned. I don’t need to find a 150kw ~ 350kw charger. I’ve found the local public 40kw chargers perfectly fine. I park up and get a coffee and 20 minutes later I have more than enough charge for a couple of days. We even have Netflix to watch if we want to wait in the car.

40kw is clearly good enough to top up and get home. I’m not sure of the range as I use %.

 

[jcanoe]

Where I live we get cold weather throughout the year - Scotland and on the coast. We’re new to Tesla/EV and trying to gauge how much to keep it topped up as a 50 mile round trip hits the battery fairly hard. We’re not going to compromise on heating the cabin as switching off the heat and wearing thick coats is no fun regardless what type of car you drive. We’ve no intention of babying it.

However, so far we’ve worked out that we don’t need 70% SOC - we started out at 100% (twice) then 90%(once) and now it’s at 70% but it’s obvious we can let it drop to 60% and maybe lower for our daily/weekly needs.

As I mentioned we’re still learning as sentry mode requires a lot of energy and not needed at home and making sure we let the car sleep by not having our phones access it regularly. Which is still hard as we are enjoying the car and it’s tech! We leave it plugged in to the home charger.

When we had the ICE we would always fill it up 100% and let it drop to 25% and then fill it up again. We’re just changing 100% to 60~70% and won’t let it drop below 15~20%.

Use the Tesla app to precondition the Tesla vehicle while still plugged in. The Tesla app will notify you on your phone when your desired cabin temperature has been reached. While preconditioning the Tesla Model Y will also warm the battery as required. Normally 10 minutes is sufficient unless the outside temperature is below 0C.

 

[Undecided_2]

Use the Tesla app to precondition the Tesla vehicle while still plugged in. The Tesla app will notify you on your phone when your desired cabin temperature has been reached. While preconditioning the Tesla Model Y will also warm the battery as required. Normally 10 minutes is sufficient unless the outside temperature is below 0C.

I missed that part. I follow this advice that I learned on this forum and it does make a BiG difference to battery use even on small journeys for us. Especially, as it’s on charge while we condition the battery and my wife doesn’t view it as an inconvenience. She likes getting into a toasty car.

 

[Unclepaul]

Tesla gives you a hint about this. Your charging screen will indicate that regular charging is up to 90% and pre-long trip charging to 100%.

 

[wycolo]

Towing heavy loads against headwinds etc.

You should be able to see battery label if you crawl under the front passenger wheel. Photo, scan and post.

US cars should come with an EPA window sticker which I imagine should list the battery specs but might not actually specify chemistry.

The first MY with LFP will be a cause for celebration indeed
--

 

[Tooleman694]

I had my first 100 percent charge yesterday. I had noticed I had lost 3 miles in range, so I charged it to 100 to see what would happen. Didn't get the range back. However last night when I charged it back to 90 I gained back 2 of the 3 miles I lost.

 

[Mrbrock]

The first MY with LFP will be a cause for celebration indeed
--

It will not be a LR model. Pretty easy. Is your range 300+ miles? You don't have LFP.