Energy consumption while in Park, and a suggestion for improvement...

[mm9351]

As many of you know, Tesla rolled out an energy app in late 2022 which highlights energy usage and tips for improvement in great detail. We now have this detailed information and insights into battery performance for various drive scenarios right at our fingertips. One of the features of this app is to evaluate our battery consumption while the vehicle is parked. Not sure how many of the folks in this forum occasionally wait in their parked Tesla's while picking up kids from school or work, etc. I'm sure you have all observed while in Park, the HVAC, front and rear lights, audio, etc. remain on and active; all are significant battery drain devices (especially the HVAC).

Often when waiting to pick up passengers with my battery running a bit low, I find myself manually turning off the HVAC (hold the temp. setting on my screen until it turns off) and pulling on the stalk or pressing the lights icon on my display to bring up the lighting menu, and switch to off. After my passengers arrive, I need to turn everything back on, again one at a time. So, my suggestion for improvement would be to include a convenient "park" reduced energy setting that can be added to the home screen or dock. I know there is a "System Off" setting buried somewhere in the menus which would over-accomplish the same thing, but in my opinion a shortcut as mentioned above would be a great feature. Your thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

[E90alex]

If only Tesla had a start/stop button like other cars do

 

[E90alex]

But really the power consumption is that significant even with HVAC on unless you’re waiting for hours and hours. Maybe 1% in half an hour, if that.

If 1% is going to make or break you being able to get home then maybe you should take that time to plug into a nearby charger for a bit instead of waiting aimlessly in the car.

 

[gtae07]

plug into a nearby charger for a bit instead of waiting aimlessly in the car.

You assume there are chargers anywhere nearby. That's often not the case--around here (and around where my parents live) I can easily think of scenarios where someone would be just driving locally and be 45+ minutes from a supercharger and at least 20-30 minutes from a public L2. I've also seen the HVAC drain the battery a lot faster than 2%/hr.

I once found myself in a situation where HVAC was really sucking battery and I'd have arrived home with maybe 5% remaining if I hadn't taken some measures to reduce consumption--and "just go hit a charger" wasn't a practical option because the nearest/only one was the supercharger a mile from my house.