All these posts about battery degradation for model 3s, have me convinced I must have a unicorn model 3P. I have mentioned several times that I dont have any "charging regimen" other than what is generally said in the manual and shown in the car:
1. I charge to 90% (the highest level that is shown for daily use, and not "trips")
2. I plug in my car every single time it enters my garage. This is generally once per day when I arrive home from work, but if I run errands on the weekends when I get back home, I pull into my garage, and plug in, no exceptions).
3. I only charge to 100% when I "need" to, which is generally only if I am going to go into LA or OC from where I am, which is either Temecula CA or Oceanside CA most times.
4. My commute is 80 real miles round trip daily to work and back home, which takes between 80 "car miles" to 130 "car miles" depending on weather, traffic, time of year, and how I choose to drive.
Basically, I charge to 90% and plug in, thats it.
I have over 14k miles on my battery and no RATED RANGE degradation. When I got my car in December of 2018, like many new owners, I charged to 100% in the first couple of weeks "just to check". To my abject horror, it only charged to 306 instead of 310. "OMG, this new car with less than 1k miles already has battery degradation!!!" I thought. I tried discharging to 20 percent, and charging to 100%, no change.
I tried that a couple times, and read every single battery degradation thread on here
I made an appointment with my local Tesla service center. They told me "there is nothing wrong with your car, drive it more, its not real degradation, if there is a problem with the battery, the car lights up like a xmas tree, we will know about it" . I thought "yeah right, they are just pushing me off, I want this noted that this is a problem in case it shows up later".
(NOTE: Does this pattern sound familiar to anyone? Its pretty much the exact same thing that 90% of the people in all these battery degradation threads are doing).
I was upset, scared that my new car, that I expected to have for at least 6-7 years, was already starting off with a problem that tesla wouldnt even acknowledge.
I didnt sign up for teslafi or anything like that at the time, as I thought I would just get more upset at my "never had 4 miles of range" (sounds silly typing it out now, but this is how I felt, and I am fairly certain this is also how everyone who is starting all these battery threads feels, at least in general).
I just pushed it to the back of my mind, and drove.... charging like I said above, basically never changing.
As time went on, I noticed that my 90% charge was always shown as 279... occasionally 278 but usually 279, and as I put on more and more miles It never changed. I kept reading all these battery threads, and one thing I noticed was , almost NO ONE posting on these threads was doing exactly what I was doing. Some were charging to 80% every day. Some were charging every other day. Some were living off supercharging, either because "its free" or because they have to as they have no home charging. Almost no one posting these issues with the display of range "charges to 90%, every day, plugs in every day, and just leaves it alone.
I charged to 100% a few months later to check, and, the car charged to 309 miles (which was more than delivered, per my story above). Recently, I installed teslafi, and it shows the capacity for my car is....309-310 miles, after 14,000+ miles.
See teslafi chart attached in this post.
With more time under my belt, and more information from reading all the threads, I have come to believe that the "degradation "that most are showing is just a display of rated miles, not real degradation. I have no proof of this, just anecdotal reading. I am also not saying that charging to 90% is "better" than charging to 80%. Physics and the way batteries work say thats not the case, although, I dont believe there will be much difference in the longevity of my battery vs someone who charges at 80%. Making stuff up, maybe the threshhold for 70% degradation in my car ends up being 200k miles and someone who charges to 80% daily has one of 220k miles or something.
All the research says to avoid 100% if you can and as you go down in percentage it gets better but 60% is only a little better than 70%. Anyway....
So, one of a few things is true:
1. I have a unicorn model 3, based on the number of people who are posting all the degradation stories. My car is somehow different from all of theirs.
2. Something I am doing is different from them to have my rated miles display with basically no battery loss after 14k miles.
On the off chance that number 2 is correct, I suggest that ANYONE who is "bothered" by the "loss of 3-5-10 rated miles" and is NOT "charging to 90%, every day, and not supercharging" try it for a week to 10 days, to see if it changes your display of miles. I dont actually believe that "My" car is somehow that special.
1. I charge to 90% (the highest level that is shown for daily use, and not "trips")
2. I plug in my car every single time it enters my garage. This is generally once per day when I arrive home from work, but if I run errands on the weekends when I get back home, I pull into my garage, and plug in, no exceptions).
3. I only charge to 100% when I "need" to, which is generally only if I am going to go into LA or OC from where I am, which is either Temecula CA or Oceanside CA most times.
4. My commute is 80 real miles round trip daily to work and back home, which takes between 80 "car miles" to 130 "car miles" depending on weather, traffic, time of year, and how I choose to drive.
Basically, I charge to 90% and plug in, thats it.
I have over 14k miles on my battery and no RATED RANGE degradation. When I got my car in December of 2018, like many new owners, I charged to 100% in the first couple of weeks "just to check". To my abject horror, it only charged to 306 instead of 310. "OMG, this new car with less than 1k miles already has battery degradation!!!" I thought. I tried discharging to 20 percent, and charging to 100%, no change.
I tried that a couple times, and read every single battery degradation thread on here
I made an appointment with my local Tesla service center. They told me "there is nothing wrong with your car, drive it more, its not real degradation, if there is a problem with the battery, the car lights up like a xmas tree, we will know about it" . I thought "yeah right, they are just pushing me off, I want this noted that this is a problem in case it shows up later".
(NOTE: Does this pattern sound familiar to anyone? Its pretty much the exact same thing that 90% of the people in all these battery degradation threads are doing).
I was upset, scared that my new car, that I expected to have for at least 6-7 years, was already starting off with a problem that tesla wouldnt even acknowledge.
I didnt sign up for teslafi or anything like that at the time, as I thought I would just get more upset at my "never had 4 miles of range" (sounds silly typing it out now, but this is how I felt, and I am fairly certain this is also how everyone who is starting all these battery threads feels, at least in general).
I just pushed it to the back of my mind, and drove.... charging like I said above, basically never changing.
As time went on, I noticed that my 90% charge was always shown as 279... occasionally 278 but usually 279, and as I put on more and more miles It never changed. I kept reading all these battery threads, and one thing I noticed was , almost NO ONE posting on these threads was doing exactly what I was doing. Some were charging to 80% every day. Some were charging every other day. Some were living off supercharging, either because "its free" or because they have to as they have no home charging. Almost no one posting these issues with the display of range "charges to 90%, every day, plugs in every day, and just leaves it alone.
I charged to 100% a few months later to check, and, the car charged to 309 miles (which was more than delivered, per my story above). Recently, I installed teslafi, and it shows the capacity for my car is....309-310 miles, after 14,000+ miles.
See teslafi chart attached in this post.
With more time under my belt, and more information from reading all the threads, I have come to believe that the "degradation "that most are showing is just a display of rated miles, not real degradation. I have no proof of this, just anecdotal reading. I am also not saying that charging to 90% is "better" than charging to 80%. Physics and the way batteries work say thats not the case, although, I dont believe there will be much difference in the longevity of my battery vs someone who charges at 80%. Making stuff up, maybe the threshhold for 70% degradation in my car ends up being 200k miles and someone who charges to 80% daily has one of 220k miles or something.
All the research says to avoid 100% if you can and as you go down in percentage it gets better but 60% is only a little better than 70%. Anyway....
So, one of a few things is true:
1. I have a unicorn model 3, based on the number of people who are posting all the degradation stories. My car is somehow different from all of theirs.
2. Something I am doing is different from them to have my rated miles display with basically no battery loss after 14k miles.
On the off chance that number 2 is correct, I suggest that ANYONE who is "bothered" by the "loss of 3-5-10 rated miles" and is NOT "charging to 90%, every day, and not supercharging" try it for a week to 10 days, to see if it changes your display of miles. I dont actually believe that "My" car is somehow that special.
