Inquiry regarding Battery Question

[Tesadekunle]

If I were to leave my car undriven for two weeks plus, would it affect the battery?

An hybrid car was left undriven for 10days and battery died, was windwonde if the same applies to Tesla's as well.

Please advise

 

[TexasTeslaRacing]

It will not, unless you are leaving the SOC at 0% or 100% for long periods of time. Long meaning months. Best practice is to leave it plugged in with a charge above 20% and below 90%.

 

[Stuberman]

We have left our cars for up to two weeks at a time (unplugged) in the mild SF Bay Area weather. The battery does run down quite slowly, but there is plenty of charge left upon our return. More extreme weather will run the battery down faster.

 

[chillaban]

A reasonable rule of thumb is you lose about 1% per day. Sometimes you do better, other times you do worse. I was able to leave my car for a month (parked underground during California winter) and it lost around 20 rated miles (less than 10%). Otherwise leaving it in an airport parking lot in the summer I really do lose 1% to 2% a day.

 

[Target]

This can vary massively depending on the settings in the car and the environment it is sitting in. I live in Chicago and with the electronics protection mode turned on it can use 5% during a day of sitting outside during the summer. That setting limits the cabin temperature to 120 F to limit heat damage to all of the screens and tech in the car. During the extreme winter the car will use battery to keep the battery warm, I haven't been through that with mine yet.

If it is sitting in my garage unplugged, and out of the sun, then it loses about 1% per day, under moderate temperatures, so I would consider that to be a minimum. Keep it out of the sun and severe cold, and it should be reasonable.

 

[Vinc]

What would be the best approach if the car had to sit for a bit longer? I may purchase a MS from this forum, but it would have to sit in a garage for 2-3 months until I can pick it up...

 

[AWD>]

Plug it in and set the charge limit to about 60%.

It’ll deplete some, then charge back up. If I recall, it should not be unplugged for long periods of time (more than 3-4 days) below 40 and or above 90 F. That’s from memory and could be based on data from my Spark EV... so no flames, please... but 240v or 120v would be fine for the storage you’re speaking of and cost negligible money in electricity.

 

[tree100]

In PHX in my garage my S60 loses anywhere from 3-6% per day unplugged. Garage is not conditioned, and is pretty toasty 120 degrees.

 

[GMan324]

What would be the best approach if the car had to sit for a bit longer? I may purchase a MS from this forum, but it would have to sit in a garage for 2-3 months until I can pick it up...

You will be fine if you can get access to any power, even a “normal” 120v plug charging at a low 8 amp rate will keep it up. Set charge limit around 50% as others have suggested. You can also turn off cabin overheat protection and always on connection to save more power.

 

[Vinc]

You will be fine if you can get access to any power, even a “normal” 120v plug charging at a low 8 amp rate will keep it up. Set charge limit around 50% as others have suggested. You can also turn off cabin overheat protection and always on connection to save more power.

Thanks! So we would leave the car just plugged and it would take care of itself?

 

[AWD>]

Yep, set the charge limit and plug it in.