Is there a tangible downside to not leaving your Tesla plugged in?

[redscott]

There have been a thousand threads on the question of the optimal charging strategy.

Inevitably (and reasonably), someone will point to the manual, which reads:

And as the manual notes, the Model 3 uses energy for system tests and recharging the 12V battery. It's also a DIRE problem if you let the battery drain all the way to 0, in fact Tesla notes "Leaving Model 3 unplugged for an extended period can also result in permanent Battery damage."

But the fact is, I don't want to leave my charging cable in my car because in my multi-unit condo, parking clearance is extremely tight, and the position of the charging cable is highly precarious and waiting to be clipped by a neighbor, ruining my day and possibly my week and definitely the rear quarter panel of my Model 3.

Aside from the catastrophic case where the battery drops to zero, is there any long term downside to leaving the car unplugged most of the time?

Links and first hand info from Tesla support are appreciated!

 

[JasJ]

When I'm just commuting to work for the week (short trips), I routinely only plug in one night on the weekend. No issues. Just make sure you are not waking the car up all the time with the App or any 3rd party calls to the API when you are not driving.

Now if I am going out of town for a couple weeks, I would leave the car plugged in.

 

[csshih]

you might trip on the charge cable?

 

[redscott]

When I'm just commuting to work for the week (short trips), I routinely only plug in one night on the weekend. No issues.

This is my intuition, would love if someone had a Tesla source that confirmed there's no long term problems with this approach.

 

[22522]

I understand that if you keep the battery above 40% always (and less than 70%) that you will be OK.

 

[swaltner]

Three things here:

• Let’s say you drive you car 20 miles per day. You can do that driving in a long rang e Model 3 over the course of a week while consuming only 50% of the pack. For longevity, the pack would prefer to have 7 cycles from something like 80% down to 73% instead of a single discharge cycle from 80% down to the 30%. We can argue about how much of an impact that difference would be.on the real life of the pack, and I don’t have exact numbers on how different the use cases are.
• You are not ready for the unexpected. If I routinely waited until the battery was “empty” to recharge the battery, just like I did with gas tanks on the car, I wouldn’t be ready for the unexpected. With a Model 3 charged to 80%, when a friend called and said he had engine trouble in his plane while flying and landed 100 miles away, I could immediately leave the house to assist him. Without regularly topping off the battery, I would have offered to come to his rescue in 4 hours, after I had a chance to recharge. Being in CA, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal since you have plentiful Supercharger locations. Me, not a single one along that route. Only one that got permitted 15+ months ago and still hasn’t even started construction.
• If you let your battery charge get low before charging, you’re also taking away one of the major advantages of a Tesla over shorter range EVs, not having to think about your range while you drive around town. After driving a Leaf for 5 years, frequently getting range alerts, I wouldn’t go back to that. Start every day with a full (80%) battery and only think about range on a few road trips a year.

No, there isn’t a reason that you NEED to recharge every day, particularly in a mild climate like San Francisco, but there are some reasons you WANT to. Being located where there are numerous Supercharger stations reduces, but doesn’t eliminate, the potential nuisance of letting the battery state drop before recharging.

 

[redscott]

Three things here:

• Let’s say you drive you car 20 miles per day. You can do that driving in a long rang e Model 3 over the course of a week while consuming only 50% of the pack. For longevity, the pack would prefer to have 7 cycles from something like 80% down to 73% instead of a single discharge cycle from 80% down to the 30%. We can argue about how much of an impact that difference would be.on the real life of the pack, and I don’t have exact numbers on how different the use cases are.
• You are not ready for the unexpected. If I routinely waited until the battery was “empty” to recharge the battery, just like I did with gas tanks on the car, I wouldn’t be ready for the unexpected. With a Model 3 charged to 80%, when a friend called and said he had engine trouble in his plane while flying and landed 100 miles away, I could immediately leave the house to assist him. Without regularly topping off the battery, I would have offered to come to his rescue in 4 hours, after I had a chance to recharge. Being in CA, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal since you have plentiful Supercharger locations. Me, not a single one along that route. Only one that got permitted 15+ months ago and still hasn’t even started construction.
• If you let your battery charge get low before charging, you’re also taking away one of the major advantages of a Tesla over shorter range EVs, not having to think about your range while you drive around town. After driving a Leaf for 5 years, frequently getting range alerts, I wouldn’t go back to that. Start every day with a full (80%) battery and only think about range on a few road trips a year.

No, there isn’t a reason that you NEED to recharge every day, particularly in a mild climate like San Francisco, but there are some reasons you WANT to. Being located where there are numerous Supercharger stations reduces, but doesn’t eliminate, the potential nuisance of letting the battery state drop before recharging.

My current usage is no driving for several days in a row (occasionally, rarely, more than a week) and then driving ~120 miles in a day.

My current charging strategy is any time i driving more than a dozen miles I’m charging it to 70% (~220 miles) per Jeff Dahn’s Recommendation, then unplugging it and leaving until the next time I drive.

I have sufficient charge that I don’t worry about range or being ready at all, I definitely don’t let the battery drain down as it’s potentially damaging to the battery, but I also don’t leave it plugged in, and I’m wondering if Tesla is doing some battery magic while plugged in and topped off that I’ll regret in the longer term

 

[Tslrsx]

It doesn't matter what you do as long as the battery doesn't deplete completly. If you want to baby the battery than you can stay between 30-80.

 

[redscott]

The core question I have is, when the manual says–

"When plugged in, Model 3 wakes up when needed to automatically maintain a charge level that maximizes the lifetime of the Battery."

What is the Model 3 doing that "maximizes the lifetime of the Battery". And by not leaving it plugged in, am I harming the lifetime of the battery?

 

[Zoomit]

I read that statement from the manual very literally. The car prevents battery discharge down to zero or near to avoid battery damage.

 

[dhrivnak]

With all EVs there is battery loss due to keeping systems operating it is normally small but a very real 1-4 miles a day. With the Roadster a few people lent the car to a museum or stored it in a barn over the winter. So in a period of months the battery drained and was “bricked”. The loss of a $42,000 battery is terrible news. So to prevent the possibility of bricking they advise to plug it in. You get called out of town on a trip. Then a family emergency calls you to fly across the country and suddenly days become weeks and weeks can turn into months. Another rare issue is if the place you store the car gets very cold under 25 or very hot over 100. Again rare but it happens if plugged in the battery will heat or cool itself to prevent damage. If not plugged in you will add damage to the battery.

 

[redscott]

I read that statement from the manual very literally. The car prevents battery discharge down to zero or near to avoid battery damage.

I re-read the statement from the manual and I think you’re right. It’s the charge level itself that maximizes battery life, not the fact that it’s plugged in.

In that case I think if I charge the car to 70% after using it then unplug it and leave it unplugged for a few days after charging it shouldn’t be an issue.

Thanks! Your grammatically correct reading of this sentence gives me a lot more confidence.

 

[TexasEV]

Apparently you haven’t seen this card that used to come in the Model S:
A connected Model S is a happy Model S

 

[redscott]

Apparently you haven’t seen this card that used to come in the Model S:
A connected Model S is a happy Model S

I have seen it! But it’s light on details and sounds like it doesn’t matter as long as your battery has a sufficient charge.

I’d rather charge and unplug, then avoid one of my neighbors clipping the charge plug. Unfortunately not blessed with a private garage.