Is There a way to only charge when below XYZ charge %

[dafish]

I would really like to only recharge when we're under 50% range. I would ALSO like keep my wife in the habit of plugging it in every night. Anybody know how to do this?

 

[TesslaBull]

If it takes several days of commuting to get the battery down below 50% SOC, then it would seem that setting the charge limit to 55% would accomplish some/much of what the OP is trying to achieve, with some significant added benefits.

1) Setting max state of charge to 55%(or lower) minimizes battery degradation. Added benefit for anyone keeping their car long term.

2) Scheduling charging for just prior to leaving for work keeps the battery at the lowest state of charge which is again useful for optimizing battery life.

3) Charging shortly before daily trip warms the battery, improving efficiency and saving electricity that would normally be used for preconditioning.

4) It's simple and easy. You don't have to remember anything. Just plug in when you get home everyday.

 

[MattM24]

What about buying a third party smart EVSE and limiting when it can operate? While it won’t give you the window you are asking for, it may help get you the same/similar results.

 

[rrolsbe]

I think he wants to set limit to 80% or whatever it is but at the same time have it not charge unless it’s below 50% whilst still plugging in every day.

No reason to do that as others have said, but he seems to be dead set on making it work like that.

There could be a valid reason to want to do this if your car is parked in a very cold environment where substantial battery heating would be required to allow charging. I believe the car will currently awake and top off when the SOC is about 3% below the set SOC, this may have changed? It it were parked for three days or more between each top off then the HV battery cell temps would certainly have equalized to around the ambient temperature. If parked for an extended time like a week or more this would require additional energy (cost) before EACH charging event. Does anyone have any idea approximately how many KWH would be required to warm a battery with cells temps at around 0F before a full charge rate of 10KW could be attained? The the amount of energy required would vary with car model/year and HV battery size/chemistry so those parameters would need to be stated in the estimate. I have SMT, which you can use to estimate the heating power required to allow the full charge rate, but have never charged when the cell temps were much below 32F.

 

[E90alex]

There could be a valid reason to want to do this if your car is parked in a very cold environment where substantial battery heating would be required to allow charging. I believe the car will currently awake and top off when the SOC is about 3% below the set SOC, this may have changed? It it were parked for three days or more between each top off then the HV battery cell temps would certainly have equalized to around the ambient temperature. If parked for an extended time like a week or more this would require additional energy (cost) before EACH charging event. Does anyone have any idea approximately how many KWH would be required to warm a battery with cells temps at around 0F before a full charge rate of 10KW could be attained? The the amount of energy required would vary with car model/year and HV battery size/chemistry so those parameters would need to be stated in the estimate. I have SMT, which you can use to estimate the heating power required to allow the full charge rate, but have never charged when the cell temps were much below 32F.

The battery will still need to heat up to drive anyways. So you’re either using grid power or using battery power, which originally came from grid power.

The best practice is to set charging to finish right before you leave so the charging heats up the battery and doesn’t cool down too much before driving.

 

[jcanoe]

The Tesla Model Y can be driven with a cold battery. The blue snowflake symbol informs that power is reduced and regenerative braking may be unavailable. The reduced power might only be evident when passing on the highway. Now that the Tesla Model Y supports blended friction braking you will barely notice any difference when using one pedal driving to slow down even with a cold battery.

While charging does warm the battery a bit it takes some time for any significant warming to take place. After 90+ minutes charging at 30 amps in 40F temperatures my Model Y will sometimes start to warm the battery during preconditioning. If charging was really providing significant battery warming the Model Y would not use energy for stator heating; but it does.

I agree that scheduling charging to complete just before your departure time is more efficient, at least in winter. Once the ambient temperature reaches 68F I'm not sure there is much benefit.

 

[boulder.dude]

My wish list item is to be able to set two charge levels: (1) a low value that ignores schedules (set to 50%) and a higher value that obeys the schedules (set to 70-90%).

That way you can sit close to 50% evenings/overnight without having to think about it.

 

[dafish]

I think he wants to set limit to 80% or whatever it is but at the same time have it not charge unless it’s below 50% whilst still plugging in every day.

No reason to do that as others have said, but he seems to be dead set on making it work like that.

Correct. Except for the "no reason" part. Again with the "I know best, you don't, you're just ignoring our collective wisdom", No, some are just spraying the same old tripe without adequate facts or education.

Since some don't seem to be able to resist snarky comments instead of simply answering a polite question, lets clear up who's who:

1) My wife is a teacher. There will oft be summer days her car doesn't move, or perhaps go <15 miles. Despite the annoying bleating of "we know what you want but you're wrong", I've no interest in holding the thing at or near the same charge level day after day.
2) She's a wonderful woman, but I do not expect her to day to day manage when or if the car needs charged. Her job is to drive it and plug it in. It's the job of software to manage the rest. Read that again. Software. Something a Tesla should be good at.
3) As to EV battery best practices, I've yet to see a study of Li, including NCM, batteries that doesn't show degradation/life expectancy correlated to number of charge cycles. Naturally these reports vary, but few that are informed reject the facts out of hand. Ya'll are free to put your head in the sand regarding excess charging cycles all you want, but that's not going to change science.
4) Yes, I'm aware here are plenty of other best practices to also consider. I'd just no idea I needed to present a charging best practices dissertation to ask a simple question.
4) There is regular commentary, including here in this thread, that the BMS is more accurate when wider range of use is presented to it. Given #1, that's a problem unless managed. See #2.
5) It's clear from this thread Tesla today can't manage excess charge cycles on its own, and that 3rd party software can. Why market demand is such that these capabilities exist despite insistence herein it's not needed is something for those of you banging the drum to consider.

My position is simple: I know what my needs are, I'm adequately aware of appropriate charging practices, and don't normally feel a need to boorishly explain my every thought to pedantics, luddites, or those too self-focused to imagine others might have a different, yet valid, perspective. For that matter, in a discussion among reasonably mature minds one can usually ask a simple question and receive a simple answer without a song and dance justifying same. Not so much for some here? The math is pretty clear isn't it?

JC/Spin:
My apologies. I do try to remain civil and respectful and truly appreciate your advice. My apologies for detracting from your valued advice and assistance. For what it's worth I'd learned what I needed from your insights. My thanks again!

-d

 

[E90alex]

Correct. Except for the "no reason" part. Again with the "I know best, you don't, you're just ignoring our collective wisdom", No, some are just spraying the same old tripe without adequate facts or education.

Since some don't seem to be able to resist snarky comments instead of simply answering a polite question, lets clear up who's who:

1) My wife is a teacher. There will oft be summer days her car doesn't move, or perhaps go <15 miles. Despite the annoying bleating of "we know what you want but you're wrong", I've no interest in holding the thing at or near the same charge level day after day.
2) She's a wonderful woman, but I do not expect her to day to day manage when or if the car needs charged. Her job is to drive it and plug it in. It's the job of software to manage the rest. Read that again. Software. Something a Tesla should be good at.
3) As to EV battery best practices, I've yet to see a study of Li, including NCM, batteries that doesn't show degradation/life expectancy correlated to number of charge cycles. Naturally these reports vary, but few that are informed reject the facts out of hand. Ya'll are free to put your head in the sand regarding excess charging cycles all you want, but that's not going to change science.
4) Yes, I'm aware here are plenty of other best practices to also consider. I'd just no idea I needed to present a charging best practices dissertation to ask a simple question.
4) There is regular commentary, including here in this thread, that the BMS is more accurate when wider range of use is presented to it. Given #1, that's a problem unless managed. See #2.
5) It's clear from this thread Tesla today can't manage excess charge cycles on its own, and that 3rd party software can. Why market demand is such that these capabilities exist despite insistence herein it's not needed is something for those of you banging the drum to consider.

My position is simple: I know what my needs are, I'm adequately aware of appropriate charging practices, and don't normally feel a need to boorishly explain my every thought to pedantics, luddites, or those too self-focused to imagine others might have a different, yet valid, perspective. For that matter, in a discussion among reasonably mature minds one can usually ask a simple question and receive a simple answer without a song and dance justifying same. Not so much for some here? The math is pretty clear isn't it?

JC/Spin:
My apologies. I do try to remain civil and respectful and truly appreciate your advice. My apologies for detracting from your valued advice and assistance. For what it's worth I'd learned what I needed from your insights. My thanks again!

-d

In regards to #3, you realize a charging cycle is 100% worth of charging right? In other words, it’s how many times a battery has gone through its full capacity’s worth of discharge and recharge. Not how many times it’s plugged in.

You can plug in 50 times and each time charging 2%, that counts as ONE charging cycle.

You can plug in 100 times and charge only 1% each time, that also counts as ONE charging cycle.

You can plug in a single time to charge from 0-100% and that is also ONE charging cycle.

So yes your obsession with making it not charge when it’s plugged in unless below 50% is absolutely pointless. There is zero benefit. You are not “saving” any charging cycles. But if it gives you something to worry about and keeps your mind busy then go for it.

 

[Rocky_H]

3) As to EV battery best practices, I've yet to see a study of Li, including NCM, batteries that doesn't show degradation/life expectancy correlated to number of charge cycles. Naturally these reports vary, but few that are informed reject the facts out of hand. Ya'll are free to put your head in the sand regarding excess charging cycles all you want, but that's not going to change science.

Wow. Just...

5) It's clear from this thread Tesla today can't manage excess charge cycles on its own,

Sigh.

So now I see what's going on. That #3 is amazing. You are calling on the authority of "science", because you want to reduce the number of charge cycles, except you have the wrong definition of a charge cycle. You are mixing up charging events with cycles. Filling 10% 5 times or filling 50% once would still be a half a cycle either way, but I see now why you were so wanting so much to avoid the first case, because you thought it would be 5 times as many "cycles", when it really isn't.

Do you now see why we were saying this isn't useful or beneficial? It was based on a false premise. And as far as battery health and good treatment of it, small top-ups are the healthier thing than larger deeper refill events, so what you were trying to achieve is the more damaging case anyway. But it's really going to make very little difference either way.

I'm trying to stay positive here despite your attitude. We have figured out the misunderstanding now.

 

[qdeathstar]

Any other ideas folks?

What is wrong with that guys suggestion. Seems reasonable to me….

 

[qdeathstar]

In regards to #3, you realize a charging cycle is 100% worth of charging right? In other words, it’s how many times a battery has gone through its full capacity’s worth of discharge and recharge. Not how many times it’s plugged in.

You can plug in 50 times and each time charging 2%, that counts as ONE charging cycle.

You can plug in 100 times and charge only 1% each time, that also counts as ONE charging cycle.

You can plug in a single time to charge from 0-100% and that is also ONE charging cycle.

So yes your obsession with making it not charge when it’s plugged in unless below 50% is absolutely pointless. There is zero benefit. You are not “saving” any charging cycles. But if it gives you something to worry about and keeps your mind busy then go for it.

Keeping the battery around 50 percent js good for battery life.

 

[E90alex]

Keeping the battery around 50 percent js good for battery life.

Yes but that’s not what he’s trying to do.

 

[TesslaBull]

Correct. Except for the "no reason" part. Again with the "I know best, you don't, you're just ignoring our collective wisdom", No, some are just spraying the same old tripe without adequate facts or education.

Since some don't seem to be able to resist snarky comments instead of simply answering a polite question, lets clear up who's who:

1) My wife is a teacher. There will oft be summer days her car doesn't move, or perhaps go <15 miles. Despite the annoying bleating of "we know what you want but you're wrong", I've no interest in holding the thing at or near the same charge level day after day.
2) She's a wonderful woman, but I do not expect her to day to day manage when or if the car needs charged. Her job is to drive it and plug it in. It's the job of software to manage the rest. Read that again. Software. Something a Tesla should be good at.
3) As to EV battery best practices, I've yet to see a study of Li, including NCM, batteries that doesn't show degradation/life expectancy correlated to number of charge cycles. Naturally these reports vary, but few that are informed reject the facts out of hand. Ya'll are free to put your head in the sand regarding excess charging cycles all you want, but that's not going to change science.
4) Yes, I'm aware here are plenty of other best practices to also consider. I'd just no idea I needed to present a charging best practices dissertation to ask a simple question.
4) There is regular commentary, including here in this thread, that the BMS is more accurate when wider range of use is presented to it. Given #1, that's a problem unless managed. See #2.
5) It's clear from this thread Tesla today can't manage excess charge cycles on its own, and that 3rd party software can. Why market demand is such that these capabilities exist despite insistence herein it's not needed is something for those of you banging the drum to consider.

My position is simple: I know what my needs are, I'm adequately aware of appropriate charging practices, and don't normally feel a need to boorishly explain my every thought to pedantics, luddites, or those too self-focused to imagine others might have a different, yet valid, perspective. For that matter, in a discussion among reasonably mature minds one can usually ask a simple question and receive a simple answer without a song and dance justifying same. Not so much for some here? The math is pretty clear isn't it?

JC/Spin:
My apologies. I do try to remain civil and respectful and truly appreciate your advice. My apologies for detracting from your valued advice and assistance. For what it's worth I'd learned what I needed from your insights. My thanks again!

-d

You asked a simple question and were hoping for simple answer. You did not provide the reasoning behind why you are attempting your desired charging routine, which you have the right to do. Those replying, who want to be as helpful as possible, are trying to figure out *why* you wish to set up such a charging schedule, with the intent of being *as helpful as possible*. They are guessing your reasoning since you didn't supply it in the original post. That is on you. It turns out, part of your original hidden reasoning for attempting said scheduling is the belief that infrequent, large charges are better for battery life. This isn't true.

So it turns out that the advice you weren't necessarily looking for may indeed be the best advice. Set charge limit to 55%(or lower). Plug in every day and set charging schedule to prior to departure. You will:

-Optimally minimize battery range degradation
-Improve efficiency by warming battery prior to departure from charging
-Save electricity by reducing the need for preconditioning by warming the battery somewhat as an unavoidable byproduct of charging
-Keep things simple....set it and forget it, while achieving optimal results.

You can of course choose to do whatever you want.

If you were aware of the above best practices and why they are optimal but feel it doesn't fit your needs, apologies for wasting your time.

See post 18:

Minimising battery degradation

I have a 2021 Shanghai-built M3P with the 82 kWh Panasonic battery. My understanding is that the following four charging regimes all take the same amount of power: Daily charge - 60% to 80% Daily charge - 40% to 60% Every other day charge - 40% to 80% Every other day charge - 20% to 60%...

teslamotorsclub.com

If my responses are insulting, don't worry. I won't be replying again.

 

[qdeathstar]

Yes but that’s not what he’s trying to do.

Yea, I saw. Weird

 

[FlyF4]

Ah, snarky comments. Classy.

Just my opinion. I don't know that person to be "snarky". You may be making a negative conclusion on that. I think he was trying to be helpful.

 

[ucmndd]

3) As to EV battery best practices, I've yet to see a study of Li, including NCM, batteries that doesn't show degradation/life expectancy correlated to number of charge cycles. Naturally these reports vary, but few that are informed reject the facts out of hand.

As pointed out repeatedly upthread, your definition of a charge cycle is quite simply wrong. It doesn’t mean what you think it does.

One charge from 0-100% = one charge cycle.

100 charges from 54-55% = one charge cycle.

 

[trm2]

Correct. Except for the "no reason" part. Again with the "I know best, you don't, you're just ignoring our collective wisdom", No, some are just spraying the same old tripe without adequate facts or education.

Since some don't seem to be able to resist snarky comments instead of simply answering a polite question, lets clear up who's who:

1) My wife is a teacher. There will oft be summer days her car doesn't move, or perhaps go <15 miles. Despite the annoying bleating of "we know what you want but you're wrong", I've no interest in holding the thing at or near the same charge level day after day.
2) She's a wonderful woman, but I do not expect her to day to day manage when or if the car needs charged. Her job is to drive it and plug it in. It's the job of software to manage the rest. Read that again. Software. Something a Tesla should be good at.
3) As to EV battery best practices, I've yet to see a study of Li, including NCM, batteries that doesn't show degradation/life expectancy correlated to number of charge cycles. Naturally these reports vary, but few that are informed reject the facts out of hand. Ya'll are free to put your head in the sand regarding excess charging cycles all you want, but that's not going to change science.
4) Yes, I'm aware here are plenty of other best practices to also consider. I'd just no idea I needed to present a charging best practices dissertation to ask a simple question.
4) There is regular commentary, including here in this thread, that the BMS is more accurate when wider range of use is presented to it. Given #1, that's a problem unless managed. See #2.
5) It's clear from this thread Tesla today can't manage excess charge cycles on its own, and that 3rd party software can. Why market demand is such that these capabilities exist despite insistence herein it's not needed is something for those of you banging the drum to consider.

My position is simple: I know what my needs are, I'm adequately aware of appropriate charging practices, and don't normally feel a need to boorishly explain my every thought to pedantics, luddites, or those too self-focused to imagine others might have a different, yet valid, perspective. For that matter, in a discussion among reasonably mature minds one can usually ask a simple question and receive a simple answer without a song and dance justifying same. Not so much for some here? The math is pretty clear isn't it?

JC/Spin:
My apologies. I do try to remain civil and respectful and truly appreciate your advice. My apologies for detracting from your valued advice and assistance. For what it's worth I'd learned what I needed from your insights. My thanks again!

-d

Not much to add to the conversation, but you do have two number fours in your list.

 

[davewill]

I would really like to only recharge when we're under 50% range. I would ALSO like keep my wife in the habit of plugging it in every night. Anybody know how to do this?

I've got one, non-automated suggestion for you. Keep the car set to 50% charge level. Every few days, use your phone to bump it up to 80%, then put it back to 50% the next day. Your wife can plug in every day, and the car will only charge on the days you set the charge level up. Otherwise, use one of the pay services, or give up on the idea.

 

[E90alex]

I've got one, non-automated suggestion for you. Keep the car set to 50% charge level. Every few days, use your phone to bump it up to 80%, then put it back to 50% the next day. Your wife can plug in every day, and the car will only charge on the days you set the charge level up. Otherwise, use one of the pay services, or give up on the idea.

I suggested that earlier but apparently I was being snarky and that’s not what he wanted to do.

 

[Mrbrock]

Not much to add at this point but just a few thoughts overall.

You keep harping on this one, saying no one has given you an answer of how to do it. I don't think anyone can do that because the question doesn't make sense. It's what the car already does by default all the time.

If you have the car's charging limit set to 70%, and the car is at 73%, it obviously won't charge. It will not charge unless it is below that threshold. That's exactly what you asked for in that sentence. So maybe this just isn't worded specifically enough here and what you really want is different than what is specifically asked for in that sentence. Until you reword this to something that the car doesn't already do, we can't give you an answer.

Granted, the other things in the list are not as easy, but #1 is already what the car does.

Oooh, like two limits with a band in between. I hadn't picked up on that.

There was nothing to pick up on. One had to assume he was asking for something more than how to set the max charge limit. I mean, that is covered in the manual and numerous places online. You have to assume he is here asking something more intelligent than that in which case you have to make a leap and assume he wants to do something that Tesla doesn't support.

If the OP uses IFTT as he says, why not use it with the Tesla App? Seems like that solves his problem. No $$ 3rd party app where you have to give them your Tesla credentials. Everything runs through the Tesla App.