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Keep it plugged in while I'm away?
- Thread starter drschwartz
- Start date
There are only pros. Your car will never run out of battery. It will not consume more than if it was unplugged. It's just peace of mind.
M1tch
2021 M3P with EAP
I believe the manual says to leave it plugged in if you can
Mike_TV
Active Member
Clark_Kent
Member
This topic often comes up and strangely people still try to rationalize against what the owner's manual suggests.Leave the vehicle plugged in at all times when not in use. There's nothing more to discuss. /thread
You might want to set the charge threshold to 50% while you are gone and set it back to where it was when you get back.
Clark_Kent
Member
roblab
Active Member
Exactly. Plug it in, set it to 80 or 90%. There is no power usage except to keep the battery in perfect shape. Even if it does perhaps use a few electrons, what's that compared to several thousand dollars for a new battery?
I would imagine that the car won't crump if it's not plugged in, but it's healthy for it. If it's cost of electricity that's worrying you, I can't imagine it will be more than ten bucks.
The OP stated they were only leaving the Tesla for a couple of days. This scenario is no different than parking at the airport where chances are you would not be able to plug in. Since the Tesla will be left at home there is no reason not to leave the Tesla plugged in as usual. The caveat about only charging to 50% makes sense if leaving the Tesla vehicle parked for an extended period, i.e. weeks. For a few days there is no reason to change the usual charging limit.
I usually plug it in and set it to 50%. Then on the day I am coming back, I turn the charging back up to 80-90% so it's ready when I get home.
Will only consume if you tell it to charge. Leave it plugged in and use the app to start charging if necessary...
Phantom drain would imply "unknown" drain issues... there are very good reasons why the main battery SOC depletes with seemingly "no use"... a lot of components on board to power, keeping up the 12V, sentry, hvac if enabled, etc, etc. etc.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
Your mentality seems to be stuck in the ICE world.
You plug in the car so it can charge when it needs to, and you can always have a “full tank” at the ready. It lets you precondition from your home’s power source without impacting range. It gives you the option to change your set limit and start charging from the app whenever you need to, from anywhere in the world. It protects against worst-case issues where the car unexpectedly drains the battery due to not shutting down properly, you are delayed in returning home for some reason, etc etc.
If you have convenient access to home charging, there’s no reason at all to NOT do what the manual says and keep the car plugged in and fully charged to your limit.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
This is not true, it will also initiate a charge once the car is ~3% or more from whatever your set charging point is.
Tesla made the recommendation about keeping the Tesla vehicle plugged in 10 years ago when the Model S vehicle was introduced. This predates Sentry mode, FSD Summon standby and Cabin Overheat Protection by quite a few years. If there were phantom drain issues with Model S, other Tesla vehicles hopefully these phantom drain issues have been corrected.
Bottom line, if the Tesla Model Y vehicle is allowed to shut down, enter sleep mode then power consumption is minimal, i.e. 25W. There are many examples of Tesla Model Y vehicles being parked unplugged for extended periods with Sentry mode turned off where the battery drain was 1% to 2% per week.
Bottom line, if the Tesla Model Y vehicle is allowed to shut down, enter sleep mode then power consumption is minimal, i.e. 25W. There are many examples of Tesla Model Y vehicles being parked unplugged for extended periods with Sentry mode turned off where the battery drain was 1% to 2% per week.
