Leaving your Tesla behind when traveling

[buddhra]

I'll agree, look for parking that allow charging. And you don't want/need destination charging or J-1772 charging. All you really need is a 120V wall plug to keep the car happy. In Atlanta we have a parking company, Peachy Parking that provides charging for EVs. All they have is 120V plugs. When I pull in, there's generally over 20 cars mixed between Teslas and Leafs. When you are gone for a week, even a 1 mph charge rate will add over 100 miles. If you get 4 mph, then your car will be topped off in 5 days.

Some of the other parking lots have J-1772 chargers and they will often cycle cars on and off the charger. If you are in an underground, then you probably won't be able to see the state of charge though.

Just a quick search for "LAX EV Parking" yielded LAX Airport Parking | The Parking Spot

+1 on Peachy in Atlanta. I've yet to find a parking option near LAX or SFO that is as good as them.

 

[Qbenjamin]

We just left our M3 sitting in the driveway for two weeks, lost 7 miles of range...Non-issue.

In other news, if you have a BV, unplug it. Got the notorious 12V needs to be serviced/replaced.

 

[asujosh1]

I recently went on a 9-day trip, left the car plugged in while gone. I left the car in my home garage, in the hot summer, and still have cabin temp protection turned on to fan only. Every other day I would get a charge notification of about 6%. At that rate, if I had left it unplugged, it would have been 24-30% lower capacity than when I left.

 

[miltymoots]

I used these guys at LAX recently and was very happy: Airport Center Parking. They had ample 120V outlets, were reasonably-priced, safe, and the shuttles were timely.

So you reserve an EV spot for the entire trip and just leave it plugged in?

 

[buddhra]

So you reserve an EV spot for the entire trip and just leave it plugged in?

That's the idea anyway. You bring your own charging cord and plug in. I'm not sure how much of "reservation" it is though. I doubt they're making sure an outlet is available when you reserve, but they had plenty open when I got there.

 

[CameronB]

If you can manage to plug in, sure that should be the best bet.

But in my experience (see experiments below), with some configuration options, I was able to go over 5 days with an average drain of 1 mile/day. Granted this is in a garage which roughly is close to home temperature (60s at night, maybe low 80s in summer heat) and with a Model S and not a Model 3. But may be quite similar.

TL;DR version: Turn OFF smart preconditioning and set Energy Saving to ON and your daily 'vampire drain' should drop to 1-3 miles/day.

 

[jbcarioca]

I'm currently on a trip:

1. Charged to 95%
2. Parked in underground garage (consistent temp in the 70s)
3. Powered down the car via the service menu
4. Put a car cover on it
5. DO NOT check the app everyday!!!! This wakes up the car and uses power.

I lost 8 miles in 7 days.

This!!! I had my Model S for six months before I had home charging. I travel for one to two months at a time. I was really worried at the beginning. I followed your prescription exactly. Frustrating, because I desperately wanted to check, but that would wake up the car. I typically lost about 5% per week. I left the car with a 90% charge. I left it once for 92 days, and returned to a 31% charge.

I really do not like to do this, but if you need to do it, it works. Slightly later I found a few places where i could find a 110V outlet. That solves the vampire nicely and allows constant checking to keep your car from being too lonely. Those are often in garages even though quite often nobody knows they are there. Moral:ask, but then check even when you're told they do not exist.

 

[Lasairfion]

Looking through other threads on this forum regarding vampire drain: it looks like some earlier models had severe issues with drainage far beyond normal, which has since been rectified in later updates. One particular issue appeared to be that earlier builds were detecting people's phones at a greater distance and therefore picking up owners walking past the garage etc and waking the car; but there were other issues causing drainage too.

2018.26.1 Firmware - fixed Brake Warning & Vampire Drain
Model 3 crazy vampire drain

Ensure your car is updated and hopefully there shouldn't be an issue. Otherwise, plug it in.

Aside: also check settings if you use Tesla-Fi that it isn't keeping the car idling for data logging purposes.

 

[jbcarioca]

If you can manage to plug in, sure that should be the best bet.

...
TL;DR version: Turn OFF smart preconditioning and set Energy Saving to ON and your daily 'vampire drain' should drop to 1-3 miles/day.

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Thanks for this. I have not been so disciplined with measuring the exact results but my own less scientific approach clearly correlates well with yours.
The major point to remember is that once one makes the correct settings DO NOT
check how it's doing on your app. Checking will wake up the demon vampire!!