Lockdown State Of Charge

[CertLive]

So unfortunately but then inevitable shutdown of the UK is now in effect. So like many of us the Model 3 needs some downtime. I will garage mine but am thinking to attach the slow charger that came with it, plug it in and store it at 70%. Think this is a good preference for a few weeks? Or is it better to shutdown the car from the screen altogether?

Stay safe everyone!

 

[Banksy888]

Even pressing the power of button won't eliminate so called phantom drain, where charge is lost from the battery. (Not entirely sure what that button does because the car wakes up very quickly if you press the brake pedal so definitely it's not all shutdown!)

Perhaps the most useful thing to note here is the section in the manual on charging:

The most important way to preserve the Battery is to LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE PLUGGED IN when you are not using it. This is particularly important if you are not planning to drive Model 3 for several weeks.

 

[pow216]

You don’t need to think about this. The software in the BMS does that for you. Just leave it plugged in!

 

[NorfolkMustard]

Yep. Keep it plugged in and with the battery target somewhere in the ‘daily’ range, not in the ‘trip’ range

 

[pdk42]

10-70%. Idle stress increases rapidly below 10% and increasingly rapidly as you pass 80%

 

[Mark_T]

I would suggest charging to 80% then set the limit back down to 50%.

Frequent small top up charges are not desirable and the car will give you warnings about that if you do them too often.

 

[Jason71]

I would suggest charging to 80% then set the limit back down to 50%.

Frequent small top up charges are not desirable and the car will give you warnings about that if you do them too often.

what happened to A.B.C (always be charging)

 

[Mark_T]

what happened to A.B.C (always be charging)

Always Be Connected, yes, not always charging if you are not using.

If you are just getting phantom drain for a couple of percent and not driving then you do not want to be recharging that 2% every day.

When I first got mine I left it connected and set to 70% while I was away for a couple of weeks. About half-way through the car gave me a warning that frequent small charges were bad for the battery.

 

[pdk42]

I would suggest charging to 80% then set the limit back down to 50%.

Frequent small top up charges are not desirable and the car will give you warnings about that if you do them too often.

Optimum level for long-term storage is about 50%. The battery will degrade more quickly if you leave it at 80%, particularly as the temperature rises (although unlikely to be an issue in a typical UK summer).

 

[Mark_T]

Optimum level for long-term storage is about 50%. The battery will degrade more quickly if you leave it at 80%, particularly as the temperature rises (although unlikely to be an issue in a typical UK summer).

These are not lithium pouch cells and there really has been no evidence to back-up any claims of increased degradation above 50%.

Also you can't leave the car plugged in and maintain 50% without having very small daily charges which Tesla do say is not good for the battery.

Better to charge it higher and let it decline slowly then recharge to a higher state and repeat.

If 80% bothers you then make it 60%, and recharge to 60% when it hits 50%.

 

[CertLive]

So it seems like the best thing to do is to charge it to 80% - set it to 50%, check in a week and see if its near 50% again then top it up with a larger amount and repeat. I know when the car sits there it wont just instantly top up to say the 80% marker every time, it might drop a couple of points before top up. But I can see how the gradual run down and then boost up is probably overall a lot less charge attempts. This at least I hope is the only time I have to store the car for weeks. But hey fingers crossed we beat this virus soon. Even if not to stop anywhere I feel like a nice social distancing drive, bio defence mode finally has a use for some.

 

[Mark_T]

So it seems like the best thing to do is to charge it to 80% - set it to 50%, check in a week and see if its near 50% again then top it up with a larger amount and repeat.

Yes, sensible strategy.

If it helps, my MS will lose at most about 1%/day, so 80-50% would take about a month, and of course there is nothing magical about 50% either, I'd try to keep it above 20% but wouldn't worry in the slightest about dips below 50.

Obviously if you have Sentry on then it will be a lot more than 1%/day...

 

[nightowl]

A little concerned about the advice that lots of small charges are bad for the battery.

Had a Zappi installed at the start of the year. It's now just about sunny enough to charge it by a couple of % a day using mostly solar (Eco+ mode with some % of import allowed to meet the minimum 1.4kW). It stopped and started about 4 times due to clouds etc.

Battery charge was around 80% to begin with, but I was just seeing how effective the Eco+ mode is.

But by the sound of things, charging in this way may be greener energy-wise but gradually ruins the battery?

 

[Mark_T]

A little concerned about the advice that lots of small charges are bad for the battery.

As long as the car is not giving you any warnings I wouldn't worry.

If the car doesn't like what you are doing it will let you know.

 

[Lounge Range]

Some advice please. I’m a M3 owner and one of the 1.5 million shielded in isolation.
I usually charge to 90% but obviously I won’t be going anywhere for a few months. The car is currently showing
86% and I won’t be driving to lower that figure.
I’ve just put it to charge to 90% and left the charger attached or would I be better letting phantom charge bring the
percentage down (approx. 2% a day) down to say 70% and then setting the level lower with charger attached?
Or perhaps there’s something else I should do.
Thanking you all in advance.
Be safe

 

[Mr H]

The Specials on Twitter

 

[RandomX]

Some advice please. I’m a M3 owner and one of the 1.5 million shielded in isolation.
I usually charge to 90% but obviously I won’t be going anywhere for a few months. The car is currently showing
86% and I won’t be driving to lower that figure.
I’ve just put it to charge to 90% and left the charger attached or would I be better letting phantom charge bring the
percentage down (approx. 2% a day) down to say 70% and then setting the level lower with charger attached?
Or perhaps there’s something else I should do.
Thanking you all in advance.
Be safe

plug it in and store it at 70%. Think this is a good preference for a few weeks? Or is it better to shutdown the car from the screen altogether?

Stay safe everyone!

It's fine to let it trickle away down to 70 or even lower.

I recommend setting it 50 percent charge for storage. If you look at the data the battery takes less damage at 50% then it does at higher charges.

Still, you might find some lithium ion batteries guides suggesting storing batteries at 60% or even 70. That is to compensate for discharge over storage time. Theoretically keeping the battery between 60 and 40% as it slowly discharges during storage. So basically they are shooting for near 50.

Keeping the car plugged in, on and set to 50% accomplishes the desired goal.

RandomX

 

[MrBadger]

The car is currently showing
86% and I won’t be driving to lower that figure.
I’ve just put it to charge to 90% and left the charger attached or would I be better letting phantom charge bring the
percentage down (approx. 2% a day) down to say 70% and then setting the level lower with charger attached?

Stay safe.

I don't know about recommended %'s, but remotely turning on sentry mode will increase the daily drain if you want to bring down SoC a bit faster.

 

[ACarneiro]

I’m surprised that the BMS would perform damaging small charges...

 

[Adopado]

I’m surprised that the BMS would perform damaging small charges...

If you have the charging level at a set percentage then you want the car to be at that percentage. I suppose its only doing what it is asked to do. The extent to which this is damaging is debatable. I would be confident that if it was significantly damaging it would be easy enough for Tesla to set the BMS to behave differently.