Long term airport parking

[Vincestx]

A charging spot is not a parking spot, especially for a week. Charge before you park to a sufficient level to support vampire drain for the time that you are going to be gone (2-3 % per day at the most). Make sure to turn off unnecessary options, such as cabin temperature overheat. Plan you trip with an allowance to stop by the supercharger on your way to the airport.

What are the unnecessary options that should be turned off for battery charge preservation for long term parking.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

I'm also going to be leaving the M3P at MCO towards the end of the month, 7 days, we're about 130 miles away, figured I'd top it off to 100%, and we'd be in good shape when we arrived - going to confirm nothing plugged into USB, no sentry mode, etc.

We're going from there to a resort over at Universal when we get back, and I know they have charging accommodation (some for self, some for valet), that would mean we'd want to charge up after leaving to come home, a couple of Superchargers on the way, but I might just stop for 20 minutes on the way to MCO, then we can just not worry about it.

FWIW, ABRP shows arrival at MCO with 46% (then 40% arrival at Universal).

If your airport has FastPark (or a similar company) they have an entire bank of charging spots specifically for EVs that are meant for you to stay plugged into during your trip. I also enjoy looking at what EVs are plugged in there when I ride the shuttle by it.

MCO does! It's about 1.5 miles away, covered, and has EV charging, but while you can reserve parking, you can't specifically reserve an EV spot, only request it, and it's FCFS - they do indicate if a spot isn't available, you can get like a "valet service" option where they move you to an open charging spot when it becomes available, but that doesn't sound like something I'd want to do.

 

[Tom_rob]

MCO is pretty good with their ChargePoints (of course I showed up this am and all were taken on the A side).
Last week I was there 3 days… charged from 50% to 80% and was charged about $3.
Safe travels!

Tom

 

[MaskedRacerX]

MCO is pretty good with their ChargePoints (of course I showed up this am and all were taken on the A side).
Last week I was there 3 days… charged from 50% to 80% and was charged about $3.
Safe travels!

Tom

Did you leave it on a charger for those 3 days? Or charge before/after you parked?

How's your weather? We're not getting much up here in the NE corner, a little later we'll get some decent wind, but don't expect too much more than a typical Nor'easter.

 

[bobbyg123]

Here's a follow up dumb question. I'm parking my new Tesla at the airport for the first time next weekend. How do I make sure everything is turned OFF? Do I just go through the app and make sure climate is set to OFF, Sentry OFF, etc. Is there something I might be missing?

I'm only going to be gone for 4 days, and will be parking it with approximately 70% battery. I assume I'll be fine. Temps are mild here in Seattle.

 

[RayK]

Summon, if you have it. I think that might require a visit to the car's menu to disable. And don't check on the car using the Tesla app OR have any third party app that deals with any of the telemetrics.

 

[Candleflame]

Here's a follow up dumb question. I'm parking my new Tesla at the airport for the first time next weekend. How do I make sure everything is turned OFF? Do I just go through the app and make sure climate is set to OFF, Sentry OFF, etc. Is there something I might be missing?

I'm only going to be gone for 4 days, and will be parking it with approximately 70% battery. I assume I'll be fine. Temps are mild here in Seattle.

dont worry about 4 days. just turn sentry off in the app before you leave.

 

[spamgoeshere2]

Left my LR AWD for 3 weeks outside in the winter in Alaska temps when never got above freezing. I lost 1-2% over the entire time.

don’t need to plug in and don’t worry about it.

Wait... you only lost 2% over the entire 3 weeks? You mean you lost 1-2% per DAY over the 3 weeks or as high as 42%, right?

 

[spamgoeshere2]

There needs to be a cheap Level 1 parking solution for long term airport parking. Your car is going to be sitting there for a week which gives it plenty of time to charge at Level 1 speeds. If it weren't for the possibility of theft a plain 120V outlet would be fine but because theft is a real possibility having a Level 1 J1772 EVSE would be the best solution.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking of and I have the same concern of theft. I think simply cameras could deter the theft issue. You don't hear about cars being broken into in airport parking lots... right? I would think it would be the same level of concern.

Speaking of which, when I was leaving a lot a few weeks ago I had sat putting the receipt and credit car away for a minute and another car pulled out from the slot next to me just before I headed out. Some guy came running out accusing me of tailgating the other guy! lol He ran in front of me to take a picture of my license, but I don't have a front plate. Then he ran behind me as I gently pulled away. I don't think he could get his phone camera working fast enough, but I didn't care as I had the receipt right there with me. I might have stopped and showed it to him, but he was very excited and I didn't want to have anything to do with him.

 

[UncleCreepy]

Wait... you only lost 2% over the entire 3 weeks? You mean you lost 1-2% per DAY over the 3 weeks or as high as 42%, right?

It really is that harmless. I parked my M3 LR AWD for two weeks a while ago and only lost 1% during that time. Not per day but overall. It's nothing to worry about really.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Wait... you only lost 2% over the entire 3 weeks? You mean you lost 1-2% per DAY over the 3 weeks or as high as 42%, right?

It really is that harmless. I parked my M3 LR AWD for two weeks a while ago and only lost 1% during that time. Not per day but overall. It's nothing to worry about really.

You know, I believe my daily consumption has improved, like parking at the airport (which I've done a lot recently ...) would usually mean 1% every 1-2 days, and recently it seems like 4-5 days was 1%, or maybe even none[?]

Seems like maybe some idle consumption improvements in the last firmware update(s).

 

[spamgoeshere2]

It really is that harmless. I parked my M3 LR AWD for two weeks a while ago and only lost 1% during that time. Not per day but overall. It's nothing to worry about really.

That may be your experience, but it absolutely is not mine. When the temperatures are warm I see between 0.5 and 1 kWh vampire drain per day. Still, this says nothing about what happens when it is very cold. I was stranded once when the car dropped abruptly to zero charge while parked for a very short time. I simply don't see any information in the manual to help me gauge the nature or extent of such problems. I do know the weather can get rather cold where it will be parked and returning to a car with no range would be a VERY bad thing for me.

 

[spamgoeshere2]

You know, I believe my daily consumption has improved, like parking at the airport (which I've done a lot recently ...) would usually mean 1% every 1-2 days, and recently it seems like 4-5 days was 1%, or maybe even none[?]

Seems like maybe some idle consumption improvements in the last firmware update(s).

I've been watching my vampire drain very carefully and it varies more than I would expect. Sometimes it is about a half kWh per day, other times it is a full kWh per day. I don't change the settings. Sentry mode is off. Cabin overheat protection is off (that was running some 4-5 kWh per day).

Driving and managing this car is worse than using my cell phone.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Driving and managing this car is worse than using my cell phone.

I don't even think about it much anymore, I just use it, it's always charged (40a home charger). Been to MCO (Orlando International), ~260 mile round trip, a number of times, 100% before we leave, no worries about how long it's parked, hit the same Wawa for 12-15 minutes on the way home. Same goes for Universal resorts, plug into one of the L2 chargers, pop out and move it and then forget about it for 4-5 days, don't even have to stop on the way home.

Heck, I'd say for me, this is less effort than my previous ICE vehicles (that seemed to always need gas at the worst time).

 

[dmurphy]

I've been watching my vampire drain very carefully and it varies more than I would expect. Sometimes it is about a half kWh per day, other times it is a full kWh per day. I don't change the settings. Sentry mode is off. Cabin overheat protection is off (that was running some 4-5 kWh per day).

Driving and managing this car is worse than using my cell phone.

Half the problem is the checking …. Let the car sleep. Turn off the third party apps (like TeslaFi) too. They also can keep the car from sleeping.

Otherwise, sentry off, smart summon off, cabin overheat off and you should have no deep sleep problems.

Just stop checking in on it. That right there prevents deep sleep.

 

[pt19713]

Half the problem is the checking …. Let the car sleep. Turn off the third party apps (like TeslaFi) too. They also can keep the car from sleeping.

Otherwise, sentry off, smart summon off, cabin overheat off and you should have no deep sleep problems.

Just stop checking in on it. That right there prevents deep sleep.

I came to post this.

I've had some variation in the drain my vehicle has during long-term parking. No explanation but to be honest, I don't really care. 4% and 9% over 7 days. Both of the large airports near me have a supercharger within 5 miles or 25 miles, but I generally have 50-60% on the SoC so it's not an issue.

 

[spamgoeshere2]

Half the problem is the checking …. Let the car sleep. Turn off the third party apps (like TeslaFi) too. They also can keep the car from sleeping.

Otherwise, sentry off, smart summon off, cabin overheat off and you should have no deep sleep problems.

Just stop checking in on it. That right there prevents deep sleep.

I don't check on it. When I land I check the car to see if I need to do anything before I leave the terminal. That's it. Meanwhile, no one seems to know any details on what temperature the battery heating kicks in. Or did I miss that? It's not something that's easy to search on in Google since there are so many related topics that show up instead.

Part of the problem is that my schedules are always tight. If I need to allot time to charge before or after it impacts everything else I'm doing. So I don't want to do that unless I know it is needed. On returning the car is going to be in a deep freeze tonight so it will charge very slowly when I land in the morning adding another level of delay I can't plan for. If I left the car with 50% it would only be 45% at best and might be lower due to the cold. That means I need to charge to reach home and instead of beating rush hour traffic will be in the thick of it. That's another hour in DC traffic.

It's presently still not cold enough to kick in the battery protection from what I've heard. Still, I wish they had even just level 1 charging which would allow the car to preheat the battery and make the trip home much less troublesome.

I wrote to the airport about this. They wrote back about how they have added a few level 2 and 3 charging stations. I tried to explain to them level 1 charging is what is needed in long term parking and costs nearly nothing compared to the faster charging equipment. I got no further reply. Seems if it's not something "big" that they can crow about they really aren't interested.

I hear in northern climes it is common to provide outlets for block heaters. Do they have that at the airports as well?

 

[pt19713]

I don't check on it. When I land I check the car to see if I need to do anything before I leave the terminal. That's it. Meanwhile, no one seems to know any details on what temperature the battery heating kicks in. Or did I miss that? It's not something that's easy to search on in Google since there are so many related topics that show up instead.

I hear in northern climes it is common to provide outlets for block heaters. Do they have that at the airports as well?

The temperature when the battery heating turns on varies based upon a wide range of parameters. You're in a region where you must likely won't have to worry about it. I've seen this fluctuate between -20F through 20F. I don't watch the field often so the parameter could have a wider range.

 

[gnuarm]

I would use abetterrouteplanner to see how it would work. Just be pessimistic with the starting charge to factor "battery leakage" in.

I don't think ABRP estimates vampire drain. It doesn't know what features you have turned on... although it could check I suppose. But that's probably a premium feature. I've never seen an indication it accounts for vampire drain and enter my own info to emulate that.

 

[gnuarm]

Here's a follow up dumb question. I'm parking my new Tesla at the airport for the first time next weekend. How do I make sure everything is turned OFF? Do I just go through the app and make sure climate is set to OFF, Sentry OFF, etc. Is there something I might be missing?

I'm only going to be gone for 4 days, and will be parking it with approximately 70% battery. I assume I'll be fine. Temps are mild here in Seattle.

Ask Elon for a "Long Term Parking" mode switch to turn off all the high current draw features.