M3P - 2019. Best Charging Scenario and 100% Indicated Range

[Idk3]

I have been researching these forums for some time, now registered and researched even further but there is so much advice that just conflicts each other it's crazy.

Car = Model 3 Performance 28k Miles

Can I just double check the very best options here -

Scenario, I have a home charger, can charge to 100% every night if required. Daily use is around 25%, so is it better to charge every day to 80%, or 90% or even 100%? Or is it better to run it down daily until like 20% and then go back to 80/90%?

I've never flicked the percentage over to miles, so I have got no idea what the max stated range is, but is this the best way to determine the battery health? If so, what sort of miles should I be looking at for 100% charge? If needs be, I'll do the reset procedure as I've only had the car for 2 weeks, the first 27k miles have been the original owner so I am unsure if it's calibrated properly etc.

Thank you all -

 

[SR-Plus]

You can charge to 90% daily. It’s not necessary to drain to 20%. ABC = always be charging!

 

[M1tch]

What range will you get? So many factors that willl change that. I do the same long distance journey twice a week, on Friday I got home with 32% left, over the recent cold weeks it’s been in single figures - down to 3% one day and I use the same route with AP on at the same speed.

I tend to leave it plugged in when at home or work and use it when I need to. For your 25% daily use, personally I would probably charge every night incase I needed the extra range for something but everyone is different.

Also wouldn’t go more than 90% unless you have the LFP battery pack.

 

[ewoodrick]

Charging to 100% daily is only supported on some of the batteries. Set it to 100% and if you don't get a warning message, then you are okay.
If you do get the warning message, 80%, 90% it really doesn't much matter.

Best recommendation, charge the battery as it fits your lifestyle. Tesla built the battery to support just about anything thrown at it. Look at the manual and see what specific recommendations they give you, you'll probably find only a sentence or two.

Stop worrying and enjoy the car.

 

[Black306]

Step 1 - Set charge limit to 80%
Step 2 - Charge daily
Step 3 - Stop worrying about it
Step 4 - Have a pint to help support step 3
Step 5 - Repeat step 4 as-needed

 

[Idk3]

Step 1 - Set charge limit to 80%
Step 2 - Charge daily
Step 3 - Stop worrying about it
Step 4 - Have a pint to help support step 3
Step 5 - Repeat step 4 as-needed

Hahahah I've gone so deep on step 3 that I've forgotten the rest of the steps.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Step 1 - Set charge limit to 80%

90% is fine too - so much talk over the years of what is best for taking care of the battery but I haven't seen anything that suggests that 90% will make a material difference that is noticable. For someone keeping the car cradle-to-grave it might make sense to try to keep the battery in absolute peak region, but for folk owning a car for a few years I would just avoid:

Leaving the car charged close to 100% for prolonged period (charge to 100% "shortly before departure on a trip")
Leaving the car below 20% - charge immediately on arrival to, say, 50% and leave the rest to Off Peak. Besides which, you might need to go somewhere unexpectedly ...
Don't floor it below 10% - you'll probably be bricking yourself as to whether you are going to get there, so hurrying is fairly unlikely anyway ...

I would suggest plug in whenever you come home ... even if you only drive 25% the unexpected will of course happen unexpectedly - quite possibly tomorrow

 

[Black306]

90% is fine too - so much talk over the years of what is best for taking care of the battery but I haven't seen anything that suggests that 90% will make a material difference that is noticable. For someone keeping the car cradle-to-grave it might make sense to try to keep the battery in absolute peak region, but for folk owning a car for a few years I would just avoid:

Leaving the car charged close to 100% for prolonged period (charge to 100% "shortly before departure on a trip")
Leaving the car below 20% - charge immediately on arrival to, say, 50% and leave the rest to Off Peak. Besides which, you might need to go somewhere unexpectedly ...
Don't floor it below 10% - you'll probably be bricking yourself as to whether you are going to get there, so hurrying is fairly unlikely anyway ...

I would suggest plug in whenever you come home ... even if you only drive 25% the unexpected will of course happen unexpectedly - quite possibly tomorrow

No comment on pints?? Priorities man, priorities! j/p


FWIW, this is what I have seen with regards to differences in charging habits with Li-ion batteries. Not sure how applicable it is to Teslas. Even if marginally true, 1k cycles would typically be well beyond 100k miles. Average ~7% difference between best-case and worse-case scenarios? Yea, just enjoy the car.

Personally, my car is usually charged to 75%. I'll go 80-85% if I'm charing at work. Rarely do I drive the car below 60%. Like you (@WannabeOwner) , I generally avoid a very high and very low states of charge.

 

[ewoodrick]

No comment on pints?? Priorities man, priorities! j/p


FWIW, this is what I have seen with regards to differences in charging habits with Li-ion batteries. Not sure how applicable it is to Teslas. Even if marginally true, 1k cycles would typically be well beyond 100k miles. Average ~7% difference between best-case and worse-case scenarios? Yea, just enjoy the car.

Indeed, Tesla has done a lot of work to make the car batteries vary from standard Li-ion batteries. Must auto manufacturers have. If you look at the early batteries from most of the manufacturers (Tesla, Nissan) they had some early aging issues. Tesla has replaced a lot of Model S batteries. This was about 6-7 years ago. But since then the batteries have been much more reliable and are expected to last around 300,000 miles. The latest batteries are expecting to last closer to 1,000,000 miles, or at least that's the design goals for The Semi.

There are now a lot of 5 year old Model 3s out there and I haven't heard a rush to replace batteries yet.

 

[Durzel]

On the model of car you've got if you keep charging it to 100% it will eventually warn you that it's not good practice (for that battery). As to whether or not it actually makes a difference, it's hard to say and harder to prove. I suspect so long as you're actually using the car not long after it's hit 100% I doubt it makes a massive difference. Having it sat there on 100% for extended periods probably isn't good though.

I wouldn't bother dwelling on what the max range at 100% says it is, you won't get that anyway.

@Black306's advice is on the money.

 

[ewoodrick]

The studies that folks seem to quote when saying that charging to 100% isn't something that you want to do are based on leaving batteries charged at 100% FOR A YEAR. It's pretty much the same concept that Apple on laptop manufacturers have implemented over the last few years. If you plug in all the time, they drop the max charge down, to keep from stressing the battery.

Tesla will let you know if you are doing something wrong. Charge it to 100% multiple times in a row, you'll see the "You may want to consider not doing this" message.

Leaving it charged at 100% for hours or days isn't going to significantly impact the life of your battery. (it may only last for a few less minutes). ALWAYS charging it to 100% and leaving it there probably will impact the life.