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Model S as a weekend Car?
- Thread starter loomstate
- Start date
Tam
Well-Known Member
Yes, it is a good idea for this kind of driving (as long as you keep it plugged in).
My sister has a gasoline car and she didn't drive it for a couple of weeks. By the time she turned the ignition on, the 12V battery was too low to crank the engine. I brought over to her house the jump starter and I could recharge it again but it then died again the next day so I had to replace the 12V battery.
You have no such trouble with your Tesla as long as you keep it plugged in.
Tam
Well-Known Member
1) The instruction from the manual says so: Plugin!
"Model S has one of the most sophisticated battery systems in the world. The most important way to preserve the high voltage 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 S for several weeks."
2) The instruction from the manual says so: No advantage to waiting to charge. If you can, just plug it in!
"There is no advantage to waiting until the Battery’s level is low before charging. In fact, the Battery performs best when charged regularly."
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My guess is:
1) Developing a habit of not plugin right away might lead to forgetting and a low battery is not ideal.
2) Shallow discharge is better than deep discharge: If I have a choice of letting the car drain down to 10% or to 70% then plugin, then 70% is better:
Driving 4 days, starting out at 90%, each day loses 20%, then wait until the end of 4 days or 10% to plug it in: Not ideal for your battery health..
Driving 4 days, starting out at 90%, each day loses 20%, then plugin every day to bring 70% to 90%: Shallower discharge is better for your battery health. Thus, that's what the instruction says "regularly."
There are no issues with not having the car plugged in all the time or charging it daily. There are many owners that live is situations such as apartments where they do not have charging available to them but have a means by which they can charge their car periodically.
I would agree that if you're going to just drive the car on weekends, maybe think of a routine where you can charge it after each weekend. Part of this, along with the habit of keeping plugged in, is really to be prepared for the unexpected times where you suddenly find yourself needing the car when you maybe didn't anticipate and it being ready to do.
I'm currently is a situation where my car is parked for 2-3 months at a time without being driven. While I do have home charging, and leave it plugged in, I actually set the charge level down low such that I periodically will recharge from say 50-70% or 50-80%. Part of that for me is so the BMS continues to be able to see cell voltage over a range of SOC to keep the BMS system well calibrated. I letting it go from 80 -> 50% says I only recharge about every 40-45 days. I do have everything like cabin overheat, scheduled charing, etc, all shut off. Also my mid-2016 MS90D does not have sentry/dashcam, so those are also not factors. Over the last 70 days I have averaged about 1.8 rated miles daily phantom power consumption, so about the equivalent of a 20W lightbulb running 24/7.
I've been doing this approach now for most of the past 2.5 years with no adverse impacts to my battery health from not charging daily and not letting the car constantly top up the battery on it's own.
I would agree that if you're going to just drive the car on weekends, maybe think of a routine where you can charge it after each weekend. Part of this, along with the habit of keeping plugged in, is really to be prepared for the unexpected times where you suddenly find yourself needing the car when you maybe didn't anticipate and it being ready to do.
I'm currently is a situation where my car is parked for 2-3 months at a time without being driven. While I do have home charging, and leave it plugged in, I actually set the charge level down low such that I periodically will recharge from say 50-70% or 50-80%. Part of that for me is so the BMS continues to be able to see cell voltage over a range of SOC to keep the BMS system well calibrated. I letting it go from 80 -> 50% says I only recharge about every 40-45 days. I do have everything like cabin overheat, scheduled charing, etc, all shut off. Also my mid-2016 MS90D does not have sentry/dashcam, so those are also not factors. Over the last 70 days I have averaged about 1.8 rated miles daily phantom power consumption, so about the equivalent of a 20W lightbulb running 24/7.
I've been doing this approach now for most of the past 2.5 years with no adverse impacts to my battery health from not charging daily and not letting the car constantly top up the battery on it's own.
EVRider-FL
Well-Known Member
Leaving the car plugged in is recommended by Tesla, but you don’t have to. I’ve owned Teslas for 6 years and have never done that.
The amount of battery drain when the car is parked depends on a number of factors, including climate. The 1-2% every other day cited above is much higher than my experience. In my garage in south FL, I lose less than 1 mile of range per day. Using Sentry Mode will consume 1+ miles of range per hour.
