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bjrosen
Member
Keep it charged to 80% most of the time, 90% for road trips never 100% unless you have absolutely no choice. Before winter starts spray the gaskets around the windows with silicone. The only maintenance is tire rotation and brake lubrication once every couple of years. You can have it done by Tesla in your driveway, it's cheap and convenient.
For road trips do a little planning, pick hotels that have chargers (the Tesla Route planner will show you the hotels at your destination that have Tesla chargers). Plan your stops at Superchargers so that you can charge and go to the bathroom at the same time. There are enough Superchargers so that you won't have to go out of your way but not so many that you don't have to do any planning at all.
For road trips do a little planning, pick hotels that have chargers (the Tesla Route planner will show you the hotels at your destination that have Tesla chargers). Plan your stops at Superchargers so that you can charge and go to the bathroom at the same time. There are enough Superchargers so that you won't have to go out of your way but not so many that you don't have to do any planning at all.
Thank you @bjrosen.
Here in south FL we don't have much of a traditional winter but I think it wouldn't hurt to do the silicone treatment once in a while anyways.
The level of charging seems to be something where when you ask 5 people you get 5 different answers LOL.
I came across a tweet from Elon Musk stating that if it makes you happy "you'll be fine" charging to 95% all the time and the only reason not to charge to 100% is that regen braking will not work with a full battery and that will cause the overall energy efficiency to be less.
So far our every day driving has been around 220 miles per day (yes, we drive a lot [for work] and that is the reason we got our M3LR).
For daily driving and charging the 80% is OK since at 80% the car still shows a range of 315 miles.
Today we're taking the car for a trip to Key West. We picked a hotel that unfortunately doesn't have a destination charger (yet). The nearest Tesla SC is like 2 miles away and that shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience I hope.
Here in south FL we don't have much of a traditional winter but I think it wouldn't hurt to do the silicone treatment once in a while anyways.
The level of charging seems to be something where when you ask 5 people you get 5 different answers LOL.
I came across a tweet from Elon Musk stating that if it makes you happy "you'll be fine" charging to 95% all the time and the only reason not to charge to 100% is that regen braking will not work with a full battery and that will cause the overall energy efficiency to be less.
So far our every day driving has been around 220 miles per day (yes, we drive a lot [for work] and that is the reason we got our M3LR).
For daily driving and charging the 80% is OK since at 80% the car still shows a range of 315 miles.
Today we're taking the car for a trip to Key West. We picked a hotel that unfortunately doesn't have a destination charger (yet). The nearest Tesla SC is like 2 miles away and that shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience I hope.
bjrosen
Member
The lower charging level has to do with battery life, there is a huge difference between 100% and 90%, about 2X, and a pretty good difference between 90% and 80%, below that it's diminishing returns. I've never found a reason to charge above 90%, the Supercharger coverage is pretty good in New England where I live and it's also very good where you live so there is no reason to ever charge beyond 90%. The amount of time you can spend in the car before stops is determined by the smallest bladder not the battery. When Supercharging you only need to add a 100-150 miles at a time, you can do that in the time it takes to go to the bathroom. Supercharging slows down the higher the state of charge, when you get to 75-80% the rate is low enough that anymore is just a waste of time.
Again thanks for your recommendations @bjrosen
Just one additional question about charging:
I haven't found any information about this and I am curious if there is:
Most SuperChargers seem to be max 150kW and only a few have a max of 250kW.
Obviously it dictates the charging speed but in regards to the life and performance of the battery should I prefer one over the other?
Just one additional question about charging:
I haven't found any information about this and I am curious if there is:
Most SuperChargers seem to be max 150kW and only a few have a max of 250kW.
Obviously it dictates the charging speed but in regards to the life and performance of the battery should I prefer one over the other?
bjrosen
Member
It makes minimal difference in the total charging time. The car can only maintain 250KW charging for a few minutes before it drops down below the 150KW rate. The car charges fastest at a low state of charge, 10-20%, as it goes above that it drops, when you get to 60%-75% you'll see it drop to around 60-70KW. Peak charging numbers are very misleading, they have almost no effect on charge times, it's the charging curve that matters. When you Supercharge let the time to go to the bathroom dictate how long you leave the car plugged in, what you want to do is add enough range to get to your next destination comfortably, anything more than that is wasting time.
MaskedRacerX
Member
Welcome! We're up in the St. Augustine area, this is our first Tesla, had it for about 2 months now, it's pretty fantastic.
We have a place in Tavernier (Key Largo), and we'll be headed that direction later this year, looks like one ~25 minute stop for us, and we're good, then I'll use an N10-30 adapter with the UMC to top it off in at the condo
For planning, I'd also recommend taking a look at A Better Route Planner (aka, ABRP):
A Better Routeplanner
You can use it without even signing up, though that does let you save routes, etc., and there's a premium/paid level that adds some features, but I'm just using the free version.
So it seems that when it is about "topping off" the charge looking for the 250kW stations doesn't make any sense but when you have a car at 10% it would make a difference. Thank you @bjrosen - this is useful information I wish someone at the Tesla store in Palm Beach would have mentioned.
@MaskedRacerX thank you for the ABRP info. It tells me I can go without charging along the way. We will however do a stop at the end of the turnpike for a bathroom break and stretching our legs. The Tesla route planner suggested two stops. Not sure what the point of having the LR is when I should stop twice on a 250 miles trip.
@MaskedRacerX thank you for the ABRP info. It tells me I can go without charging along the way. We will however do a stop at the end of the turnpike for a bathroom break and stretching our legs. The Tesla route planner suggested two stops. Not sure what the point of having the LR is when I should stop twice on a 250 miles trip.
Welcome to TMC,
I am going to head off the battery discussion in this thread, and direct you to the (large, super mega 131+ page) thread on battery health, where all discussion on that topic goes:
Range Loss Over Time, What Can Be Expected, Efficiency, How to Maintain Battery Health
i bought my model 3 in aug 2018. After the software upgrade I only got 316 miles when charged to 100%. Last night I got only 312 miles from 5% SOC to 100%. A 4% degradation within 10 months? Have others degraded similarly?
teslamotorsclub.com
All posts on range, battery health, what percentage to charge at, etc go in that thread.
Another Q:
Is it possible to for example lane assistant or blind spot warning without engaging autopilot?
My other car gives me audio alerts when I get too close to the lane markings (left or right) without a turn signal and I get a visual warning when there is a car in the blind spot and an audio warning when I set the turn signal while there is a car in the blind spot.
shouldn't be rocket science for my M3 to do the same but I can't seem to get the car to do just that.
Is it possible to for example lane assistant or blind spot warning without engaging autopilot?
My other car gives me audio alerts when I get too close to the lane markings (left or right) without a turn signal and I get a visual warning when there is a car in the blind spot and an audio warning when I set the turn signal while there is a car in the blind spot.
shouldn't be rocket science for my M3 to do the same but I can't seem to get the car to do just that.
iwannam3
Active Member
The 90% charging level is marked on the battery image on the charging screen so that seems pretty definite to me. I do 100% an hour before a trip.
iwannam3
Active Member
go through the menus, there is a setting for that. Be sure to scroll down on all the screens, sometimes there are more than one screen of options. Click the ? to find out more about the option. And open the owner's manual.
