New member here. If getting an SR model, will charging everyday(5 days a week) to 100% kill the longevity of the car or will 90% work best? My commute is 160 miles daily, I know some will say to get the LR but with as many miles as I drive it makes no sense to get such an expensive car just to trash it with long commutes.
Regularly charging a Tesla's battery to 100% is widely regarded as a Bad Idea, as it's something that will degrade the battery over time. Tesla recommends charging to 80-90% on a regular basis, and to use 100% only occasionally (such as before a road trip). For a 220-mile SR, then, 80-90% works out to 176-198 miles. If your commute is 160 miles (round trip), that leaves very little for a buffer. Also, assuming you charge to 90% (198 miles), and assuming you exactly meet the Tesla's range estimates, you'll be arriving home with 38 miles (17%) of rated range, which may be a little too low -- draining a battery very low can be damaging to its longevity, too.
That said, there are some further considerations, some of which help your suggested use case and some of which don't....
First, the SR's battery pack is a software-limited SR+ (240-mile) battery pack. I don't know offhand if 100% on an SR actually charges it to 91.7% (220/240) and 0% is really 0%; if 100% is really 100% and 0% is really 8.3%; or if it's something in-between these extremes. Either way, though, it gives a bit more of a buffer, at least in terms of battery health. If it's the first case, then charging to 100% won't be nearly as damaging as it would be to charge a 240-mile SR+ to 100%. (I'd probably set my daily charge to about 95% in this case, which would give 209 miles of range.) If 100% really is 100%, then you'd still want to charge to less than 100%, but coming home with a very low official SoC wouldn't be as bad, since there'd be a hidden buffer. If you do go ahead with buying an SR, I'd want to be very certain of whether Tesla is "hiding" 20 miles of range at the top or bottom of the battery pack, so as to set my daily charge value appropriately.
Another point is that you may need to exceed your normal commuting distance on occasion -- if you need to take a detour to go to a store or because of an accident or road construction, for instance. This will obviously use up some of your (very limited) buffer, or maybe consume more than you have, thus necessitating a charging stop.
Another big down side of an SR with a 160-mile commute is that you really can't count on getting the rated range. Several factors can affect that range, including:
- Temperature -- On very hot or very cold days (especially very cold days, which you probably won't see a lot of in southern California), range will be reduced. This is partly because battery chemistry is most efficient at more-or-less the same temperatures that humans find comfortable, but also because use of heating and AC uses power, which reduces range. OTOH, you can get more than the rated range if the temperature is perfect, enabling you to drive without using heat or AC.
- Terrain -- Regenerative braking helps recover energy when you drive downhill, but it's not perfectly efficient, so you'll use more energy driving in hilly terrain than you would on flat terrain. If your commute takes you through hills, then, you may not match the car's rated range.
- Driving style -- If you accelerate and brake hard, your range will suffer. Likewise if you drive fast on the highway. If you drive like a grandmother, then you may get more range than Tesla suggests.
- Speed -- Range on the highway (209) is lower than range on city streets (229). (Both values are computed by me based on the EPA's MPGe figures.) With a 160-mile commute, I'd assume that most of those miles are highway miles, so you're more likely to have a real-world average range of 209 miles, with further adjustments based on other factors.
- Battery degradation -- The figures quoted by Tesla refer to a brand-new car. Batteries lose some capacity over time, even if they're pampered, so your range may drop a bit in the first year or two of ownership, and more after that. Range loss tends to be greatest in the first year or two and then slows after that. IIRC, a range loss of something like 5% in the first couple years is fairly typical.
- Frequent Supercharging -- This one is something of a corollary to the preceding point. Although Teslas hold up to Supercharging better than some brands do to their variety of DC fast charging, frequent use of Supercharging may slightly degrade range over time. Thus, if you were to need to Supercharge, say, once a week on your commute, you might degrade the battery enough to make the range shortage worse. If you do find yourself needing to Supercharge to finish your commute, limiting the time/kWh charged in this way is worthwhile.
Personally, I would be wary of buying an EV with a 220-mile range if I had a daily commute of 160 miles. (Then too, I live in New England, so the weather issue alone would make the car's range inadequate in the winter -- I'd be lucky to get 145 miles out of a Model 3 SR in the winter on a long highway commute in the winter.) If you can afford it, I'd recommend a LR model instead. If you can't afford that sort of a jump, then I'd recommend at least going to the SR+. Some of the battery degradation issues might not be much better with it, but you'll at least have more usable range if you have problems on an occasional basis. Offhand, the only non-Tesla EV I know of with a range in-between the Model 3's SR+ and LR variants is the Hyundai Kona, which has a rated range of 258 miles. That might be worth considering because of its extra range.
Another option is to look into workplace charging. Even if your employer doesn't offer anything, there might be a Level 2 charger nearby that you could use. Even Level 1 charging from an outdoor 120v outlet could add enough range in ~8 hours to make your commute much more practical. You might be able to successfully petition your employer to add an L2 EVSE or an outdoor outlet.
