Shipping Model 3 to Hawaii

[pandabear]

Hi,
New to the forum, couldn't find any topics on this- apologize if this has been covered.
I'm getting stationed in Pearl Harbor and will be shipping my Model 3 LR AWD from Baltimore, MD to Honolulu, HI in July. I've been told that the shipping process takes approx 4-6 weeks from drop off to pickup. What if anything should I do to prepare my Model 3 for being idle for that long? My plan is to shut off sentry mode/any connectivity and charge it to 80%, but not sure if it makes more sense to charge to 100% - a little worried that I might get a dead car on the back end.
Any insight/advice would be much appreciated!

 

[Chancellor32]

Hi,
New to the forum, couldn't find any topics on this- apologize if this has been covered.
I'm getting stationed in Pearl Harbor and will be shipping my Model 3 LR AWD from Baltimore, MD to Honolulu, HI in July. I've been told that the shipping process takes approx 4-6 weeks from drop off to pickup. What if anything should I do to prepare my Model 3 for being idle for that long? My plan is to shut off sentry mode/any connectivity and charge it to 80%, but not sure if it makes more sense to charge to 100% - a little worried that I might get a dead car on the back end.
Any insight/advice would be much appreciated!

I would charge at least to 90-95% and then do a hard power off.

 

[SammichLover]

Here's the man you want to talk to: @daniel

 

[rhaekar]

Definitely not 100%. I'd charge to 90% to be safe.

 

[groovidad]

Aloha, future islander! I would agree with the others on charging. NOT "100%". You should be fine though, you can expect a loss of ~1 mile/day, potentially. So, "if" that happens, 4-6 weeks should equal about a ~30-50 mile loss. I'm not sure about the "hard power off" that Chancellor32 mentioned. That could cause problems loading and unloading for the shipping personnel(?)

Here is some helpful info:
Tesla chargers are at the Ala Moana Center, downtown Waikiki, The Modern Honolulu, Outrigger Waikiki (hotel), Four Seasons Resort at Ko Olina. Of course there are generic chargers throughout the island, just to give you a head start. Look into joining the Tesla Hawaii Club for more info. Also, you can drive in carpool lanes, alone, without an additional passenger. Park for first 2 hours Free at metered spots downtown, park for Free at the airport when going on trips. Those are the only perks we get for going EV. Safe trip to you and hope your 3 gets here in the condition you shipped it!

 

[cadetsea]

Why not charge to 100%?

 

[groovidad]

Why not charge to 100%?

It's not good practice. Tesla says by doing so, over and over, you can degrade the % of battery storage. Further, it has also been stated to not allow the battery to go below 30% frequently, as this can also impact the battery. The recommendation is, charge to 80-90% for daily driving and go 100% on trips. There is also an adjustable slider for battery charging showing the "daily driving" and "Trip" charging levels, on the phone app and the center screen of the vehicle.

 

[Nocturnal]

So, OP. Do you have compromising information on an Admiral or something? Quite a desirable post, no?

It's not good practice. Tesla says by doing so, over and over, you can degrade the % of battery storage. Further, it has also been stated to not allow the battery to go below 30% frequently, as this can also impact the battery. The recommendation is, charge to 80-90% for daily driving and go 100% on trips. There is also an adjustable slider for battery charging showing the "daily driving" and "Trip" charging levels, on the phone app and the center screen of the vehicle.

Yeah but this is an unusual circumstance, not a daily event. My first thought was to have him charge to 100%.

 

[groovidad]

So, OP. Do you have compromising information on an Admiral or something? Quite a desirable post, no?

Yeah but this is an unusual circumstance, not a daily event. My first thought was to have him charge to 100%.

I mean "he can" but why, when he should still have plenty of charge left when it arrives. Not disagreeing, just staying on the path I've learned over time. So far, so good!

 

[SammichLover]

Yeah but this is an unusual circumstance, not a daily event. My first thought was to have him charge to 100%.

I was thinking maybe 95%, in case there was heat involved. Hot day + top end SOC isn't a good scene, even once. The damage is exponential with time spent there. The first 3-4hrs are probably no big deal, say 4 days in Baltimore docks summer heat until vampires gets it into low 90's wouldn't be a good thing.

I'm surprised Daniel hasn't made it here yet. He must be enjoying the surf. He actually moved his vehicle from the Northwest mainland to HI earlier this spring, so would have a lot more details on how that went.

Shipping via Panama (I assume that's where your's would go if you loaded in in Maryland) could put a twist on that, though.

 

[voip-ninja]

Why not charge to 100%?

You are never supposed to charge the car to 100% and leave it parked, it will cause unnecessary wear on the battery and is technically worse than running the battery down to zero.

4-6 weeks shouldn't really be a big deal. Even if somehow the car lost 10% a week you'd be fine charging it to 85% and you'd still have plenty of buffer.

 

[klsdred]

In process of shipping Model 3 LR AWD from Baltimore to Honolulu for PCS. Wondering how the experience went for @pandabear ? (I charged it to 90% at drop off)
Did yours have any charge when it arrived in HI?

 

[Willy3988]

I had a SR+ shipped from Northern CA to the Big Island . I charged to 95% and the drive to drop it off took it down to around 90%. The car took 24 days until I was able to pick up. Be sure to turn off sentry mode and climate overheat protection. Had plenty of energy when I picked it up.

 

[WilliamG]

I had a SR+ shipped from Northern CA to the Big Island . I charged to 95% and the drive to drop it off took it down to around 90%. The car took 24 days until I was able to pick up. Be sure to turn off sentry mode and climate overheat protection. Had plenty of energy when I picked it up.

How much energy? Come on, give us the deets!

 

[Willy3988]

Unfortunately I do not remember exactly how much energy I had left at pick up . All I remember is that it was plenty and it was not necessary to charge for a 70 mile drive back to my place.

 

[Candleflame]

Just charge to 70-90%. 3 weeks is nothing. You should lose maybe 5-10%. It's not a Model S.

 

[klsdred]

I had a SR+ shipped from Northern CA to the Big Island . I charged to 95% and the drive to drop it off took it down to around 90%. The car took 24 days until I was able to pick up... Had plenty of energy when I picked it up.

Thank you. It's difficult not to check the car in route -- it helps knowing all went well for other Teslas in similar situations

 

[pandabear]

In process of shipping Model 3 LR AWD from Baltimore to Honolulu for PCS. Wondering how the experience went for @pandabear ? (I charged it to 90% at drop off)
Did yours have any charge when it arrived in HI?

Hey! Whole process went smoothly surprisingly (car was dirty as hell on the back end, but that's not specific to Tesla). I started off around 90-94ish percent and got the car around 60-65 ish percent about a month later. I did check up on it maybe once or twice a week through the app to track its progress. Definitely make sure sentry mode, cabin overheat, etc are off. Happy to have it here, make sure you get EV plates (free parking on street and free parking at the airport). Let me know if you have any other questions, happy to help!