short commute and charging

[vesder21]

I've seen a few comments about leaving your car plugged in everyday for maximum battery happiness, but what's the recommendation for if you have a very short commute?

I use to drive 35 miles a day, but for the past 6 months my commute has become 6 miles round trip. Prior (with the longer commute) I had my car set to charge to 75% and noticed that my 100 and 90% charges were very low (165-171 miles for a 60kwh battery).

The service center had me set my charge to 90% over 2 months ago to help balance the battery, but it is not increasing.

So my question is in this scenario where I don't use much battery on a daily basis is it better to leave the car unplugged until I burn 30-60% and then charge back up or just charge back the 3-6% I burn up daily?

Thoughts???

 

[ABC2D]

I'm curious to know as well. I too have a very short commute and have been charging only once per week, once the car below 70%

 

[Touch0fRed]

Same here. There are days where I work from home and will only leave the house for lunch and/or short errands.

 

[Missile Toad]

I commute about 4 miles each way in a S 70D. I charge every fourth/fifth day from 100ish to 80% or 194 RM using a lowly NEMA5-15 outlet. Current 90% SoC RM is 216, which suggests 0 degradation at 18,000 miles on the odo.

I don't know, but I suspect, that routinely crossing the 50% SoC helps the car become more accurate at estimating RM through the middle ranges of charge.

I think that fastening the car to the wall through the UMC umbilical wears on the components, and might lead to earlier failures ... but by the same token, the connectors are very simple parts, and should have robust lifetimes.

 

[gavine]

You can plug it in without charging it. Just set the slider to 50% and plug it in. This way, the BMS can do whatever it does to the battery to keep it happy. With that, you can also use the app to start charging whenever you need to by sliding to a higher SOC.

Keep in mind that shallow cycles are generally better for the battery than deeper cycles so charging a few miles every day is not bad at all for the battery.

 

[Qbenjamin]

Curious to know what year vehicle you have..? I have a 14' and my 90% is 185, and 100 is 205 on an S60.

 

[Kalease]

I will have a short commute as well and curious as to what others think. Hoping to get my S85 delivered soon : )

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I have a 20 mile round-trip commute that I make about 3 times per week. Over the winter, I would charge every day (or at least before every day that I would drive into the office) and time it so the battery was warm when I left for work. Now that it's been warmer, I've only been charging once a week via the solar powered level 2 chargers at work. The 90% charge for my S90D is still showing as 266 miles which is actually 1 mile higher than when I picked the car up last December.

 

[DarkMatter]

I leave the car plugged in and set to 50%, then crank it up to 90% when I know that I'm taking a trip the next day, or about once a week otherwise. It works fine and minimizes hours spent charging. This strategy is based on having read about low degradation here for cars which spent lots of time Supercharging. Also I'll be putting in a Wall Connector so I can charge a bit faster and spend even less clock time charging.

 

[kev1n]

i drive about 25miles a day, i run it down to about 5-10% and charge back up to 90%

 

[gavine]

i drive about 25miles a day, i run it down to about 5-10% and charge back up to 90%

Not good for the battery. That is cycling too deep and too often. Why not charge in-between? Why risk leaving the house with 10 to 15% charge? With a 25 mile per day use, why not charge up to 60% daily? The will keep the state of charge low and the depth of discharge low.

 

[Dwdnjck]

I don't think electrons.are very heavy.

 

[whitex]

I've been charging to 90% since 2013. I drive a lot of short errands (1-5 mile) and always just plug it back in while at home. The oldest Tesla still with me is over 2 years old. No noticeable degradation (it's a P85D and 90% is 226miles since new).

 

[renshcp]

According to the below research, charging to 75% dropping to 65% before recharging yielded the best life. The key takeaway for me is what you should always try to avoid, which is charge to 100%. I tend to follow about 75%-45% from a practicality standpoint based on my commute... which means I plug in about twice a week.

How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University

 

[democappy]

According to the below research, charging to 75% dropping to 65% before recharging yielded the best life. The key takeaway for me is what you should always try to avoid, which is charge to 100%. I tend to follow about 75%-45% from a practicality standpoint based on my commute... which means I plug in about twice a week.

How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University

View attachment 235039

This is really interesting. I have a software locked S60 that I always charge to 90%. That probably works out to pretty close to 75% of the actual battery. I wonder if I have lucked in to accidently doing the best charging for my battery.

 

[TexasEV]

What part of
A connected Model S is a happy Model S
do people not understand?

The manual says to plug in IN UPPER CASE. So it must be important. There is no scenario that you can come up with where it would be better to leave the car unplugged, when you have the ability to plug it in.

 

[kavyboy]

There is no scenario that you can come up with where it would be better to leave the car unplugged, when you have the ability to plug it in.

Just for sake of argument, I've had mine unplugged a couple of times this week when lightning was striking so close to the house that my walls were shaking. But yeah, I know what you mean, and I agree 100%. Keep it plugged in under virtually all normal circumstances.

 

[Missile Toad]

Just for sake of argument, I've had mine unplugged a couple of times this week when lightning was striking so close to the house that my walls were shaking. But yeah, I know what you mean, and I agree 100%. Keep it plugged in under virtually all normal circumstances.

I think the same storm passed over my house last night. I had my GFCI get tripped (incidentally, I have some outdoor lights on the same circuit)... but I kept it plugged in throughout, even reseting the GFCI. ... I might have to re-think the out-door lights on the same circuit...

 

[f-stop]

I don't have a regular commute and perhaps drive only ~30km/day. I plug in each night and typically set to 65%. On occasion I'll charge to 90% especially if I know I've got somewhere farther to drive the next day. Sometimes I don't drive for a day or two but still leave it plugged in, even if it doesn't actually charge that night.

My rated range at 90% or 100% is still on-spec, no change since I got the car (now 20 months, ~18,000km).

 

[vesder21]

Curious to know what year vehicle you have..? I have a 14' and my 90% is 185, and 100 is 205 on an S60.

July 2013, 49k miles
90% 165 miles
100% 171 miles