Should Maximum Charge Be Changed Over Time

[fmendozamd]

I have a 2015 Model S.

When I first purchased the car, a 100% charge would lead to about 270 miles of charge. Typically, I would charge it to 90% except prior to long trips so it would stop charging at about 240 miles or so (about 90% of 270).

It has been 6 years and if I charge it to the maximum I currently get it to about 230 miles of charge. This is even if I do a 100% charge.

So despite me leaving the line on the battery icon at 90% charge as the maximum, the battery is charging up to 230 miles or so which is the current 100% charge.

Do I need to move the line on my battery icon even lower so that I only charge 90% of 230 or about 200 miles or so or do I leave it at the current 90% on the battery icon which stops charging at 230miles even though that is currently the 100% max charge.

I hope this question makes sense

 

[gaswalla]

Your battery has experienced degradation as well as "battery gate." (look it up)... your battery is essentially a 70 (or less) vs the 85 you started with.
You still should avoid 100%. It just gives you less range than new.
This is the process by which older batteries sometimes see accelerated degradation (even though normally, most of it is up front): you may now need to charge to 100% more often because of the reduced range due to degradation, which cruelly will result in more degradation.
On the other hand, if you don't need all that range on a daily basis, charging to 70% daily may be ideal and slightly better than 80%, which is better than 90%, which is a lot better than 100%

 

[dark cloud]

So despite me leaving the line on the battery icon at 90% charge as the maximum, the battery is charging up to 230 miles or so which is the current 100% charge.

I don't understand this: You have it set to 90%, but it is charging to 100%?

Some more questions to help others comment on your situation:
What is your mileage?
What software/firmware version are you on?
What do you bring the state of charge (SOC) down to daily?
and how often have you brought it down to less than 15% SOC?

 

[fmendozamd]

Yeah on the battery icon I have it at about 90% - at the point on the battery icon where the "daily" line meets the "trip" line

So regardless of whether I set the limit at about 90% of the battery or 100% of the battery it only charges to about 230 miles.

So the question is should I now only start max charging at 207 miles (90% of the 230 miles) or keep charging it to 230 miles which is close to the original 90% battery?

 

[David_Cary]

No, you don't need to move the line.
The behavior you are seeing is not normal - not that I have any idea what is happening but it isn't normal.
I have a 2015 70D. New was 240. My 100% is 218. My 90% is 198. You do not need to move the line and they should not match up.
Now, you do have a 85 which is subject to more rangegate issues than my 70. But that doesn't change the %age behavior as far as I know.

 

[ucmndd]

So regardless of whether I set the limit at about 90% of the battery or 100% of the battery it only charges to about 230 miles.

Can you take some pictures of what you’re describing? Because frankly, it still doesn’t make sense.

 

[demundus]

I think hes saying (i have something similar but not as bad), that charging to 90% gives him estimated 230 miles of range. However, if he changes to charge at 100%, he also gets an estimated 230 miles of range.

Ontop of calibration + battery degradation, your 100% charge likely bleeds "faster" than your 90%. Pure speculation. Your 100% might be 240 and drains down to 230, and your 90% might be 234 and drains to 230. Just an example.

 

[fmendozamd]

Can you take some pictures of what you’re describing? Because frankly, it still doesn’t make sense.

I think the others figured it out. But basically, if I set it to charge the battery to 100% it never reaches the 100% mark. It only reaches the 230 mile range. which is just under 90% of the original max battery charge.

If I set it to line to 90% of the battery icon it also only reaches about a 230 mile range.

My question was do I now need to start charging to about 200 mile range - 90% of the current maximum? Or is it okay to continue to charge at 90% of the original maximum?

 

[Gray468]

I understand your question. For reference, my Jun 2017 S100D would charge to 334 miles at 100% and 302 for 90%.
I have driven 49k miles, 25k of them on long distance drives going from 80-90% to 20% then supercharging. I am a week or two from 4 years ownership.
Now, 100% is around 324 and 90% is around 293 (which I think are reasonable numbers).
So as others have said, there appears to be something amiss if your 90 and 100% readings are the same.

But so far I am referring to what the meters say and not the mileage you actually get. The next part of my post is somewhat off topic, but maybe related.

To get the 331 rated miles, in addition to the battery being new, the car needs to burn about 300 whr per mile and have no vampire losses. There are always vampire losses and other threads discuss how to minimize them. I bought the car new. For my first 5,000 miles, the meters told me (first pic..Trip B are the miles since new) that I was getting 306 wh/mile. Now, the last 3500 miles have been around 319 wh/mile (second pic Trip B are the miles since MCU upgrade...they couldn't save the trip data). So I am experiencing a double whammy over time: battery degradation and increased power consumption. Is this increase in power consumption normal? I don't know. Have not researched it. Could it be due to changing driving habits? Oh yes. Last couple of months I did an experiment and severely softened accelerations, drove 5 or more miles/hr below the speed limit, and took side roads (slower) when feasible. Sure enough, average consumption dropped from 330-340 to 250-270 whr/mile. But why have a Tesla if you ain't gonna drive it..

Anyway, I agree with others that your battery readings suggest a problem. But it would be interesting to know if you feel (or have records to show) that you are getting fewer "real" miles in addition to fewer "State of Charge" miles.

 

[dannycamps]

Is this increase in power consumption normal?

Power consumption can be affected by a number of factors but most notably driving style, terrain, outside temperature, and HVAC use. Other things that can impact the power consumption are tire wear and over/under inflation of the tires.

Much less likely, it's possible that there could be a stuck/seized brake caliper that is causing drag on one of the wheels that is making the car work harder to move and increasing power use.

Long story short, I'm pretty sure it's normal and no cause for concern.

 

[David_Cary]

I have zero increased power consumption on my 2015 with 92k miles. My first theory for any significant increase would be tire brand or model change. And I drive my like I stole it except I don't get on the brakes if I can avoid it.

There is one wat power consumption has increased a tad. Winter driving has less regen at colder battery temps. Whether this matters a lot to someone would depend on driving style and temp of garage at night.

 

[beatle]

Lower temperature, wind, tires, and drivetrain wear can all contribute to increased power consumption over time. Sample sizes with only a few thousand miles in less than a year are bound to read high or low depending on the time of year. New tires (especially different make/model) will also change consumption, so comparing against a baseline can be difficult since there are so many variables.

A conspiracy theory could be that Tesla artificially increases the consumption numbers to mask a degraded or capped battery. "See, it's got the same capacity, you're just using more of it to go the same distance. Problem must be elsewhere!"