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Should one charge each night, or only when needed?

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Tesla states in the Model Y owner's manual on page 158...

"The most important way to preserve the Battery is to LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE PLUGGED IN when you are not using it."

They put that part in bold and capital letters for a reason.
Exactly!! Who knows more about Tesla batteries than Tesla??

We charge both of our MY's to 90% daily (and to 100% when taking a trip). That's one of the best parts of owning an EV, right? Waking up to a full "tank" every morning?
 
It is kind of like with booze and many other things... extremes will wear the battery out the quickest. Moderation is the key. Exceptions can happen but can't become the norm.

SC and going 5%-100% often will kill/degrade it the quckest. Slow and steady should help out with lasting longer.

Hope it helps.
 
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Counting charge cycles is kind of pointless. Lifetime round-trip current usage / mile is more useful. (round trip current = charge + discharge current).

All of those lines in the chart could lead to the exact same round trip current once they all get to, say, 85% degradation. Which charge profile will give you more round-trip current before getting down to 85% degradation would be really the only useful data.

Tesla knows this really well (and batter than any anecdotal reports from individuals here - they have billions? of miles of history to learn from) It's really SUPER complicated, and different for every owner (I live up a hill from downtown, so going home will after work will work the battery harder later in the SOC than someone who has a down hill trip home every day). Just one scenario. It's really too complicated to make general statements that will be true for most people.

Let Tesla manage your battery every night. Charge to 80% most of the time.

Doing anything else could be better, or it could be worse, but you never know.
 
If you have the ability to conveniently charge every day, there’s zero reason not to. It’s one of the great benefits of having an EV.

It’s well understood that shallower discharge cycles are better for the battery and will retain more capacity (thus range) over time. Running your car down to 10% every time before charging is not wise.
 
When it comes to battery health, you may find this graph useful.

View attachment 711813
I'm new here and confused by this chart. The way I read it is that charging schedule and % charged doesn't make a meaningful difference. Let's compare best 75-65% and worst 100-25% charging habits. For simplicity let's assume 300 mile range on full.
100-25% is 225 miles over 1000 cycles will allow you to drive 225,000 miles and cause battery degradation of 10%.
75-65% gives you only 30 miles. To drive 225k miles you need to charge 7,500 times which gives you about 7.5% degradation.
2.5% battrry degradation difference over 225,000 miles between best and worst charging schedules is not significant enough to be concerned about.
Am I misinterpreting something?
 
I'm new here and confused by this chart. The way I read it is that charging schedule and % charged doesn't make a meaningful difference. Let's compare best 75-65% and worst 100-25% charging habits. For simplicity let's assume 300 mile range on full.
100-25% is 225 miles over 1000 cycles will allow you to drive 225,000 miles and cause battery degradation of 10%.
75-65% gives you only 30 miles. To drive 225k miles you need to charge 7,500 times which gives you about 7.5% degradation.
2.5% battrry degradation difference over 225,000 miles between best and worst charging schedules is not significant enough to be concerned about.
Am I misinterpreting something?
Don't stress out over it. I think we as Tesla owners tend to get caught up in degradation discussions, 'why is my range only XXX when it should be 326?', 'how much should I charge?', etc. to the detriment of just enjoying the car. You'll never go wrong following the recommendations in the Owner's Manual. I plug in every night and charge to 80% and don't worry about it.
 
The graph shows the impact on battery degradation based on various discharge / charge strategies; it does not recommend anything. First and foremost you need to pick a range that works for you. If you can utilize various ranges you can use the chart to determine which one offers the least battery degration.

The vertical line is the maximum capacity the battery will reach. The horizontal line is the number of charge cycles. Let’s look at the 75-45% line, which means the battery is run down to 45% and then charged to 75%. After 1,000 cycles the maximum the battery will charge to is 96%. Another example, if we look at the 100-25% line, after 1,000 cycles the maximum is 90%

Hope this helps.

The graph doesn't contain an 80-20% line which is ironic considering that's the recommended upper and lower max/min limits
 
My anecdotal experience, and reading information on the forums, points to the fact that if you leave the car plugged in, your 12 V battery is liable to last longer also.
My car is always plugged in, and my first Tesla with 56,000 miles, had normal degradation, and the 12 V battery was fine after two years. My current Tesla, which is 4 1/2 years old with over 120,000 miles, and, knock on wood, my 12 V battery is fine and never been replaced.
Another advantage of being constantly plugged in, you can always adjust, or start charging from the phone app.