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Sudden Battery drain
- Thread starter Carbonfiber
- Start date
Your results are not unusual. In winter driving the efficiency is lower by ~20%. In city driving you are frequently stopping for traffic signals, stops signs and traffic.
In time you become familiar with the quirks of driving an electric vehicle. When first setting out, especially first thing in the A.M. try to precondition for ~10 minutes before driving (especially while plugged in.) It takes energy to warm the passenger cabin (battery too if needed.) If you precondition while plugged in the energy used from the battery can be replenished from the grid. If I precondition my 2020 LRMY before driving, in winter, I observe 10% higher consumption (Wh/mile) than in spring, etc. When I don't precondition the power consumption is 20% higher than in spring, etc.
Set the Climate Control to Auto, Fan set to Medium or High (in Auto mode the fan setting functions as a fan speed limiter.) If you turn on Recirculate Cabin Air the heat pump will not have to work as hard to maintain a comfortable cabin temperature. (In cold weather I set the temperature between 70F and 72F).
Use the seat heaters (the front seat heaters have an Auto setting to help stay warm. The front seat heaters are active while preconditioning, steering wheel heater too if turned on. The seat heaters and the steering wheel heater use just a fraction of the power used by the heat pump; dress warmly and the seat heaters can make a huge difference in passenger comfort.
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norcalbowler94
Member
I would add that heating the battery before you leave could help you regen faster. I know when I leave the house it doesn't start to regen right away until 5 minutes into the drive and my garage is never below 60 degrees. In cold weather, it probably takes longer before regen begins working.
norcalbowler94
Member
I pulled this from the model 3 owners manual.
Regenerative Braking
Regenerative braking can be limited if the Battery is too cold. As you continue to drive, the Battery warms up and regenerative power increases (see Regenerative Braking).
Model 3 Owner's Manual | Tesla
Understand various things you can do to ensure optimal performance in cold weather.
www.tesla.com
I’ve had significant battery drain while parked, 11.6% over 2 days. Granted, it was very cold outdoors and my car is parked in an unheated attached garage, but I still don’t expect it to drop that significantly.
Reading this thread and others, I decided to power down the car and restart it. Since then, it charged like it normally does overnight. I checked it late morning and again now and it’s still holding at 80% charge with 0.1% loss.
I will continue to observe the car over the next week. To see if this continues.
Reading this thread and others, I decided to power down the car and restart it. Since then, it charged like it normally does overnight. I checked it late morning and again now and it’s still holding at 80% charge with 0.1% loss.
I will continue to observe the car over the next week. To see if this continues.
Bikeman
Member
^ Been pretty cold here too. Twice this past week we were at -5º F. at night and not much warmer in the daytime. I've had my car use several kWh per night while plugged in just to keep the batteries warm and to then up the charge back up to where I keep it, which is 80%. This can easily explain the charge losses you have had. 1% per day is about normal. Yes, keep the thing plugged in when it is Wisconsin Winter Cold. Once it is no colder than 25-30 at night, I might skip the tethering to the grid routine since it likely won't eat battery unannounced.
When plugged in the Tesla Model Y will only warm the battery when:
1) preparing to charge,
2) during a charging session if the battery management system determines that the battery needs to be warmed,
3) When preconditioning using the Scheduled Departure setting, or
4) When manually preconditioning using the Tesla app.
If you leave Sentry Mode turned on at your home location this will cause the Model Y to remain in Standby mode. Power consumption in Standby mode is a continuous ~230W, so after a few hours the Tesla Model Y may charge the battery briefly. Over 12 hours parked with Sentry Mode active can use 3.5 % of the battery charge ( 6 to 7% over 24 hours)
Seems high; your Tesla Model Y might have been attempting to download a software update with a weak WiFi service.
Did you leave a phone in the Tesla Model Y or leave something heavy on the front seat?
I would reboot the Model Y and see if the unusually high power usage while parked persists.
Did you leave a phone in the Tesla Model Y or leave something heavy on the front seat?
I would reboot the Model Y and see if the unusually high power usage while parked persists.
Given the access reach of so many apps I am wondering if I do have some that access my Tesla account. Can you or someone here provide a list of possible suspect apps? Many thanks in advance.
Teslafi
Teslamate
Tezlab
Tessie
Teslalogger
ScanMyTesla
Teslascope
Watchla
Watch App for Tesla
Stats app for Tesla (includes Apple watch app)
Changing the password on your Tesla account should shut out any third party app that was accessing the account.
Add multi-factor authentication (MFA) to your Tesla account.
Multi-Factor Authentication | Tesla Support
So, what does a third party app do that would cause indicated state of charge to drop 4% in 30-40 mins - and, only when the state of charge is between 55% and 65%? 4% is 3kWhr on a 75kWhr batter. That’s a LOT of energy expended by an app. There must be a different reason for it.
Battery warming via heat generated by the front and rear motor stators would use 3.5kW per drive unit and a total of ~7kW.
Its same for Model S, I charge it to 60-70%. After 1st drive Vehicle standby drain reads around 2% within 1-2 hours, then sips energy normally. I guess it could be BMS misscalculation when charging (car was never over 90% and below 15%) and it shows as vehicle standby usage, because even when it is plugged in as recommended it reads same usage if I made short trip after charging.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
It’s not a third-party app that causes that. If you watch carefully this change will occur instantaneously.
It is well documented and is just a BMS adjustment.
Similarly, you can see positive jumps of a couple percent as well. Clearly visible on the screen as is well documented.
No big deal. I think to some extent it is just buggy software and a new issue, and to some extent it has always happened and people are noticing it now.. Well documented here.
Its more prominent with new energy app? It seems car was more accurate in previous versions. Today I have charged car to 70%, drove 2 miles, parked and when i returned my car was at 72%, but app is not showing positive changes anywhere in app...
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Have to start driving and look at the graph. As outlined elsewhere it won’t show on the park tabulation (it doesn’t accumulate gains). Only on the drive tab - it will show a step up.
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