The lesser of three evils

[BlueOverBrown]

Hello, I'm new here. I've posted this question to reddit this morning so I apologize if anyone is seeing it twice, I'm just trying to cast a big net to get a lot of good info.

I have to do a certain long trip for work, about 5 times a month. It will require supercharging, its 275 miles round trip and my car sits at the airport for 3-5 days. So my question is, what is the worst thing for the battery?
1) Scheduling a charge to 100% and immediately departing
2) Discharging to below 20%
3) Supercharging that extra 20ish percent if decided to keep the battery between 90 and 20%? (I will have to supercharge either way, it's just a matter of how much)

Side note, how low do you let your battery discharge on a roadtrip? I think I've heard 20% is a safe number if you do it frequently, but cannot find that in the manual.

This post probably comes off as a bit overly obsessive but I absolutely love my new car and want to do everything reasonable to keep her pristine.

 

[reefer_bob]

How far is the supercharger from the airport?

 

[BlueOverBrown]

How far is the supercharger from the airport?

There are tons of options going down i-95 in Florida. The nearest charger is 6 miles away.

 

[jcanoe]

It is a poor use of your time to charge above 80% at a Supercharger as the charging rate really starts to taper off after 80%. When parked at the airport is there anyway to plug into a 120V outlet? If not then consider turning off Sentry mode when parked at the airport as the battery drain when the Tesla Model Y remains awake (the Tesla Model Y remains awake when Sentry mode is turned on), not sleeping is 6% to 7% per day. Sentry mode will be automatically disabled when the battery state of charge falls to 20% but wouldn't you rather leave the airport with more than a 20% charge remaining in the battery?

 

[BlueOverBrown]

It is a poor use of your time to charge above 80% at a Supercharger as the charging rate really starts to taper off after 80%. When parked at the airport is there anyway to plug into a 120V outlet? If not then consider turning off Sentry mode when parked at the airport as the battery drain when the Tesla Model Y remains awake (the Tesla Model Y remains awake when Sentry mode is turned on), not sleeping is 6% to 7% per day. Sentry mode will be automatically disabled when the battery state of charge falls to 20% but wouldn't you rather leave the airport with more than a 20% charge remaining in the battery?

Talking about the minimum charge I was referring to coming home after the trip. I would arrive at the airport with about 30%

 

[jcanoe]

Talking about the minimum charge I was referring to coming home after the trip. I would arrive at the airport with about 30%

If you select your home location as the next destination in the Navigation system while charging at the Supercharger the Tesla Model Y will notify you when you have sufficient charge to reach your (home) destination. This includes some reserve charge i.e. ~10%.

 

[boulder.dude]

Charge to 100% just before you leave. Turn off Sentry at airport. Can you squeak home with ~10% left? Drive 60mph if that avoids a charger stop. (I’m assuming home charging is 50% cheaper than SC charging.)

 

[xyeahtony]

None of those things are bad. People will get obsessive OCD and do behaviors that will maybe maximize 5% more range over the course of 5 years. its not worth it. just do what you need your car to do, the easiest way for you. My parents own a tesla that has been supercharged maybe once in 5 years, and it has the same if not more "degradation" as my 4 year old Model X that i've supercharged a billion times.

 

[davewill]

The only thing you want to avoid is leaving the car at the airport below 20%. If charging to 100% at home achieves that, then great. Otherwise, I'd plan on a short Supercharger stop to bring it up to at least 50% or so.

 

[ucmndd]

Time is money.

Charge to 100% at home. Park at the airport with sentry off. Top off with what you need on the way home when the battery is low and warm for maximum power.

Rinse repeat.

 

[JHCCAZ]

Hello, I'm new here. I've posted this question to reddit this morning so I apologize if anyone is seeing it twice, I'm just trying to cast a big net to get a lot of good info.

I have to do a certain long trip for work, about 5 times a month. It will require supercharging, its 275 miles round trip and my car sits at the airport for 3-5 days. So my question is, what is the worst thing for the battery?
1) Scheduling a charge to 100% and immediately departing
2) Discharging to below 20%
3) Supercharging that extra 20ish percent if decided to keep the battery between 90 and 20%? (I will have to supercharge either way, it's just a matter of how much)

Side note, how low do you let your battery discharge on a roadtrip? I think I've heard 20% is a safe number if you do it frequently, but cannot find that in the manual.

This post probably comes off as a bit overly obsessive but I absolutely love my new car and want to do everything reasonable to keep her pristine.

My view is, plan a supercharger stop before you make the final leg to the airport so that you're not parking the car for several days with a low residual charge. That is the situation most vulnerable to an extremely inconvenient dead‐battery situation, in case you make a settings mistake or an unexpected software glitch prevents the car from sleeping etc.

Then plan to evaluate the residual charge when you get back in the car, and make another SC stop during the trip home if needed (hopefully not needed). As others have said, it's a waste of time to supercharge above the 80% level when the charge rate is really slow.

As far as charging to 100% initially, if it were a once-a-month trip I might say go for it, but considering a few times a month, I would try to avoid the 100% initial charge - which shouldn't be needed anyway if you adopt the suggested plan to partially recharge along the way.

BTW, with respect it's "the lesser of two evils" or "the least of three evils" - though I note also that your actual question was about "the worst of three evils". ​