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Tips how to keep my battery healthy using mostly fast charger all the time?
- Thread starter Mohamed Ashraf
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- fast charging help Tips
L2 charger or Tesla supercharger?
If you do a search, there are a ton of topics and opinions on this. Varying from 20-50%, to 20-80% SOC. Personally, I’m only sticking to an 80% SOC typically and charging via SC or mobile connector, whichever is most convenient and cheapest. It’s a car… drive and use it the way it was meant to be driven.
Good luck and welcome to Tesla ownership.
RayK
Active Member
If by "fast charger" you mean a Tesla Supercharger or other DCFC (i.e., Level 3) charger, then I'd opt for one of the lower power ones. The Urban Supercharger is rated to deliver a maximum of 72kW. They look like this:
When you use a Tesla Supercharger there is no way to "dial down" the amount of power your car receives, like you can with Level 2 (240VAC) charging. If you start charging at a low state of charge on your battery, the Supercharger will usually start off giving you the maximum power it can. Repeated charges like that can degrade the battery, even though there was a recent report that it's not as bad as people say.
By choice I don't have home charging, even though I live in a single-family home with an attached garage AND have a brand new Wall Connector still in its box. Never had it since I bought my car in July 2018. For the first year I charged at work using L2. When I left there I started using a ChargePoint DCFC station near my house that has subsidized cost of $0.19/kWh, which is a lot cheaper than my home rate. The catch is that I use a CHAdeMO adapter there and by design is limited to a maximum of 50kW. Those adapters are no longer sold by Tesla. I also recharge my car when it gets around 50% and limit the charge to 90%, unless I'm going on a trip.
I have a 2018 LR RWD which had a rated range of 310 miles at 100%. For the last 4+ years I've primarily used the CHAdeMO and only used a Supercharger when the CHAdeMO stations were busy or sometimes when I was on a long trip (CHAdeMO use was still preferred and mostly free on my trips up to Oregon). My current projected 100% range is 300 miles, so less than 5% degradation at 28K miles.
When you use a Tesla Supercharger there is no way to "dial down" the amount of power your car receives, like you can with Level 2 (240VAC) charging. If you start charging at a low state of charge on your battery, the Supercharger will usually start off giving you the maximum power it can. Repeated charges like that can degrade the battery, even though there was a recent report that it's not as bad as people say.
By choice I don't have home charging, even though I live in a single-family home with an attached garage AND have a brand new Wall Connector still in its box. Never had it since I bought my car in July 2018. For the first year I charged at work using L2. When I left there I started using a ChargePoint DCFC station near my house that has subsidized cost of $0.19/kWh, which is a lot cheaper than my home rate. The catch is that I use a CHAdeMO adapter there and by design is limited to a maximum of 50kW. Those adapters are no longer sold by Tesla. I also recharge my car when it gets around 50% and limit the charge to 90%, unless I'm going on a trip.
I have a 2018 LR RWD which had a rated range of 310 miles at 100%. For the last 4+ years I've primarily used the CHAdeMO and only used a Supercharger when the CHAdeMO stations were busy or sometimes when I was on a long trip (CHAdeMO use was still preferred and mostly free on my trips up to Oregon). My current projected 100% range is 300 miles, so less than 5% degradation at 28K miles.
If I had to use a Supercharger as my primary charge source I would:
1. Try and find a lower power Supercharger to use, as suggested above by @RayK.
2. 'Navigate' to that Supercharger for 30 minutes just prior to every charge session, even if the station was only two minutes away.
3. Try and limit maximum state of charge (SOC) to the least amount that was reasonably convenient.
All that said, Supercharging all the time and "healthy battery" are what one might call an incongruous concept.
Congrats on the new car!
1. Try and find a lower power Supercharger to use, as suggested above by @RayK.
2. 'Navigate' to that Supercharger for 30 minutes just prior to every charge session, even if the station was only two minutes away.
3. Try and limit maximum state of charge (SOC) to the least amount that was reasonably convenient.
All that said, Supercharging all the time and "healthy battery" are what one might call an incongruous concept.
Congrats on the new car!
1) Avoid keeping the vehicle at a high state of charge (when possible)
2) Avoid keeping the vehicle at a high state of charge when temperatures are hot (ie in hot climates)
3) There is less degradation when battery operates in the middle of its capacity range so it's better to go from 30%-80% than it is to go 50%-100%
The foremost EV battery expert is Dr. Jeff Dahn who ran Tesla's Advanced Battery Research Group.
Jeff has since left Tesla to focus on his own company but they have exclusive arangement with Tesla thru 2026
His complete battery degradation presentation is here:
2) Avoid keeping the vehicle at a high state of charge when temperatures are hot (ie in hot climates)
3) There is less degradation when battery operates in the middle of its capacity range so it's better to go from 30%-80% than it is to go 50%-100%
The foremost EV battery expert is Dr. Jeff Dahn who ran Tesla's Advanced Battery Research Group.
Jeff has since left Tesla to focus on his own company but they have exclusive arangement with Tesla thru 2026
His complete battery degradation presentation is here:
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Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
However, this doesn’t mention how to take care of LFP batteries for which Tesla says that they can be recharged to 100% everyday.
I have an LFP M3, don’t have the possibility to charge at home so rely on the public infrastructure (I live in Paris, France). I also don’t do that many kilometres a week (~250-300 kms/ week) so am left with 40-50% SOC by the end of the week. That’s when I recharge it back to 100% on L2 (7,4kW charger).. and then the new week begins and so it goes.
I recharge to 100% 1x/week cause it’s an LFP and I’ve been reading that they need recalibration more frequently.
Doing more or less this (other than when on road trips when I Supercharge) I’ve ~3% range loss (so I’m guessing approx the same battery loss) after 1 year and 16k kms/10k miles.
Not sure if this is good, bad or ugly or how it compares with other LFP folks out here.
Any insight and advice is of course welcome !
Thanks.
Research on LFP cells indicates that fast charging / supercharging doesn't really affect battery degradation versus charging it "slow". In fact almost all charging-related degradation is basically negligible for an LFP-based EV. This includes: fast charging, "big cycles" aka cycling between 0-100% charge instead of gently cycling around 50%, and number of cycles (4000-cycle life vs 800 cycles on ternary batteries). All of those behaviors will accelerate degradation on ternary lithium batteries.
The only specific scenario I would be concerned about is fast charging when the battery is below 0C temperature. LFP cells don't like to be fast charged at below freezing temperature and can cause degradation. Always try to precondition first or supercharge after driving for a while.
The only specific scenario I would be concerned about is fast charging when the battery is below 0C temperature. LFP cells don't like to be fast charged at below freezing temperature and can cause degradation. Always try to precondition first or supercharge after driving for a while.
Yes. I let it do its thing & precondition before supercharge.
However, sometimes I am doubtful about the duration for which it preconditions which obviously eats into the battery. While on the highway doing 115kmph/70mph on average, the whole thing (battery included) should be warm enough. So IMO the precondition shouldn’t last that long unless it’s seriously cold. But my experience has shown preconditioning before supercharging last silly long. Like 40 mins long.
Once I started a trip and the planner showed that the first supercharge stop was 90 mins away, yet the thing started to precondition!
Had to change my trip n manually add the supercharging stop when i was 30m away and when i got there the battery was all set to take it at 170kW.
Don’t get their whole preconditioning strategy
E90alex
Active Member
All this discussion about preserving battery degradation is so people can incorporate some best practices into their daily routine without affecting their usage of the vehicle or causing inconvenience. This is easy to do when you can charge up daily at home.
If you do not have home charging then don’t worry about battery degradation. You will seriously inconvenience yourself for minimal gains.
If you do not have home charging then don’t worry about battery degradation. You will seriously inconvenience yourself for minimal gains.
A few years ago I followed Voyage Without Carbon when he was on Twitter (he left that platform a while ago, pre Elon).
While this is only one data point, it’s worth considering. He has an early LR RWD Model 3 (just under 12k VIN). He spent a few years crisscrossing America and Supercharged about 98% of the time according to his estimate.
At 130k miles he posted a video on Twitter showing 303 miles of range when he had to charge to 100% to make a destination. He stays between 70-30% SOC whenever possible, unless range needs dictate otherwise. He’ll charge to 100% if needed and go to 0% if that’s the only option. While the Tesla may want to make a trip from 90% SOC to 15%, for example, instead he’ll stop at a Supercharger the Tesla bypassed to stay in the 70-30% SOC range if one is available. He’s basically staying in the goldilocks zone for battery health by staying between 70-30%.
He pointed out in another video his car showed 310 miles of range when new and he never saw any of the range bumps to 325 miles from software updates.
Cued to the battery portion of his 200K Model 3 review
While this is only one data point, it’s worth considering. He has an early LR RWD Model 3 (just under 12k VIN). He spent a few years crisscrossing America and Supercharged about 98% of the time according to his estimate.
At 130k miles he posted a video on Twitter showing 303 miles of range when he had to charge to 100% to make a destination. He stays between 70-30% SOC whenever possible, unless range needs dictate otherwise. He’ll charge to 100% if needed and go to 0% if that’s the only option. While the Tesla may want to make a trip from 90% SOC to 15%, for example, instead he’ll stop at a Supercharger the Tesla bypassed to stay in the 70-30% SOC range if one is available. He’s basically staying in the goldilocks zone for battery health by staying between 70-30%.
He pointed out in another video his car showed 310 miles of range when new and he never saw any of the range bumps to 325 miles from software updates.
Cued to the battery portion of his 200K Model 3 review
Thanks for sharing.
Pretty sure he didn’t have an LFP M3. From what I have been reading, LFP batteries need frequent calibration. I usually stay within that 30-70 zone but I do top it up to 100% 1x/week cause mine has an LFP battery.
When I did a road trip (~700 miles each way), I mostly charged from ~10-15% to ~50-60%, unless more was needed to reach the next Supercharger (I did start at 100% leaving home after overnight home charging). This was because the lower part of the state-of-charge range was the fastest for charging, and the stops were at reasonable times to take short breaks anyway.
It would be less convenient to rely on Supercharging for daily driving at home than to have home charging. The occasional desire to top up an LFP battery to 100% to ensure BMS accuracy does mean having to charge through the slower part of the charging curve to do that.
It would be less convenient to rely on Supercharging for daily driving at home than to have home charging. The occasional desire to top up an LFP battery to 100% to ensure BMS accuracy does mean having to charge through the slower part of the charging curve to do that.
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