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to keep plugged in or not
- Thread starter dcjcdc
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ATPMSD
Active Member
There is no reason to not leave the car plugged in. Most people are concerned about going on vacation and not being able to have the car plugged in. Set your SOC to a max of 80% and enjoy your trip.
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TexasTezla
Member
Absolutely plug it in. When I go away I set my charge to 60% and off I go.
1LE McQueen
Member
ABC Always Be Charging.
I like to keep it at %89
I like to keep it at %89
If one doesn't drive much, for battery life, is it best to charge it to 80% then wait until it hits like 40 before charging. Will it be better to keep it plugged in and it will stay at 80%? I read somewhere that like 56% or so was the very best spot to keep it to prevent battery degradation. Any thoughts on this?
Keep it plugged in. Don’t overthink. Optionally set the charge level lower.
davewill
Active Member
The nice thing about just setting the charge level lower is that you can always bump it up from the app when you're headed home if you need it charged up higher when you arrive.
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Since you asked for "any thoughts on this", mine is that you can read more about this than you could ever possibly want to, in the gigantic range / battery thread:
Range Loss Over Time, What Can Be Expected, Efficiency, How to Maintain Battery Health
My 2020 SR+ battery has degraded 10% in 27000km. Tesla just says “don’t worry”. Im worried. Whether you worry or not is completely up to you, however, your 10% degradation means that you have 20% more to go (as measured by the information on the cars screen, not any external website / source...
teslamotorsclub.com
You do not need to worry that much.
The battery will hold up anyway.
If you still would like to minimize the degradation, here is the facts:
80% is not at all the best SOC for minimizing degradation.
The lower the SOC the lower the degradation. Period. This is actually valid all the way down to 0% SOC.
If your car is a LR or Performance look at the graph to the left (NCA cells).
There is a sharp reduction of degradation if the battery is below 55-60% SOC depending on the ”central graphite peak”.
This is when the car is not used and is caused by calendar aging.
[Time x SOC x temperature] is what drives calendar aging.
For cyclic aging : the smaller the cycles, the less cyclic aging.
The lower SOC during the cycles, the less cyclic aging.
All above is taken from research reports and research battery tests.
From the above you can see that 56% is not the best selection to minimize degradation. Staying below 55-56% true SOC is good, as it is below the sharp step where degradation is higher, but it is not as good as SOC levels even lower.
50-55% will be a good selection to stay below the sharp step and still have good range.
Tesla cars show SOC a little different compared to real SOC. This is because of the bottom buffer which is 4.5% below 0% on the screen.
Because of this , 55% on the screen is about 57% true SOC and the research reports of course refer to the true SOC in their tests and reports.
To minimize degradation:
- Do not charge to a higher SOC than needed. When possible, charge just in time before the drive (keeps battery at low SOC when the car is not used).
- Charge often. Smaller cycles/ many (small) charging sessions is better.
Depends on whether you have setup a specific time to charge, or charge leave time or something. With that being said, this is a non issue because you can start the charge from the app on your cellphone in like 2 clicks.
davewill
Active Member
Well it's obviously not going to charge WHILE the power is out, so we're talking about getting it resarted after the power comes back. It should happen automatically no problem. The other answer is that you get remote access to the car through the cellular network if WiFi is unavailable.
Thanks. Must have a problem then. Was out of town and had a power failure. Could not contact the car thru cell service. Had to reboot upon arrival.
davewill
Active Member
You can test by disconnecting it from your WiFi, and trying to contact the car, or by using the app when you're away from home.
I think I might experiment of leaving it around 50% charge to level and charge it daily.
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