What should my ideal charge percentage be?

[Mensrea]

Here is some great information about the batteries in our cars as well as how SoC and temperature affect the life of the battery its a little long though... at almost 2 hours long. its really cool how he explains what is happening in the battery that causes the damage and why it happens.

Image from 1:31:00

 

[Cortes_MS]

hello all this is my first post me and my wife got our first Tesla 2 weeks ago now a 2019 model s with the 335mi range battery. yesterday me and my dad installed the Tesla wall charger outside our home and once my wife got home from work gave it a whirl allowing it to charge to 90% as that is the "optimal" limit for the car as told by our delivery specialist. I had to supercharge the car twice as I didn't have the wall charger in yet but i don't plan to supercharge unless we are going on a trip but I guess looking here there are some people who say to charge overnight every night and some who have said when you reach that 50% charge to the 90% for the longevity of the battery especially in the summer months should I wait till the 50% mark ? thank you guys for all your input I've read here this is my first ev and honestly im loving it right now

 

[arnis]

Again and again. No need to worry that much
If you want to be supernice you can cycle your car between 40-70% for extreme long lifetime. Though
it will take half a decade to notice.
Charge when it is the cheapest. Off peak. This not only is cheaper, it is greener as well. Daily charging is absolutely fine.
Or every few days.

 

[Fiver]

Again and again. No need to worry that much
If you want to be supernice you can cycle your car between 40-70% for extreme long lifetime. Though
it will take half a decade to notice.
Charge when it is the cheapest. Off peak. This not only is cheaper, it is greener as well. Daily charging is absolutely fine.
Or every few days.

Yea, all of this. Really at the end of the day it doesn't matter too much. While there are intricacies that will effect how your battery "ages", overall sticking to the 90% thing is a safe bet when starting out. As you get more comfortable with the car, and learn more about how batteries work you can think about adjusting your charging behavior, but honestly 90% every day is fine.

That said, an easy way to start out is if you know you don't need more then 200 miles per day, then set your daily charge limit to 80% and only bump it up to 90% if you know you need the extra range the next day.

 

[David99]

hello all this is my first post me and my wife got our first Tesla 2 weeks ago now a 2019 model s with the 335mi range battery. yesterday me and my dad installed the Tesla wall charger outside our home and once my wife got home from work gave it a whirl allowing it to charge to 90% as that is the "optimal" limit for the car as told by our delivery specialist. I had to supercharge the car twice as I didn't have the wall charger in yet but i don't plan to supercharge unless we are going on a trip but I guess looking here there are some people who say to charge overnight every night and some who have said when you reach that 50% charge to the 90% for the longevity of the battery especially in the summer months should I wait till the 50% mark ? thank you guys for all your input I've read here this is my first ev and honestly im loving it right now

I have a 2014 Model S. First generation battery pack. I'm using this car heavily. I have 210k miles on it. Mostly supercharging (which is more stressful to the battery than normal charging). I live in a hot climate (Los Angeles) and often charge my car to 100%.

Just give it some perspective, the average person drives 12k miles a year. I have used the equivalent of 17 years out of my battery. I have aprox 10% range loss. Now this doesn't affect me at all as I still have plenty of range to go through even a busy driving day not having to charge at all.

What I'm saying is, don't worry too much. Your battery will be fine for as long as you have it. 10 years easily. 20 years should not be a problem either.

 

[Cortes_MS]

I have a 2014 Model S. First generation battery pack. I'm using this car heavily. I have 210k miles on it. Mostly supercharging (which is more stressful to the battery than normal charging). I live in a hot climate (Los Angeles) and often charge my car to 100%.

Just give it some perspective, the average person drives 12k miles a year. I have used the equivalent of 17 years out of my battery. I have aprox 10% range loss. Now this doesn't affect me at all as I still have plenty of range to go through even a busy driving day not having to charge at all.

What I'm saying is, don't worry too much. Your battery will be fine for as long as you have it. 10 years easily. 20 years should not be a problem either.

thank you this made me feel a lot better it was a big investment for me and wife and a big change in going electric and I want to get a model x in a year a so depending on how we were with this car so thank you all once again!

 

[MrFC1000]

Hi everyone. Just bought a 2016 Model S 90D CPO with 32k miles on it. The car is in literally perfect condition.

Except one thing is bugging me about the battery. When I set charging to 90%, it rings it up 240 miles. My math:

90% = 240 miles
so,
100% = 267 miles
Stated range new = 294 miles
267 vs 294 = 9.8% battery degradation over 32k miles (3 years also, assuming it was a lease)?

That seems like a lot from what I hear on these forums, especially considering the prior owner seemed like he/she took incredibly good care of the car.

Questions:
1 - Could the % be off?
2 - If so, is there a way to reset it?
3 - Uh, any other words of wisdom?

Thanks

 

[David99]

Hi everyone. Just bought a 2016 Model S 90D CPO with 32k miles on it. The car is in literally perfect condition.

Except one thing is bugging me about the battery. When I set charging to 90%, it rings it up 240 miles. My math:

90% = 240 miles
so,
100% = 267 miles
Stated range new = 294 miles
267 vs 294 = 9.8% battery degradation over 32k miles (3 years also, assuming it was a lease)?

That seems like a lot from what I hear on these forums, especially considering the prior owner seemed like he/she took incredibly good care of the car.

Questions:
1 - Could the % be off?
2 - If so, is there a way to reset it?
3 - Uh, any other words of wisdom?

Thanks

90 batteries are known to degrade faster. How you treat your battery has a limited influence on degradation. Drive it down below 10% and charge it up to above 90%. Sometimes that can help the BMS to recalibrate a small inaccuracy that might have accumulated over time.

 

[Fiver]

Just to add to this.... 10%, while a little on the high side, isn't unheard of. The real question is: Does it keep degrading over the next year.

Keep driving and keep your eye on it. I have a feeling it won't drop much, if any more as long as you don't hammer on the battery. (Leave it charged @ 100% for long periods of time, or daily drive from 100% down to under 5%.)

I'm no fan of the 90 packs, but at the same time, I'd wager it's settled in by now.

 

[midlife crisis]

Hi everyone. Just bought a 2016 Model S 90D CPO with 32k miles on it. The car is in literally perfect condition.

Except one thing is bugging me about the battery. When I set charging to 90%, it rings it up 240 miles. My math:

90% = 240 miles
so,
100% = 267 miles
Stated range new = 294 miles
267 vs 294 = 9.8% battery degradation over 32k miles (3 years also, assuming it was a lease)?

That seems like a lot from what I hear on these forums, especially considering the prior owner seemed like he/she took incredibly good care of the car.

Questions:
1 - Could the % be off?
2 - If so, is there a way to reset it?
3 - Uh, any other words of wisdom?

Thanks

Our pre-facelift 2016 S90D indicated 284 miles at 100% when new. That quickly dropped to 275. It has very similar mileage to your car and now indicates 264 miles at 100%.

90 packs have 81.8kWh available when brand new. Dividing by 298Wh/mile yields 275 miles at 100%. Which makes me doubt the 294 mile figure. Not saying you are wrong with the initial 294 figure as ours was briefly 284miles (a few months at the most)

267 vs 284 (our starting maximum) is 6% loss over 3 years.
267 vs 275 (what I suspect the 100% range is when just a few months old) is 3% loss over 3 years.

At 267 miles your pack is doing slightly better than our similar pack. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Our pre-facelift 2016 S90D indicated 284 miles at 100% when new. That quickly dropped to 275. It has very similar mileage to your car and now indicates 264 miles at 100%.

90 packs have 81.8kWh available when brand new. Dividing by 298Wh/mile yields 275 miles at 100%. Which makes me doubt the 294 mile figure. Not saying you are wrong with the initial 294 figure as ours was briefly 284miles (a few months at the most)

267 vs 284 (our starting maximum) is 6% loss over 3 years.
267 vs 275 (what I suspect the 100% range is when just a few months old) is 3% loss over 3 years.

At 267 miles your pack is doing slightly better than our similar pack. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

We had two 2016 S90Ds (June and December). When new, they each had a range of 295 and 293 miles, respectively. The December delivery car actually went up to 295 miles several months later, once the weather got warmer.

 

[Kenz]

Charge to 80 or 90% most days. Try not to run it down below 20%. And charge at home most days.
Use the SuperCharger only when necessary. Fast charging is cool and use it when needed but for a long battery life use your home charger mostly. Other than that don't worry about it. The battery will last longer than you own the car.

 

[ZesPK]

I have a loaner 70D now, I ordered a "long range" 100D.
The 330km range on the 70D is often tight for me so I usually charge this loaner to 100%. I noticed that, when fully charged, it actually doesn't do regenerative braking, which makes perfect sense of course but it is something to be aware of and good to know beforehand (it's an odd feeling now the car doesn't brake when you let off the accelerator pedal).

Of course, after a couple of kms, there's some space in the battery and regenerative braking kicks in again.

 

[Oscurrred]

I have a 2015 Model S, P90D.

I had a home tesla charge unit installed. I am only getting 19/hour miles for charge. Is this normal?

Dan

 

[TexasEV]

I have a 2015 Model S, P90D.

I had a home tesla charge unit installed. I am only getting 19/hour miles for charge. Is this normal?

Dan

No. Did your electrician set the switch in the Wall Connector properly for your circuit amperage? (In other words, did he RTFM? Probably not).
What does your charging screen say for amps? What size circuit do you have?

 

[Oscurrred]

No. Did your electrician set the switch in the Wall Connector properly for your circuit amperage? (In other words, did he RTFM? Probably not).
What does your charging screen say for amps? What size circuit do you have?

ok, is this something I can do? and where would i see the amps at? on screen?
i'll look tonight
thank you

 

[TexasEV]

ok, is this something I can do? and where would i see the amps at? on screen?
i'll look tonight
thank you

Look at the screen while the car is charging. It shows volts and amps. (In case the charging screen isn’t being displayed, tap the battery icon to bring it up). Tell us what it says, also tell us what amp circuit you had installed. You might also want to read the charging section of the owners manual.

 

[mjmiron]

question for the group- I just picked up my 2nd S 85D through the used car process. The shipper scratched the bumper so I brought it into service for 2 weeks. Before I brought it in for service the car charged to around 232 miles at 90%. Now after getting the car back after two weeks it shows 212 miles at 90%. Do you recommend cycling between 10%-80% a few times for this to reset? It's like the car reset somehow. Open to ideas and I apologize if someone already answered this or ran into this issue prior on the forum.

 

[arnis]

People should stop worrying around few miles here and there.

 

[Oscurrred]

Look at the screen while the car is charging. It shows volts and amps. (In case the charging screen isn’t being displayed, tap the battery icon to bring it up). Tell us what it says, also tell us what amp circuit you had installed. You might also want to read the charging section of the owners manual.

it says 240v, 28/28A