When to charge Model Y

[Klee678]

Hi. Just wanted to know, should I charge my car regularly to 90% or should I let it run down to say 20% before I charge it again. I know that I should not really charge to 100% except on rare occasions. Thanks.

 

[Mike_TV]

From Tesla directly via the owner's manual.

Tesla strongly recommends leaving Model Y plugged in when not in use. This maintains the Battery at the optimum level of charge.

 

[240vPlug]

Keep it plugged in whenever practical and possible. Don’t charge above 90% unless your going on a road trip.

My max charge rate is 80% and I try to avoid discharging below 20% on a regular basis. It’s not nescessary to overthink battery degradation.

I charge to 80% simply because I want max regen as much as possible. When you charge to 90% regen can be more limited in cooler temps.

 

[Grabthar]

As Bjorn Nyland says "ABC" - always be charging

 

[jcanoe]

Keep the Tesla Model Y plugged in when not being driven (at night or when you arrive home for the day) whenever possible. Skipping charging for a day (or two, etc.) will not hurt the battery.

Set the daily charge limit between 50% and 90% (many prefer 70% to 80%) but it depends on your daily commute etc. or if you regularly charge at work, away from home.

Tesla Model 3 SR+ vehicles in the US now come with a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery. LFP batteries should be regularly charged to 100%, at least once a week. (Check your vehicle information to see if your Tesla Model Y has a LFP battery.)

 

[arichard2401]

Like the others, I say plug it in when you get home. I'll share what I've been doing personally: I don't drive very far on a regular basis, so just for running around town and short trips I keep my M3 charged to 60%. So that I don't overthink it, I wait until I'm below 50% to charge it back to 60%, usually every other day or so. The idea being that it sits around closer to 50% where the battery is happy. When I'm going on longer drives I'll schedule the departure time and off-peak energy time so that it finishes above 90% right when I'm ready to leave. Now that it's getting colder around were I live I may just leave it plugged in whenever it's parked so I don't lose charge when it's maintaining the battery temp (I park outside).

Here's an article I found helpful.

 

[Undecided_2]

I set mine to 50% as it easily covers 150 miles for us. Plug it in and forget about it. It sometimes drops below 30% depending on the trips.

We have easy access to ChargePoint Scotlands excellent chargers. So in a pinch we’ll take it a mile down the road for a fast charge to 80%.

 

[Calliope]

I plug it in when I get home each night, because I want the habit of always plugging it in -- even if I only used 15% that day. Generally I charge to 80% in warmer weather, 85% in colder weather, and only charge to 100% the night before a road trip.

 

[Klee678]

Thanks for all your tips. Last point - am I about spending money unnecessary by charging or topping up every night in light of the excessive energy prices at the moment. Is it not more cost effective to do it once or twice a week?

 

[Klee678]

I set mine to 50% as it easily covers 150 miles for us. Plug it in and forget about it. It sometimes drops below 30% depending on the trips.

We have easy access to ChargePoint Scotlands excellent chargers. So in a pinch we’ll take it a mile down the road for a fast charge to 80%.

Thanks for all your tips. Last point - am I about spending money unnecessary by charging or topping up every night in light of the excessive energy prices at the moment. Is it not more cost effective to do it once or twice a week?

 

[Undecided_2]

Thanks for all your tips. Last point - am I about spending money unnecessary by charging or topping up every night in light of the excessive energy prices at the moment. Is it not more cost effective to do it once or twice a week?

I’m on Intelligent Octopus and pay 7.5p per kilowatt. So it’s super cheap for us. I suppose I could let it drop more and charge longer but it’s typically only 4-6 kW when I use the car. However, that will rise as we head into winter.

I stick to 50% as there’s a long running battery charging post on here and the owner kept his around that. He barely had any drop over two years and he posted the graphs to prove it.

 

[Rocky_H]

Thanks for all your tips. Last point - am I about spending money unnecessary by charging or topping up every night in light of the excessive energy prices at the moment. Is it not more cost effective to do it once or twice a week?

Under pretty normal, reasonable temperature conditions, it doesn't make any difference. You think you are "wasting" or not being cost effective by filling up 2 units three times instead of 6 units once. It's the same thing.

However, things are always perfect in ideal cases, right? In Winters, this can make a difference, because the car may have to spend extra energy warming up the battery pack to get to a good place to begin charging. That is some extra energy per each time it does it. So with that, it's a decent idea to go 2 or 3 days at a time if you're not hurting for range to reduce the number of times it needs to do that battery warming.

 

[Undecided_2]

preconditioning on mains power reduces strain.

 

[Calliope]

am I about spending money unnecessary by charging or topping up every night in light of the excessive energy prices at the moment. Is it not more cost effective to do it once or twice a week?

A lot depends on your circumstances - location, weather, fluctuation in cost per kWh. In static conditions, it doesn't make a difference. I know my cost of energy doesn't fluctuate within the week, so I pay the same $0.08 per KWh off peak on Tuesday as I do on Friday. Temperature would be the biggest fluctuation within the week, potentially, and recharging in warm weather is more efficient than recharging in cold weather.......If you know there's a cold snap coming, it might be more cost efficient to charge it in the more mild conditions (but we're still probably talking about a savings of less than 50 cents in most of the US and Canada).