What should my ideal charge percentage be?

[arnis]

One thing to note is that driving the car while at a low SOC can be bad for the battery, mainly under hard acceleration. So, under 20%, it is advisable to go easy on the pedal. For that reason, I would advise against going-down to 10% often...unless you don't mind light acceleration.

For 70kWh pack light is like 70kW. Which is not slow.
And there is nothing bad actually. It just warms battery up more. Which is not a problem as Tesla has a way to extract that heat if necessary.

The lower the SOC, the better. 10% is fine. So 70% down to 10% is fine.

 

[gavine]

For 70kWh pack light is like 70kW. Which is not slow.
And there is nothing bad actually. It just warms battery up more. Which is not a problem as Tesla has a way to extract that heat if necessary.

The lower the SOC, the better. 10% is fine. So 70% down to 10% is fine.

Makes sense. I guess the rule of thumb is that you shouldn't floor it when at a low SOC.

 

[arnis]

I guess the rule of thumb is that you shouldn't floor it when at a low SOC.

Yea. But Tesla's computers will limit acceleration anyways.

 

[snd92]

Yea. But Tesla's computers will limit acceleration anyways.

I can pull 1520A at 10% SOC and the acceleration is only limited by the lower voltage. Listen to @gavine

 

[arnis]

acceleration is only limited by the lower voltage.

That is exactly what it should be limited by. Voltage at any moment, including hard discharge.

 

[jeffdom1978]

So how do you determine what 80% or 90% of your maximum battery percentage is? I read all these posts about only charging to 80%, they told me 90% when I picked up my car.

The only thing I can see is that slider on the battery but it doesn’t say anything. Are we just guessing at what looks like 80-90% of capacity? Maybe I’m missing a setting?

Sorry my 2nd day of ownership!

 

[TexasEV]

So how do you determine what 80% or 90% of your maximum battery percentage is? I read all these posts about only charging to 80%, they told me 90% when I picked up my car.

The only thing I can see is that slider on the battery but it doesn’t say anything. Are we just guessing at what looks like 80-90% of capacity? Maybe I’m missing a setting?

Sorry my 2nd day of ownership!

There are marks every 10% from 50% to 100%. Charging to less than 90% may have a measurable difference for the battery after many years but it’s not a meaningful difference. I charged my Model S 60 to 90% every night for 5 years (except when charging to 100% on trips) and I only lost 5% of range. You’re not going to do better than that charging less. Don’t obsess over the battery.

 

[Big Earl]

So how do you determine what 80% or 90% of your maximum battery percentage is? I read all these posts about only charging to 80%, they told me 90% when I picked up my car.

The only thing I can see is that slider on the battery but it doesn’t say anything. Are we just guessing at what looks like 80-90% of capacity? Maybe I’m missing a setting?

Sorry my 2nd day of ownership!

The charge limit settings are 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98 and 100%.

 

[Nitemare3219]

The charge limit settings are 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98 and 100%.

Pretty sure you can drag the white pointer arrow anywhere you want within the acceptable range... only pressing the sidways buttons sets it to a predetermined number. You can also use a 3rd party app to set it to any % you desire between 50% and 100%. I have mine set to 52% while I'm away from home right now so it only drops to 49% before charging back up.

 

[FlatSix911]

Before a long trip...99 and 44/100%

 

[jeffdom1978]

The charge limit settings are 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98 and 100%.

Ok, this makes sense. The delivery guy told me every click was 5%, but that didnt make sense! This does! Thank-you! 4 clicks left for 90% and 5 clicks for 80%. Perfect.

I'm gonna charge to 90% for a little while, or until I see how much I use!
Thanks guys!

 

[jeffdom1978]

Another quick opinion question.. Some days I only drive like 20 miles or so, is it still worth charging back to 90% even if I only used like less than 10%? I keep recalling information about Li-ion batteries only having so many charge cycles. I know that probably doesnt matter with these cars but I cant help but want to plug it in when I can, just curious if I should skip a day or not..

 

[Fiver]

Another quick opinion question.. Some days I only drive like 20 miles or so, is it still worth charging back to 90% even if I only used like less than 10%? I keep recalling information about Li-ion batteries only having so many charge cycles. I know that probably doesnt matter with these cars but I cant help but want to plug it in when I can, just curious if I should skip a day or not..

Kinda splitting hairs. You'll probably get a lot of responses across the board for this question. I'd personally not charge it up, but then again, I'm well aware of my driving habits. Some could argue you'd want it back to 90% in case of emergency. Generally I let it drop down to below 70% before I plug back in. Some people only charge to 70% to begin with.

Tesla's battery system is pretty rock solid at this point, so really you can't go wrong whatever you choose. Plug it in, or don't. As long as its not sitting at above 90% for weeks at a time (or below 15%) you should be fine whichever way you go.

 

[gavine]

Another quick opinion question.. Some days I only drive like 20 miles or so, is it still worth charging back to 90% even if I only used like less than 10%? I keep recalling information about Li-ion batteries only having so many charge cycles. I know that probably doesnt matter with these cars but I cant help but want to plug it in when I can, just curious if I should skip a day or not..

A full charge cycle is 0% to 100% and back to 0%. If you go from 80% to 30% and back to 80% (a 50% total depth cycle), it equals twice as many cycles vs. the 100% cycle. If every single charge session counted as a cycle, you would use-up all the cycles on a couple of trips, just from regen-alone.

 

[TexasEV]

Another quick opinion question.. Some days I only drive like 20 miles or so, is it still worth charging back to 90% even if I only used like less than 10%? I keep recalling information about Li-ion batteries only having so many charge cycles. I know that probably doesnt matter with these cars but I cant help but want to plug it in when I can, just curious if I should skip a day or not..

Your desire to plug it in when you can is exactly what Tesla recommends. In the battery section of the owners manual, IN UPPER CASE LIKE THIS, so Tesla must think it is important.

 

[Shaggy]

On Monday to Thursday charge to 70% and 90% on Friday...

 

[SIG0075]

agreed.
Most of my days I'll drive fewer than 50 miles.
The problem is that some of the long drive days are unpredictable. All of a sudden you find out that your friend can't use his center court tickets to a playoff basketball game, and you don't want to have to say, "gee I'd love to use them, but unfortunately my car won't get me there because I only charged to 50% last night".

I'll gladly pay a mile or two of range a year for the peace of mind of knowing that on any day I can go anywhere I need to go.

If that's not worth it to you, I guess it's great that they've got the new feature, but for me, the old way was simpler.

I agree... Well said!

 

[Araman0]

I've got both a Model S and a Ford Focus EV. (Fully EV household now, yay!)

We've had the Ford Focus EV for going on 4 years now, and had bought it used from a previous owner. We've charged the Ford Focus EV to 100% every single time we pulled into the garage without a care in the world. It wasn't until I got my Model S this year that I started even thinking about limiting the maximum charge on a regular basis.

I'm not sure how different the Ford Focus EV battery is form the Model S, but after 4 years of daily 100% charging we don't see any noticeable decrease in battery capacity. I suspect that as some have already hinted at, mistreating any battery may eventually lead to a measurable difference in charge capacity, but not a meaningful difference. Model S's are expensive; I'd say if you've spent the money then enjoy your car and don't worry too much about negligible range differences in 4-5 years. Compared to the cost you paid for the car, how much is the cost of 5-10 miles of lost range in 4 years to be so worried about? Probably fairly insignificant. Charging to 90% daily should be fine in my opinion.

 

[gavine]

I've got both a Model S and a Ford Focus EV. (Fully EV household now, yay!)

We've had the Ford Focus EV for going on 4 years now, and had bought it used from a previous owner. We've charged the Ford Focus EV to 100% every single time we pulled into the garage without a care in the world. It wasn't until I got my Model S this year that I started even thinking about limiting the maximum charge on a regular basis.

I'm not sure how different the Ford Focus EV battery is form the Model S, but after 4 years of daily 100% charging we don't see any noticeable decrease in battery capacity. I suspect that as some have already hinted at, mistreating any battery may eventually lead to a measurable difference in charge capacity, but not a meaningful difference. Model S's are expensive; I'd say if you've spent the money then enjoy your car and don't worry too much about negligible range differences in 4-5 years. Compared to the cost you paid for the car, how much is the cost of 5-10 miles of lost range in 4 years to be so worried about? Probably fairly insignificant. Charging to 90% daily should be fine in my opinion.

I believe most non-Tesla EV's don't actually charge to 100%. The display will say it's at 100%, but it's probably actually at 90%. I like the way Tesla handles it by giving you the option to go to 100% when the occasion warrants it but otherwise it's 90% or less daily. I'm not sure why an EV manufacturer would allow 100% charging daily when that is widely known to degrade lithium-ion batteries.

 

[Araman0]

Does Tesla even allow full 100% charging of the battery? I've been of the impression that even when the meter says 100% full in a Tesla, just like the Focus EV, there's always a bit of capacity left that's unusable.