This question is more common than you think and often asked by new Tesla owners. You’d want to know if there is any risk involved with charging your electric vehicle daily or not charging as much. In this article, we have gathered all the facts to help you decide on what’s best for your EV.
What Tesla says
You may have heard the funny phrase ‘A plugged-in Tesla is a happy Tesla’. This phrase comes from what Tesla says in the owner’s manual about battery charging –
“The most important way to preserve the Battery is to leave your vehicle plugged in when you are not using it. This is particularly important if you are not planning to drive Model S for several weeks. Model S wakes up when needed to automatically maintain a charge level that maximizes the lifetime of the Battery. There is no advantage to waiting until the Battery’s level is low before charging. In fact, the Battery performs better when charged regularly,”
From this, you can see it’s safe to charge your Tesla not just every night, but every time it’s not being used.
The manual also gives more suggestions on charging your vehicle the right way.
Setting a charging limit
Tesla owner’s manual also recommends setting a charging limit for your vehicle to 80-90%. Besides, your Tesla is already set to a default charging limit of 90%. If you’re wondering about the minimum low battery limit for your EV, the manual equally states to stay above 20% if possible.
Everything Tesla says about battery charging boils down to driving between 90% and 20% of total battery capacity. For many drivers, that’s more than enough for their daily miles.
Benefits of charging every night and using Tesla’s recommendations
The benefits include:
- Charging every day increases the range available to you for driving.
- Using only between 90 and 20% of your battery capacity helps to extend battery life. This is because Lithium-ion batteries are prone to damage when in the very high and very low ends of the charge spectrum.
- Also, when you charge your Tesla every night, you make up for the amount of battery life drained by Tesla’s auxiliary system each time your car is idle.
Drawbacks to charging your Tesla every night.
Charging daily increases energy loss used in preconditioning or heating the battery for charging. There is also the cost of electricity and an increase in your battery cycle count.
Conclusion:
If you’re like most Americans who drive an average of 37 miles per day, you could easily skip charging for a few days and still have enough battery capacity for your use.
Charging fewer days a week at night or in off-peak electricity pricing periods will help you deal with the drawbacks listed above and increase the battery life of your Tesla.
Looking for a way to charge your Tesla at home? Contact us, your Los Angeles Tesla Certified electricians.