Tesla’s higher driving range is one of the major reasons many people buy their overpriced tech-heavy cars.
Charge your Tesla to 100% regularly or at least once a week if your Tesla has an LFD battery. Charging over 90% reduces energy efficiency but provides an additional range. For NCA/NCM battery-powered Teslas, repeatedly reaching full charge is not recommended because it causes degradation.
This article aims to help you understand the best way to care for your Tesla’s battery without compromising on driving range.
Reasons You’d Want To Charge Up to 100%
There’s no doubt that most Tesla drivers will want to make use of the extended battery range the latest models are offering. You want to charge up to 100% so you can reach that 400-mile range in the new Model S, even if it isn’t in one trip.
Nonetheless, there are other reasons you may want to fully charge your Tesla. Let’s go over them one by one.
You Don’t Have Access to a Supercharger
If you’re going on a long trip where you are sure you won’t have access to a supercharger for extended periods, charging fully is recommended. Home charging may not be a feasible option when you’re on the road and don’t have time to wait for the battery to charge slowly.
While Tesla has the most extensive network of superchargers, there are still gaps in some countries. Even in the US, there are some areas where you need to drive over 3 hours between charging stations. Charging to 100% can help relieve anxiety about range.
“…fast chargers tend to be located in parking lots of suburban shopping malls or tethered to gas stations or car dealerships.”
Wall Street Journal
Tesla Recommends Full Charging Once a Week
According to the Tesla website, you should charge your car up to 100% once a week if the battery image shows 50% or 100% instead of “Daily” and “Trip .” I’ll get into the details later, but this is essentially the difference between cars with LFD batteries installed instead of nickel-cobalt batteries.
Generally speaking, LFD batteries have a longer lifespan and do not degrade as much when charged to 100%.
In a related article, I discussed the reasons you might be prohibited from charging your Tesla to 100%. See why it’s difficult to charge to 100% and what you should do in the long term to protect your battery.
Best Charging Practices: Prolong Battery Life
To prolong your battery’s lifespan and take advantage of your Tesla’s full driving range, you will need to take good care of that battery. The confusion arises from the fact that Tesla recently changed the type of battery installed in their vehicles.
Nonetheless, these are a few things you can do to ensure you make the most out of your Tesla’s battery.
Develop a Routine
I highly recommend getting into the habit of plugging in your car once you get home. Leave it overnight, regardless of the battery type. Modern batteries will stop charging once the battery percentage reaches its limit (100% by default).
There is no reason to worry about damaging the battery from prolonged charging. On the contrary, regular charging helps the battery learn your charging/driving patterns and will allow the car to run more efficiently.
Don’t Fully Drain Your Battery
All batteries have a limited number of lifecycles—that is, the number of times they can be charged before they are completely damaged. To avoid damaging your Tesla’s expensive battery, try to avoid draining your battery whenever possible.
Some people even go as far as to say they rarely let the battery drain below 50%. You might say that this defeats the purpose of having a higher driving range. However, the full driving range is only meant for occasional long trips.
After all, if you were driving a gas-powered car, you wouldn’t be driving around with the fuel gauge showing “empty,” would you?
Use Superchargers Sparingly
While Tesla’s superchargers are extremely convenient, and the ultra-fast charging is a major time-saver, I wouldn’t recommend using them on a daily basis. Home charging using a standard electric current is much gentler on your Tesla’s battery, and it will help preserve its health.
Getting into the habit of plugging your car when you reach home will help you avoid charging at supercharger stations unless you really need to. Also, using the supercharger is more expensive than charging at home. Despite the longer time it takes, home charging is cheaper.
Learn To Use Charge Limits
Your Tesla comes with the option of setting how much the maximum point the battery will charge. As I’ve mentioned earlier, most modern batteries (in EVs, phones, etc.) have an overcharge protection circuit that prevents the charging process from continuing beyond a certain limit.
By default, battery charge limits are set at 100%. Your Tesla app allows you to set this limit lower, which is better for your battery health if you own an older Tesla that still runs on a nickel-cobalt battery. Set the charge limit to 80% if your car shows “Daily” or “Trip” in the battery image. Otherwise, set the charge limit at 100%.
In other words, if you are driving a model S or X, set the charge limit to 80%. For Models 3 and Y, set the charge limit to 100%.
Batteries in Different Tesla Models
The first few models Tesla manufactured came with nickel-cobalt batteries. Nowadays, Tesla is making a move to switch to LFD batteries. More than half of their factories’ current production is installing LFD in lieu of nickel and cobalt batteries.
LFD batteries (Lithium-iron phosphate) are more durable and last longer compared to nickel-cobalt batteries. Additionally, because they don’t contain any nickel and cobalt, these batteries are more environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, and even allow for full charging.
An LFD battery is basically a Lithium-ion battery, just like those used in laptops and other rechargeable devices. Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 come equipped with LFD batteries, whereas the Model S and Model X are still running on nickel and cobalt batteries.
Fully charging your Model Y or Model 3 will allow you to use the battery to its fullest capacity and does not impact the battery’s lifespan drastically. Overcharge protection doesn’t only prevent fires and other potentially dangerous outcomes from overcharging, but it also protects battery health.
Don’t depend on the model type to determine the type of battery you have in your car. You can tell which kind of battery your Tesla has installed by looking at the battery image on the screen.
- If the battery image says “Daily” or “Trip,” this means you have a nickel and cobalt battery. Do not charge it to 100% regularly.
- If the battery image says 50% or 100%, you have an LFD battery installed. Charge it to 100% as much as you can.
Battery Degradation
One of the most common concerns electric vehicle drivers have is that their batteries will degrade over time. This concept is the main reason for the recommendation that nickel and cobalt batteries are charged to a maximum of 80% for the most part.
The lifespan of nickel and cobalt batteries degrades over time, and the same is true for LFD batteries. In fact, some anecdotal reports would suggest that the Model Y’s battery is the fastest to degrade among all the Tesla models.
There’s good news regarding battery degradation—technology is evolving so fast nowadays there is a chance that it won’t be a major concern soon. Recent studies by Tesla enthusiasts have shown that batteries aren’t degrading more than 5%.
It doesn’t hurt to be cautious and follow the Tesla guidelines when charging your car anyway. But here’s another thing you might be pleased to know: Tesla provides a warranty on its batteries. Once a battery has driven more than 100,000 miles, they’ll replace it for free.
At the rate the Model Y’s battery is degrading, it would take around ten years before you really need to replace the battery. That’s if you’re mostly dependent on superchargers and not applying any of the best charging practices I’ve mentioned above.
Assuming their policies don’t change for the next 8 or 10 years, you can safely assume that even if you’re driving a Model Y with its faster-degrading battery—-you’ll be able to replace it entirely for free.
Cold Weather and Its Impact on Battery Consumption
If you keep an eye on the estimated range of your Tesla, you’d probably notice that it’s usually lower during the winter months. It’s not just you—that’s actually one of the main ways that cold weather impacts battery consumption in electric vehicles.
Not only that but below are some features that you’re probably using during the winter that will use up more of your battery. This gives you all the more reason to charge it to 100% if you have an LFD battery.
- Preconditioning: Your car can turn on and warm up the battery as you get ready every morning.
- Defrosting: No more using an ice scraper to defrost your windshield when temperatures drop. Configure your climate control settings to defrost that ice before you need to get going.
While these practices are certainly convenient, they use up a lot of battery before you’ve driven a yard. Lower temperatures also make your car use up more energy as you’re driving.
Here are a few tips for keeping your battery consumption low while driving or when the car is parked in winter:
- Keep your car plugged in. Whenever possible, ensure that your car is plugged in. This will allow the car to use power directly from the charging system to maintain temperature when the climate gets too cold.
- Charge your warm battery. Charging your battery when it is warmer is recommended because it is faster and doesn’t harm the powertrain. If you don’t have time to precondition the battery, you may consider supercharging it after driving for a while because that will heat up the powertrain.
- Avoid high or low speed. Extreme acceleration or deceleration uses up a lot of battery, which is why Tesla recommends driving at moderate speeds. This is also ultimately safer in cold weather.
- Use seat heaters to add warmth. Keeping the cabin warm is a challenge for some climates, but seat heaters will help your car use less energy to keep the climate in the cabin comfortable enough.
- Lower the climate control temperature. Especially if you’re going on long drives, it’s recommended that you conserve battery power by using lower temperatures on the climate control settings.
Regenerative Braking
Tesla’s cars come with an energy efficiency measure called regenerative braking. It is basically a system that uses energy that would otherwise be lost in the form of heat. The energy is converted into electric energy.
Overall, this improves the energy efficiency of the vehicle, allowing for additional driving range. As the vehicle’s charge approaches 100%, regenerative braking wouldn’t work.
“At 100% state of charge, regen braking doesn’t work because the battery is full, so the car is less energy efficient.”
Elon Musk
Regenerative braking has a major impact on battery percentage, and it also improves driving range. Basically, the battery is recharged from the energy that would otherwise be wasted.
However, at 100%, the battery has no more capacity to charge, and thus regenerative braking won’t work.
You’ll need to weigh the pros and cons of the slightly higher driving range of charging to 100%. Following Elon Musk’s advice, charging up to 95% would be enough to activate regenerative braking and add to your potential driving range.
