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Simple Ways To Extend Your Tesla Model 3 Battery Life
JUN 4 2018 BY STEVEN LOVEDAY 26
These tips will help your Tesla Model 3 battery last as long as possible.
Battery life is a significant consideration if you’re planning to purchase an EV or already own one. This is not because the batteries tend to wear out quickly, although some degrade faster than others. Instead, it’s about knowing the best ways to assure that your battery maintains its full capacity (and your range) for as long as possible. Additionally, when it does eventually degrade to any noticeable level, you can only hope that you did all you could to extend its health and lifespan.
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Batteries in Tesla vehicles don’t have a reputation for degrading rapidly. In fact, there have been many accounts of these batteries maintaining a very high percentage of the original capacity at well over 100,000 miles. One report points to a Model S with 200,000 miles and only 6 percent degradation and another Model S with 250,000 miles and only 7 percent degradation. We can only assume that these owners took impeccable care of their batteries.
While we don’t know for certain how the Tesla Model 3 battery will fare, the same steps should be taken to promote battery life. According to Battery University, as well as several other sources, these are three best practices:
- 10% to 90% is a good range to keep your battery within
- Charging speed should not be too slow or too fast, but ideal
- Small charges are better than big charges
Watch the video to learn exactly how these practices are defined and how to properly follow them. LivingTesla provides an in-depth tutorial on how to use your Model 3 touch screen to achieve the best results.
Video Description LivingTesla on YouTube:
Three best practices as recommended by Battery University … and how to follow them in the Model 3.
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26 Comments on "Simple Ways To Extend Your Tesla Model 3 Battery Life"
Like quick charging, large current draw can reduce battery life.
So, …
Typical daily commuter with access to home or work charging, .. smiley face.
You drive a lot of highway miles, or you ‘typically commute’, but have no place to home/work charge ,…. frowny face.
That’s why many employers have added charging stations in their parkinglots, it’s really not that hard and you can make some money in the process. I have a charger at my work if i need it but i have yet to use it since i have pv at home.
Why is this article model-specific? It’s not even Tesla-specific but Tesla Model 3. What is different from that to a Model S? Or a Leaf? Or any other EV that one may own?
Answer – there is no difference, but putting “Tesla Model 3” in the title grabs more clicks. I am disappointed in you, IEVs.
Maybe because the video was with a 3?
Write a similar article about Model S, Model X, I-Pace, Leaf, IONIQ, i3 etc please!
Here’s a hint: for any EVs with TMS, the top three hints will look identical. For an EV with insufficient or no thermal management, add one more at the top of the list – keep the battery cool at all costs! (e.g., don’t charge until the battery cools off, don’t drive aggressively if it is getting hot, park in the shade on hot sunny days, etc)
Park in the shade? Lol…the stuff some come up…incredible!
Please explain to me why parking in the shade is so ridiculous if your objective is to keep the battery temperature lower? According to you, the joke’s on me and I’m just missing it.
I don’t know why you’re ridiculing the idea. That advice has long been offered to Leaf owners for hot days, and should be taken whenever possible. Also, it’s better to park where it’s windy, so passive cooling will be faster. But that’s problematic; finding shade to park in is far easier.
Smarter to think ahead and to buy an EV with TMS then look for caves, freeway overpasses, Shady trees to keep your under-engineered EV cool.
Because i have been parking in the SoCal sun for 2 years now with almost 0 range loss on my eGolf that has no TMS…so own experience, let’s call it that. Fact is even if the concrete is hot the car will cool it off fast by shading it. These cars are not that close to the ground anyway, there is plenty of air circulation under the car. It’s simply not hot enough for long enough to do any damage. I guess if we keep repeating this then it will become fact eventually without any data backing it up.
eGolf has air cond cooling and is the only car without liquid cooling that does well in the Phoenix Arizona area so far. We’ll see in the next few years but it’s great compared to the KIA SOUL EV with just fan cooling and all 16 in our area failed ! Same with the LEAF no cooling with batteries that all wilt very fast.
So far only liquid cooling are great with a predicted 20 years life at 80% or better,.
I’m pretty sure at this point that all this range loss is due to charging and not parking. Maybe even regular L2 affects them. Not once did i hear the eGolf running a cooling fan or anything to cool the battery while parked.
I hope they can sell a million of these this year, People will enjoy them for hundreds of thousands of miles and scores of years. I’m still hoping someone can come out with a 120kWh pickup truck for less than 50 grand. I guess the next generations will see those. Hopefully all the manufacturers will have great EV sales.
That’s cool with the Teslas you can set Charge Limits I guess. That makes a 20-80% or 10-90% charging routine a breeze for hundreds and hundreds of thousands of miles of enjoyment.
Yeah, I wish all EVs allowed you to do this. As it is, I have to play games to get my Bolt to stop charging when I want. I set the end timer for a few hours past when I leave so that it’s at 60% when I actually unplug. But that is contingent on a predictable schedule!
Hilltop mode is another good way to adjust the charging on the Bolt EV.
Yes, I was shocked to learn that some other PEVs (Plug-in EVs) — most notably the Leaf — don’t allow the driver to set a charging limit. The Leaf always charges to 100%, which ain’t good for battery life.
If you own a PEV that doesn’t allow you to charge to whatever level you want, then invest in an EVSE that measures the kWh charged and will shut off at a preset level. Even that has its limitations, though, because that means the car can’t draw current from the wall to keep the battery heater running on very cold nights.
Don’t know where you got the info from, but on Leaf you can set the max. charge to 80%, if you set either of the two “timers”. That’s what I do all the time!
Yes on 2012MY and older, you could set the charge at 80% or 100%, but that gave the Leaf bad range number with EPA that didn’t calculate the 100% charge in their number.
Nissan change it from 2013MY and after.
I have the 2012 MY and set it up to 80% and when I need( almost alway nowaday) I just trigger the charging button 1 hour or so before leaving.
Of course you need to have your car close to your living room.
It’s easy for those who do nothing to sit around and throw stones at those who actually do things, and criticize them for not being 100% perfect in every way.
Okay, so some of the info at Battery University is now outdated, and it would be nice if there was a group project to update the info and keep it updated. But until someone actually creates an authoritative website that gathers info similar to what is found at Battery University, it will remain the best source of info on batteries… despite what some do-nothing perfectionist posting to Wikipedia rants about.
P.S. — I’ve consulted Battery University many times, as have many others posting about technical issues for EVs; you can see citations in many EV related forums, including at the Tesla Motors Club forum… and many of those guys really are technical experts on the subject! I have never noticed any attempt to sell a book at the Battery University website, and I rather suspect most others using the site have not either.
“10% to 90% is a good range to keep your battery within”
20%-80% is better, and it used to be the rule of thumb for charging/ discharging li-ion batteries. Of course, you can easily take that too far; 40%-60% would be better still, but then you’d only be able to use 20% of the car’s range!
“Everything in moderation, including moderation.” — Oscar Wilde
I had no idea that charging a battery ‘too slowly’ is harmful for it.
Does this guy have proof, or is he just trying to sound important? It would have to be pretty good proof since I’ve never heard of this being a problem in ANY application, unless he means lack of an equalizing charge occasionally. My Bolt ev and most other large battery ev’s do this automatically once they are basically done charging.
We are learning more about the effect of various charging speed. It turns out that slow charging is just as bad as rapid charging. Hyundai manual says not to charge using 120 Volt too frequently.