Ideal charge percent to keep the truck at for daily driving?

[Crissa]

I charge mine to 70% and set it to 25a. I set my charge start time to midnight and leave it plugged it. Doesnt get driven much but I like it ready if needed.

All level 2 AC charging will be so low power as to be trickle charging. Unless there's a grid or supply reason, lower the charge rate just means it takes longer, the truck is awake longer, and currently wastes more energy.

Consider this, though....Does anyone charge up to 60-80%, and then just wait until they are down to 20-25% SOC before charging again, even if that might be 3-4 days later?

That's what I do with my Zero. I only charge it when it needs it. Right now it's at 54%, after going to the beach and back. Left enough to evacuate and come back again. I'll charge it tomorrow for Saturday errands and fun ^-^

-Crissa

Sponsored

 

[Jager]

If minimizing battery degradation is the goal, lower SOC is better. Just don't ever let the pack completely discharge (there is a ~4% buffer below zero, just don't depend on that).

Lower temperatures are always better - albeit, efficiency will decline south of about 70f.

Unlike ICE cooling systems, which can rapidly heat or cool a running engine, Tesla's have a relatively inefficient pack cooling system. They both raise and lower temps very slowly. There's a bit of sailing between Scylla and Charybdis with that... you need lots of heat when DC fast charging to avoid any chance of lithium plating; but that excessive heat is then retained for quite some time. And high temps are a terrific accelerant of degradation.

More frequent, shorter, charge sessions are always better than fewer, longer sessions (so keep it plugged in whenever possible).

Charge rate mostly is not an issue with L2 AC charging (so feel free to run as many amps as you have available). But as temperatures approach freezing, any charging becomes a problem, with rapidly increasing risk of lithium plating. Tesla's BMS will mostly protect you from such ill effects. Mostly.

We're still early days with the Cybertruck. A year from now there will be plenty of threads complaining about loss of range.

 

[Woodrick]

Doing top-up charging every night to 60-80%, even after your day's worth of driving might only get you down to 45-60% SOC seems ok I suppose if the objective is to constantly maintain a SOC reserve that you never really dip in to.
Consider this, though....Does anyone charge up to 60-80%, and then just wait until they are down to 20-25% SOC before charging again, even if that might be 3-4 days later?
Has Tesla issued any official guidance that would indicate this is somehow "bad" for the battery, or might reduce its lifespan?

All Tesla has said it daily charging between 50 and 80%. Charging to 100% for trips is okay.

And with the guidance (which used to be 50-90%) the Model 3 batteries are doing great at 200,000 miles, not enough data for 300,000 miles yet.

Tesla doesn't want you to baby the battery. They want you to do what works best for you.
If that's charging to 80% nightly, do it.
If that's not starting to charge until you get to 30%, fine.
If' that's only charging to 50%, fine.

There's no additional information about the Tesla batteries at this time.

Do what works for you. I charged my Model 3 to 90% for 4 years and the battery is still doing great!

 

[Spacenoddle]

i will say it also depends on how fast you can charge it to 100% overnight like in 8 hour whenever you really need for the long trip next day. For 24A 240 v, in 8 hours you can charge 40kwh, so you can keep SOC 70%, for 48A 240V, you can charge 88kwh, so in theory you can only need to keep SOC at 30% if you don't daily drive too much.

Of course, if you are using 15A 120V to charge, you need to keep SOC at 85% which is over the Tesla recommended max, unless you plan to top it at the the supercharger.

* 8 hours is just a data point, you can use any number you feel comfortable here of course.

This is my 2 cents.

 

[Woodrick]

I charge to 60% daily and my drive for the day takes me down to 45 or 50%. I also charge at 24 A and I charge the model Y at 16 A, the higher the amps the more heat on the house wires which is inefficient. Now, if I was driving over 100 miles a day I would probably have it at 48 A.

If there is that much heat, then your wiring is sized incorrectly.

And from an electrical perspective, P=IR. So the same amount of heat (or wasted energy) is going to be loss at higher vs lower currents, since lower currents require longer charging times.

 

[Woodrick]

If minimizing battery degradation is the goal, lower SOC is better. Just don't ever let the pack completely discharge (there is a ~4% buffer below zero, just don't depend on that).

Lower temperatures are always better - albeit, efficiency will decline south of about 70f.

Unlike ICE cooling systems, which can rapidly heat or cool a running engine, Tesla's have a relatively inefficient pack cooling system. They both raise and lower temps very slowly. There's a bit of sailing between Scylla and Charybdis with that... you need lots of heat when DC fast charging to avoid any chance of lithium plating; but that excessive heat is then retained for quite some time. And high temps are a terrific accelerant of degradation.

More frequent, shorter, charge sessions are always better than fewer, longer sessions (so keep it plugged in whenever possible).

Charge rate mostly is not an issue with L2 AC charging (so feel free to run as many amps as you have available). But as temperatures approach freezing, any charging becomes a problem, with rapidly increasing risk of lithium plating. Tesla's BMS will mostly protect you from such ill effects. Mostly.

We're still early days with the Cybertruck. A year from now there will be plenty of threads complaining about loss of range.

Why do you seem to feel that these are the first batteries that Tesla has ever made? We already have a lot of data.

 

[Jager]

Why do you seem to feel that these are the first batteries that Tesla has ever made? We already have a lot of data.

Why, yes we do. There are numerous independent scientific studies of lithium batteries out there. I encourage anyone who is truly interested to do their own research and come to their own conclusions.

 

[M0unt41nm4n]

Why, yes we do. There are numerous independent scientific studies of lithium batteries out there. I encourage anyone who is truly interested to do their own research and come to their own conclusions.

Interesting... so 60-70% seems to be an upper sweet spot for LFM? If thats the case, I am going to lower my daily driver to 65-70%

 

[GatorCyber]

I thought LFP likes 100%, or at least Tesla tells you to charge to 100% once per week.
These charts show otherwise.

It's better to keep your battery as close to 50% as long as possible, but don't obsess over it.

 

[Jager]

Tesla wants you to charge your LFP battery to 100% because their BMS needs that, not because it's good for the battery.

 

[Arctic_White]

Best state for longevity is 50%. Try to keep your average near that (IOW, charge to 60% if you use 20% during the day). I have heard some claims that you should occasionally charge to 80%+ to let the BMS keep track of capacity better but not sure if there is any real data to support that.

I can verify this claim about BMS.

I used to always charge at 90% and had a 600 km range in my Model S. Then the range suddenly started to drop to 590, then to 580. I switched my charging to 70% and miraculously it gave me back the 20 km range that it had lost. This is all verified by TeslaFi.

Nowadays, I just charge it to 75% but I vary it every so often. Sometimes I just do 50%, sometimes to 80%, and on rare occasions to 90%. Zero battery degradation after the initial 1-year mark when most Tesla batteries drop a little bit of range.

 

[Arctic_White]

Why, yes we do. There are numerous independent scientific studies of lithium batteries out there. I encourage anyone who is truly interested to do their own research and come to their own conclusions.

How is this relevant?

10 months of storage?! In a very high temperature?!

Even if we assume the above applies to Tesla batteries, the relative loss is so minor that it's not even worth worrying about. From 0.98 to 0.89 relative capacity loss? How much loss is that in real-world mileage? I bet the tires that you run would cause more of range loss than the battery capacity if you charge up to 50% vs. 80%.

It makes me even more certain to just charge it to 80% daily and not worry about it.

 

[REM]

What is the ideal percent to keep the truck at for daily driving?
I finally got my home charger installed so the range anxiety has been lifted so now for my daily stuff what percent should I am to keep the truck at?
All the while understanding I can charge ho higher for expected longer trips

It will vary depending on your needs, but the most basic thing I can tell you is that you want to keep lithium batteries at 50% SoC as much as feasible.

But when you actually need range, don't be scared to charge it on up. Treat your vehicle like your phone, it's not good to get too low, and not good to keep it fully charged all the time.

 

[thecybertruckguy]

Tesla's battery data suggests keeping the pack at an average charge of 50%. So, if it takes 10% to drive to work, and another 10% to drive home, you should charge to 60%.

This is because SOC that degrades the battery the least over the long-term is 45-50%. Keep your average SOC in that ballpark, and your pack will calendar age similar to a battery in permanent storage at that same SOC.

Here's some better data from TMC: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/8194743/

 

[Woodrick]

Why, yes we do. There are numerous independent scientific studies of lithium batteries out there. I encourage anyone who is truly interested to do their own research and come to their own conclusions.

So look at this closely. Remember, we are only looking at the blue line.
The difference between charging at 50% and 100% is only an additional 3% degradation.

That's less than the wheel covers represent.

But, from data collected on Tesla batteries, we know that the curves are different for Tesla batteries.

Sponsored