Question for Tesla owners

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CarDoc66

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Apr 17, 2021
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I recently had a Tesla P85 in my shop. The battery range was very low so in anticipation of my customer picking up the car, I used the 120V charge cable and charged it up to 200 miles. I estimate it took about 24 hours to do so.
Unfortunately my customer got sick and was not able to pick up the car for about 10 days. The car sat in our storage garage and it lost 65 miles of range just sitting for a little over a week. Is this normal? I was very surprised, now I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the vehicle.
Should I have left it plugged in while in short term storage? I like to deliver my customers cars back with a full charge, the Nissan Leaf we just fixed didn't lose any charge but it only sat for three days or so. TIA.
 
A couple things could drain the battery - sentry mode and schedules. Sentry mode uses the cameras to monitor its surroundings at all times. If the owner has a schedule set for the car, the car may have been heating the battery and interior all week for trips that never occurred.
 
cpayne5 said:
A couple things could drain the battery - sentry mode and schedules. Sentry mode uses the cameras to monitor its surroundings at all times. If the owner has a schedule set for the car, the car may have been heating the battery and interior all week for trips that never occurred.
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Agree with these comments. The car is probably OK.

When a Tesla is parked at home, all of these features would normally be turned off.

The owner should be able to turn these features off remotely from his phone.

Suggest you plug it in a day before pickup and recharge.
 
Sounds like a reasonable explanation. My customer is not very tech savy and he bought it used. He probably has no idea what the current settings of the vehicle are, let alone using any the apps in the car. I will advise him to look into this.
 
There are a lot of electronic functions going on; the cars do consume energy. Just like most modern cars, only worse. I left our Model 3 at our other home for a week; I left it plugged in to a 110v outlet.
 
I think it's normal, I have heard of Tesla's doing this. Plenty of news articles about people leaving their Tesla's parked for 1 to 2 weeks and finding them dead upon return.
I don't know why they do it.
Probably something simple like the heater could be coming on. Seems like an id-10t error.
 
oil pan 4 said:
I think it's normal, I have heard of Tesla's doing this. Plenty of news articles about people leaving their Tesla's parked for 1 to 2 weeks and finding them dead upon return.
I don't know why they do it.
Probably something simple like the heater could be coming on. Seems like an id-10t error.
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My Model 3 has a cooling function to prevent major overheating of the interior. I suppose that would be useful if it was left parked in the sun but it would also run the battery down. Maybe you can turn it off. It hasn't been an issue so I haven't looked into it.

I believe Tesla recommends you have them plugged in when it's practical.
 
ecotourist said:
My Model 3 has a cooling function to prevent major overheating of the interior. I suppose that would be useful if it was left parked in the sun but it would also run the battery down. Maybe you can turn it off. It hasn't been an issue so I haven't looked into it.

I believe Tesla recommends you have them plugged in when it's practical.
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Oh yeah that's opposite of how the leaf is.
 
I have to wonder how much a week it costs an owner in electricity to keep it plugged in. That amount of loss surprises me.
 
It’s best to leave a Tesla (and many other EVs) plugged in (even to 110/120V) just to keep the battery from being used to provide what’s more or less accessory power. It’s going to be more efficient to use external power than to draw from the battery.

When my parents’ Model 3 is plugged in at home and not charging, the screen indicates inputs as 2V and 0A. But it could just be a rounding error down to 0.
 
The funny thing is that if you want minimal battery degradation on a Tesla, the new data shows that keeping the battery at 45% to 55% for local jaunts and then maximizing the battery charge just before you go on a long trip is the best way to go.

75/25 and 80/20 may yield the most miles. But if longevity. Is your goal and you don't drive it a lot, keeping it at the mid-level before driving is optimal. Even if it eventually goes under 20.
 
macarose said:
The funny thing is that if you want minimal battery degradation on a Tesla, the new data shows that keeping the battery at 45% to 55% for local jaunts and then maximizing the battery charge just before you go on a long trip is the best way to go.

75/25 and 80/20 may yield the most miles. But if longevity. Is your goal and you don't drive it a lot, keeping it at the mid-level before driving is optimal. Even if it eventually goes under 20.
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That might be unworkable. I think most owners might want a little more range in case of emergency. I did hear of one battery researcher who believed that just maxing the battery at 80% would result in a reasonable 20 year battery life.
 
It's got to be sentry mode or the battery temperature maintaining feature. I can leave our car in the garage and not drive it 2-3 days and not lose more than 1%-2%. I also have battery overheat and cold protection shut off. I'm sure if I did the same out somewhere and leave sentry on I'd get a different result. There's no doubt that constantly maintaining battery temperature would make a considerable dent in the battery over time.
 
I’m going with Sentry mode as well. It will use 5-15% per day if left on. I leave it on at the airport if I’m only gone for a day or two but any longer and I’ll shut it off. My experience hasn’t been quite that much battery usage but that’s what I see in articles and in forums.
 
CarDoc66 said:
I recently had a Tesla P85 in my shop. The battery range was very low so in anticipation of my customer picking up the car, I used the 120V charge cable and charged it up to 200 miles. I estimate it took about 24 hours to do so.
Unfortunately my customer got sick and was not able to pick up the car for about 10 days. The car sat in our storage garage and it lost 65 miles of range just sitting for a little over a week. Is this normal? I was very surprised, now I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the vehicle.
Should I have left it plugged in while in short term storage? I like to deliver my customers cars back with a full charge, the Nissan Leaf we just fixed didn't lose any charge but it only sat for three days or so. TIA.
Click to expand...
My detailer says Teslas absolutely drain like a MOFO in his shop if the owner does not turn off the auto HVAC, the sentry mode, all that jazz.
 
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