A few little tips and tricks from Mr. Tesla himself.
Just last week, Elon Musk gave some advice to Twitter user Samantha Jensen regarding the user’s Tesla vehicle.
The initial tweet says, “I just bought a standard range plus model 3, and I have been hearing that you should definitely NOT charge your Tesla to 100% every night. Unfortunately, my commute is 80 miles each way, which leaves me little wiggle room for sentry mode/fun driving/errands. Thoughts?”
To which Tesla CEO Elon Musk replies, “It’s not a big deal. Charge to 90% to 95% & you’ll be fine. At 100% state of charge, regen braking doesn’t work, because the battery is full, so the car is less energy efficient.”
It’s not a big deal. Charge to 90% to 95% & you’ll be fine. At 100% state of charge, regen braking doesn’t work, because the battery is full, so car is less energy efficient.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2019
What Musk is talking about is called ‘regenerative braking,’ which is a special technology found in electric cars. Through this technology, the car’s battery can be refilled simply by braking, wherein the braking energy generated is automatically converted into electricity.
This means that even if you charge your electric vehicle to 95%, or even just 90% as Musk claims, it will last just as long on a single charge as a car charged to a full 100%.
In addition to this, continuously charging electric car batteries to 100% can actually degrade the battery, thus harming its overall longevity. Unfortunately, not all electric car owners know or remember that, so a little reminder from time to time never hurts.
