Electric vehicles (EVs) can be an efficient way to save energy, yet still cause range anxiety for their owners. Luckily, there are various tips and tricks to ensure your Tesla remains in top shape.
Before driving in cold weather, it’s essential to preheat your car before driving to reduce energy consumption and enhance regenerative braking capacity.
1. Keep Your Battery Charged
An electric vehicle’s range is determined by how much energy can be stored in its battery. Therefore, it is vital to understand how driving habits and environmental conditions may influence its range so you can make necessary adjustments to maximize its efficiency and performance.
Your Tesla lithium-ion batteries are highly durable and should last a long time, yet it is important to remember they do gradually degrade over time due to each charge establishing an electrical potential between its anode and cathode that wears away ions that separate them, ultimately decreasing battery capacity over time.
Charge your battery whenever it begins to decline to slow this effect and ensure enough capacity remains for your next trip. This will also prevent premature depletion.
Keep your Tesla’s battery in top shape by using its regenerative braking feature frequently, which will restore some of the energy lost while accelerating and add miles to its range.
Other simple strategies for conserving energy include not floored the gas pedal and avoiding sudden acceleration changes. Furthermore, when embarking on long distance drives it is wise to plan and determine where you will stop along your route to ensure enough capacity is available for your journey.
Finally, it is recommended to charge your Tesla every three months at full capacity in order to maintain peak battery capacity and prevent it from overworking any of its internal systems.
Keep in mind that leaving your Tesla in extreme temperatures could drain even more energy to keep its battery warm, draining more power in order to do so. Parking it away from direct sunlight may help ensure optimal battery temperature levels.
2. Avoid High Speed Driving
As an EV driver, battery range is undoubtedly a key aspect of your driving experience. But did you know that optimizing its performance with some simple changes can increase performance of your Tesla?
Driving at high speeds uses more energy, which is why it is crucial to limit unnecessary acceleration and keep any acceleration to a moderate pace for optimal fuel economy. Be sure to utilize regenerative braking to slow your vehicle and feed any extra power back to the battery; additionally be aware of any environmental factors which could impede your range, such as cold weather or driving uphill.
Use of the Energy app on your Tesla is an effective way of understanding how your driving and environmental habits impact its battery range. The app shows how much energy was consumed while driving and parking your car and also offers suggestions on how you could better utilize energy consumption. You can access this feature from its menu on the touchscreen screen.
Acceleration Boost upgrades may be beneficial to drivers who frequently drive on highways. It’s important to keep in mind, though, that rapid acceleration may drain your battery faster and lead to premature tire wear – two negative impacts that are not counted when Autopilot is engaged.
Avoiding extra cargo in your car can also help conserve energy and extend its range by decreasing energy requirements to move it.
If you need to transport extra cargo, make use of your trunk space by using it for extra items. By keeping items to a minimum in your trunk space, this will reduce weight weighing down on its center of gravity and therefore requiring less energy for operation.
3. Keep Your Battery Cool
The Tesla Model S offers many impressive features, from its stunning acceleration to futuristic self-driving technology and lithium-ion battery technology that saves owners thousands each year on gas fill-up costs. Perhaps its greatest asset, however, lies within this car itself – with unparalleled acceleration and futuristic self-driving abilities being among them. But perhaps its most noteworthy benefit lies within this battery that saves Tesla owners thousands annually over filling up with gasoline.
But batteries do have their limitations; one of the biggest hurdles lies in keeping your Tesla battery cool as overheating can quickly cause permanent damage to it.
There are a number of effective tricks available to keep your Tesla battery cool and maximize its performance. Simply easing up on accelerator and brake pedal usage will extend battery life; driving in Eco mode or Chill Mode will limit how much energy is expended during your drive; turning off air conditioning can further keep your battery cool and lengthen its lifespan.
One key tip for Tesla owners is to avoid leaving it with low battery levels for too long, since even sitting still will drain 1% from its capacity. Be sure to Supercharge at least every 2-3 days so as to maintain both health and range.
If your Tesla comes equipped with climate control features, take note that its “precondition” setting can help warm up its battery before driving to prevent overheating and energy wastage. Furthermore, setting its regenerative braking to “Standard” maximizes what energy comes back while accelerating and braking.
Keep in mind that your Tesla’s estimated range will change over time. This is normal and depends on factors like how often and frequently you drive your car, Supercharging status, mileage driven and battery age.
While this change may concern some, remember that your Tesla’s battery was designed with longevity in mind and making any necessary modifications can make a noticeable impactful statement about you and your lifestyle. Following these simple tips can ensure maximum use from your Tesla battery!
4. Keep Your Battery Warm
Contrary to popular belief, keeping your Tesla’s battery warm can actually improve its performance. This strategy is especially useful during cold weather months when drag decreases and heat retention improves, meaning more available energy for you when needed. A few easy strategies include turning off features like Sentry Mode or using seat heaters only when necessary (but never constantly), disabling air conditioning altogether and driving slower.
Lithium-ion batteries are particularly sensitive to temperature, and extreme fluctuations can damage them irreparably. To protect these batteries from harm, the best strategy is keeping their temperature consistent as often as possible and charging 80% or 90% every so often to maintain health and maximize capacity.
It is also recommended to park your Tesla in the shade whenever possible and avoid parking it directly under direct sunlight, which will help it cool faster while also minimizing power loss while it sits idle. Finally, it would be prudent not to frequently open your Tesla app while your car is parked as this could wake it up and use energy just monitoring its status.
Use the Tesla energy app to keep an eye on your battery’s performance and ensure its optimal health. It provides various data points that provide insight into your driving habits and how they influence range, while it can even predict range needs based on current weather and road conditions – making planning trips simpler while guaranteeing enough juice for each leg of the journey.
Setting your departure time using the Tesla app so your battery is fully charged when you are ready to depart can ensure you use minimal battery energy for regenerative braking, saving both money and resources by charging at off-peak hours with more affordable electricity rates.