How much range is lost on a parked Tesla Model 3 in 63 days?
Cars
Published on August 16, 2019 |
by Guest Contributor
16. August 2019 by Guest Contributor
By Srini Vennam
How long can you go on a vacation before the Model 3 battery is completely drained?
Image Credit: Tesla
I was planning a long vacation for a couple of months, so I scoured the internet for alternatives so that Model 3 would not die on me while away on a 63 day vacation to India. Many said it would last for 30 days, but my vacation was much longer and I wouldn't risk coming home to a dead car. My friends were happy to help, but I wanted to see if I could find a solution and not bother any of them.
My search led me to a few options to mitigate the risk:
- Park at the airport and keep it connected. It's an interesting solution, but would I find a charging point? How soon should I reserve the place? Would the airport facilities leave me connected for so long?
- Ask a friend to drop me off and leave the car connected at home. Only one problem, and one big problem: I live in an apartment with no room to plug in (I usually charge at the mini Supercharger in Plano).
- Keep your car at home and take an Uber or Lift to the airport. This scenario has the same problem as above.
Then it hit me. What if I find a storage place that people usually use to store boxes or furniture and keep my car there. I started calling storage places and to my surprise it is not a storage place where you can connect to your car.
Finally, here's the plan I came up with that would work:
I left the car parked in my friend's garage and didn't plug it in. He was also on vacation for two months, so it wasn't a problem for him either. I had another friend who was willing to stop by to plug the car in, if needed. I gave him my key card and "Pin to Drive" in case he felt like taking it for a spin.
To my surprise, the car is a beast and barely ticks electrons when sitting idle.
I parked my car in my friend's garage with a range of 299 miles on June 3rd. When I returned, I picked up my car and found that it still had 199 miles of range left. It only used 100 miles of battery in 63 days!
My dear friends, based on this evidence, I believe the Long Range Model 3 can easily run for 6 months without recharging. [ Editor's Note: If you use some features via the Tesla app or check it frequently through the app, you can drain the battery faster. For best results to minimize vampire drainage, it is generally advisable to turn off as many connected features as possible and check in on the car as little as possible. ]
While in India, a big fan of Tesla, I opened the Tesla app to give demos to friends and family about 10 times. I had some really interesting conversations during the demos that I might share later if there is interest. Model 3 min was not charged for the full 63 days. No external OTA updates were performed. It's an LR model 3, but this experiment clearly shows that a Standard Range + will be enough if someone has the fear of parking their car for a long duration.
My dear friends, put all your worries to rest and enjoy your time away while on vacation. Tesla has his back.
If Tesla's stained-glass team and Tesla solar team can work together to integrate solar energy into the roof of the car to add 2 to 3 miles of charge per day, the car would actually add range when I'm back from vacation. You can park your car outdoors and still have more charge. I know Elon doesn't think it's worth it, maybe he'll consider again in the future.
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