By Rich Jordan (President of Tesla Owners Club Connecticut)
Also available on the Tesla Owners CT website....

Congratulations on getting your Tesla and joining the club.  One of the primary missions of the club is to help new owners adjust to and learn the nuances of Tesla ownership.  This is done in part via club meet ups with veteran owners, club emails/newsletters, this website, the tips in this guide and as well as in the Supercharger Traveling guide.  You will find some tips to help you adjust to driving a Tesla here in CT as well as on road trips.  There are tips about winter driving, the affect the cold has on regen and range, braking in the rain, etc.  Also because you will find yourself looking for any excuse to go on a road trip with your car, you will find tips about long distance travel in your car.

1. Old man winter…..”range killer”

If you took delivery of your car during the late Fall/Winter, you are in for a pleasant surprise come Spring/Summer.  However if you took delivery in the Spring/Summer, you are in for a shock come Winter.  The battery packs in our cars like to stay at about 70°‐75°.  For temperatures below that, the car’s BMS (battery management system) will do what it has to, to keep the battery pack warm.  This of course takes energy and this affects your range.  So when it gets down to below 60 degs, you will start to see a significant increase in your energy usage.  Also for obvious reasons if it’s that cold or colder out, you want to stay warm as well, so that is more energy being used.  The point here is don’t fret about the high level of energy being used, it is completely normal.  With the range our cars have and the ever increasing density of the superchargers, you will not run out of battery power.  Conversely, if you took delivery in the Winter, come Spring you will see a significant reduction in energy usage.  BTW AC doesn’t hurt your range as much as heating does.

2. Limited re‐gen in the cold……

When it does get down into the 50’s you may/will see a dotted yellow line on the re‐gen portion of your energy readout.  The reason for this is that the battery is too cold to take the full charge from re‐gen.  As you drive, the battery will heat up and the re‐gen limitation will decrease, eventually disappearing all together.  Now there will also come times where it is so cold, that there may be very little/no re‐gen.  If no re‐gen is available, you will see a warning on the dash telling you as such.  Also when re‐gen is limited, you will find the car coasting more and will require you to utilize the brakes.  So, pay attention to this.

3. “Rust lock”……

Unlike your previous gas car, in your Tesla you will find that you don’t use your brakes that often, but this comes with an unusual side effect and that is “rust lock”.  When you parked your previous gas car and you had been driving in the rain/snow, your brakes would be hot/warm enough to dry off any moisture on the brake rotors.  Well, that doesn’t happen with EVs because the brake rotors are typically cold when you park.  So what will happen is a very thin film/coating of rust forms on the rotors (aka brake discs), but more specific to this “rust lock”, between the brake pads and the rotor.  When you go to move the car after it has been sitting overnight, you are going to feel the brakes binding and when they do let go, you will hear a creaking/bang noise as they break free.  Don’t panic, you didn’t break anything, it’s normal.  What is also normal after this is during the first two brake applications you will hear a grinding noise.  Again, don’t panic, this is that harmless coating of rust being rubbed off by your brake pads.  Another thing that you may experience is while braking in the rain, sometimes it may take more effort than you are used to in your Tesla.  This again is because the brakes are cold so they are completely soaked so the braking distance may be longer.  A way to heat up the brakes is to change the re‐gen setting to “Low” which will require you to use your brakes more.  A few firm brake applications should do the trick to heat up the brakes and you can then switch back to “Standard”.

4. Charging, at home…….

One of the most debated/discussed subjects is how often and to what level one should charge their car to.  Don’t overthink this.  As Tesla has been saying for 9 years now, a plugged in Tesla is a happy Tesla.  Leave the car plugged in whenever you can.  Now, what SOC (state of charge) should you charge to?  Again, don’t over think this. Tesla considers up to 90% SOC as being “Daily” and anything above that is for trips.  If Tesla thought daily charging to 90% was detrimental to the life of the battery, they would have adjusted the “Daily” threshold.  You can leave your car sitting at 90% for hours/days on end.  Any SOC above 90% should only be done when you really need the extra miles.  You don’t want to leave the car sitting at 100% for hours on end.  Lithium‐Ion batteries don’t like a lot of heat and sitting at 100% would be just that.  This is why cell phone batteries don’t last as long as they could.  We plug our phones in at night and they getting fully charged by say 1 am and you don’t unplug it until 7 am.  You may have or will hear people say that you should only charge enough to cover your daily travel needs.  So, on the surface that seems like logical advice to follow, but I take a different approach.  If you get into the habit of only charging to say 60% because that covers your daily needs, what happens when you have an unexpected trip come up……?  To paraphrase an expression, don’t charge yourself into a corner.  Until you get a better feel for your car’s energy usage from your normal travels, charge to 90% and then when you are more comfortable, then lower it if you want.  Tesla recently has updated their charging recommendations with the introduction of Scheduled Departure/Charging.  It is recommended that you use this feature because this way you won’t experience any “vampire drain”(explained below) because your car will finish charging just before you set off for the day.  This also eliminates any re‐gen limitations or at the very least reduce the amount of time any limitations will be in effect because the battery will be heated up from charging process.

4A. Charge level when on vacation……

If you go on vacation, leaving your car at home, be sure to leave the car plugged in at any SOC level between 50 – 90%. It will take care of itself. More details below.

4B. “Seasonal charging”…..

If you chose to routinely charge to anything below 90% (more on this in the “Battery degradation” section) , I suggest practicing what I call “seasonal charging”.  Since our energy usage goes up and range goes down during the winter, during the colder months I change my SOC from 70% to 90% to help mitigate the range loss.

4C. Temperature affects rated miles for a given SOC

You will find that in the winter your stated Rated Miles upon completion of charging will be 1 maybe 2 miles lower than it was during the warmer months.  For example, if in July 80% SOC shows 260 miles, in Jan it may show 258.  File this under normal…..  

5. “Vampire drain”………..

As mentioned before, a plugged in Tesla is a happy Tesla.  With that said, even while plugged in, the car will lose perhaps 1‐2 miles of range over night.  This is normal and it is due to the computers still running in the back ground.  For example, the battery management system is constantly monitoring the temperature of the battery pack and if needed, it will heat/cool itself.  Now what is also normal is should you go away for a few days, the car will continue to lose range until it loses about 5 miles, then it will automatically charge back up.  Now keeping the above in mind, leaving the car unplugged for days on end, like at the airport, you will need to be sure that you have as much range as possible on the battery when you leave the car.  This is especially important during the winter.  You do not want to come back and not have enough range to get home or to a charger.  There is something you can do to mitigate this “vampire drain” when the car is left unattended/unplugged.  Put the car into Energy Save mode, aka “deepsleep” and avoid checking in on the car with your app.  Every time you ping the car via the app. you are waking it up and this takes a bit of energy.  Every little amount can count when leaving a car outside, unplugged, for days on end.  If you do use Energy Save Mode, when you do enter the car, it may take a moment or two for the screens to come alive.  Also keep in mind that if your car has Sentry Mode (cars fitted with 8 cameras) and you have it on, this will use up more energy due to the car constantly monitoring and recording anything that comes near the car.

6. Road trips and charging.

“Prep‐charging”……

If you are going on a road trip and you need more range than what 90% SOC gets you, to reach your destination/a supercharger, then go ahead and charge to 100%.  However be sure to use the Scheduled Charging/Departure feature and schedule the car to finish charging just before you plan on setting off on your trip.

Superchargers……

First some basic supercharger etiquette.  It is ok to keep charging beyond what you may actually need, but don’t do it if you took up the last charging stall.  Put yourself in the shoes of a fellow Tesla traveler needing a charge to continue their trip.  They pull up “running on static” and they find all of the chargers full…. So, please be kind and unplug if you see someone pull up, with no stalls available and you enough to continue your trip…..

Second, try not to pair up with another car.  Using Manchester, CT as an example.  While there are 16 charging stalls, there are actually only 8 chargers and like all supercharger sites, they are numbered/lettered. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc. all the way to 8.  If a car is plugged into 1A, and you plug into 1B, you will be sharing the number 1 charger (large white cabinets) and you won’t get the full charging rate.  The car with the lowest SOC will get the lion’s share of the power.  So ideally, you want to plug into stall #2 or whichever stall number that doesn’t already have a car plugged in.  Should you have to pair up, know that as soon as the other cars leaves your charging rate will relatively speaking, go up.  Also, most but not all superchargers are numbered 1A‐1B, 2A‐2B, etc.  Some locations are numbered 1A, 2A, 3A etc. and then 1B, 2B, 3B.  So, when you pull up to a supercharger site, take note of the numbering and as mentioned above, try not to share the same numbered charging stall as someone else.  Presently Tesla is rolling out the third generation (version) of superchargers and the pairing issue mentioned above will no longer be a concern. “V3 chargers” are identifiable by the thinner cables than most superchargers, also the stalls are numbered different than V2 chargers. For example, an 8 stall V3 supercharger site will be numbered 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 1B, 2B, 3B and 4B.

Charge port open!!???……

Eventually at some point in your travels, when charging at a supercharger, you will get a warning that your charge port is open, even though you just unplugged and closed it.  You will undoubtedly get out and discover that it is indeed open.  Before thinking there is something wrong with the charge port door, look around you.  If you see another Tesla and they just either plugged in or unplugged, then that is the culprit.  All Tesla’s charge port doors seem to be on the same frequency.  So if someone near buy presses the button on the charging cable, your door will pop open.  Annoying, yes, but it doesn’t happen that often, but still worth mentioning.

What’s all that noise!!!…..

When charging during the summer months, particularly after driving on the highway, you are going to hear a loud humming noise coming from the front end of the car and it is completely normal.  What you’re hearing is the battery management system cooling down the battery pack via the fans in the front bumper, spinning at a very high rate of speed.  It will subside as the battery pack cools down a bit.  You may also notice the louvers in the lower corners (2012-2020 MS and MX) of the front bumper open and you can see the radiators.  You will also feel hot air coming from the front wheel wells.  Again, completely normal.  Recently Tesla made some changes to the BMS for the older 85 kWh battery cars and even in cooler/colder temperatures, the fans will come on towards the end of the supercharging and will stay on for up to 5 mins, even after being on your way.

Destination charging……

Many hotels and restaurants have Tesla HPWCs (high power wall connectors) on their property.  These are typically for patrons of the business and they essentially charge as fast as what you get at home, using a 14-50 outlet.  This varies of course depending on how the business owner had it wired up.  While there have been reports of people being able to use these while not being a customer of the business, I wouldn’t count on that in your travel plans.

Slow winter charging…….

There will be times when you plug into a charger, that the charging rate seems rather low.  There are a couple of things that will cause this and that would be a cold battery and/or a cold soaked charger.  In such a case, you will see the charging rate actually go up as both/one of the two gets warmed up via the charging process.  For example you pull in with say 50 miles on the battery and normally in the summer your charging rate would be about 320 MRH (Mile of Range per Hour), but here it is the middle of January and it is only charging at 200 MRH.  As I said, this is caused by either your battery not being fully warmed up or the actual charger (white cabinets) is cold soaked.  You will indeed see your MRH rise as your car charges.

Nav system/route planner…….

Remember this, the charging stops listed in the suggested route are not to be taken for gospel.  The nav system will plot out a route, with the fewest charging stops as possible.  Remember this though, you don’t have to listen to it and many times you won’t anyways.  Using personal experience, here is an example of what I am talking about.  Heading to NC, coming from the Hartford area, the nav system will say that the first stop I will need to make will be at a rest area on the NJ turnpike in Cranbury NJ.  Well, starting off the morning with a cup or two of coffee, I am not making it out of the state without needing to “download” some coffee…., so we stop at the supercharger on the Merritt Pkwy in Greenwich.  Just in the time it takes to use the rest rooms and get back to the car, it typically adds 35‐40 miles to the battery.  What this means is when we do get to Cranbury NJ, we won’t need to charge as long as the nav system originally said we would have to.  Besides, we always plan to have lunch at this stop anyways and the car always ends up having more than enough charge to press on.  So with the current number of chargers, you can plan out charging around your needs for a bathroom break or eating. I call this “opportunistic charging” since the purpose of the stop is for food or a bathroom break, so mind as well plug in and get a charge.

Speaking of pressing on. If using the trip planner, you will get a notification on your phone saying that you are almost done charging to continue your trip.  Well, this too don’t take for gospel.  For whatever reason, the nav sys will sometimes say you are good to go, giving you an estimate arrival SOC of 10%. at your next stop.  Don’t do it!!!  Especially in the winter.  Keep charging until it indicates an estimated arrival SOC of at least 20%.  You never know if you will have to take a detour that will eat up some range.  There will be times when even after using the bathroom or eating that you still have to wait on the car to finish charging.  This is a perfect time to breakout some glass cleaner and start cleaning your windows.  Another good thing to clean, are your headlights and taillights.  Lights are not “lights” if they are covered in dirt/road grime.  This is especially true during the winter due to the salt.  BTW, just a little trick to cleaning your lights if you don’t have any glass cleaner, if available, grab a handful of snow and smear it on the lights.

8. Winter driving……

This applies to rear wheel drive cars.  When driving in/on packed snow, I highly recommend you change your regen level to “Low”.  Re‐gen is akin to putting on the parking brake which you don’t want to do when on slick surfaces.  Your backend will get squirrely and there is nothing you can do about it.  Reducing the re‐gen to Low will help mitigate this effect along with easing off the accelerator more slowly.  With that said, starting with late 2020 cars, Tesla has eliminated the ability to change the regen levels.

If you still have your old ice scrapper/snow brush from your previous car, you can throw it away.  Thanks to ability to pre‐heat the interior via the Tesla app, just simply pre‐heating your car for about 10 mins prior to leaving and all you will need is a squeegee to clear the glass. Not only is this faster than scrapping ice/wiping snow off the windows and roof, but you’re not bringing all that snow that is typically stuck in a brush, into the car.

9. Back up lines…

When you put the car in reverse, you will see the backup lines.  Keep this very important tid bit in mind, particularly when backing up along a curb.  Those lines are NOT the outer edge of the wheels, they are the middle of the wheel.  So take that into account as you near a curb.

10. Parking tips….

To prevent bottoming out your rear diffuser, do the following.  Keep backing up until visually the curb meets up with your bumper and then stop.  This will not only prevent damage to your car but also place you at the perfect distance from a supercharger stall for the cable to easily reach the charge port.  To prevent bottoming out your car’s front end, you need to establish a visual cue that you can use every time.  To do this, pull up to comfortable distance from a curb.  Get out of the car and see how far you are. If you think it’s too far, pull up a touch more.  Once you have establish a comfortable distance, look at the driver’s side mirror and see how the curb lines up with the mirror.  Be it the mirror itself or the mirror attachment arm (chrome part).  From this point forward, use that cue to know that you pulled up far enough/not too far.  If you have someone that can help be a second set of eyes, simply tell them to say “stop” when you are say 6 inches from the curb.  Then look at the driver’s mirror.  For me in my MS, I pull up until the curb appears just under the chrome “arm”.  I am always about 6‐8 inches from the curb.

11. “Something is wrong, my range is going down….” Aka battery degradation.…

If you are new to owning an EV, I am sure like me at first, you are hyper focused on displayed Rated Miles when the car is done charging.  People use the displayed Rated Miles as a way to measure the battery pack’s “health”.  Please keep the following in mind.  The displayed Rated Miles is merely a guesstimate using algorithms based on your driving habits/battery usage.  Over time these algorithms can get wonky and display an inaccurate range.  Here is an example of what I mean.  If you typically charge to say 80% on a daily basis, but only get the battery down to 75% via your daily driving routine, over time the algorithms will start displaying a range based on only 5% of the battery’s usage.  So a way to kind of “reset the clock” is to let the battery run down to 10% and charge it back up to 90‐100% one or two times.  This is called “rebalancing the pack” and should be done at least twice a year.  Think of your battery pack as a rubber band that you only stretch it out to “x” distance on a constant basis.  Over time you forget how far it can actually go unless you stretch (exercise) it out from time to time.  With all this said, it is also normal for the rated miles to go down by a couple/few of miles during the first year or so.  Think of your battery like it is an engine that needs “breaking in” before the amount of oil and gas it uses can be determined.  Just as not all gas engines break in the same way, that can be said about battery packs.

To go along with the above topic, battery degradation is going to happen over time.  How much, how fast and how to mitigate it are the top things people talk about.  Again I am not a battery expert, so all I can do is pass along my experience along with what I have gleamed off others.  The number one killer is constantly fast charging (superchargers) to 100%.  Next down the list is constantly charging to 100% at home and letting the car sit overnight figuratively stewing for hours.  Battery experts say that 70% is the ideal daily SOC for battery pack longevity.  Tesla, as indicated on the charging screen, says up to 90% SOC is considered ok daily charging. Elon had even Tweeted a response to the “70%” rule saying that 80 and even 90% is fine too, that there was no real difference.  Confused yet…..?

Here is my personal experience to perhaps help you settle on a charging routine for yourself.  Presently (Sept. 2021) I have 197,000 miles on my S85.  Over the past 7 1/2 years, I have practiced the “seasonal charging” I mentioned before, charging to 70% during the warmer months and 90% during the cooler/colder months.  I do a lot of running around, routinely getting my battery down to 25‐30%.  Supercharge a few times per month.  Thus far I have experienced about only a 9% total range loss which is equivalent to a loss of 2.5 mpg in the avg ICE car.

12. Measuring range loss….

While we as owners don’t have the ability to tap into our car’s “brain”, the best method we have to measure the range loss is via the displayed rated miles.  Now, as I mentioned previously, temperature affects the total stated miles upon completion of charging.  So with that in mind, if you want to track any range loss, aka battery degradation from year to year, you need to be consistent on when it is you charge to 100%.  So, I only charge to 100% once a year, in August.  Even after getting the “Charging complete” notification, about an hour later the rated miles displayed is 1 mile higher than it was upon completion.  Now there is another way you can see what a 100% will equal via extrapolation.  Charge to 90%, take the number of miles displayed and divide that by .9.  The important thing here is whatever method you use, remain consistent from year to year.13. Rust Prevention Tip..

For Model S owners, one area that you do need to keep an eye on are the posts that the rear hatch struts attach to.  This also applies to the “frunk”.  These posts are made of steel and so is the ball socket on the struts as well.  These will develop rust over time, so periodically spray a lubricant like PB Blaster, into the socket.  The socket is where the post fits into the end of the strut.  Then wipe down the whole post itself, to spread the lubricant.  You can also apply/smear any grease or petroleum jelly on the metal to prevent water touching the metal. Grease/petroleum jelly will last a lot longer than a thin film of spray lubricant.

14. UMC, SC, SC, HPWC, huh!?………..

Now that you have bought a new type of car, with it comes some new terminology.  The following acronyms you will undoubtedly hear other Tesla owners use or perhaps see them on Facebook or online on Tesla forums.  So to help you navigate this new “language”, here are some common acronyms and their meanings:

• UMC – Universal Mobile Connector.  This is the cable that comes with your car.
• SC – Service Center and it also can mean supercharger.  Clearly the context that it used in will determine what the person means.
• HPWC – High Power Wall Connector.  Quite often people incorrectly call this a Tesla charger.  The charger is built into your car.
• FWD – Falcon Wing Doors
  
• AWD – All Wheel Drive or sometimes referred to as a “D” as in dual motor.
  
• Pairing – I mention this above.  This is when you plug into a similarly numbered charging stall at an older second generation supercharger.
  You are then sharing the output of that same charger.
• FUSC – Free Unlimited Supercharging
  
• AP – Autopilot
  
• FSD – Full Self Driving
  
• SOC – State of Charge.  This being the % of charge your battery is at.
• KW – Kilowatt.  This is the amount of electrical power
• KWH – Kilowatt Hour is a measure of electrical usage.
  
• KWH/mi – This is essentially like MPG.  How many kilowatts hours per mile that you are using.

* The tips/advice in this guide are from my personal experience that goes back to March 2014.
It is not endorsed in any way by Tesla