By Karan Singh
Tesla’s battery health and longevity have recently been revealed to be quite good as shown in their latest Impact Report. However, on rare occasions, you may still encounter problems or degradation, and it is worth knowing how to self-diagnose potential issues without needing to reach out to Tesla Service, at least as a first step.
Tesla offers two ways to test your vehicle’s battery health. One is a quick self-test that highlights any issues, while the other one takes much longer, but offers a detailed view of your battery’s health.
Battery Health Check in the Tesla App
You can open up your Tesla app and go to the ‘Service’ section on the main screen.
You can then tap “Request Service”, choose “Battery & Charging”, and finally “Range”. If you’re prompted to pick a service center, go ahead and pick any service center first. You’ll then be asked to describe the concern. You can type in “range” or any other text and then tap Next at the bottom.
Keep in mind this is an automated solution and your request won’t actually go to a service center when you tap Next.
The app will perform a quick self-diagnosis to see if your battery is within the normal range of degradation. This is a quick self-test and just lets you know that you’re well within Tesla’s expected battery degradation levels.
Thorough Battery Health Test in Service Mode
If you want a more detailed analysis, you can open Service Mode using our instructions. Navigate to the High Voltage menu and then tap on ‘Health Test’ in the ‘HV Battery’ section.
The battery health test in Service Mode is more in-depth and can take up to 24 hours – or more – depending on your charging setup. You’ll need to be plugged in – and not at a Supercharger.
The slower your means of charging, the longer the test will take. However, expect it to take at least 12 hours at minimum, and more than 48 hours if you’re charging a Long-Range vehicle at a lower amperage.
How the Service Mode Battery Health Test Works
The best time to run the Service Mode test is when your battery is closer to empty, rather than full – otherwise the car will need to spend time wasting energy to drain the battery.
Once it reaches a low enough state of charge, the car will then charge up to 100%. Once that completes, go back to the High Voltage section in Service Mode and the vehicle will display a Battery Health percentage.
According to Tesla, Tesla batteries degrade about 15% after 200k miles (321k km) on average. Much of the degradation is front-loaded, meaning that degradation happens faster when the vehicle is newer and the degradation then tapers off.
Note that running the battery health test should be used sparingly and mostly only if you suspect there may be an issue with your battery. By running the test you’re increasing the number of charge cycles on your battery and thus causing some additional degradation. One time won’t hurt it, but doing it often would not only degrade your battery but also increase your electric bill.
Compare to Others
Below is a chart Tesla shared on the Model 3 and Model Y’s battery retention. It can be used to compare your results to Tesla’s findings.
Tesla recommends keeping the state of charge of your battery between 40%-80%, depending on the vehicle. Vehicles with LFP batteries are recommended to be charged to 100%.
By Karan Singh
Tesla has recently changed the language in its Foundation-series Cybertruck configuration and order invites and is reaching out to customers who have ordered the Tactical Gray Interior or Core Wheels.
Non-Foundation Delays
Tesla has added the following language to its order invites: “Due to continued high demand, we expect to deliver only the Foundation Series through late 2024.”
We previously reported that the foundation-series was ending soon, based on the Q&A answers from Elon Musk at the Tesla’s Shareholder Meeting. However, this no longer appears to be the case, and it seems the Foundation series is continuing for at least another quarter, into late 2024.
Here is the Cybertruck’s new Tactical Grey interior color.
Source: pic.twitter.com/qE0QCDqOjJ
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 30, 2024
Tactical Gray Interior Sees Limited Release
Tactical Gray, the updated darker interior for the Cybertruck, as well as the Core wheels, have been delayed. Limited vehicles with Tactical Gray started going out to customers this weekend, but the Core wheels haven’t been shipped just yet.
The default wheels, as well as the Core wheels, are both 20”, but the Core wheels offer lower rolling resistance and slightly more range. The Core wheels also have a smaller aero cover, but we haven’t seen these on a customer truck just yet.
Tesla has begun to reach out to customers offering them a free upgrade to the default wheels and offering them a vehicle sooner if they switch to the white interior instead of the Tactical Gray interior. Customers have also been informed that there may be a delay in receiving their vehicles if they stay with Tactical Gray or with the Core wheels.
link