What to do with your Tesla when going on vacation or storing it for longer periods of time

July 12, 2021

By Nuno Cristovao

We’ve covered how much to charge your Tesla for everyday use, but when going on vacation or planning to store an electric car we have just a little extra planning to do.

Always keep your Tesla plugged in when going on vacation

The most crucial part of a Tesla is the battery. One advantage Tesla has over the competition is their excellent battery regulation. Batteries in a Tesla last longer when compared to the competition due to Tesla’s excellent battery monitoring.

There are four major contributors that lead to lithium-ion battery degradation, which we would like to minimize. The first two we don’t have much control over, which are the age of the battery and the number of charge cycles (the number of times the battery has been charged and discharged).

However, the last two, we do have control over. Lithium-ion batteries don’t like to remain in a very high, or very low state of charge. That doesn’t mean we should never charge to 100% or use it down to 5%, but it’d be wise to minimize those occurrences. The last thing is the temperature of the battery. For the most part, Tesla handles this automatically. The batteries are heated and cooled to stay in a healthy temperature range without you ever knowing, even if the car is off. The car will also limit power when driving if necessary.

If you’re going on vacation and leaving your car at home or at the airport here are some things to consider.

If you can leave your car plugged in while at home or the airport

If you can leave your car charging, then absolutely do this, this will make things much easier and let the car control everything itself without you ever having to worry about it
Lithium-ion batteries are best stored at around 50% of charge, so set your charge level in the Tesla app or the car to 50%. The car will automatically use some energy when needed to cool or heat the battery, and it’ll get this power directly from the power source instead of Tesla’s batteries.
Keep the car in a garage or under a cover if possible, this will help keep your car away from extreme elements such as snow, ice and heat. In general, this is just good practice.

If you can not leave your car plugged in at home or the airport

If you can not leave your car plugged in while going on vacation there are several more things we need to account for to prevent any possible issues longer term.
If the weather is extreme, whether it’s extremely cold or hot and you can not park in an isolated area and are going away for more than two weeks, then you may want to consider a different mode of transportation. If the car battery is drained completely, it could lead to battery damage since the car can no longer keep the batteries at an ideal temperature and it’ll no longer be able to protect itself from harsh weather.
If you're going to be gone more than a few days, try to have your car charged to 90% as it will consume some energy as it's parked. If you're only leaving for a day or two, then a 70 - 80% charge should be more than fine.
Since your car will be unplugged and unable to charge, you can help preserve the battery by turning off Sentry Mode if it won’t be needed as this consumes quite a bit of energy.
You will also want to turn off Stand By Mode in the Autopilot menu. Standy By Mode keeps your car's computer on so that you have instant access to features such as Summon. However, it does use additional energy.
To further preserve the car's battery, you can turn off Cabin overheat protection, which is used to keep the cabin from overheating. The car attempts to keep the cabin below 105°F.
Keep the car away from harsh weather, if it's winter then keeping it in a parking garage and away from wind will help. If it's the dead of summer, then also try to keep it under a covered area in the shade if possible.
If you’d like to check in on your car, it will need to have a good cellular connection.
Before leaving, confirm that the car has a good connection so that you can check on the battery level if needed. However, do not open up the Tesla app often, as doing so will wake up the car and keep it awake for about 15 minutes, consuming more energy. Only check on the car if you absolutely need to.

Keep in mind the amount of charge you’ll need in your car when heading back home or reaching your first charging destination. If you’re leaving your car plugged in, then you can expect the car to remain at the same charge percentage if there are no power outages. However, if the car is not plugged in, it may have a significantly less charge when you return.

As you can tell, it will be much easier and safer if you’re able to leave your car plugged in while going on vacation, especially if it’s for an extended period of time.

If you plan to store your Tesla for longer periods of time, you should find a place to keep your Tesla plugged in and follow the “if you can leave your car plugged in” tips above.

Tesla Builds Cybertruck Tunnel While Production Lines Pause [VIDEO]

December 9, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Tesla previously told its employees on the Cybertruck production line that work would be halted for three business days and that they would not be required to show up to Giga Texas for any other work. Work was halted on the Cybertruck line from December 3rd until December 6th.

Many speculated that Tesla had hit a demand mark with the Cybertruck or run into other production-related difficulties. However, pausing production for such a short period is a fairly normal business operation, as Tesla continuously retools and upgrades its production lines.

Halts for business demand tend to look more similar to Ford’s F-150 Lightning production halt - where they halted production from November 18, 2024, until January 6, 2025. Ford also announced that this production halt was due to reduced demand for its electric truck in the face of stiffer competition.

Cybertunnel

In this case, part of the reason for the halt could potentially have been due to upgrades to the underground tunnel that is used to move Cybertrucks fresh from the production line to the holding lot at Giga Texas. Tesla has been working on improving the production flow rate for its vehicle - and rather than encountering issues with production, they’ve previously mentioned they’ve had issues with getting vehicles out of their outbound parking lots and off their assembly lines - and into customers’ hands fast enough.

The Cybertunnel moves trucks from inside Giga Texas to the holding lot just outside the factory. At that holding lot, they’re either loaded into trains or trucks to be transported across North America. The tunnel passes underneath Texas Highway 130, helping to ensure that Tesla isn’t clogging up traffic crossing the highway with brand-new trucks.

More Shut Downs?

It’s likely we’ll see even more shutdowns at Giga Texas in the coming months. Tesla has shown that it intends to continue increasing production rates at Giga Texas, which means it will need time to upgrade its assembly lines and processes. In addition, the Model Y is also produced at Giga Texas—and once the Model Y Juniper arrives, there will need to be shutdowns to accommodate re-tooling.

So, no need to stress - it's just regular operations. And we get to see a cool Cyber-themed tunnel too. In the meantime, check out Joe Tegtmeyer’s drone video of Giga Texas below.

Giga Texas on this cold 6 December 2024 morning! Big news with the @boringcompany paving & tunnel covering structure on W side, new mystery construction on W side of GA, continued work on SW corner for tunnel alternate exit & production of both @cybertruck & Model Y today,… pic.twitter.com/94a894ix1I
— Joe Tegtmeyer 🚀 🤠🛸😎 (@JoeTegtmeyer) December 6, 2024

Tesla to Introduce New Parking Options for FSD: Garages, Driveways, Parking Spots, and Pulling Over

December 8, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Tesla’s FSD V13 introduced a host of new features, including the ability to Unpark itself, travel in reverse, and Park at its destination. While FSD can now navigate itself out of a parking spot or garage, there are limited options when arriving at your destination, but that’s about to change.

Garage Support

Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI, confirmed on X that a future revision of FSD V13 will introduce a variety of parking options, including parking in garages, driveways, parking spots, or simply pulling over on the side of the road. Drivers will presumably be able to pick when choosing a location, or maybe the vehicle will offer suggestions based on the location.

This will be a big addition, as today, FSD doesn’t understand how to park in a garage or driveway. Some owners trick FSD into parking in their driveway by using tape or road paint to outline parking spots.

Soon, that may not be necessary, and instead, FSD will simply back itself into your garage. This feature will probably work best in larger garages—extremely tight garages may not work, given the reduced precision of vision at extremely close distances.

We hope that if Tesla introduces this feature, they’ll sell printable guides you can stick on the garage walls or floor to help ensure your vehicle is in the perfect spot every time. Many commenters mentioned that they park in urban/suburban garages with only inches to spare around their vehicles, so this will be an interesting challenge for Tesla to address.

Parking Garages

Parking garages offer their own unique problem set. For the most part, FSD can already navigate its way out of a parking garage, assuming that there aren’t any special gates or sequenced/signaled signage.

It is also able to find a parking spot in multi-level garages and navigate its way out. More support for multi-level parking garages is coming, as FSD seems to stick to the garage walls until it can find the exit itself. It seems that Tesla’s data gathering and vehicle-to-fleet communication could aid Tesla in figuring out parking garages in terms of knowing the entrances and exits.

FSD 13.2 enters a parking garage. I then park it on the second floor and it escapes the parking garage. I then park it on the snow covered roof and... pic.twitter.com/GxfsldfkUz
— Dirty Tesla (@DirtyTesLa) December 4, 2024

Other Destination Options

In the Upcoming Improvements section of FSD V13, Tesla mentions that more destination options will be supported, including pulling over (at the side of the road) and parking in a spot, driveway, or garage.

These other destination options are going to be important soon - because one of the biggest FSD features we’re all still waiting for is Banish AutoPark. Once your vehicle can pull over at the entrance of a location and then go park itself, we’re going to be super close to Unsupervised FSD becoming a reality.