Vacation Battery Protection

[SaratogaLefty]

Later this summer we will be going on vacation for about two weeks and the car will be staying home in the garage. I'm wondering what the best approach is to protect the battery during this time when the garage may get pretty warm. I'm thinking right before we leave maybe I charge it up to 90% or so and then use the supplied cable to connect it to my 14-50 Nema outlet. Then maybe set the charge level to something like 30%. My thinking is the car will just sit and gradually lose some charge each day until it gets to 30% and then the charger will keep it at that level. Thoughts?

 

[Tesla2.0]

I have same dilemma for 3 weeks. I thought I was going to fast charge at EA to 85%, and let it go idle those time.

 

[MPawelek]

You can store it for free at my place and I will watch it for you.

 

[hydbob]

Probably set it so 50% as suggested in other threads. Might want to test this ahead of time though since that charging bug has presented itself to multiple owners....

 

[SaratogaLefty]

Remind me what the "charging bug" was?

 

[hydbob]

When you set a charging level, say 80%, the car would charge to 80%, but if the charger is left plugged in the car is still "preparing to charge" so the fans are running, it's not going into sleep state, etc. BUT, it doesn't continue to charge to bring you back to 80% and instead just starts draining your battery instead. It appears that once it charged to that level, it was like "I'm good" and just didnt want to charge anymore. Happened to me once but someone on here is experiencing it currently.

 

[milgauss]

If it were me, I would leave it plugged in set to 80% and not worry about it. I don't think 2 or 3 weeks is long enough to do anything special-- or at least I wouldn't have thought to do anything special haha!

 

[Pete44]

If it were me, I would leave it plugged in set to 80% and not worry about it. I don't think 2 or 3 weeks is long enough to do anything special-- or at least I wouldn't have thought to do anything special haha!

My car has been plugged in for about 4 weeks while I’ve been up north. The Lucid service person said I should trickle charge it but when I called customer service they said just leave it plugged in to NEMA 14-50. I’ve noticed the car sleeps just fine. It wakes up when I activate the app and then charges the few miles it takes to get to 80%. My issue will be when I leave it for 6 months in CT.

 

[GEWC]

When you set a charging level, say 80%, the car would charge to 80%, but if the charger is left plugged in the car is still "preparing to charge" so the fans are running, it's not going into sleep state, etc. BUT, it doesn't continue to charge to bring you back to 80% and instead just starts draining your battery instead. It appears that once it charged to that level, it was like "I'm good" and just didnt want to charge anymore. Happened to me once but someone on here is experiencing it currently.

This happens to me quite often, to the point where I now wake up the car an hour before I leave so it will start charging again. I also can't get the Chargepoint app to see my charger, so I don't know if it could be maintained that way.

I plan to just trickle charge it on a regular plug when we are gone for long periods, though I should probably test it out..

 

[hydbob]

This happens to me quite often, to the point where I now wake up the car an hour before I leave so it will start charging again. I also can't get the Chargepoint app to see my charger, so I don't know if it could be maintained that way.

I plan to just trickle charge it on a regular plug when we are gone for long periods, though I should probably test it out..

Have you tried resetting your charger back to factory default? I had that happen once and I had to reset it and then re add it to the app

 

[DeaneG]

...I plan to just trickle charge it on a regular plug when we are gone for long periods, though I should probably test it out..

I can't imagine that a 120V plug provides any benefit over the regular 240C charging connection for storage. The car decides when and how much it will charge to.

BTW "trickle charging" means continuously feeding a small current into a battery that is typically already fully charged. In the old days before smart charging electronics, this was commonly done for lead-acid batteries, which would not be harmed if the trickle charge rate was low enough. This practice will destroy Lithium cells, which is why the car won't allow it.

 

[SaratogaLefty]

I wish the Lucid would allow time of day for charging. That way I could at least set it to not begin charging until midnight and that would keep it from coming on and off continuously and also charge only at the "Off Peak" rate. Hopefully this is a coming change in the future? Maybe it will come with the Lucid Home Charging Station??

 

[Sandvinsd]

I wish the Lucid would allow time of day for charging. That way I could at least set it to not begin charging until midnight and that would keep it from coming on and off continuously and also charge only at the "Off Peak" rate. Hopefully this is a coming change in the future? Maybe it will come with the Lucid Home Charging Station??

I hope to not be forced to buy the home charging station just to have timed charging. I can do it on other chargers, but if the Air is going to be running fans for hours waiting for the charge, I loose all the benefits of charging after midnight.

 

[hydbob]

I wish the Lucid would allow time of day for charging. That way I could at least set it to not begin charging until midnight and that would keep it from coming on and off continuously and also charge only at the "Off Peak" rate. Hopefully this is a coming change in the future? Maybe it will come with the Lucid Home Charging Station??

Supposed to bring in an OTA, and yea it stinks so I just go and plug in before I turn in on nights I need to charge.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

This is why I installed a Wallbox Pulsar Plus EVSE. I can control all aspects of charging from the EVSE regardless of what ever vehicle capabilities. It seems like no vehicle has full exact control either from their app or in car settings.

 

[DeaneG]

This is why I installed a Wallbox Pulsar Plus EVSE. I can control all aspects of charging from the EVSE regardless of what ever vehicle capabilities. It seems like no vehicle has full exact control either from their app or in car settings.

I have a Chargepoint Home Flex that does a nice job of this too, but our Tesla charger can't - only possible by the car. It is common for newly introduced EVs to have charge scheduling enabled by OTA update some months after a car is introduced. I find it more convenient to schedule charging in the "charger" (EVSE) rather than in the car, as I always want to charge immediately when I plug in away from home. It would be great if Lucid added scheduled charging with a checkbox that says "charge immediately when away from home".

 

[GEWC]

I hope to not be forced to buy the home charging station just to have timed charging. I can do it on other chargers, but if the Air is going to be running fans for hours waiting for the charge, I loose all the benefits of charging after midnight.

This is why I got the Chargepoint home charger, since it comes with an app and apparently you can set such things in it, though I don't know since it has never worked for me (though it charges just fine). Since it charges 42 mph back onto the car, I've been charging when I wake up in the morning. It drains whatever is left in my powerwalls (which I'd rather not do overnight anyway in case of an emergency) and it is still off peak hours, so it actually works out quite well.

 

[GEWC]

I can't imagine that a 120V plug provides any benefit over the regular 240C charging connection for storage. The car decides when and how much it will charge to.

BTW "trickle charging" means continuously feeding a small current into a battery that is typically already fully charged. In the old days before smart charging electronics, this was commonly done for lead-acid batteries, which would not be harmed if the trickle charge rate was low enough. This practice will destroy Lithium cells, which is why the car won't allow it.

That's the thing - it doesn't seem to once it has initially done so. It charges fully and goes to sleep, drains while it is plugged in because of the cooling system and then only starts recharging when woken up. I don't know if it was designed this way or is a bug. I've never left it plugged in for longer than 12 hours so I don't know if/when it wakes itself up to recharge. Hence why I think plugging it in a 110 (with slow charging on a partially charged car) would be a better solution since it would take quite a few days to charge this car up on a 110v, especially if there is drain due to a hot garage and by the time it stops hopefully you are closer to the end of your vacation and it doesn't matter. @Bbq9 have you noticed how it behaves on a 110v outlet? Also @borski might have some input on letting it sit plugged in for an extended period.

 

[GEWC]

I have a Chargepoint Home Flex that does a nice job of this too, but our Tesla charger can't - only possible by the car. It is common for newly introduced EVs to have charge scheduling enabled by OTA update some months after a car is introduced. I find it more convenient to schedule charging in the "charger" (EVSE) rather than in the car, as I always want to charge immediately when I plug in away from home. It would be great if Lucid added scheduled charging with a checkbox that says "charge immediately when away from home".

Do you know if you can work the Chargepoint app when you are away from home - especially overseas?

 

[DeaneG]

Do you know if you can work the Chargepoint app when you are away from home - especially overseas?

Yes - the app and charger are both cloud-connected. I turned Wifi off on my phone, so I was just using LTE without access to my home network, and could still use the app to control the charger.