Originally published on EV Obsession.
Owing to the fact that the new Tesla Model S 60 and 60D actually feature 75 kilowatt-hour battery packs, rather than 60 kilowatt-hour ones, they can be regularly charged to 100% without any harm being done to the long-term performance of the battery-pack — going by various comments made by Tesla reps in recent days.
I’ve heard a fair amount of speculation on this matter (since the new Model S was announced) — particularly with the news that the model would actually feature a software-limited 75 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery pack hitting the internet shortly after the announcement of the model.
Since the battery pack would be software limited to a 60 kWh capacity, the most likely means of doing so for the company would be simply to stop the car from charging fully. If the car is never being charged fully because of that, you can essentially charge it “fully” all you want without causing notable degradation.
A recent post on the Tesla Motors Club forum by “MountainRoad” seems to confirm this:
I asked the product specialist at my Tesla SC today whether the new 60 and 60D could be charged daily to 100% without harming the battery pack’s long-term performance.
She said that because there is actually a 75 kWh battery pack in the new 60 and 60D, there is no harm in charging to 100% (of the software-limited capacity, which is just 80% of the real 75 kWh battery capacity) in contrast to the previous recommendation that owners of models with 85 kWh limit the number of times they charge their cars to 100% capacity.
Has anyone else been able to confirm this?
This question is particularly significant to me as I am deciding between purchasing a used 2015 70D or a new 60D. I would rarely charge the used 70D past 80-90% if that is the recommended usage, so a 60D charged to 100% daily could provide me the same (or better?) range day-to-day. Am I missing something?
It should be remembered here that, when Tesla was still offering the Model S 40, it actually featured a 60 kWh battery pack — one that was software limited to a 40 kWh capacity, as the unconfirmed reports above claim about the new Model S 60. So, this all seems fairly likely to be accurate.
Image by vectoropenstock.com for EV Obsession & CleanTechnica.
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