Lifestyle
Top 5 Tips to Maintaining EV Battery Life
Electric vehicles are a joy to own but this new technology using advanced Lithium-ion battery packs requires a different type of maintenance than your traditional gasoline engine.
We countdown the top 5 maintenance steps that can be taken to extend the life of your EV battery.
5. Don’t leave your battery sit at a 100% state of charge
Most EVs have an option for a “Standard” charge or a “Range” or “Max” charge. By all means, do the maximum charge when you need it, but do it right before you start using the battery for the trip. Most EVs have charge timers to help you plan for this. If your EV doesn’t have that, do an overnight standard charge and then charge the last 10-20% in the AM before departure. Leaving a battery pack at max charge for even relatively short periods of time can possibly affect its life. As a rule of thumb, try to never let your battery sit at maximum state of charge for longer than 8 hours.
While you may be able to time your max charge and departure times well, daily charging to 100% is stressful to your battery. This is why most vendors offer “standard” or “normal” charge levels which wont help you achieve the maximum EPA range rated for your vehicle. If you don’t need the max charge, then don’t use it. Generally lithium-ion batteries do best when they operate in the 30% to 90% range for state of charge. Although a bit extreme, prolonging the time spent above or below that range theoretically may lead to a shorter pack life
Tesla Model S TIP: For overnight charging that requires a 100% MAX charge (ie prior to a Tesla road trip), set your “start charge time” to a time that will result in a full charge roughly 60 minutes before your departure.
4. Avoid deep discharging of the battery pack
Conversely, leaving your battery in a discharged state for an extended period may also impact its life. Most vendors protect batteries from becoming completely discharged as that can effectively “brick” the battery and leave it completely useless. The general rule of thumb is to plug in and charge whenever you can. That doesn’t mean going out of your way for a few kW of charge, but it does mean plugging your car in nightly and maintaining a reasonable charge level. What is a low state of charge? Under 30% charge is generally considered low and thus you should not let your EV sit at that low state of charge for an extended period.
MUST SEE: Decoding Your Tesla Battery Pack Version
Also beware that EVs consume power even when not being driven. With the Model S, it loses about 1% of its charge per day.
3. Be mindful of extreme temperature conditions
This is less applicable to the Tesla Model S which has its own built in thermal management system that pre-conditions the battery (ie. warms the pack when too cold and vice versa), but the general rule of thumb for batteries of Lithium-ion composition is to keep the battery pack between 20F – 85F.
Heat is the enemy of Lithium-ion and may increase battery degradation when consistently exposed to high temperatures. This phenomenon was enough to motivate Nissan to produce a “hot climate battery” for their LEAF after owners within hotter climates complained of battery loss.
Conversely, extreme cold weather can impact performance for a battery of lithium-ion chemistry while lowering the discharge capacity.
2. Plan ahead for extended storage
If you’re going away on vacation or for a business trip the best thing for your car is to set the charge level to 50% and leave it plugged in. If you’re leaving your EV at the airport or somewhere where you can’t leave it plugged in beware that you’re going to lose some charge per day. Charge to a level where you can get to the airport, let it sit for the trip and then still have enough charge with buffer to get home. Don’t let it sit unplugged at an airport for days on end at a 90% charge state if possible. Still, leaving it at 90% is better for the battery (and you) than leaving it at 10% and coming back to find the battery completely discharged.
1. Periodically fully charge and “balance” your battery
Lithium-ion batteries are designed to minimize the “memory” issues often found in older battery technologies, however the battery packs in EVs are more complex and often comprised of multiple individual batteries packed together into removable modules. There’s as many as 7,000 individual cells in the Model S.
Battery balancing is about maximizing your battery’s capacity and evening out the charge distribution. Modern EV battery packs include an automatic battery balancing component, but there’s steps that you can take to help the process along.
While you may never need the maximum range that your battery can provide and you may never take long trips, a periodic range or max charge is helpful to your battery’s management system. I’d suggest doing this about once every 3 months or so and keep in mind that after you fully charge you should not let it sit, that would be a violation of battery management rule #5.
Disclaimer: We’re dealing with expensive components. Read the manual for your EV, search your EV forums, develop your own rules, be consistent, but adjust as needed. The rules above are general rules for any EV that may help extend the life and health of your battery. Your own mileage (range!) may vary.
Elon Musk
Trump’s invite for Elon just reshuffled Tesla’s big Signature Delivery Event
Tesla rescheduled its final Model S farewell to May 20 after Musk joined Trump in China.
Tesla has rescheduled its Model S and Model X Signature Edition delivery event to Wednesday, May 20, 2026, after abruptly calling off the original May 12 celebration. The event will take place at Tesla’s factory at 45500 Fremont Boulevard in Fremont, California, the same location where the Model S first rolled off the line in 2012. Invitees received a follow-up email asking them to reconfirm attendance and download a new QR code ticket, with Tesla noting that all travel and accommodation expenses remain the buyer’s responsibility.
The reason behind the original cancellation came into focus the same day it was announced. President Trump invited Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, and executives from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Citigroup, and Meta to join his trip to China this week for a summit with President Xi Jinping. The agenda covers trade, artificial intelligence, export controls, Taiwan, and the Iran war, following weeks of escalating friction between Washington and Beijing over AI technology, sanctions, and rare earth exports. Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I am very much looking forward to my trip to China, an amazing Country, with a Leader, President Xi, respected by all.”
Tesla launches 200mph Model S “Gold” Signature in invite-only purchase
The vehicles at the center of all this are the last Model S and Model X units Tesla will ever build. Priced at $159,420 each, the 250 Model S and 100 Model X Signature Edition units come finished in Garnet Red with a one-year no-resale agreement, giving Tesla right of first refusal if the owner decides to sell. As Teslarati reported, the Model S defined Tesla’s early identity as a serious luxury automaker, and the Fremont factory line that built it is now being converted to manufacture Optimus humanoid robots.
Musk’s inclusion in the China delegation drew attention given his very public relationship with Trump, and the invitation signals the two have moved past and past grievances. Trump originally brought Musk on to lead the Department of Government Efficiency following his inauguration, and despite a sharp public dispute in mid-2025, the two have appeared together repeatedly in recent months. A seat on the China trip, the most diplomatically consequential visit of Trump’s current term, puts Musk back at the table on U.S. economic policy at a moment when Tesla’s China revenue remains one of the company’s most important financial pillars.
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
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