Why Is My Tesla Battery Draining Fast While Driving? Solutions And Preventions

When Tesla owners experience faster battery drain during driving, they may think they need battery replacement. Luckily, this problem may not be this much expensive and can be solved with simple tips.

But, what are the reasons for Tesla battery draining fast while driving? Normally, inappropriate tire pressure, charging habits, and driving habits can cause this issue. Alongside, extreme temperature, lowered windows, and software issues can also be responsible equally.

You need to solve all these underlying issues to stop the rapid battery drain. Tag along with us to know more about these aspects.

Tesla Battery Draining Fast While Driving: Causes And Solutions

Generally, upon a single charge, your Tesla car should last up to 267-405 miles before dying. If it doesn’t, then here are some responsible underlying issues:

No.	Reasons	Solutions
1.	Software issues	Maintain up-to-date software updates
2.	Driving habit	Avoid high-speed, short-trip, overloaded driving
3.	Rolled down window	Raise all the windows up
4.	Hot or cold temperatures	Precondition your vehicle before starting
5.	Tire pressure	Check and adjust all the tire pressure
6.	Charging habit	Charge the battery up to the recommended level

Let’s know in detail about these reasons and solutions:

1. Software Issues

Occasionally, software bugs or glitches can impact your car’s battery performance. This may occur due to not keeping the software updated. Besides, not rebooting the car’s computer after the update may restrict the update enforcement.

Solution

Follow these steps to fix this issue:

• Step 1: Open the software tab on the car’s touchscreen to check whether any updates are available or not.
• Step 2: Generally, the updates will be downloaded automatically. After downloading, you can find a clock sign on the top side of the screen.
• Step 3: Click on the clock sign and choose the “install now” option. You can’t install the update while driving.
• Step 4: To reboot, press down the buttons of the scroll wheel while you are pressing down the brake pedal.

2. Driving Habit

 When you drive at a higher speed, your car’s battery will drain faster than at a lower speed. This generally occurs due to increased air resistance losses due to speeding up.

Moreover, the energy requirements are higher while driving downhill or with a higher load, thus the battery will discharge faster. Also, every time you start your car, it will consume energy to heat the battery and cabin. That’s why frequent short trips may cause higher energy consumption.

Solutions

In this case, you can follow these ways:

• Avoid frequent short trips.
• While loading the vehicle never exceeds the cargo load capacity.
• Avoid faster acceleration and drive at moderate speed.
• Faster battery discharge is normal while going uphill. However, the discharge will be lower during downhill driving due to regenerative braking.

Can you charge your Tesla while driving? Read our detailed guide on whether it’s dangerous to drive a Tesla over charging cables. Learn more about the risks involved and how to prevent them.

3. Rolled Down Window

When you keep the windows down in your car, it increases wind resistance drag. This additional wind resistance drag makes a bigger difference in range on electric vehicles.

Generally, keeping the window ⅓ down may increase the energy consumption by 9.7%.

Solution

While driving, you need to make sure to pull up the window completely. For this, locate the window switch and pull the switch up to its limit. Then release the switch immediately.

4. Hot Or Cold Temperature

Normally, Tesla batteries perform effectively within the 20°C-25°C temperature range. At higher temperatures, the internal resistance of the battery may increase causing lower energy efficiency.

Also, the battery cooling and air conditioning system of your vehicle may increase energy consumption. Which will eventually cause a higher rate of battery drain during driving.

Also, during cold, your car’s battery will require higher energy consumption to reach the working temperature.

Solution

You need to pre-condition your Tesla before starting the car. In this case, the battery will consume heat from the charging source.  Follow these steps:

• Step 1: Open your Tesla App and find a “climate” option.
• Step 2: After going to the “climate” option, click on the “turn on” option.

5. Tire Pressure

Proper tire pressure and balance are critical for your EV as it will reduce the rolling resistance.  The lower the rolling resistance, the lower the electric consumption in your car will be.

Normally, with the reduced tire pressure, electric consumption will also increase. As a result, you may notice rapid battery drain during driving.

Solution

Generally, tire pressure tends to decrease during winter. However, you need to follow these steps, to fix the inappropriate pressure issue:

• Step 1: Check the label for accurate tire pressure on the driver’s center door pillar.
• Step 2: Detach the valve pressure cap on the tire.
• Step 3: Measure the tire pressure by pressing a pressure gauge onto that valve.
• Step 4: You may need to remove or add air into the tire up to the recommended level.

6. Charging Habit

When the battery charge remains below 20% for a longer period, battery performance will decrease gradually. Also, charging the battery up to 100% can cause the breakdown of battery composition.

Due to this degradation, your Tesla battery will lose its capability to sustain the charge.

Solution

You need to follow an appropriate charging routine:

• Step 1: When you notice that the battery icon becomes yellow, try to charge the battery shortly.
• Step 2: While charging, open the Tesla app to go to the charging screen.
• Step 3: There will be a slider icon that you need to drag to set the recommended charging limit. Generally, the recommended charging limit falls around 80%-90%.

Prevention Of Fast Battery Draining During Driving Tesla

To prevent fast battery drainage during driving, you can follow these tips:

• You can activate an energy-saving mood to restrict unnecessary energy consumption.
• Keep the smart preconditioning turned off when not necessary.
• Use factory-size tires and ensure proper tire balance and inflation. You can also use aero covers on wheels to reduce wind resistance.
• As the auto climate control drains the battery faster, you can use a seat heater instead.
• Use a supercharger only in an emergency, and normally use a low-voltage charger.
• Close all third-party apps after using.
• Keep smart features like sentry mood, and smart summon mood off when not necessary.
• Optimize the use of gaming and sound systems while driving.

You can check this YouTube video to get more tips in this regard:

FAQs

In this FAQs section, we will answer several common questions about the fast battery draining of Tesla while driving.

Conclusion

Normally, the Tesla battery performance depends highly on the driving, terrain, and weather conditions. Also, not giving importance to software updates and tire pressure can lead you to this issue. Thus, when encountering this issue, you must fix these underlying aspects.

However, to deter this issue of Tesla battery draining fast while driving, maintain the tire pressure accurately. You can also enable energy-saving mode and turn off unnecessary apps while driving. Following these steps may save you from costly battery replacement.