Tesla’s battery health and longevity have recently been revealed to be quite good as shown in their latest Impact Report. However, on rare occasions, you may still encounter problems or degradation, and it is worth knowing how to self-diagnose potential issues without needing to reach out to Tesla Service, at least as a first step.
Tesla offers two ways to test your vehicle’s battery health. One is a quick self-test that highlights any issues, while the other one takes much longer, but offers a detailed view of your battery’s health.
Battery Health Check in the Tesla App
Battery health check in the Tesla app
Not a Tesla App
You can open up your Tesla app and go to the ‘Service’ section on the main screen.
You can then tap “Request Service”, choose “Battery & Charging”, and finally “Range”. If you’re prompted to pick a service center, go ahead and pick any service center first. You’ll then be asked to describe the concern. You can type in “range” or any other text and then tap Next at the bottom.
Keep in mind this is an automated solution and your request won’t actually go to a service center when you tap Next.
The app will perform a quick self-diagnosis to see if your battery is within the normal range of degradation. This is a quick self-test and just lets you know that you’re well within Tesla’s expected battery degradation levels.
Thorough Battery Health Test in Service Mode
If you want a more detailed analysis, you can open Service Mode using our instructions. Navigate to the High Voltage menu and then tap on ‘Health Test’ in the ‘HV Battery’ section.
The battery health test in Service Mode is more in-depth and can take up to 24 hours – or more – depending on your charging setup. You’ll need to be plugged in – and not at a Supercharger.
The slower your means of charging, the longer the test will take. However, expect it to take at least 12 hours at minimum, and more than 48 hours if you’re charging a Long-Range vehicle at a lower amperage.
How the Service Mode Battery Health Test Works
The best time to run the Service Mode test is when your battery is closer to empty, rather than full – otherwise the car will need to spend time wasting energy to drain the battery.
Once it reaches a low enough state of charge, the car will then charge up to 100%. Once that completes, go back to the High Voltage section in Service Mode and the vehicle will display a Battery Health percentage.
According to Tesla, Tesla batteries degrade about 15% after 200k miles (321k km) on average. Much of the degradation is front-loaded, meaning that degradation happens faster when the vehicle is newer and the degradation then tapers off.
Note that running the battery health test should be used sparingly and mostly only if you suspect there may be an issue with your battery. By running the test you’re increasing the number of charge cycles on your battery and thus causing some additional degradation. One time won’t hurt it, but doing it often would not only degrade your battery but also increase your electric bill.
Compare to Others
Average battery retention per Tesla
Not a Tesla App
Below is a chart Tesla shared on the Model 3 and Model Y’s battery retention. It can be used to compare your results to Tesla’s findings.
Tesla recommends keeping the state of charge of your battery between 40%-80%, depending on the vehicle. Vehicles with LFP batteries are recommended to be charged to 100%.
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In last year’s holiday update, Tesla introduced the much-needed Dashcam Viewer in the Tesla app. The feature allows owners to view Dashcam and Sentry Mode footage directly from the Tesla app, eliminating the need to review videos in your vehicle. Unfortunately, the feature was limited to iPhone users, but Tesla is now changing that.
With Tesla app update 4.43.5, Tesla is officially launching the Dashcam Viewer on Android devices.
Dashcam Viewer
The Dashcam Viewer makes it easy to access and manage your car’s Dashcam and Sentry Mode videos. Accessing videos on your phone is faster and more convenient, but it does come with a few requirements.
The Dashcam Viewer in the Tesla app allows you to view, delete, or save video clips right from your device. This should result in higher quality content being shared online and fewer videos of owners recording their Tesla’s screens with their phones.
How It Works
Dashcam footage remains stored locally on your vehicle’s connected USB drive, so Tesla isn’t streaming videos to your phone from the cloud. Instead, the videos are streamed directly from your vehicle to your phone—similar to how Actually Smart Summon delivers a live feed to your phone.
Because of this, your vehicle must be connected to cellular data or Wi-Fi for the Dashcam Viewer to work. Unfortunately, this may limit access for owners who park in underground or large parking garages where connectivity is poor.
How to Access the Dashcam Viewer
To view Dashcam and Sentry Mode footage in the Tesla app:
Navigate to Security & Drivers > Dashcam Viewer.
Wait a few moments for your phone to connect to the vehicle.
From there, you’ll be able to view, save, or delete clips right from your device.
Requirements
To use Tesla’s Dashcam Viewer, you’ll need a vehicle with MCU 2 (Intel) or higher. All models are supported except for the legacy Model S and Model X (2020 and older). However, we expect support to be added in the near future.
The legacy Model S and Model X are expected to receive support for Actually Smart Summon, which requires the ability for those vehicles to stream video to the Tesla app — the same capability the Dashcam Viewer needs. Once Actually Smart Summon is added to the legacy Model S/X, we expect those vehicles to also receive the Dashcam Viewer at the same time or shortly afterward.
Tesla has imposed some viewing limits to prevent high data usage. The viewing limits apply to streaming video from the Dashcam Viewer or viewing live video from the vehicle’s cameras. Tesla will limit video streaming from the vehicle to 15 minutes or 1 hour, depending on your region.
Android Support
Tesla typically releases support for newer features to iPhone users since they make up the majority of users. Recently, Tesla has added more features to Android. In January, Tesla added support for ultra-wideband to Android, which added support for the improved phone key and the hands-free trunk and frunk feature.
Did you know the Cybertruck’s air suspension automatically levels the truck, even while it’s asleep? This is a great feature, especially for camping or off-road adventures. However, it can be an issue when lifting a wheel to change a tire.
Fortunately, there’s a solution: Jack Mode.
Jack Mode
Jack Mode is made for jacking up the truck and prevents the Cybertruck from self-leveling.
To enable Jack Mode, you’ll first need to set the Ride Height to Medium from Controls > Dynamics > Ride Height. You can also set it from the Tesla app by navigating to the Controls section and sliding up until you see Ride Height. This will give you enough clearance for most jacks to get under the truck and lift it.
You can also activate Jack Mode in Low or High, but Tesla recommends a Medium ride height for best control of the vehicle and sufficient tire clearance to safely remove and reinstall the tire. However, once the vehicle is in Jack Mode, the Ride Height cannot be changed.
Next up, go to Controls > Service > Jack Mode to enable Jack Mode. The vehicle will warn you that Jack Mode is enabled and can either be disabled by pressing the button again or by putting the vehicle into drive.
For the duration that Jack Mode is active, it is safe to lift your Cybertruck, even on one side only. It will not self-level for the duration that Jack Mode is enabled.
Automatic Jack Mode
Jack Mode can also activate automatically to protect the suspension from potential damage. For example, if the vehicle’s bumper is resting on a curb, Jack Mode may engage on its own.
Once the obstacle is cleared, or if you shift into Drive or Reverse, Jack Mode will automatically be disabled.
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