Parked drain

Fixing phantom drain

A parked Tesla is never completely off. It keeps its systems ready, looks after its battery and answers your phone. Tesla says that typically costs around one per cent of charge a day, and that some features cost more. Here is what to check, in a sensible order, and how to tell whether a change helped.

By DashM8 · Published 7 October 2026

First, measure it

Phantom drain is the energy a car loses while it is parked and not charging. To measure it, compare the battery level at two moments with no driving and no charging in between, and divide by the hours. Over a few hours the result is mostly noise, because the percentage on screen is rounded and moves with temperature, so measure across a full night or longer.

The car helps: the Energy app's Park view shows the energy used while parked since the last drive or charge, with Tesla's suggestions for reducing it.

Write down the time, the battery percentage and the outside temperature at both ends. Tesla's figure of around one per cent a day is a useful line between normal and worth a look; it is not a target, and a cold night or an active Sentry Mode can legitimately cost more.

What uses energy while parked

According to Tesla's owner's manual and support pages:

Sentry Mode, which keeps the cameras and the car's computer running; Tesla says it may increase power consumption.
Cabin Overheat Protection, which can run for up to 12 hours after you leave and uses battery energy that may reduce range.
Keep Climate On, Pet Mode and Camp Mode, which run the climate system in Park.
Keep Accessory Power On, Summon standby, and preconditioning while unplugged.
The battery looking after itself: the car manages battery temperature even when parked, and from time to time runs system checks and tops up its 12 V battery.
Requests from the Tesla app and from third-party apps.

What to change, in order

One step at a time, so you know which one helped:

Sentry Mode first. Turn it off where you do not need it, or set it to switch off automatically at Home, Work and Favourites.
Then Cabin Overheat Protection and any climate mode left on. In mild weather you may not need them at all.
Then the apps. In the Tesla app, open your profile, then Security & Privacy, then Third-Party Apps, and look at what has access. An app that polls the car can keep it awake; an app built on Fleet Telemetry has no way to wake it. Our guide on whether apps wake cars explains the difference.
Low Power Mode when you will be away for a while. Tesla says it turns off Sentry Mode, Keep Accessory Power On, Summon standby, climate modes, Cabin Overheat Protection and preconditioning; its threshold can be set between 10% and 20%.
Keep the car plugged in when you can. Tesla's manual recommends it, and says a plugged-in car draws mostly from the charger rather than the battery, although it may still draw slowly from the battery over several days.

Did it work?

Change one thing at a time and compare like with like: nights with similar temperatures, the same parking spot, the same settings except the one you changed. Cold alone raises parked use, because the car manages its battery temperature even when parked, so a cold night after a change can hide an improvement.

If the loss stays high with Sentry Mode, climate modes and apps all ruled out, the settings are probably not the answer. Take your notes, the dates, the percentages and the temperatures, to Tesla service; a measured pattern is far easier to act on than a feeling that the battery goes down overnight.

How DashM8 measures it

DashM8 counts drain only across consecutive readings where the car was parked and not charging, so a short drive or a top-up never shows up as drain. Each stretch reports how many readings it rests on and a confidence level, and the per-day figure is scaled from those parked hours. A stretch with too few readings is marked low confidence rather than presented as fact.

The stream goes quiet while the car sleeps, so a long stretch with few readings is normal. It usually means the car was asleep, which is exactly what you want.

You will find the figure on each car's Home and Battery screens, and the period report under Reports adds the parked drain for whatever dates you choose, which is the easiest way to compare the week before a change with the week after it.

Sources

Every source below was checked on 7 October 2026. Prices, tariffs and Tesla's pages change; check the source before you rely on a figure.

Tesla Model 3 Owner's Manual: Getting Maximum Range
Tesla Support: Range
Tesla Model Y Owner's Manual: Sentry Mode
Tesla: Model 3 Owner's Manual (PDF)
Tesla Support: Access for Third-Party Apps