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How to Store an EV for Weeks or Months: 5 OEM Procedures Compared

Last verified September 16, 2026

Re-verification overdueThis guide remains available for context but is not presented as current until it is rechecked.

There is no single long-term-storage charge percentage that applies cleanly to every EV. Current manufacturer instructions differ on target state of charge, whether to stay plugged in, how often to recharge and what temperature or parked-feature precautions matter.

The table below keeps those differences intact. Not established means the reviewed manufacturer source did not answer that field; it does not mean the vehicle has no requirement. Follow the exact owner documentation for the vehicle in front of you before a long period of non-use.

Current verified matrix

Vehicle / source scope	When special storage guidance applies	Traction-battery instruction	Plugged in / charging cadence	Other storage details
Current Tesla Model Y — U.S. owner-manual scope	Long periods / several weeks of non-use.¹	Leave the battery around 50% for long-term storage.¹	Tesla says to keep Model Y plugged in if possible and use charge settings to maintain about 50%.¹	Reduce parked drains such as Sentry Mode, accessory power, climate modes, unplugged preconditioning and Summon standby. Tesla says to avoid ambient temperatures above 140°F or below -22°F for more than 24 hours.¹
2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E — U.S. owner-manual scope	More than 30 days.²	Approximately 50% for either Extended Range NCM or Standard Range LFP battery variants.²	The reviewed storage section recommends plugging in at temperatures just above freezing or lower; a separate universal leave-plugged-in storage rule is not established in this row.²	Ford says storage from 32°F to 113°F is most beneficial to the high-voltage battery.²
2026 Nissan LEAF — U.S. owner-manual scope	`Extended period of time`; the reviewed text does not define that phrase with a fixed day count.³	Fixed storage SOC target not established in the reviewed passage. Avoid leaving the vehicle for more than 14 days with the battery at zero or near zero.³	Charge the Li-ion battery once every three months during extended non-use.³	Park/store in a cool location away from direct sunlight and heat sources; avoid storage below -13°F for more than seven days. Nissan also recommends leaving the cable connected when remote climate operation is drawing battery power outside a charge schedule.³
2025 Kia U.S. SG2KV owner-manual scope — Niro EV platform	`Extended period of time`; no exact day threshold stated on the reviewed page.⁴⁵	If charge is insufficient before storage, Kia says to charge the vehicle to full capacity and store it. The page separately recommends a 100% charge from below 20% once a month or more for battery condition; it does not establish one universal storage percentage.⁴	Charge the high-voltage battery once every three months during extended non-use; AC charging is recommended.⁴	Plugged-in storage state and low-voltage-tender procedure are not established in the reviewed page.⁴
Rivian — current U.S. long-term winter-storage guidance	Long-term winter storage; this row is intentionally seasonal rather than a universal all-season owner-manual rule.⁶	If the vehicle cannot remain plugged in, Rivian says to aim for 50–70% and avoid 0%/100% extremes.⁶	Rivian says best practice in this winter-storage case is to keep the vehicle plugged in so its energy-management system can maintain a stable temperature.⁶	Rivian identifies NCA chemistry in all Gen 1 vehicles plus Gen 2 Large/Max and LFP in Gen 2 Standard. The source itself directs owners to the Owner's Guide for comprehensive cold-weather advice.⁶

Why the usual `store it at 50%` advice is incomplete

For the current Model Y and 2025 Mustang Mach-E, approximately 50% is directly supported by the reviewed manufacturer instructions.¹² Rivian gives a 50–70% range when a vehicle cannot remain plugged in during winter storage.⁶

Nissan and Kia illustrate the problem with turning that into a universal rule. The reviewed 2026 LEAF manual gives a three-month charging cadence, near-zero limit and temperature guidance without specifying a fixed storage SOC.³ Kia's 2025 SG2KV page also uses a three-month cadence and a conditional full-charge instruction rather than a blanket 50% storage target.⁴

The useful answer is therefore the manufacturer procedure for the exact vehicle/source scope, not a cross-brand average.

Tesla: parked features can matter as much as the starting percentage

Tesla says an unplugged Model Y can lose roughly 1% of battery charge per day, though the rate varies with environmental conditions, configuration and settings.¹ It specifically identifies Sentry Mode, accessory power, Powershare, climate modes, unplugged preconditioning, Summon standby and infotainment as parked energy consumers.¹

That makes the storage procedure more than a starting-SOC decision: the vehicle's software/settings can materially change how quickly the stored charge is consumed.

Nissan: cadence and avoiding near-zero charge are the explicit rules

The 2026 LEAF manual says not to leave the vehicle for more than 14 days where the available battery charge reaches zero or near zero, and says to recharge the battery once every three months during extended non-use.³

Because that same passage does not specify store at 50%, this reference does not invent a target percentage for the LEAF row.

Kia: a conditional full-charge instruction is not a universal 100% storage target

Kia's 2025 U.S. SG2KV manual says to charge the high-voltage battery once every three months during extended non-use and, if the battery charge is insufficient, immediately charge it to full capacity before storage.⁴

That condition matters. It should not be rewritten as always store the vehicle at 100%, just as the page's separate below-20% battery-care recommendation should not be converted into a universal storage target.

What is not in the first matrix

General Motors and Hyundai are priority expansion targets. During this verification pass, useful indexed material surfaced, but At The Charger did not reproduce an exact current U.S. model/year storage procedure with strong enough first-party identity and scope to add a public row without weakening the source standard.

The omission is deliberate. A missing row is better than borrowing a storage percentage from another model, model year, market or dealer-hosted copy.

What this reference will track as it expands

Future rows should preserve the same fields:

exact model year, battery/configuration and U.S. source scope;
duration threshold for special storage handling;
manufacturer-stated storage SOC or charge-limit instruction;
plugged-in state and recharge/check cadence;
low-voltage battery/tender/disconnect treatment;
key/app/telemetry/Sentry/always-on-feature guidance where stated;
temperature/environment limits;
seasonal or software qualifiers;
source version and verification date.

Model-specific search variants should improve this one reference rather than become separate <model> long term storage pages.

Use the EV maintenance-schedule reference for normal service intervals. The low-voltage battery/dead-vehicle reference, once published, should be used for recovery after the auxiliary system is already discharged rather than for planning extended parking.

Sources

Model Y Owner's Manual — High Voltage Battery Information — Tesla, verified Sept. 15, 2026. https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modely/en_us/GUID-7FE78D73-0A17-47C4-B21B-54F641FFAEF4.html — Current U.S. Model Y guidance for long-term ~50% storage, plugged-in state, parked energy consumption and temperature limits. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
2025 Mustang Mach-E Owner's Manual — Preserving Your High Voltage Battery — Ford Motor Company, verified Sept. 15, 2026. https://www.fordservicecontent.com/Ford_Content/vdirsnet/OwnerManual/Home/Content?ProcUid=G2369940&Uid=G2369939&buildType=web&countryCode=USA&div=f&languageCode=EN&userMarket=USA&vFilteringEnabled=True&variantid=10234 — Defines >30-day storage, approximately 50% for NCM/LFP and storage-temperature guidance. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
2026 Nissan LEAF Owner's Manual — Nissan North America, verified Sept. 15, 2026. https://www.nissanusa.com/content/dam/Nissan/us/manuals-and-guides/leaf/2026/2026-nissan-leaf-owner-manual.pdf — OEM PDF visually checked at the relevant storage/charging pages; documents three-month charging cadence, near-zero/time and temperature constraints, and remote-climate cable guidance. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
2025 U.S. SG2KV Owner's Manual — High voltage (HV) battery (lithium-ion) — Kia, verified Sept. 15, 2026. https://ownersmanual.kia.com/full_webhelp/SG2KV/2025/en_US/topics/chapter1_2_1.html — Documents three-month extended-non-use charging, conditional full-charge-before-storage language, AC preference and below-20% battery-care guidance. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Kia America — Vehicle Feature Tips — Kia America, verified Sept. 15, 2026. https://owners.kia.com/us/en/vehicle-feature-tips.html — Confirms Kia America's current 2025 Niro EV owner-resource cohort; storage procedure claims come from R004. ↩
A Guide to Winter Performance — Rivian, published Feb. 19, 2026; verified Sept. 15, 2026. https://rivian.com/stories/software-update-winter-performance-2026 — Provides current Rivian long-term winter storage guidance: plugged in when possible, otherwise 50–70%, plus battery-chemistry context. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

Current verified matrix

Why the usual store it at 50% advice is incomplete