[dangrossman]

What part is "not really true"? Despite only writing three sentences, I touched on every factor you just mentioned. The Tesla charger and battery system keep the battery within the safe charge and temperature ranges at all times, even when supercharging. It has active heating and cooling, even when the car is turned off, and will neither fully discharge nor fully charge the battery pack even if left unattended. There's nothing inherently damaging about temporarily charging faster AFAIK as long as you control for all those variables, which Tesla's tech does.

[greeneggs]

It must damage the battery somehow. If it didn't, Tesla would have said so in the FAQ, instead of trying to sidestep the question.

[warble]

Truth is, the type of use these batteries get isn't well understood yet. No one really knows the long term effects, we can make educated guesses but until a lot of them are in the field with average use cases for years, we won't see much of the nuance.

[warble]

Sorry, I was referring specifically to your statement: "the only thing that counts down the lifetime of the battery cells are actual charge cycles"

[mikeash]

That was immediately preceded with the qualifier, "So long as it's kept within certain charge and temperature ranges...."

[warble]

Which are two of the very many variables. His point that a certain number of cycles is consistent is not correct, it's affected by drive and charge style, and a lot of variable inherent in the design of the system.