ELECTRIC VEHICLE BATTERY LIFE BEST PRACTICES

[jds1972]

Electric Vehicle Battery Life Best Practices

Batteries are the single most expensive part of an electric vehicle. Use these tips to extend the life of your battery as long as possible.

everyamp.com

 

[Deleted member 7316]

Unfortunately the guide is very specific to the Tesla. Nissan for example very specifically recommended to NOT leave the car plugged in every day and only to put it on charge when the battery fell below 80% unless there was a specific journey need. Routinely putting on charge the Mk1 Leaf when above 80% invalidated the battery warranty.

 

[jds1972]

the guide says to charge it to 80% max??

 

[jds1972]

the guide says to charge it to 80% max??

charge it higher if you are going to use it and not leave it at a high state of charge.

 

[jds1972]

 

[Deleted member 7316]

But I can only assume that you can set a maximum charge on the Tesla (80%) so plugging in every day is not going to be a problem. If however the vehicle does not allow you to set a maximum then every day it is plugged in it will only stop charging at 100%

There may have been a maximum on the Leaf when we had it but the manual was nearly 2" thick and I lost the will to live.

 

[jds1972]

The guy that wrote this has a tesla, granted. but this is not specific to Tesla it is however, specific to lithium batteries, nowhere within the article does it tell you to leave your car plugged in night and day. it merely states that if you use, for example 10% battery from 80% down to 70% for example, it is better to charge it every day to re=coup the 10% instead of waiting till it gets to 10% then charging to 80%, this longer charge will create more heat within the battery which in turn effects its SOH. all this is best case scenario and is not necessarily practical, it is just a guide, everybody has different needs and commutes. your battery will be ok if you do differently from this guide, but if you want the longest life possible then it is a good starting point. I only posted it because I have seen so many questions regarding battery health and what was the best way to prolong it.

 

[jds1972]

But I can only assume that you can set a maximum charge on the Tesla (80%) so plugging in every day is not going to be a problem. If however the vehicle does not allow you to set a maximum then every day it is plugged in it will only stop charging at 100%

There may have been a maximum on the Leaf when we had it but the manual was nearly 2" thick and I lost the will to live.

i originally posted this on the ZS EV Forum and it related specifically to a thread regarding an LR ZS EV, it was moved to this area by someone else other than me....

 

[Deleted member 7171]

If however the vehicle does not allow you to set a maximum then every day it is plugged in it will only stop charging at 100%

Not if you have smart charger and schedule a charge for the required length of charge to take the level up to close to 80%. If you know your battery capacity and charger output the maths isn't too difficult. It's the only way I can do it on my Pug as I can't set a limit in the car.

 

[jds1972]

The key takeaways from this guide are quite simple:-

1. lithium batteries are at their happiest when they are somewhere from 40% to 80% state of charge
2. lithium batteries prefer slow charging, so only fast charge when you have to
3. Don't charge to 100% and leave it at 100% for days on end
4. don't deplete your battery to <10% and leave it with out charging for days on end

This doesn't matter whether you are driving a Tesla, MG, Nissan etc it only matters if they are run with Lithium batteries.

the 2 most important points of the 4 are points 3&4 because those are the ones that will do the most damage to a lithium battery, the others will just speed up the inevitable degradation of the battery. particularly point 4, because if a lithium battery falls below the minimum voltage then it can not be recovered (i.e. bricked) 0% on the car is still a few percentage points above this threshold due to the buffer, so don' panic too much if you are at 0% just charge it ASAP

you can use the car as you want to and the batteries will still outlast the car, but to maintain the state of health (SOH) of the battery try and follow the best practice when you can.

Also, this is just a guide for best practice to prolong the life of the battery, reality of real world use is different. just like WLTP range is

 

[Dave]

The key takeaways from this guide are quite simple:-

1. lithium batteries are at their happiest when they are somewhere from 40% to 80% state of charge
2. lithium batteries prefer slow charging, so only fast charge when you have to
3. Don't charge to 100% and leave it at 100% for days on end
4. don't deplete your battery to <10% and leave it with out charging for days on end

This doesn't matter whether you are driving a Tesla, MG, Nissan etc it only matters if they are run with Lithium batteries.

the 2 most important points of the 4 are points 3&4 because those are the ones that will do the most damage to a lithium battery, the others will just speed up the inevitable degradation of the battery. particularly point 4, because if a lithium battery falls below the minimum voltage then it can not be recovered (i.e. bricked) 0% on the car is still a few percentage points above this threshold due to the buffer, so don' panic too much if you are at 0% just charge it ASAP

you can use the car as you want to and the batteries will still outlast the car, but to maintain the state of health (SOH) of the battery try and follow the best practice when you can.

Also, this is just a guide for best practice to prolong the life of the battery, reality of real world use is different. just like WLTP range is

This needs pinning somewhere.