Repeat fast charging in a day bad?

[Sillibilli]

We are going on our first long trip tomorrow and will need to charge car 2x enroute, without stopping for long (300kW chargers) I've heard this can be bad for the battery. Is this true for a newish MG ZS model 2023? I was going to charge it to 100% or near on on our trip. Most of the time we slow charge overnight. Should we just charge to 80% both times tomorrow?

 

[Robf]

If using rapid chargers (e.g. 300kW although I think ZS can only take circa 50kW regardless of supply), charge to 80%

 

[fred12345]

We are going on our first long trip tomorrow and will need to charge car 2x enroute, without stopping for long (300kw chargers) I've heard this can be bad for the battery. Is this true for a newish MG ZS model 2023? I was going to charge it to 100% or near on on our trip. Most of the time we slow charge overnight. Should we just charge to 80% both times tomorrow?

I haven't done long drive with ZS yet but from what I gather, the car will charge fast(ish) up to 80% and then slow down so not much point hanging around for extra 20% unless you really need it to reach the next stop. 100% on slow charger is not a problem and should be done when needed and from time to time anyway. And when you are travelling, you don't really have a choice ... I would not worry about it, 80% if you can and 100% if you have to ... enjoy your trip!

 

[decrep]

As I understand it, 100% is bad if left that way for a longish time. Not a problem on a trip, when you'll be using it in the very near future.

 

[Gadget Geek]

Watch Bjorn Nyland do his 1,000km chalenges on YouTube. He charges enough to get to his next charger for the quickest and most efficient journey.

 

[decrep]

that's good if you're sure the next charger is actually working.
I'd want to charge enough to get to the one after the next.

 

[Sillibilli]

Great. Thank you for this advice. I think 2x 80% charges will get us there fine. Will watch that YouTuber

that's good if you're sure the next charger is actually working.
I'd want to charge enough to get to the one after the next.

Good point. Will check this as we go

 

[hmadsen]

On Tesla forums they regularly talk about only going 10-60 as the charge amps drops.

In 10 years time i bet the chargers will be so plentiful and closer to the motorways that it is going to be faster to just go to 60%

OR....The batteries have gotten so much better at being charged fast and have much more capacity.

Here the charger network is so good that the 10-60 charging is actually viable, the only reason we usually charge to 80% on longer trips is because we stop to do other stuff while the car chargers (Eat or like this summer....There were an outlet sale.....Car ended up at 96% before the wife and kids finally came back..PS. There were never a time where there were not atleast 5 chargers available so we did not block the charger)

 

[Sillibilli]

Outside of the main cities here in NZ, charging stations are few and far between. Often have to wait in line especially on weekends. We now have a stink right leaning government that has slapped EVs with big road user fees and not investing in the charger network sufficiently

 

[decrep]

hopefully that won't see the next election make that happen here.

 

[BrianG]

We are going on our first long trip tomorrow and will need to charge car 2x enroute, without stopping for long (300kW chargers) I've heard this can be bad for the battery. Is this true for a newish MG ZS model 2023? I was going to charge it to 100% or near on on our trip. Most of the time we slow charge overnight. Should we just charge to 80% both times tomorrow?

Interesting that I am a UK ZS owner in NZ responding to a NZ owner in NZ!

The car will be just fine and depending on the charger and the state of charge the rate of charge will vary. Ideally you want to recharge when the state of charge falls to 15-20%. At that point you have the fastest rate of charge and depending on whether you have a long range 70 or standard range 51kWh battery the charge rate will be about 60-70 kW up to 55% state of charge when it will start to fall back to 50 kW and at 80% drop below 30 kW. The bigger battery will charge slightly more quickly. There is no point hanging around once the SOC reaches 80-85% unless you can squeeze enough power into the battery to complete the journey. Best to free up the charger for the next car and move on. Your speed and whether you have a following wind will affect the range. Often it can save time to drop your speed to about 95 kph/ 65mph because you gain a few percent in efficiency and save time charging. The temperature of the battery affects the speed of charge but as it is summer here you shouldn't have sluggish charging caused by a cold battery. The beauty of EVs for long journeys is that the cabin is quiet (unless you have squabbling kids) and you arrive relaxed.

 

[hmadsen]

The car will be just fine and depending on the charger and the state of charge the rate of charge will vary. Ideally you want to recharge when the state of charge falls to 15-20%... If doing a trip, do you really need to go charge when it hits 15-20% ?

I know that, unless they changed the software since 2022, the car will "scream" at you if you go below 20% but is it really a problem?

I was told, the battery does not like being charged above 80% and discharged under 10%, but just like, it not being a big problem to charge to 100% if you need the range and you schedule the car to be at 100% at about the time of departure it's not a huge deal, and the same should be true for the lower end, where it's not a problem that the battery is below 10% if you plan on charging it "at once"

When we go on holiday in our Tesla, we always aim to arrive at a SuC with 5% or less, because the charging speed from 0-20% is the fastest, so essentially, if I can use 15% more (start charge at 5% instead of 20%) it takes very little estra time, while 15% gives me another ~30-40 miles.

Might not seem like a lot of extra range, but if you need to charge multiple times over a longer journey these 30-40 extra miles very quickly add up to, maybe even 1 less charge stop.

So in short, I was under the impression that going above 80% and below 10% is not a problem, as long as you dont let the car sit with that high or low SoT, but either use it "instantly" if above 80% and "refill" it as soon as it hits 5% for example.

 

[fred12345]

When we go on holiday in our Tesla, we always aim to arrive at a SuC with 5% or less, because the fastest charging speed is from 0-20%

That assumes that there is a decent charging network along your route so that you can reach another charger if the first one is not working ... Minimum I ever allow to myself is 20%

 

[hmadsen]

That assumes that there is a decent charging network along your route so that you can reach another charger if the first one is not working ... Minimum I ever allow to myself is 20%

I guess this is different from country to country, I would argue, in Denmark there is not any place where you are more than 30 kilometers from a Supercharger.

When we drove to Italy last year for a summer holiday, we did more than once choose to bypass the suggested Tesla Supercharger, that the car suggested, because we could see there were one that was also reachable with the remaining SoC. 2 times we did this to get to a Tesla V3 charger, instead of the suggested V2 charger. (V2 chargers are "only" 150kW, but 2 are linked so if someone is at "the other" charger, you only get 75kW, whereas the V3 chargers are all 250kW independent of other chargers).

I know, compared to the ZS EV, this is a bit "spoiled" behaviour

I have more than once arrived home with only 2% SoC and the wife even once was to drive the car to a supercharger, but because she is a doofus accidentally turned onto the motorway, she did 12 miles in the Tesla from 1% SoC, when she arrived I think she said it had -1% on the screen. (You will never guess who was the only person NOT to be blamed for her mistake )

 

[Coulomb]

That assumes that there is a decent charging network along your route...

It also assumes that the range remaining estimate is solid. In my Nissan Leaf after the first two years of a warranty refurbished battery, it was common for the Guess-o-meter to drop 10km in one km of driving. For some reason , I never found out if that happened in the last 20km or not. MGs are nowhere near that bad, but my impression is that Teslas are very good at estimating range remaining compared to most other EVs.

So I'd be reluctant to push the limits in a non-Tesla, especially somewhere that the network isn't brilliant. In Australia, that's anywhere outside of about 6 capital cities.

The early Nissan Leafs like my 2012 model used the LMO chemistry, with no nickel or cobalt. This chemistry was quite poor for longevity, especially in hot climates, such as where I live. Thankfully, that problem does not exist with modern EVs.

 

[hmadsen]

It also assumes that the range remaining estimate is solid. In my Nissan Leaf after the first two years of a warranty refurbished battery, it was common for the Guess-o-meter to drop 10km in one km of driving. For some reason , I never found out if that happened in the last 20km or not. MGs are nowhere near that bad, but my impression is that Teslas are very good at estimating range remaining compared to most other EVs.

So I'd be reluctant to push the limits in a non-Tesla, especially somewhere that the network isn't brilliant. In Australia, that's anywhere outside of about 6 capital cities.

The early Nissan Leafs like my 2012 model used the LMO chemistry, with no nickel or cobalt. This chemistry was quite poor for longevity, especially in hot climates, such as where I live. Thankfully, that problem does not exist with modern EVs.

The problem with the Leafs was also related to them having little to no thermal management of the batteries short of "battery is getting warm, lets reduce the load".

They have no active cooling of any sort and if the batteries got too hot they would be damaged.

But yes, you can pretty much rely on the SOC in a Tesla.

From memory, in our first ZS EV there were more miles in the first 50% than in the last, but still, i would not be so afraid to go down to what i would imagine would be about 5% if i know there was a good charger in range.

Maybe I will regret that some day