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Charging routines

What’s going to be your charging approach/routine?


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Temerarius

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Like most of the folks in this thread with EVs, I generally bounce around the 50%-80% marker.

I don't generally plug in every night, but once it starts hitting that 50%-60% I do plug in it before I punch my clock for the night (with SoC limit set to 80%).
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Gamma rays

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Any home charging (L1 or L2) is at a slow enough rate the the battery will not notice any difference.

As to the best routine, the "Daily" selection says "Best for battery life" and implies that charging to that level every day is fine or even preferred.
If I were to use about 20% of charge a day, is it better to charge back up from 60% to 80% every day or wait until it dips down to 30-40% and charge once every few days to get back to 80%?

GR
 

SeaGeo

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If I were to use about 20% of charge a day, is it better to charge back up from 60% to 80% every day or wait until it dips down to 30-40% and charge once every few days to get back to 80%?

GR
As far as I've seen, functionally it doesn't matter.

Depending on the battery buffer going near 0 and near 100% routinely would speed up degradation.
 

DucRider

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If I were to use about 20% of charge a day, is it better to charge back up from 60% to 80% every day or wait until it dips down to 30-40% and charge once every few days to get back to 80%?

GR
Rivian might have a recommendation - only time will tell. Some manufacturers want you to plug in every night, others are silent on the issue.
When pre-conditioning it is usually recommended you be plugged in if possible.

In reality, either scenario will be very gentle on the battery.
 

Gamma rays

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As far as I've seen, functionally it doesn't matter.

Depending on the battery buffer going near 0 and near 100% routinely would speed up degradation.
Rivian might have a recommendation - only time will tell. Some manufacturers want you to plug in every night, others are silent on the issue.
When pre-conditioning it is usually recommended you be plugged in if possible.

In reality, either scenario will be very gentle on the battery.
Thanks. Since the R1S will be my first ever EV, I am trying to learn as much as I can before it arrives.

GR
 

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SeaGeo

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Thanks. Since the R1S will be my first ever EV, I am trying to learn as much as I can before it arrives.

GR
Yeah! It's a great question. That's also why Rivian has that "daily" mode in there. It looks like they're basically managing that for you and keeping the vehicle in the middle 65%ish of the battery pack (so say 15 to 80%).
 

DucRider

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Thanks. Since the R1S will be my first ever EV, I am trying to learn as much as I can before it arrives.

GR
Generally speaking, if you follow what the manufacturer recommends you will be in good shape.

Rivian (in the MT test vehicle) had a "Daily" option for charge level. Selecting that would be fine to use to charge daily

Edit: I guess I'm too slow ^^^
 

Rousie13

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I just plug it in every night and charge to roughly 75-80%. If we’re going on a trip then I’ll set my departure time and charge it to 90-100%, so it’s hitting that percentage shortly before we leave.
 

ajdelange

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Other: Plug in whenever I come in with level set to 65%. If a road trip is planned, top up, using the app to 80% or 90% as appropriate (depending on charging opportunities on the road) with the charge completing just before departure.
 

Trekkie

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During Covid with little driving I let the car get to 20% before I plug it into our L2 charger over night.

While I was commuting every day I can charge 4 hours at work for free, so I would charge that. Based on the efficiency of my model X that usually meant I had to 'top it off' over the weekend at home as 4 hours wasn't quite enough to get me to 90% which is 'full' for me.

My bolt EV was much more efficient and I never had to charge at home, could always get it recharged back to 100% within four hours. It's also like 1/4 the size of the X but it was a great EV commuter.
 

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Lil'O Annie

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We don't drive on a daily basis (semi-retired), but live way out in the middle of nowhere, so keep our Bolt charged to around 80% and plugged in all the the time. ALL of our driving is long distance, so we need to keep it charged fairly high for unexpected trips.

When it's set to charge to 80%, and is done, it isn't charging anyway, but if it gets really hot or cold the battery maintenance system will run and power can come from the cable for that need. We can't take the chance of the maintenance system running down the battery and not having enough charge for unexpected trips, or even surprise power outages.

We only top off to 100% when we know we'll be going on a long trip. Then, on long trips, we leave at 100%, typically charge up to 80% at DCFCs (or more/less depending on where the next charging stop is on the route) and always give ourselves a buffer of 40 miles for unexpected circumstances. From all I've read, the batteries last best if kept between 20-80% charge as much as possible, so we do that when we can.

Until the charge infrastructure gets extensively built out, driving any EV takes a different mindset and more planning than an ICE vehicle. Tesla drivers don't have to worry as much as the rest of the EV drivers, though (kudos to Tesla!!). But, the benefits outweigh the extra time and current inconveniences. The charging breaks are refreshing and make for a safer trip.
 

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You might update the poll to reflect the options available on the Rivian:

Trip (100%)
Extended (~84%)
Daily (~66%)

1630624885294.png


For almost all owners, "Daily" will be much more than they actually use in a day and should probably be the option they select.

I actually don't see the need for three choices - the number of times you will need more than 200 but less than 252 miles in a day is pretty small. Most people will either need just a little for daily needs - or a lot.

Maybe with DCFC "Extended" is the preferred and that's where significant taper kicks in?
Some EV's allow separate SOC values for AC and DC charging, but I find that I manually terminate a DC session before a set charge point would stop the charge anyway.
I highly doubt that this is accurate for percentages. It's worse for the battery to run it down near the bottom than to have it at the top. 200 miles is probably more like 80% at the top, expecting not to go below 20%.
 

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Now that charging routines has been brought up. I'm curious. Will Rivians have two sets of batteries (the battery that powers the motors and a separate 12v for other systems) or will the motor's batteries power the entire thing. If two battery set up, will we facing bricking concerns akin to what Tesla and Ford has been facing?
 

kylealden

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The general consensus from EV manufacturers is that "a plugged-in EV is a happy EV." It's an easy habit to just plug in every time you park at home, and set a comfortable daily charging maximum (around 60-80%, up to 90% depending on your needs).

It may be theoretically slightly better at the margins to charge as-needed, but almost certainly not measurable in reality. Among other things, remember that the pack is designed to be essentially always energized; the car is alive and doing all kinds of nonsense even when you're nowhere near it. If it's plugged in at home, it can do all of that off your "shore power" and save cycles on the battery pack; every charge cycle is destructive, so this is valuable. If you leave it unplugged for days at a time, you have to replace all that idle drain from the wall. It's not much, but enough to render any theoretical benefit of occasional charging moot.

Long story short - the best balance of "peace of mind," "battery health," and "laziness" is to just plug the thing in any time it's near a thing to plug it into. As long as you're not slamming the pack 0-100% back-to-back every day, you'll be fine, and will almost certainly have upgrade fever for the 2032 Space Rivian long before you have serious battery degradation.
 

ajdelange

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Now that charging routines has been brought up. I'm curious. Will Rivians have two sets of batteries (the battery that powers the motors and a separate 12v for other systems) or will the motor's batteries power the entire thing. If two battery set up, will we facing bricking concerns akin to what Tesla and Ford has been facing?
I can't answer that question until I see a Rivian or until someone who has reports on this but I think we can be pretty certain that they will have a separate low voltage battery to run all that low voltage automotive stuff (horn, radio, window motors, lights, A/C blowers, windshield wipers, seat adjustment motors, pumps, valves, computers, contactors....) in the vehicle. Among other things this allows you to do is "bootstrap" the car into life if the main battery goes dead (but not irrecoverably).

While overall this second battery improves the reliability of the car it can, of course, itself fail in which case you must take action before you can use the car. These are simply small automtotive (LeClanche) batteries (though Tesla is going to Lithium ion) and so the fix is usually simply to jump or replace them just as you would in your ICE vehicle.
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