How To Ruin Your Electric Car's Battery (3 Common Mistakes) - Engineering Explained

[BeanEW]

Good to know...

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[dleepnw]

lesson: ABC - always be charging

 

[moosetags]

This video is informative if not somewhat over my head in the matters of chemistry. We believe that we are doing right by Opal's battery. Our charging routine has been to charge her to 70%, drive her for a few days down to 30%. We then bring her back to 70%.

Brian

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

I like Jason's content and how he presents it. The takeaway is if practical always plug it in when its not in use. Don't charge to 100% regularly but it's okay for road trips. Limit charge to 70-80% if possible.

Lastly, don't overthink this too much. I like that he gave background on the process that causes the degradation. He also mentioned heat which I think is important to note.

I think Rivian did a great job with the interface by showing their recommendations while also allowing the custom charge limit as well.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Probably should try to be more in the 50-75% range going forward, but considering my "current" (pun intended) habits, The battery has seemingly held up quite well.

 

[Bidibibu]

Excellent video answered in a clear manner a lot of my questions thanks!

 

[mikehmb]

1) Heat is a killer when leaving a battery stored at high SOC (50C was tested temp)
2) Shallow charge cycles are bests. 10x 10% (50-60%) is far less degrading than 1x 100% (0-100%)
3) Do not store at high SOC for extended periods of time, regardless of temps

I love EE videos - he’s great.

 

[Neuneleven]

Probably silly question but how robust are the plug-in sockets of the cars. How many plug and unplug cycles would they hold before becoming unstable or wobbly or have failing contacts as this is a mechanical connection of the electrical circuit? I tend to do 40%- 70% in summer/spring/fall and 40-80 in winter when the efficiency is less. I worry plugging in every single day after using just 20-30 miles of range might wear out the car socket. Is this completely unreasonable?

 

[Dark-Fx]

Probably silly question but how robust are the plug-in sockets of the cars. How many plug and unplug cycles would they hold before becoming unstable or wobbly or have failing contacts as this is a mechanical connection of the electrical circuit? I tend to do 40%- 70% in summer/spring/fall and 40-80 in winter when the efficiency is less. I worry plugging in every single day after using just 20-30 miles of range might wear out the car socket. Is this completely unreasonable?

A few I've done research on are rated for > 10,000 insertions. If you plug and unplug twice a day, every day, that's just shy of 14 years.

 

[HopefullyR1S]

This video is informative if not somewhat over my head in the matters of chemistry. We believe that we are doing right by Opal's battery. Our charging routine has been to charge her to 70%, drive her for a few days down to 30%. We then bring her back to 70%.

Brian

We were doing the exact same with our R1S. However after watching this video I will be charging it now when it hits 50%.
My understanding was reducing amount of discharge each cycle will extend battery life. FWIW

 

[Lisa & Bob]

I usually have the battery charged to 70% and drive it to 30% (or lose kws overnight) and then charge to 70%. I do not keep the cable inserted in the vehicle once it’s at 70%. When taking long road trips (Southern Utah to Southern California 650 miles) I depart with a 90-95% SOC and charge per BRP recommendation.

The vehicle is outside with winter temperatures 20-35 degrees (F)

I heat cabin to 68 before departure.

Anything I’m missing or other suggestion. (Hope to keep the R1S for several years.)

 

[solaskaze]

Good to know...

This is the third video or white paper where, when comparing DoD ... it is quite unreasonable to compare 0-100% vs 60-70%. His first statement, right out the bat: don't charge to 100% unless you need it. A few minutes later: don't discharge close to 0%. That is: The extra degradation caused by high SOC is not a fair comparison. So: what is the difference between an equal energy 60-70% cycle count (say 100 of those) vs. 45%-70% cycle count of 40? Probably minimal.
If this is all too complicated, given new SW that leverages wall current for things like preconditioning, the others posters are right: ABC. ABC. or ABCDEF: Always Be Charging, Don't Even F this up.

 

[dradam]

I have been applying these best practices, nice when someone can explain the rational so well.

 

[Kurt44]

Thank you!! I am make some slight modifications (lowering my max charge %) as a result of your video. Really good to know information

 

[nitsy]

This video is informative if not somewhat over my head in the matters of chemistry. We believe that we are doing right by Opal's battery. Our charging routine has been to charge her to 70%, drive her for a few days down to 30%. We then bring her back to 70%.

Brian

What you are doing is mostly enough.

But just in case you want it to take it to the next step, the video suggests that it's better to charge after every trip. A bunch of small charges is better than infrequent more depth charges. So don't wait until it comes down to 30%, just charge it till 70% once you are back home.

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