Always plug in in your garage?

[Blue highway]

Why only charge to 90%? I charge to 100% every single time and have with all three of my previous EVs.

The reason not to charge to 100% is that lithium batteries don’t like being at 100% charge. They age (I.e. lose capacity) relatively quickly at that State of Charge.

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[djett]

I have had mine since late April. I had been charging it when would get below 60%. I would charge to 85%. If we were travelling somewhere I'd fill it up to 100%.

Here in New England, now that we got our first frost and the nights are colder, I started plugging it in any time I'm home (to 85%). I thought I read somewhere that once it gets below 45F it's a good idea to keep it plugged in. It also means it's plugged in when the car "pre heats" before I leave the house.

 

[RickMachE]

I charge to 100% in the garage twice weekly. Is that harming battery.....the car will be obsolete before the battery wears I out I think.

Charging to 100% is harming the battery more than charging to 90%. If you need 100%, i.e. your taking trips that require it, then do it. If you don't need it, then don't.

We do a lot of local trips, and use 10 - 20 % of the battery. No reason for us to charge to 100% unless we need that capacity.

 

[Hayes]

May I expand this issue by asking if there are any suggestions for leaving my MME plugged in our garage while we leave for the winter. Live in northern Michigan and will be gone for 3 plus months. Just let it sit un-plugged or plugged on a charging program? What are the risks of just letting it sit?

 

[KevinS]

Owner's Manual says charge to 90% for best battery health. That's all I need to know.

 

[SnBGC]

Why only charge to 90%? I charge to 100% every single time and have with all three of my previous EVs.

It is really about personal preference. Whatever people feel works best and helps them sleep at night is what they should do in most cases.

It has been like this for ages. There are tons of threads and discussions on the diesel truck forums about adding engine coolant filters or upgrading the fuel filter system or dino vs synthetic oil etc etc

Does adding a coolant filter extend the life of the vehicle? Probably. So the engine might last 1.2 million miles vs 1 million. Probably not worth the effort and expense. Same for the oil type. Just use the correct type and grade of engine oil and the truck engine will be fine.

If you want to charge every day or twice a day or once a week or whatever.. ...it is fine so long as you don't leave it fully charged or fully empty for extended periods.

Same with charge percentage. 60% is fine. So is 90 or 100. Doesn't really matter to the car enough to impact the performance. It is more about what the owner feels better doing. The car doesn't really care much because the software will manage it well enough.

 

[RickMachE]

May I expand this issue by asking if there are any suggestions for leaving my MME plugged in our garage while we leave for the winter. Live in northern Michigan and will be gone for 3 plus months. Just let it sit un-plugged or plugged on a charging program? What are the risks of just letting it sit?

Charge to 50% and leave it plugged in. It will keep the 12v charged also.

 

[mkhuffman]

May I expand this issue by asking if there are any suggestions for leaving my MME plugged in our garage while we leave for the winter. Live in northern Michigan and will be gone for 3 plus months. Just let it sit un-plugged or plugged on a charging program? What are the risks of just letting it sit?

@RickMachE has good advice. I will add that most lithium batteries are stored at around 60% charge. You will notice when you receive a new battery powered device (laptop, iPhone, etc.) that it is charged to around 60%. Storing your car for a long time it should be at 60%, but 50% is fine also. Keep in mind the battery is actually 98 kWh but Ford gives us 88. So We should be calculating percentages based on the real 98 kWh battery, not the 88 kWh available capacity. 98x.6/88 = 67%. But I don't think rounding down to 60% is anything to worry about.

 

[Bueller]

@RickMachE Keep in mind the battery is actually 98 kWh but Ford gives us 88. So We should be calculating percentages based on the real 98 kWh battery, not the 88 kWh available capacity. 98x.6/88 = 67%. But I don't think rounding down to 60% is anything to worry about.

So 100% is 90%. Excellent.

 

[TenaflyNJ]

I personally will let the car get down to 60ish% before I plug in, 45% is around the lowest I'll go because at less than that it won't charge in my 6hr window to 90%.

I don't like charging it only 5% here or 10% there because I've not driven it. Is it bad for the battery, I dunno, but from my childhood days I've always been told not to do that so I don't lol

When you were a kid NiMh was the rechargeable battery tech and those batteries had what is called "memory" and optimal use was to fully discharge the battery and then full recharge the battery.

This is not how Lithium batteries work at all. Lithium batteries last a certain number of cycles. This is according to Apple and several other sources -- if you charge a LiIon battery to 100% (of usable manufacturer dictated capacity) then use up 20% you used up 1/5 of a cycle. If you recharge at that point it doesn't matter. If you then use up 20%, then recharge, and repeat this 3 more times, so 5 times you used up 20% then went back to 100%, you would have used up one full cycle. iPhone batteries are built to have maximum performance through 500 full cycles...

These are two easy reads that will help. Since the car uses lithium battery cells I think the points should carry over well.

Batteries - Why Lithium-ion? - Apple

iPhone Battery and Performance - Apple Support

Here's what Apple says directly: " Charge your Apple lithium-ion battery whenever you want. There’s no need to let it discharge 100% before recharging. Apple lithium-ion batteries work in charge cycles. You complete one charge cycle when you’ve used (discharged) an amount that equals 100% of your battery’s capacity — but not necessarily all from one charge. For instance, you might use 75% of your battery’s capacity one day, then recharge it fully overnight. If you use 25% the next day, you will have discharged a total of 100%, and the two days will add up to one charge cycle. It could take several days to complete a cycle. The capacity of any type of battery will diminish after a certain amount of recharging. With lithium-ion batteries, the capacity diminishes slightly with each complete charge cycle. Apple lithium-ion batteries are designed to hold at least 80% of their original capacity for a high number of charge cycles, which varies depending on the product."

and with respect to charging speed: " Your Apple lithium-ion battery uses fast charging to quickly reach 80% of its capacity, then switches to slower trickle charging. The amount of time it takes to reach that first 80% will vary depending on your settings and which device you’re charging. Software may limit charging above 80% when the recommended battery temperatures are exceeded. This combined process not only lets you get out and about sooner, it also extends the lifespan of your battery."

 

[jlauro]

I charge to 90% once a week if it needs it or not (generally Saturday or Sunday as lower electricity rates on the weekend). Ford recommends not to charge over 90% unless you need it, and not to run it below 20%, so that's good enough reason for me not to pick 100% or 80%.

Generally when I get below 50%, or expect the next trip to be more than 60 mile drive I will charge more than once a week.

 

[TTT]

Your concern has some merit. In theory you could be ever so slightly kinder to your battery by only charging it every few days, but in reality it would be difficult to see a demonstrable difference in battery health.

If you want to be super easy on your battery, you could consider charging it a little less often, but there is another step you can take too. You can also use the charger that came with the car and plug that into a 110V outlet in the garage and use that to top off the battery when you only drove a short distance that day, say less than 40 miles, and it will still top you off overnight - but at a lower charge rate. The slower you charge the battery the easier it is on the battery too. That 60A charger will top you off a lot faster - but you can also let it charge slower and take the whole nite and again be a little kinder to the battery of you like.

Again, nothing wrong with using your level 2 charger every night, but if you skip a night, or use the smaller charger that's ok too. None of this is going to change your ownership experience - its just a question of how you feel about your ownership experience.

If you're the kind of person who does a walk around the car every time before you drive it, if you prefer nitrogen in your tires, put scotchguard on the carpet the day you brought it home, and replace the wiper blades every year whether they need it or not, then you can also be super conservative about charging - but these steps are all on a similar level IMO.

 

[Kabish]

When you were a kid NiMh was the rechargeable battery tech and those batteries had what is called "memory" and optimal use was to fully discharge the battery and then full recharge the battery.

Oh ya 100% I realize the battery is not the same as the good old days

I charge my car to 100% once a month just cause, otherwise 90% is my set SoC. I normally do it on a Friday when I know I'll be out driving around a lot Saturday to run the state of charge down.

I actually reset my driving history (first time I've done it since owning the car), a 100% charge I believe was showing 240 miles on the GOM lol My range has been soooooooooooooooooo off since I reset it, which I guess is expected. I was typically showing about 295-306 miles at 90%. I've even done mostly all city driving this weekend, 5kWh or higher according to the trip meter and yet my range is still WAY off.

Stupid GOM....

 

[jhalkias]

All summer and warmer weather I charged to 80% and plugged in nightly to pre condition before I left in the morning. Now in the colder months I have reset that to 90% to give me a bit more peace of mind as the range has dropped with the colder weather. Sometimes on the weekend I don't plug it in on Saturday night if I have hardly driven at all.

I agree though it is good habit to just always plug in and let the car do the rest of the thinking.

 

[mkhuffman]

So 100% is 90%. Excellent.

Yes. To be exact, the ER battery has a maximum capacity of 98.8 kWh. Fully charging your battery to 100% of 88 kWh is 89% of 98.8 kWh.

80% of 98.8 is 79.04 kWh, which is exactly 90% of the 88 kWh usable capacity. This is probably why Ford recommends only charging to 90% on a regular basis.

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