80% charge or 90% charge for daily use?

[SprManKalEl]

My commute demands that I charge every day Sunday (for Monday) through Thursday (for Friday). I drive 41 miles each way. I charge to 90% and am usually 48-55% when I arrive home. I don’t usually drive on the weekends…my husband does that because he doesn’t drive so much during the week. I did drive to the Jersey shore and charged to 100% for that trip and had to DCFC to get home. Daily, to 90% though.

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[slambertr]

I plug in every day and charge to 80%. Why not, I say. Winters: 85-90%. Trips: 100%.

 

[BalsaDust]

Thank you everyone for the answers. I don’t commute to work so I will be using the vehicle for occasional trips into town, with a long drive (177 kms) to visit family about once every three weeks. Interesting to see so many different points of view.
I’ll ask a follow up question if you don’t mind. For those who don’t charge daily, do you leave your vehicle plugged in? Are you able to pre-condition before your daily drive with the vehicle unplugged?

Currently I do not leave the car plugged in since its still Summer but in the Winter I will plug in nightly to precondition when the temps start hitting the mid 30's F.

Tony

 

[slimothyjames]

Another vote for 90% here. I only usually plug it in if I'm under 70%. Also I only DCFC charge to 80%.

 

[Phil-Springs]

This seems like a topic someone like the @OutofSpecKyle @Mach-E VLOG would cover. Something like what are the best practices to maintain battery health and does any of this really matter. Anyone have any links to some real analysis / data?

From what I gather so far is as long as you are avoiding charging to 100% AND leaving it at 100% for long periods and possibly minimizing DCFC, it doesn't really matter. Charge to meet your needs.

 

[MachEMaster]

90% for regular daily driving. 100% for trips. 80% DCFC.

 

[Mach1E]

There is no anxiety in charging every day.

There is anxiety in the unlikely what if of having to borrow a car, get a ride, rent a car, uber, or DCFC.

It takes about 20 seconds each day to plug in the cars.

One of the advantages of an EV is that you can wake up "full" every day with little to no effort.

I dunno, sounds like every day anxiety if you’re actually worried daily about possibly having to take an emergency trip or what exact percent to charge to.

Maybe some people plug in to relieve anxiety, but my guess is that those pesky little “what if something goes wrong” thoughts still don’t go away.

 

[Mach1E]

Preface: I live in Tampa, Florida and I don’t have mine yet…

That said, I would think it would make sense to at least pre-cool (run your AC) before unplugging. In this area, the interior of a car can get to 120+ degrees, F, easily. I would think pre-cooling would save a little range by not requiring so much power to cool the car down while driving.

The car only gets that hot if parked outside. I charge in the garage.

But if you want to cool the car, no need to be plugged in. Just remote start from the FordPass app.

But what you’re asking about “pre-cooling the car to save range?” Would be negligible. Would only matter if you plan on running the car from 100% to 0% for some reason and need an extra half mile of range from running the ac less.

Preconditioning isn’t about A\C. It’s typically referring to warming up the battery when it’s super cold outside to help increase winter range.

 

[RockwallRick]

Preface: I live in Tampa, Florida and I don’t have mine yet…

That said, I would think it would make sense to at least pre-cool (run your AC) before unplugging. In this area, the interior of a car can get to 120+ degrees, F, easily. I would think pre-cooling would save a little range by not requiring so much power to cool the car down while driving.

We have had ours for 14 months now and to my surprise running the AC doesn’t seem to have much effect on the range! The only time I have seen the range going down is when the outside temperature drops below 50 degrees.

 

[Mach1E]

Aksually, NONE of those 4 options are viable to me in a sudden and emergent situation. Especially compared to being always being plugged in at 90%. Set it and forget it, get in and go (except for my ChargePoint that likes to trip occasionally for no apparent reason).

I guess everyone’s lives are different.

I’ve just never had a situation I suddenly had to drive 300+ miles away and had to get there as fast as possible with no stops.

So I spend zero minutes of my life worrying about that unlikely situation.

Other people? May need to.

That’s why my first post on this thread said to “do what you think you’ll need.”

 

[kdonnel]

I dunno, sounds like every day anxiety if you’re actually worried daily about possibly having to take an emergency trip or what exact percent to charge to.

Maybe some people plug in to relieve anxiety, but my guess is that those pesky little “what if something goes wrong” thoughts still don’t go away.

We have woke up on Saturday and decided to take 200+ mile spur of the moment trips to the mountains.

I can't just go borrow a car, take an uber, or any of your other suggestions for those spur of the moment weekend trips.

I don't see the aversion to charging every night. The car is already in the garage. It costs me the same to charge 60 kWh in a single session as it does in 6 10 kWh sessions. But I have much more flexibility if my car is always "full" when I wake up.

 

[generaltso]

the many quotes of the manual telling users to "charge to 90%" are essentially missing the intent. it says Don't charge to more than 90% daily.

Isn't that exactly what the OP asked?

 

[Mach1E]

We have woke up on Saturday and decided to take 200+ mile spur of the moment trips to the mountains.

I can't just go borrow a car, take an uber, or any of your other suggestions for those spur of the moment weekend trips.

I don't see the aversion to charging every night. The car is already in the garage. It costs me the same to charge 60 kWh in a single session as it does in 6 10 kWh sessions. But I have much more flexibility if my car is always "full" when I wake up.

That sounds fun!

Unfortunately, nowhere worth driving 200+ miles to when you live in the middle of Florida. I’d drive 200 miles and still be in Florida. ?

To be fair, it is one reason we didn’t look at electric cars for my wife. She has a much longer work commute and hers is the car we would use for long distances.

 

[iam-s-Hon]

No worries. Likewise, I plug mine in and don't worry about it. And if I have an overnight charge fault I already know where my closest, reliable DCFCs are along my likely departure routes.

I just sometimes point out when folks say things like "obviously it this..." or "your choices are XYZ..." when that's always the case. Someone may have missed your earlier post and think you're minimizing their situation.

Everyone's got a different set of scenarios.

 

[Phil-Springs]

We have woke up on Saturday and decided to take 200+ mile spur of the moment trips to the mountains.

I can't just go borrow a car, take an uber, or any of your other suggestions for those spur of the moment weekend trips.

I don't see the aversion to charging every night. The car is already in the garage. It costs me the same to charge 60 kWh in a single session as it does in 6 10 kWh sessions. But I have much more flexibility if my car is always "full" when I wake up.

I think there is some rumors / myths / confirmed issues? with maintaining battery health over time with repeated charges to a high battery % (greather than 90). Not sure if it real or rumor.

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