Tesla now recommends charging to 80% daily instead of 90%

[AZBill]

For me, personally, I like to set the charge limit for a charging session. If I'm on the road and I want to charge to a certain pecent, that would be what I'd like. Sometimes it'll be 100%, sometimes not.

The "crazy useful" part of the location based limit is if you arrive in a location and want to charge, it's not on your list. So you can't set a limit, period. It seems likely you can charge for a little bit, unplug, wait a bit, see the location, set a location limit, then plug back in.

If you could start a session, then set the limit for that session or location without that foolery, that would be enough for me. Or set a global limit, and I'd just have that as a default if I don't have a location, and change that while on the road.

But the current system.... having to play that foolery... and the couple times I've tried it, it seems to take a while to create a new location.... WHY WHY WHY. Why not be able to set a limit on the fly.

You would have liked the Bolt, it had a limit that could be set for home only, or for all charges. But in the early ones the limit was either 100% or 87%. The newer ones had a sliding limit.

It was still not as flexible as setting two different limits below 100% for the different conditions, but is likely what most people want.

I would like to have for example, a weekday limit and a separate weekend limit, just like charging schedule.

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[bbulkow]

You would have liked the Bolt, it had a limit that could be set for home only, or for all charges. But in the early ones the limit was either 100% or 87%. The newer ones had a sliding limit.

I would have liked that about the bolt, sure!

It was not in contention due to size.

This is such a drop-dead-simple feature, and very likely app/backend only, it's hard to not complain about it. So much utility, so little code....

 

[Blue highway]

I've been using 40% 70% limits for my car since receiving it. That was based on research showing Lithium ion battery lifetime equivalent cycles being the greatest when staying near the middle of the batteries capacity.

It works for me since I don't drive very far on a typical day.

That is a nearly optimum strategy for battery longevity... I'm a little surprised that more people don't do this.

 

[Blue highway]

This is an excellent question

Yes, all manufacturers have a buffer.

 

[superdave80]

I hope that's true as well, because it implies that it's fixable in software

There is no question you can get rid of the 5-second limit in 'software' today. The question is, what will happen to your batter/relays/wiring/motor once that limit is erased...

 

[Mach1E]

There is no question you can get rid of the 5-second limit in 'software' today. The question is, what will happen to your batter/relays/wiring/motor once that limit is erased...

Apparently Ford knows the answer and is willing to adjust the limit. We shall see what the end result is.

But since NO ONE has hurt the battery/relays/wiring/motor with the current limit……. I’m betting we will be fine after they increase it.

 

[superdave80]

Charge to 100% I want the ability to drive if I need to. Daily drive 50-80 miles a day.

You could do the recommended 90%, and still easily do all your daily driving... plus another 150 miles.

GOM each morning says 260-265. 30k miles.

The GOM is not a good indicator of battery health, and reaching 30k miles doesn't really mean much.

Battery will last longer that most will keep the car. You all tripping if you keep the Mach e after the battery warranty period anyways.

Well, if you get rid of the vehicle before 100k, of COURSE the battery will last as long as we keep the car

I made that mistake on a 2013 ford focus electric. Only 60k battery out a warranty needed to be replaced.

Given your disregard for your battery's health, I'm not really surprised that your battery went bad...

 

[DudeWhat]

This ^^^^

I think Tesla has almost no buffer. Same for Rivian. Our MME has a 4-5% buffer at the top. So charging to 90% is similar to charging to 85%. If Ford were to give us all the battery to use, they should also lower the recommended charge target.

I do agree that lithium batteries will last longer if you keep them within a tight range around 50%. But it is a car, and I don't like having the battery so low in case I need to take an unexpected trip.

Since my mom passed away, the need for an unexpected trip has significantly decreased, so I am not keeping the battery between 80% and 90% like I used to. But I still charge to 90% when I plug in, and 100% right before a trip out of town.

Range anxiety is a real thing, and public charging sucks. So the battery in my MME will just have to deal with a higher charge level.

My first experience with range anxiety with a road trip to Mammoth from Orange County. Over 400 miles, on the way back the main road was closed by CalTrans and the detour was about 18 miles on the map. Yeah, let's just say I made it to the Bates gas station in the middle of no where on a slow charge. An hour later, I was back on the road!!!

 

[FrankieG889D]

Does any of this really matter if you’re not going to have the car in a few years?

 

[Guss-E 2021]

This ^^^^

I think Tesla has almost no buffer. Same for Rivian. Our MME has a 4-5% buffer at the top. So charging to 90% is similar to charging to 85%. If Ford were to give us all the battery to use, they should also lower the recommended charge target.

I do agree that lithium batteries will last longer if you keep them within a tight range around 50%. But it is a car, and I don't like having the battery so low in case I need to take an unexpected trip.

Since my mom passed away, the need for an unexpected trip has significantly decreased, so I am not keeping the battery between 80% and 90% like I used to. But I still charge to 90% when I plug in, and 100% right before a trip out of town.

Range anxiety is a real thing, and public charging sucks. So the battery in my MME will just have to deal with a higher charge level.

OMG @mkhuffman , I could just about copy and paste the above word for word as my own experience (right down to the deceased mom part). I typically charge to 90% when I do plug in (which is not every night) but I could just as easily get by with 80%. Maybe I'll try that for a while and see how it goes.

 

[Pushrods&Capacitors]

The issue I have is power feels significantly reduced at the recommended SOCs. I only charge to 90% daily but I feel a linear lack of power as SOC goes down, and markedly less power even when you get to 87% and below. I have yet to positively confirm with my OBDLink, but that’s been my experience. Does anyone else (preferably with a GT or GTPE) notice the same?

I don’t think it’s due to heat because it feels the same even when the car has been sitting. For example, go to work at 95, come back at around 90-92, arrive at 85 or so.

Well, the 4X posts nearly identical 0-60 and 0-100 times whether it’s at 35-40% SOC or 75-85%, according to my Dragy runs. Within 2-3 tenths, which is hard to feel a difference in the SOTP. That said, we know the GT has some issues regarding power output.

 

[jamelski]

Given your disregard for your battery's health, I'm not really surprised that your battery went bad...

Battery went bad due to a faulty leaking coolant system ford knew about causing coolant to enter cells. Nothing to do with my charging but a known manufacturing defect that would be fixed under warranty, nice try though.

 

[Blue highway]

Apparently Ford knows the answer and is willing to adjust the limit. We shall see what the end result is.

But since NO ONE has hurt the battery/relays/wiring/motor with the current limit……. I’m betting we will be fine after they increase it.

actually the HVBJB is one of the key components that stress is reduced on by limiting current draw.

 

[Mach1E]

actually the HVBJB is one of the key components that stress is reduced on by limiting current draw.

Sure, but it’s unrelated to the 5 second limit.

No limit in other models and they have HVJB failures too.

I’m also convinced Ford neither knows the cause nor the solution for the HVJB.

But the other components? They seem plenty durable.

 

[ARK]

Sure, but it’s unrelated to the 5 second limit.

No limit in other models and they have HVJB failures too.

I’m also convinced Ford neither knows the cause nor the solution for the HVJB.

But the other components? They seem plenty durable.

I thought the issue was that the HVBJB is having trouble dealing with all the power coming through, that it's a much bigger problem on the GTs since the power output is way higher, but that it can be a problem on any Mach-E trim.

Is that not a fair summary? If so, raising the five second limit would seemingly result in more HVBJB failures to the extent that a raised limit would increase the likelihood of events where too much power for the HVBJB to handle is flowing through the HVBJB.

Not a cooling issue, but still a bottleneck of sorts.

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