Charging EVs

Badgeringweasel

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Sorry if this is a repeat but can some EV owners or those knowledgeable about the batteries share any advice on charging and general battery care for EVs? For instance, is it better to charge every night or wait until I get down to some percentage and do a bigger charge? Is DC fast charging still bad for EVs with liquid cooling? Is 240V charging worse than 120V?

Discuss away!
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JamieGeek

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LOL yes this is all over the place on here.

The general consensus now a days is: do what you want. If you want to plug in every night, go ahead. If you want to run it to 10% before charging, go ahead.

The newer batteries are much better than the old ones and the cars are smarter.

Fast charging shouldn't be any worse as long as the cooling system is up to the task.
 
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Badgeringweasel

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LOL yes this is all over the place on here.
Sorry, I just looked in this category and didn't see anything. I'll find another thread and put the link here so we don't have multiple threads on the same topics.
 

theothertom

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General consensus is to charge up to 80-90% when you get home from work. In general don't let your battery run down below 5-10%. This will double or triple the life of your battery, like maybe up to 500,000 miles. If you routinely charge to 100% and run it down low, maybe you get 100,000 miles. So yeah, people will say that they charge to 100% every day and it doesn't hurt anything. But wait till they hit 100K miles and see how much battery degradation they have.
Note that "life of the battery" means less than 30% degradation. If you charge to 100% every day, you'll still have 70% of your battery capacity left after 100K miles. So it really depends on how long you want to keep the car and how much battery degradation you want to put up with.
Of course, for those times when you need 100% battery for a trip, go ahead. You won't see the effect with those relatively few times.
 

ClaudeMach-E

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Charging the battery at 100 % is not recommanded unless you prepare for a long trip. I agree that charging daily 50% to 80% is the right thing to do. For exemple I will charge probably at 60% in summer and 80% in winter, Yes DC fast charging is only to be used on long trips has it is harder on the battery. This way you will keep the SoH over 70% longuer.
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