Is it ok to charge to 90%?

[generaltso]

The 23 Mach E have LFP batteries so I'm assuming charging them to 100% is fine even though I can't find anything from Ford on the topic

No MMEs have been delivered with LFP batteries yet.

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[Brymo11]

Good to know!

 

[Scott Libre]

90% from home daily.

 

[deni1460]

I think you just wanted to rile up the Charge Police didn't you?
Nice....

Yeah. 90% is fine. So is %95. So is 100%. You are fine just so long as you drive the darn thing. I charge to 100% every day. Sometimes more than once per day. Been doing that for almost 2 years and 63k miles. Not slowing down anytime soon. Battery is doing just fine. Happy as a clam.
Don't overthink it. Seriously. Enjoy your car.

Thanks! It’s such a fun car to drive

 

[TGIF]

I charge anywhere from 80-95% depending on how cold it is. If I’m planning a longer trip, I’ll charge to 100% . This is on my home L2 charger. When DC charging I stop around 80% depending on when I get back to the car.

 

[spgordon57]

Actually its okay to charge to 100%, though not recommending to do this frequently. The reason is that out of the 99kWr (extended range) battery capacity, you can only access 90.7 kWrs (up from 88 kWrs last year). Ford walls off the remaining 8kWrs as a buffer to prevent you from charging to true 100%, to extend battery life. As another commenter said if charging to 100% (90.7 kWrs) its best to use some of it right away, like on a road trip; but best not to fully charge and let it sit.

 

[Rj786]

I have been charging to 90% as well since getting the car in Oct 22.

 

[ARK]

Only context I'd add is people should not feel like they need to charge up to 90%. That should be seen as a 'no more than' number not a 'you should reach this as often as possible' number.

Sort of like food labels and the daily totals for all the bad things - you don't need to max out your saturated fat, sugar, cholesterol limits for the day - less is more.

In the case of our batteries, midrange charge is the happy place.

I agree not to overthink it but some people actually plug in at 70% because they feel they are hurting their battery by not being at 90%, and this is just wrong.

 

[leeman]

I charge to 100% at home all the time the battery has an eight-year warranty I'm sure I will be done with the car before that warranty ends.

 

[nmope]

Been charging to AC Level 2 to 90% since I bought in 10/21 and my battery SoH is at 99.5% after almost 13k miles.

how does one check the Health of the battery?

 

[Scooby24]

how does one check the Health of the battery?

OBD2 adapter and CarScanner or other similar app.

I'm using the vlinker FD adapter and carscanner with my android phone.

 

[Just Lurking]

Every few months a 100% charge is good to top balance the pack. This graphic shows how a top balance is beneficial in bringing all cells back to capacity. Without an active balancer that can move charge between cells, any cell that's got a small variation in resistance can over time end up under utilized skewing the SOC at lower charge states.

This is interesting. I had read that LifePo4 batteries could benefit from 100% charging, but did not realize that the more common Li-Ion chemistries can also benefit.

Only context I'd add is people should not feel like they need to charge up to 90%. That should be seen as a 'no more than' number not a 'you should reach this as often as possible' number.

<SNIP>

I agree not to overthink it but some people actually plug in at 70% because they feel they are hurting their battery by not being at 90%, and this is just wrong.

Though you are absolutely correct, I'll just say that I unapologetically plug in at 70% and charge to my standard 85% (sometimes 90%), because one of the great benefits of owning an EV is that I can keep the battery topped up in case of emergency.

 

[ARK]

Though you are absolutely correct, I'll just say that I unapologetically plug in at 70% and charge to my standard 85% (sometimes 90%), because one of the great benefits of owning an EV is that I can keep the battery topped up in case of emergency.

Yes, I think that is perfectly fine since you are doing it for peace of mind and just in case for emergencies.

My comment is more for people who would rather not bother to plug in at 75%, 65%, 55%, etc., but feel like they are doing something wrong by not keeping their battery at 90% for as much of the time as possible.

 

[devmach-e]

Our big traction batteries have their capacity "ends" blocked off... about 20+ % on the low end and on the high end.

This means that what we see, from 0% to 100%, is actually the center section of the total battery capacity.

This is by design to protect the function of the battery.

So, go ahead and charge on long trips. Although it will affect the eventual capacity of the battery, the degradation will be so incrementally slow as to likely not matter in practical terms.

You are thinking of traditional hybrid batteries. That isn't the case here. The 99 kWh pack in the the Extended Range is limited to 91 kWh, with about 3.5 kWh that can't be charged at the top, and about 4.5 kWh that can't be used at the bottom.

 

[devmach-e]

My usual charge/usage pattern is to let the car get down to less than 15% and then plug in and charge to 90%. Only time I charge to 100% is when going on a road trip, or when the car loses my charge settings because of an update and charges to 100% by accident. That said, it has been "cold" for where I am (high 30s), so I've been plugging in at night so the car is toasty warm in the morning.

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