Is it worth following charging guidelines?

[Teslaeata]

I’m curious to everyone’s thoughts on charging guidelines.

Do you follow the never charge above 90% and never let it drop below 10% rule?

I’m just curious if it truly matters in terms of battery health or is this topic overblown.

Nope!

If I had to do that, covering 63,000 miles in 2 years it wouldn’t work for me!

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[iam-s-Hon]

I follow a firm guideline to never let it dip below 0% or charge to more than 100%

I want what Jason Statham's sub had in "The Meg".... Console flashed "Battery Power at 248%"

That's like 600 miles of range. Right?

 

[Mach-Lee]

I’m curious to everyone’s thoughts on charging guidelines.

Do you follow the never charge above 90% and never let it drop below 10% rule?

I’m just curious if it truly matters in terms of battery health or is this topic overblown.

Yes. But I would say rarely rather than never. When I take trips I charge to 100% right before leaving, that's okay since it won't spend much time there. It's also okay to go down to single digits if necessary. I target 10% arrival.

<90% for daily use (unless you need more for a trip)
<80% for DC charging (unless you need more to reach the next stop)
Lower is better. If I was OCD I'd only charge to 50% since that gives the longest life.

Batteries do degrade faster above 90% SOC, this is settled science, and has nothing to do with the MachE as a model, since it uses batteries used in many other applications.

The thing to remember is that there are 8760 hours in a year, and you want to limit the total number of hours you are above 90% SOC. Don't worry about charging to 100% when you need it, since that is just a tiny fraction of the year. If you left the battery at 100% all year you bet you'd see higher degradation. But if your dealer charges it to 100% before you pick up (probably because they are tired of people complaining about range), then say it sits at 100% for 8 hours, that is 0.1% of the year - no worries.

The simple guidance from Ford and others works, and is based on good science - charge to 80% for your daily trips, and charge to 100% when you need the range the next day. Don't overthink it.

Good response, I agree.

 

[Teslaeata]

Batteries do degrade faster above 90% SOC, this is settled science, and has nothing to do with the MachE as a model, since it uses batteries used in many other applications.

The thing to remember is that there are 8760 hours in a year, and you want to limit the total number of hours you are above 90% SOC. Don't worry about charging to 100% when you need it, since that is just a tiny fraction of the year. If you left the battery at 100% all year you bet you'd see higher degradation. But if your dealer charges it to 100% before you pick up (probably because they are tired of people complaining about range), then say it sits at 100% for 8 hours, that is 0.1% of the year - no worries.

The simple guidance from Ford and others works, and is based on good science - charge to 80% for your daily trips, and charge to 100% when you need the range the next day. Don't overthink it.

“Don't worry about charging to 100% when you need it”

This!

I virtually always charge to 100% at home because when I need the range I need it!

Or the crap about “possible” 379 range is a “possible” 330 range at 90% charge and in the real world, the realistically achievable 320 summer range and 220 winter range becomes 280 or 180 range respectively at 90% charge when the car would find itself on Autotrader ?

25% of my charges are out on the road at rapid DC charge points, often just adding 10s of miles to ensure I get home, sometimes to 80% and rarely and only if nobody’s queuing beyond 80%.

The car works for me, and boy has it worked for me over 63,000 miles &26mths fully loaded, I certainly don’t work for it.

Its HV battery SoH is currently 95.5% after 26mths with which I’m happy because I doubt there was ever a 100%.

Amazing car, drop-dead gorgeous and works like a slave for me.

It’s probably only worth £28k but I reckon I wringed just about every penny out of it.

Amazing value for money.

The love for the ‘Stang remains unconditional ?

 

[Teslaeata]

I follow a firm guideline to never let it dip below 0% or charge to more than 100%

Man (I assume) after my own heart.

Car, work for me or burn!

 

[Doug&Julie]

I think, to answer your title question..."Is it worth following charging guidelines?"...you have to first ask how long do you want the car (especially the battery) to last?

Are you planning on keeping your car 20 years? ..then you probably want to take every recommended precaution to save and protect the battery life. Are you planning on dumping the car after four years? ..don't sweat it at all...charge whenever and however you want to. (Although, those of us who might be buying your used EV would appreciate it if you took care of it, even if you plan to move on after just a few years.)

The other important note is, while there is a point where the batteries will ultimately fail, they first degrade....and these recommendations are there to help reduce (or slow) the degradation process. No matter what you do, this process still takes years and many miles.

For the record, Julie and I are planning to keep our Mach-E for a long time, so we're following these precautions (with some exceptions as many others have pointed out). But that's also why we bought the big battery option...if our 300 mile EPA range loses 30% in 10-15 years, we still have a car that can get us more than 200 miles on a charge.

 

[Blue highway]

Topics like this one are why I would be very hesitant in buying an off-lease EV.

If your commitment to a car is only 3 years, there's no incentive to not just top it off at every charge.

I suppose the LFP batteries may change that.

LFP batteries are more idiot proof than NMC... That is a huge benefit
You can see the battery health with a scanner on a used car you are considering... when comparing between two cars of the same model it is a reasonable comparison... between different manufactures it is not comparable.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I accidentally set my home charge setting to 120% instead of 80% (whoopsie). ?????????

That’s better than setting it to -80%. ??

 

[ChasingCoral]

Do you follow the never charge above 90% and never let it drop below 10% rule?

No and Ford doesn't say this.

The simple guidance from Ford and others works, and is based on good science - charge to 80% for your daily trips, and charge to 100% when you need the range the next day. Don't overthink it.

Agreed, except Ford says don't charge over 80% on DCFC. On AC charging, their recommendation is less than 100% in one place and 90% in another.

The Lithium Ion batteries used in the Mach E have been shown to be happiest at around 50%. In fact, Ford recommends that if you are leaving your car undriven for a period of months, store it at around 50%.

I set mine to 85% of usable capacity. Taking into account the upper and lower buffers, that’s about 80% of total battery capacity. Definitely don’t over-think it, though. Just keep it somewhere reasonable for your normal use. For once in a while use on a trip, go ahead and charge it full before you leave. The car will likely only be full for a few hours, then it’ll get driven. ??

Bingo. I use 85% as well. It's probably a little gentler on the battery than 90%. I used to charge to 80% but realized the battery sometimes loses a percent or two. At 85%, I know I'll have 4/5 bars. Close enough.

I have a road trip planned for Saturday morning and I'll need a full charge. Friday night I'll hit "charge to 100%" and I'll be happy. I'll have a full charge and the few hours (at most) sitting at 100% won't cause any issues.

 

[HuntingPudel]

<SNIP>
I have a road trip planned for Saturday morning and I'll need a full charge. Friday night I'll hit "charge to 100%" and I'll be happy. I'll have a full charge and the few hours (at most) sitting at 100% won't cause any issues.

This. Totally this. ??

 

[RickMachE]

The 80% recommendation from Ford is largely based on the fact that charging above 80% is very slow, and if you pay per minute, quite expensive.

Bragging rights are focused on charging from 20 to 80%. No manufacturer will tell you to charge above 80% due to the speed.

The Mach-E kicks to around 44kW at 80%. No issues at that speed.

 

[hack-e]

If it mattered not to go over 90%, wouldn't you think that Ford would have a global upper charge limit setting that defaults to 90%? Instead, they chose 100% as the default upper limit anytime you charge at a new location.

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