JamieGeek
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2019
- Threads
- 82
- Messages
- 3,560
- Reaction score
- 6,752
- Location
- Southeastern Michigan
- Website
- spareelectrons.wordpress.com
- Vehicles
- Mach-E, old: Bolt, C-Max Energi, Focus Electric
But that was kind of my point: You just check the gauge when you get home and plug in or not. You've already said you're going to limit your Mach-E travels to just around town. That means after every trip when you come home you look: "Do I need to plugin?"Gas is different since there's stations everywhere and it only take 3 minutes to fill up. And there is a reminder in the car if you get to "almost out". We often aren't checking the gas gauge frequently to see if we're about out. Definitely had some "Oh crap, we need gas" moments. But it's an easy refuel.
We don't have that luxury with BEVs. It's not nearly as quick and easy to just pop in for 3 minutes and refuel when running around.
If there's no negative to just plugging in every single time you return home, then I'd agree -- just make it a habit. But there's some that say it shortens the life of the battery to keep doing more recharge cycles than you really need. I don't know if that's true or not. Is it the cycles, or the # of kWhs? Is it worse to do keep doing two 20 kWh charges than it is to do one 40 kWh charge?
If you want to do the "do fewer large charges" idea then set a low percentage "I'll only charge up when its below a 25% state of charge--or if I need a long trip tomorrow". If you want to do more short charge cycles then simply plug it in every night (I hope Ford lets us pick the % to charge to--then either of these options becomes available).
You can see from my post above that I'm doing both with my Bolt: In winter I charge up every night and in summer I do fewer charges but they are deeper into the battery.
So far my Bolt hasn't shown any battery degredation at all--in fact none of my plugins have: The Focus Electric was still showing the same range/power usage the day I turned in the lease as it did the day I picked it up, my C-Max Energi was the same way. Granted you really shouldn't see much after only 3 years but "I have read on the internet" LOL.
I have noted that several battery "experts" define a charge cycle as using enough power to drain and fill the battery (thus 4 charges from 3/4 to full is the same as one charge from empty to full). By that definition it doesn't matter what your charge pattern is.
Sponsored