Possible Battery Derogation

[rsas8991]

Hi everyone, I have a 2023 Mache E standard battery with 22000 miles. Of late, it seems that my battery looses its charge faster than usual. I consulted with the dealer I purchased the car from who said there is no way to test the condition of the battery. That I have to wait until something actually goes wrong. Can anyone confirm if this is accurate or not and if there is a way I can test the condition of the battery myself. Thanks in advance.

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[ack154]

Can you elaborate on "loses it's charge faster than usual"? Are you getting less range? LOTS of reasons for that potentially happening.

And there is absolutely a way to test the condition of the battery (usually called the state of health, SOH). The dealer can absolutely check this and so can you with an OBD reader and the Car Scanner app. But more than likely, your SOH is fine, and it's just differences in efficiency, weather, driving style, tire pressure, and so on.

 

[rsas8991]

Hi ack154, thank you for replying. By losing its charge I mean, I would home charge to 80%, but only get 78-79% and then when I would start driving the % starts going down real fast. I could drive 10 miles on a 60-degree day on relatively flat roads and lose 5%. To me this seems like a fast reduction in charge.

I have thought about buying an OBD reader. I looked into the OBDLink MX+. Do you think this is the right tool to check and monitor battery life?

 

[Vulnox]

That... sounds right to me. Your vehicle says MachE Standard, so I assume that's a standard range.

70kWh x 0.05 (5%) = 3.5kWh

3.5kWh x 3 miles/kWh = 10.5 miles.

That is at 3 miles/kWh, at 60 degrees and if the battery is requiring warming (remember the battery isn't you, it likes a warmer environment than you do) then it seems like completely reasonable usage.

It's unlikely there is a battery problem as the car doesn't "know" how much true charge is in the battery. It uses a BMS to try and extrapolate charge based on a number of factors. Over long periods of keeping the battery at upper charge levels you may benefit from letting the car run down to lower state of charge. Really this could mean running it down to 0% which is sketchy, but if you let it get down to even 10% it may help the BMS better know the "bottom" and help with any BMS sway.

BMS sway happens when the BMS over time loses a few watts here and there from other losses and believes the battery may be a few percent one way or the other off from where it truly is. For most drivers it's not that big of a deal since most don't actually drive down to 0% where you could be in trouble if 0% is actually -1% and you're dead on the side of the road.

The reason I would say your experience doesn't indicate degradation, or at least seem to obviously point to it, is that the numbers you provided seem in line with what I would expect from an MME on efficiency, and the more likely culprit would be other factors like BMS sway, low tire pressures, lower temperatures, or more wind for this time of year, which would hurt your efficiency.

Anyway, while your distance and percent may just be rough numbers, if they are accurate to your experience that doesn't sound very far off for the weather conditions you described. Humans may love 60 degrees, but that's lower than EV batteries perform at their best.

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