What is the better charging habit for battery health?

How often do you charge?


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JoeDimwit

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Slow charge (120V) as often as possible in hotter weather. Especially when directly from solar production (remember these batteries are not solid state). We cheat: we are able to alternate our EVs charging directly from solar.
Leave plugged in for conditioning year round
Currently no real worries to 100% since 100% is actually only 90%( use as much solar as you can).
not to put too fine a point on it, but… I’m pretty sure the battery couldn’t care less where the electricity comes from.
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SnBGC

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Slow charge (120V) as often as possible in hotter weather. Especially when directly from solar production (remember these batteries are not solid state). We cheat: we are able to alternate our EVs charging directly from solar.
Leave plugged in for conditioning year round
Currently no real worries to 100% since 100% is actually only 90%( use as much solar as you can).
100% on the display is about 94-95% if I remember correctly...
 

ADDZ71

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A good rule that I learned from some EV battery engineers is to practice ABC (always be charging). I think the advice given here by others of charging to 90% and leaving the car plugged in is the best answer. That does a couple of things: 1) you are always with a nearly full battery for those days when you are not sure how far you might drive. 2) grid power can provide any top up needs for conditioning the battery and keep it in the happy place etc. it is not that you are always charging but rather that the car can has the option of using the grid power for support and if you set the max to a level that keeps it under 90% you are likely to get the maximum life out of the battery.
 


TruWrecks

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We wish it to be true, but I wouldn't state this with 100% confidence.
They are not as durable. The batteries in our cars are designed to cycle thousands of times per cell. The hobby batteries I have maybe 500 cycles.
 

TruWrecks

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One thing to remember is that the BMS (Battery management System) learns how you use your battery and how you charge it.

If you always only charge it to 50% most of the time then it will start to learn that 50% is the max you are allowed to use. It may begin to lock out 50% of the battery. I have seen this with hobby battery chargers on a smaller scale.

To correct this you need to recalibrate the BMS by discharging the battery as much as possible then slow charging to 100%. This needs to be repeated a few times so the BMS will relearn the charging patterns.

On a 100 kWh battery this is a multi-day process to recalibrate.

The Mach-E might handle this differently but most EVs do this by the nature of how the BMS is programmed.

Charging it to 90% will give you the most safe range and the BMS the most usable limits to work with. Then when you need to charge to 100% it is not a system shock to the BMS. It will be more accurate and you will always have as much battery as possible available when you need it.
 

Chudsaviet

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A good rule that I learned from some EV battery engineers is to practice ABC (always be charging).
A little bit offtopic, but my second drive is 2014 Leaf 24 kWh, and Nissan removed the maximum charge level setting from it years ago :(
So I always charge it to 100%.
 
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67 Stang Convertible

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just so i am clear, i have an AWD ER, which has usable battery of 88kwh. so 100% would be 88kwh, which is 89.7% of actual battery.

is my understanding correct?
I believe that is correct. Ford will not allow access to those last 11kwh to protect us from ourselves ?
 

sotek2345

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just so i am clear, i have an AWD ER, which has usable battery of 88kwh. so 100% would be 88kwh, which is 89.7% of actual battery.

is my understanding correct?
Not exactly correct. You only get access to ~90% of the battery, but that reserve is divided between the top and bottom, so 100% charge is really ~95% and 0% charge is really ~5%.
 

ClaudeMach-E

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There are also some mental costs on minding to plug in/not plug in the vehicle every time. Benefits of "supposingly" better charge control shall be higher than these costs.
Also, each charge strategy benefits shall be scientifically proven. So far we have only proven recommendation to keep it under 91%.
Personally, I plug in every time and keep the charge setting at 80% at home.
Same here
 

RickMachE

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We're always plugged in, set to 90%. But... We don't allow charging between 11AM and 7PM, our peak hours. Because the vehicle could choose to override that, we have the charger programmed for those hours also. So we're not technically "plugged in" for 8 hours a day. Then, at 7PM, the charger activates, and if the vehicle needs a charge it takes it.
 

SnBGC

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just so i am clear, i have an AWD ER, which has usable battery of 88kwh. so 100% would be 88kwh, which is 89.7% of actual battery.

is my understanding correct?
Yes. 88 kWh is usable by the driver.

The remaining portion of the battery capacity not available to the driver (about 10%) is split into two sections. One that remains fully charged at all times and another that remains uncharged (empty). The portion that remains fully charged is sometimes referred to as the "bottom buffer" and uncharged portion as the "upper buffer".
 

coolshades

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Yes. 88 kWh is usable by the driver.

The remaining portion of the battery capacity not available to the driver (about 10%) is split into two sections. One that remains fully charged at all times and another that remains uncharged (empty). The portion that remains fully charged is sometimes referred to as the "bottom buffer" and uncharged portion as the "upper buffer".
Cool, thanks. So when the dash says 80% charge or whatever %, it is rather % do available battery, right?
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