WSJ: The Electric-Vehicle Road Test

[JamieGeek]

Being I was new to the BEV world my initial thought after I placed my reservation for the Mach-E was I would plug into my 240v outlet in the garage every time I came home to keep it topped off. After becoming more savvy about Li-Ion batteries and my desire to have a BEV for 10-20 years driving less than 7,500 miles per year my thoughts have changed. Li-Ion BEV batteries seem to be rated for 2,000 cycles with some loss of capacity each recharge. I have also read that there is a recharge %/remaining range % sweet spot(maybe 20% to 80%) for Li-Ion batteries to operate in for optimal life. With no desire to 'pony' up $10,000 to replace the battery 10 years down the road I will not be plugging my Mach-E in every night.

My understanding is the problem isn't plugging in every night, it's charging to 100%... If the Mach E can be told to stop charging at 80% full and not to charge to 100% full you should be find plugging in every night.

That is also true. The cars do have a bit of buffer space in them so that when charged 100% on the dash doesn't really mean 100% of the battery (although the larger the batteries get the smaller a % of the battery that buffer space is).

In addition: If you get the bigger battery you won't go through as many cycles.

3rd: You can plug it in every night and still not count as a cycle (they count cycles for full charges so even if you plug in every night a full cycle may be 3 or 4 nights worth of charging). Granted I do have the Bolt set to "Hilltop reserve" which leaves a little bit off the top (the 2019+ Bolts let you pick a % to charge to like the Mach-E will).

4th: The real "damage" from 100% is how long the battery sits at 100%: Most cars have overnight charging in which you give the car the time you want it ready to go in the morning. My Bolt charges up such that it hits 100% about 30 minutes prior to me leaving for work. Both the Bolt and the Focus electric had that capability (My Focus showed absolutely NO battery degradation at the end of the 3 year lease--it was charged to full daily since it could only go 70 miles).

Tesla's have been around long enough that they have some statistics on how their batteries are lasting. Turns out they are lasting much longer than predicted.

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[Whatstreet]

Being I was new to the BEV world my initial thought after I placed my reservation for the Mach-E was I would plug into my 240v outlet in the garage every time I came home to keep it topped off. After becoming more savvy about Li-Ion batteries and my desire to have a BEV for 10-20 years driving less than 7,500 miles per year my thoughts have changed. Li-Ion BEV batteries seem to be rated for 2,000 cycles with some loss of capacity each recharge. I have also read that there is a recharge %/remaining range % sweet spot(maybe 20% to 80%) for Li-Ion batteries to operate in for optimal life. With no desire to 'pony' up $10,000 to replace the battery 10 years down the road I will not be plugging my Mach-E in every night.

I think battery degradation is more about how many watts are put into the battery rather than how often you charge. 100 kWh has the same degradation whether it is replaced in one 100 kWh session or ten 10 kWh sessions.

It comes down to miles driven.