How to charge?

297 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by zamafir, 2 d ago

A bit Ioniq

Discussion Starter · 7 d ago

Do you think it's better for the battery pack to charge back up to 80% every night or wait a couple days and then charge up to 80% when the battery pack is low on charge? Thanks for your replies

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I don't think it makes any difference. When they talk about the number of cycles a battery is good for, a cycle means 0 to 100%. So going twice from 30 to 80 is one cycle (2x 50%), going three times from 47 to 80 is also one cycle (3x 33%), etc. What shortens cycle life a lot is sitting for lengthy periods of time at 0 or 100%, what shortens it somewhat is sitting for lengthy periods of time above 90%, but if you're sticking at or under 80% (with the odd excursion to 100% ahead of a long trip) and never leaving it close to 0% for long, then I think you're in great shape no matter how frequently (or not) that you charge it.

For reference, my PHEV gets charged to 100% every single night, and after nearly 4 years and 115,000 km I haven't encountered any noticeable degradation whatsoever.

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A bit Ioniq

Discussion Starter · #3 · 7 d ago

KevinT said:
I don't think it makes any difference. When they talk about the number of cycles a battery is good for, a cycle means 0 to 100%. So going twice from 30 to 80 is one cycle (2x 50%), going three times from 47 to 80 is also one cycle (3x 33%), etc. What shortens cycle life a lot is sitting for lengthy periods of time at 0 or 100%, what shortens it somewhat is sitting for lengthy periods of time above 90%, but if you're sticking at or under 80% (with the odd excursion to 100% ahead of a long trip) and never leaving it close to 0% for long, then I think you're in great shape no matter how frequently (or not) that you charge it.

For reference, my PHEV gets charged to 100% every single night, and after nearly 4 years and 115,000 km I haven't encountered any noticeable degradation whatsoever.

thanks for your thoughts

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Leafocaster

· #4 · 7 d ago

I mostly charge when needed, usually when the battery drops to around 20 or 30% then back up to around 80%. Depending on usage this might be 4 to 7 days before I need to charge again.

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HKtech

· #5 · 7 d ago

If you are after long SOH....you should not exceed 3.700 V per cell and don't go under 50% SOC.... 50-70% SOC cycle is best for SOH.

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Esteban

· #6 · 6 d ago

It doesn't really matter, just enjoy your car.

Some studies I've seen suggest that 40%-50% is the best range for lifetime and 90%-100% is the worst and 80% is somewhere in between. However there are also plenty of people that report that they charged to 100% for years and saw no loss of battery capacity.

To keep a good balance I would charge it always to 50% and then to whatever % you actually need plus a big safety margin that will completely kill any range anxiety.

Examples:
Need 1% for your daily return commute, charge to 50%
Need 20%: charge to 50%
Need 40%: charge to 75%
Need 80%: charge to 100%

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zamafir

· #7 · 2 d ago

KevinT said:
I don't think it makes any difference. When they talk about the number of cycles a battery is good for, a cycle means 0 to 100%. So going twice from 30 to 80 is one cycle (2x 50%), going three times from 47 to 80 is also one cycle (3x 33%), etc. What shortens cycle life a lot is sitting for lengthy periods of time at 0 or 100%, what shortens it somewhat is sitting for lengthy periods of time above 90%, but if you're sticking at or under 80% (with the odd excursion to 100% ahead of a long trip) and never leaving it close to 0% for long, then I think you're in great shape no matter how frequently (or not) that you charge it.

For reference, my PHEV gets charged to 100% every single night, and after nearly 4 years and 115,000 km I haven't encountered any noticeable degradation whatsoever.

PHEVs are a little different which is why they enjoy a much longer warranty in the US for example than BEVs.

Esteban said:
It doesn't really matter, just enjoy your car.

Some studies I've seen suggest that 40%-50% is the best range for lifetime and 90%-100% is the worst and 80% is somewhere in between. However there are also plenty of people that report that they charged to 100% for years and saw no loss of battery capacity.

To keep a good balance I would charge it always to 50% and then to whatever % you actually need plus a big safety margin that will completely kill any range anxiety.

Examples:
Need 1% for your daily return commute, charge to 50%
Need 20%: charge to 50%
Need 40%: charge to 75%
Need 80%: charge to 100%

Basically this. Upon reading a car charged 40-60% can last up to 3-4x as long as one charged 0-100% I charge when it gets down to 40% up to 60% as my daily drive is rarely over 150 miles.

I went on vacation over the holiday and charged to 100% knowing I'd leave an hour after it hit 100% on the way out and 80% on the way back. I'll very rarely charge to 80% because I simply don't need it in day to day, the buffers Esteban posted are a great example of what to charge to.

Also it depends on where you are, obviously rural places with poor infrastructure are going to call for higher states of charge to buffer against that, areas with tons of charging? not that much of a concern.

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