Could Someone Give me Advice on Optimizing EV Battery Life and Longevity?

Battery-care advice can vary depending on what EV you're driving and what type of battery your EV has.

 

The most common advice from most of the battery manufacturers is to limit charge to 80% unless you're planning a trip the next day that needs the extra range. And it is generally considered not a good idea to leave the battery in a state of high charge for a prolonged period of non use especially in high temperatures. That being said, some vehicles like Teslas are known to have a fairly significant "vampire drain" when left unused especially if senty mode is activated so you might want to store it with 80% instead of the usual 50% Manufacturers also frown on discharging below 20%. I generally keep my VW id.4 charged between 40 and 80%. That way if something unexpected comes up I'll still have plenty of range.

As for temperatures high heat is detrimental to longevity so parking outside in the hot sun over hot pavement is not good. Extreme cold will reduce your range but will not harm the battery. Your battery has a low wattage heater for when the vehicle is parked in extreme cold. If the state of charge drops too low the heater will shut off and the battery may "brick" itself. This means you have to have the vehicle towed to a heated garage to restore function. This is why you should leave the vehicle plugged in when it's really cold. That way the battery heater will draw on the grid instead of it's own power to keep minimally warm.

When driving in hilly country I like to put regen at the minimum and forgo the cruise control, allowing the vehicle to lose speed going up the hills and pick up going down. This is more efficient as there's less heat loss created by drawing more energy to get up the hill then regenerating on the way down. Also it ages the battery a little less as each charge/discharge cycle is what wears it down. Alas, one cannot do this if you have a type A riding your back bumper.

My driving style around town is to "hyper mile" where possible. This is just good practice with an EV or ICE. With the ICE it reduces wear on the brakes and with the EV reduces wear on the battery and the brakes. Well that's about it for me. enjoy your new ride.

 

I personally think most of the conventional wisdom on EV battery life is based on earlier EV model characteristics, and doesn't necessarily apply to modern EVs. For example, my MINI Cooper SE has over 91,000 miles and I've been charging to 100% every day and I have no perceptible drop in range. I've also run personal experiments and using the cruise control improves my range significantly compared to coasting. The SE's cruise control seems to take advantage of the regenerative braking better than a human can.

The SE may be unique, having a very large top battery buffer (100% is effectively equivalent to a Tesla 80-85%) and an extremely well-tuned drivetrain.

I think it's best to go by the recommendations of the particular car maker instead of relying on "conventional wisdom" which may be out of date.

 

Also, LFP batteries can be charged to 100% without worries.

 

Quite the contrary, a paper was released recently showing that LFP batteries showed substantially faster degradation at charge levels over 75%, while NMC batteries had longer life (though less difference) when kept at higher charge levels:

https://insideevs.com/news/731210/lfp-battery-health-degrades-full-charge-study-finds/


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

Thanks. I guess I misunderstood when Tesla said to charge their Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries to 100%.

 

No worries, wasn’t trying to pay ‘Um, Actually’. My guess is Tesla was just either going off of their NMC chemistry, or had other good reasons to suggest they be charged to 100%.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

Part of the LFP puzzle is the exceptionally flat voltage over the operating range. The NMC has a slight slope which make voltage measurement of charge level possible. But LFP is so flat, it is easier to detect the near 100% level.

There is another battery capacity technique called "coulomb counting." You measure how much charge has been put in and taken out as a running accounting. But outside of a lab, less precise than NMC.

Bob Wilson

 

WARNING: Malwarebytes found a problem with the insecure (http, not https) Electric EV Battery Webinar website linked in this seemingly helpful post.