What do you wish you knew about maintaining your battery before getting an EV?

We found EV and PHEVs have different chemistries and Battery Management Systems (BMS) that makes simple answers nearly impossible. Everything from thermal management to SOC have to be looked at on a vehicle by vehicle case.

We have experience with 2014 BMW i3-REx, 2017 Prius Prime, and 2019 Std Rng Plus Model 3. Each is unique.

Bob Wilson

 

I'd say not to worry about it too much.
Only to maintain best practices like avoid letting it sit at very high or very low SOCs for prolonged periods of time.

Other than that don't obsess about it and enjoy your EV.

 

I personally was confused about EV batteries because Tesla dominates the market in North America, and the conventional wisdom is to avoid charging above 80% and to minimize super charging. When I bought my Mini Cooper SE I thought that guidance was general EV best practices, but after talking with my dealer I learned that what's true for Teslas is not true for all EVs. MINI has built-in battery management that eliminates all of the concern of battery maintenance. Tesla is more of a power user way of doing things, while MINI went for a "keep it simple" approach. But because Tesla was first and is so popular there's a perception bias that every EV is like theirs.

Another issue that wasn't clear was how the charging rate becomes reduced in extreme weather. My particular EV model doesn't seem to have battery conditioning, and when I charged for the first time in sub-zero weather after getting cold-soaked overnight I was surprised that it took 20 minutes on a DC fast charger to even start taking a charge.

There isn't enough general information for the handling of batteries for various EV makes, so it's a big area of uncertainty for EV owners. And no standardization of technology details makes it difficult to compare makes to decide what fits one's needs best.

 

Well said.