KerbMonster
Active Member
I think in general the bottom buffer is slightly bigger as you are very much correct that too close to zero is instant battery death. Some Tesla roadster owners had a nasty shock when leaving their cars at the airport for 2 weeks and coming back to a dead car a $30k bill not covered by warranty...I’d assume that 5kWh is reserved at the top, and 5kWh at the bottom. (Not based on facts, purely an assumption of: 0% is death for a battery, and long term storage at 100% isn’t recommended.)
Todays cars are very different beasts and it's highly unlikely to happen even if you left your car for a long time. the parasitic losses are just so low now and the battery packs are good and shutting down to protect themselves as the charge drops.
Also for avoidance of doubt, I'm not saying you should charge to 100% every time and I'm guessing for 95% of drives the 85% recommended is more than enough.
But on the flip side, people shouldn't be frightened, worried or stressed out if they do decide to charge to 100% that the battery will be instantly damaged.
To me it's no different to hitting the rev limit in a ICE car... Now and then is fine but you wouldn't want to do it all the time (unless it's a rental car then all bets are off).
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