Ideal charging to maximize battery capacity?

Dave T

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There are few days that I will be driving my car more than 10-20 miles, many days even less. I've been plugging in the car every night, and charging up to 85%. But I don't really need to do that. Does anyone know, in terms of maintaining the battery capacity, would there be any advantage to charging less frequently? Like only charging when I get down to, say, 20% remaining? Or is it better to keep it topped up to 85%? Or something in between...?
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I think this is something that is very much discussed for all EV’s. Personally I only charge once I have used the battery down to about 20 to 25% and charge back up to 80 %? I have seen it to be discussed on many forums, and here is one discussion from Tesla. Remember the guys that drove across Canada at the beginning of the year and the said their BMS was better calibrated after their long trip. Is this really valid for Taycan? I do not know but read the quite long post to judge for yourself. I guess only time will tell!

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/how-i-recovered-half-of-my-batterys-lost-capacity.204712/
 

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I think in general the theory is to go to around 20% before recharging, and then to recharge to no more than 85% on a daily basis.

That being said, it really depends on how long you plan on keeping the car and how that charging schedule fits into your daily life.

If I owned a Taycan personally, I'd plug it in every night and charge to 80%.
 

KensingtonPark

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There are few days that I will be driving my car more than 10-20 miles, many days even less. I've been plugging in the car every night, and charging up to 85%. But I don't really need to do that. Does anyone know, in terms of maintaining the battery capacity, would there be any advantage to charging less frequently? Like only charging when I get down to, say, 20% remaining? Or is it better to keep it topped up to 85%? Or something in between...?
I am in a similar position. Certainly people have suggested that the life of a battery is measured in charging cycles, which is why it is not recommended to continuously charge a battery to 100% or to completely discharge a battery. Since we don't (or can't, in this case) do much of either, then the question is what contributes to completing a cycle. That is why I do plug in every night, as the basic premise is that we do not discharge our batteries very deeply and therefore can go a long time without completing a "cycle." There are a couple of places where this is discussed (such as here), but that is basically what is behind the "a plugged in EV is a happy EV" saying.
 
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Dave T

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Hmmm. We don't seem to have a consensus. Charge every night? Only charge after down to 20%....?
 


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I don't think you'll find a clear consensus. As mentioned above, this is a popular topic in other EV owner forums. If anything, the only consensus is what to not do, which is run the battery down close to zero and charge up to 100% regularly outside of long road trips.

Plugging in every night to 80% should be fine.
Waiting until 20% to recharge to 80% should be fine.
 

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What I noticed from driving a MB hybrid car is that it always keeps SoC of battery in between 40%-70%. I guess that is the sweet spot.

Porsche Taycan Ideal charging to maximize battery capacity? images - 2020-10-08T005748.029
 

Reg

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Certainly people have suggested that the life of a battery is measured in charging cycles,
I thought that a charging cycle is how many times it would be equivalent to going from 0-100% E.g, 5 charges from 60-80% would be 1 charging cycle. (IIRC that is how Apple measures a charging cycle).

I think the issue is that as much as there is anecdotal data about Tesla and lots of discussions about other EVs, we really don't know what design decisions Porsche has made in the battery and battery management system. Seems all we know is that they recommend up to 85% for daily charging (can do more for road trips when needed) and in 2021 there is an option, but not requirement, to limit charging to 200kw rather than the 275kw max at the high speed chargers.
 


KensingtonPark

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I thought that a charging cycle is how many times it would be equivalent to going from 0-100% E.g, 5 charges from 60-80% would be 1 charging cycle. (IIRC that is how Apple measures a charging cycle).

I think the issue is that as much as there is anecdotal data about Tesla and lots of discussions about other EVs, we really don't know what design decisions Porsche has made in the battery and battery management system. Seems all we know is that they recommend up to 85% for daily charging (can do more for road trips when needed) and in 2021 there is an option, but not requirement, to limit charging to 200kw rather than the 275kw max at the high speed chargers.
I believe that you are correct. The linked article shows the equivalency. I do think that for those of us who do not drive a lot (<50 mi/day), there will be very little degradation over the long term no matter how we charge. (As long as we don't charge to 100%, then all bets are off! :CWL:)
 

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One of the major points of EV ownership is convenience. (Tesla understands this).

Plug you car in when you get home every night and just leave the default profile at 85% (as Porsche recommends). Simply temporarily boost the charge to 100% ("Direct Charging") if you have a long day expected the following day. It doesn't need to be, nor should it be, any more complicated than this.

I've been doing this with my Tesla for 6 Years. (Although Tesla recommends 90% as its daily charge setting). Furthermore, they specifically recommend simply plugging in your car anytime a charger is available ("A plugged in Tesla is a Happy Tesla"). The onboard charger will decide if/when the car needs charging. IOW: Just because its "plugged in" doesn't mean its "charging"...

Anytime my EV's (Porsche, Taycan, i8) are in the garage they are plugged in. PERIOD. DONE. NO DRAMA. No calculations required. Even if I back a car out to wash it, when I roll it back in I plug it back in...
 

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One of the major points of EV ownership is convenience. (Tesla understands this).

Plug you car in when you get home every night and just leave the default profile at 85% (as Porsche recommends). Simply temporarily boost the charge to 100% ("Direct Charging") if you have a long day expected the following day. It doesn't need to be, nor should it be, any more complicated than this.

I've been doing this with my Tesla for 6 Years. (Although Tesla recommends 90% as its daily charge setting). Furthermore, they specifically recommend simply plugging in your car anytime a charger is available ("A plugged in Tesla is a Happy Tesla"). The onboard charger will decide if/when the car needs charging. IOW: Just because its "plugged in" doesn't mean its "charging"...

Anytime my EV's (Porsche, Taycan, i8) are in the garage they are plugged in. PERIOD. DONE. NO DRAMA. No calculations required. Even if I back a car out to wash it, when I roll it back in I plug it back in...
I think evanevery is putting out pretty good information. I had a Tesla P85+ for 7 years before getting our new Taycan Turbo S. I don't think there's a real way for any of us to tell if battery degradation has occurred based on charging too high, too consistently, so we end up taking the manufacturers word for recommended charging.

I'm like 85% when I get well below 100 miles and 100% (or "direct charge setting") when I'm charging for a trip and during the trip. This gives me a decent range for daily driving and makes the most out of range for a trip. We'll talk in 5 years and see if any of this worked.
 

Squiden

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Don't forget that every time you brake, you are putting a "charge" cycle on the battery, so total number of cycles using your home charger will be a small fraction of the total number of cycles the battery will see. The real key to battery longevity is avoid heavy discharge cycles to 0%, and avoid heavy charge cycles up to 100% unless necessary. Everything else is minor from a battery degradation standpoint.
 

KensingtonPark

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Not really. A charge cycle is the equivalent of charging once from 0 to 100. So if each regen puts 0.1% (for example) back then it takes 1000 regens to equal on cycle.
Also, I note that it is even better than that, at least based on the study. The benefit low depth of discharge (DoD) cycles is that it allows you to consume more than the amount you would if you do high (DoD). So, in your example, you could do as many as 10,000 mini regens (not precise, just to show as a magnitude).
 

evanevery

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A big misconception is that the car is constantly charging whenever it is plugged in. This is patently false (you can watch the display on your charger). Just because you are "plugged in" doesn't mean the batteries are "charging"!

Power is merely AVAILABLE when the car is plugged in. The car is only actually charging whenever it turns on the onboard charging circuit. Its up to the onboard software (God help us!) to determine if/when the batteries need to be charged or topped up to a specific level (85%).
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