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80% charging limit? 20% to 80% Useable? Am I being Cheated?

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1.9K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  Salkin  
#1 · (Edited)
wood1 said:
As a brand new EV owner I am confounded by the marketing hype and misinformation from the manufacturers and dealers. For example, the dealer told me I should only drive between 20 and 80 % charge, so having a car with 320 miles range is really misleading when you can only really drive 60 % of the range which is not much in winter due to battery degradation. So I am constantly charging my car after about 150 miles. I am dreading my electric bill. Perhaps these cars are best suited for warmer climates?
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the dealer told me I should only drive between 20 and 80 % charge
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The dealer's advice is combining a few different rules of thumb into something that sounds like you only have 60% capacity ever.

I'll break down the pieces:

Home Charging:
  • Charging to 100% frequently and leaving the car at 100% for long periods, especially in hot climate, can damage the battery.
  • Therefore most EVs are recommended to charge to 80% or 90% for your daily home charging.
  • There is nothing wrong with charging to 100% at home before you depart for a long trip.
Fast Charging:
  • When using public fast DC chargers like Electrify America or Tesla Supercharger, all EVs will slow down their charging when they hit about 80% charge. If you sit at the fast charger waiting to get to 90% or 100% you are just wasting your time when you could be driving instead.
Avoiding running out of battery:
  • How comfortable are you in your ICE car letting the tank go nearly empty? I suppose if you are confident where the next gas station is you might let it go really close, but on a long road trip where you aren't familiar with refueling options you might be more conservative.
  • It is similar with EVs. If you are sure you can make that next charging station by 5% then go for it. If you aren't as comfortable then you might want to plan charging around 10% or even 20% if you are super conservative.
For day-to-day driving.
  • This is easy. Charge to 80% or 90% at home every night, get home before 10%, then charge again overnight.
For road-trips:
  • Charge at home to 100% before you leave.
  • Use a route planner to help you find charging stations on the way.
  • Drive until you are at 10% if you are comfortable with going that low and your planner says you'll make it.
  • Charge to 80% at each stop (or whatever your planner recommends) because charging slows down after that.
  • If you stop overnight somewhere with level 2, get back to 100% before you depart.
You really do have 100% capability. It's just that when road-tripping the combination of wanting a safely margin at the bottom and slow charging at the top limits you to more like 60%-70% between charges unless they are overnight stops.
 
#2 ·
Here's something else to consider. 20-80% is 60% of the battery "tank". For gas and diesel, it's recommended you don't drive below a quarter of the tank to protect the fuel pump from overheating. This is 75%. If you extend the EV's "tank" to 15 to 90% you end up with the same 75% of the tank as usable space.
 
#3 ·
Based on the physics and chemistry of Lithium-Ion batteries, 90% should have no faster long-term degradation than 80%. I've seen the electron microscope images and research of the dendrite growth that causes this degradation - it only occurs when nearing full (> 95%) and nearing empty (<5%).
 
#6 · (Edited)
I have been on a 40%-75% charge cycle on my EQEV for a while now. That's 35% "usable" battery. I initially had the charging set to an 80% limit, but we rarely need that much range. And I initially followed ABC and had the car plugged in every time it was parked at home. However, this resulted in the car being charged to 70%-80% most of the time, and occasionally to 45%-80% after a longish out-of-town trip.

After obtaining the baseline EV range data from the car and installing a faster 48A L2 EVSE, I adjusted my charging schedule to set a 75% limit and stopped ABC. We drive the car without topping it off until it hits ~40% SOC remaining. Then plug in. This usually happens average once or twice a week, depending on the frequency of the trips we make. We charged to 100% only once for the night before taking a long out-of-state trip (~300 miles one way). For us, a 35% "usable" battery is sufficient for our daily use, and if that practice prolongs the battery's life, then that's all good. No cheating there.
 
#10 ·
The roadside service AAA has this in 14 markets. Hopefully it will expand beciase people already wait 2 hours + for help with simple towing ir help. I can only imagine the wait for the few EV charging vans/trucks. You might be better off being towed to a nearby charger depending on your area. Here's the link and screenshot of map showing the 14 areas this is available.

newsroom.aaa.com

Electrifying AAA Member Benefits

ORLANDO, FL. (December 1, 2022) – AAA is expanding its capabilities and membership perks by creating innovative roadside solutions geared toward electric
newsroom.aaa.com newsroom.aaa.com
 

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#12 ·
To be fair, in rural areas the distance between chargers can be such that if one is out of service it can be touch and go to reach the next one. You can face a choice of trying to find a place to plug in or take a chance of running out on a stretch of road with no houses and then trying to find a flatbed tow truck.

Fortunately I am not speaking from experience.
 
B
#13 ·
Being it’s a level 1 EVSE in the car we’re talking about , I’d make a decent attempt to find a standard 120 volt outlet. That is, if I had already planned my trip so poorly that I got in to that situation.
 
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