[MarkB]

I know there are several Tesla / EV owners in the forum, so I'm wondering what are your practices for charging your EV's to keep the best health of the batteries? I think Tesla has changed their stance on this over the past few years, but that's just rumor and hearsay, as I don't own one. Do you drain down to 10% and fill up to 100% every now and again, do you not care or pay any attention?

 

[Jayazusa]

I have owned two Tesla's, the recommended is charge to 80-85% regularly and run it down to 20%, reality was I would set the charge limit to 85% and when I was close to 20-30%. Teslas mileage was pretty true the rated miles were what you would get, their battery management was very good. Read the recommendations from Jeff Dahn, tesla's Battery Guru. I wouldn't wait to 20% because you never know what any day would bring, I currently own a Nissan Leaf, (Long Story) the battery management on the car is bad, living in Phoenix on hot days you can count on 50-66% of what the mileage rating is the battery management is poor because it is air cooled, it get me back and forth to work but I charge nightly.

I am hoping Rivian will have good charging control software that can start and stop the charging at a given percentage. I really also am hoping the stated miles are in sync with the actual miles.

 

[Analiese]

I have a Tesla model 3 and @Jayazusa your guidance is spot on. I would further recommend pre-conditioning the battery before supercharging to reduce your time at the charger. With a Teslae we find a SuperCharger on on our route using the dashboard, select it and the car will get the battery ready for a big energy dump while navigating you to the charger. Anyone know if Rivian is offering this option to both find DC fast chargers and pre-condition the battery? It's nice that they use CCS so we can charge just about anywhere except at Tesla SuperChargers.

 

[JWardell]

It's generally a good idea to spend as little time as possible at the top and bottom of any lithium ion battery. So it's OK to charge to 100% just a few hours before leaving on a trip, and OK to drive down to 1% (if you dare) as you pull into a charger. But your daily home charging setpoint should be 70-80%. Those extremes are where the battery's capacity can degrade over time. And if you are someone who only keeps cars for a few years, you don't really need to care as much.

Now each manufacturer has small differences in battery chemistry, and some have larger buffers at the top and bottom that you can't access, so the generalized advice changes a bit. For example Apple and most cell companies don't let you truly fully charge your battery, so their 100% might really only be 85% of the battery's capacity, so charging it up every night won't significantly reduce its life. In some instances, Tesla had software-limited packs to a smaller capacity so you could also charge those higher.

I very rarely go above 90%, I have only hit 100 a few times over three years, just before heading out on a trip.

If you are leaving it parked for long term weeks or months, leave it plugged in but set to 50%.

 

[NY_Rob]

I've owned a Volt, Bolt, Tesla Model Y and Model 3......

I usually try to keep my battery at about 50% (150mi range) because if I get summoned to my job unexpectedly it's a 50mi round trip. That also gives me some room for other unexpected trips that could come up. If I'm going somewhere more distant, I try to charge the batt to a level that will leave me at 50% when I arrive back home. With a 315mi range that's pretty easy to accomplish in most situations.

 

[rockreid]

Tesla Model 3 owner. I set to 75%-80% and also charge using the mobile charger that came with the car at a rate of 15A-20A depending on the time of day to maximize my Solar output.

I have a 7.6KW (9.1kw worth of panels) solar system on my house that often makes my fuel for “free”. Yeah- I know the solar system is a large up-front Cost but going all-in on an EV can really make the math work out a lot sooner for payback cost as the gasoline bill is now zero Per month.