Don't Overthink Electric Car Charging

[danielt1263]

 

[IanNubbit]

He did a great job on this video. Makes me debate if a 150 range truck is enough and not needing to spend the extra money on the larger battery

 

[danielt1263]

For my own part, I'm only going to be driving 60-100 miles a month*. I figure the night before I plan on going somewhere, I'll plug in to my 110v plug. Slate says that overnight charging off of 110v should get me 20-50 miles and that's plenty for me.

* Except for once a year when I have a 170 mile round trip. In that case, I figure I can fast charge the extra 10-20 miles, although abetterrouteplanner.com says a Slate with a 53 kWh battery can make the trip and still have 10+% battery... I guess because of it being downhill all the way back, so lots of regen...

 

[MotoGary]

For my own part, I'm only going to be driving 60-100 miles a month*.

Have you considered an E-bike?

 

[danielt1263]

Have you considered an E-bike?

I will be towing a 600# trailer at highway speeds. But yes, even so I considered an E-Cargo Bike.

 

[atx_ev]

He did a great job on this video. Makes me debate if a 150 range truck is enough and not needing to spend the extra money on the larger battery

we have a PHEV with 55 miles. The L1 charger isnt really enough for us. It only charges about 30 miles overnight. This means that you cant drive more than 60 miles every two days.

The L2 charger can charge 25-30 miles in an hour or two. Power is Volts X A, so double or triple the amps and double the volts -> 4-6X the power.

With 150 miles the L1 would be plenty, essentially it buys you the buffer you need charge up on a low driving day. But an L2 is really nice so you dont have to be so careful

 

[Kopsis]

Am I the only one who's having a hard time taking EV charging advice from grown-up Eddie Munster?

 

[RetiredOnPaper]

I have followed this guy for years, his info is solid. That being said, based on my 8 years experience with a '18 RWD LR Model 3, hear is what I will be doing. I considered the 150 MI battery, but I will get the 240 mile battery. I keep my cars a long time and I will do the same here;
1.) You can not run away from chemistry - the battery will degrade. (Rant on how Lion batteries are marketed.)
2.) I intend to only charge to 80% (240*.80=192miles) roughly 200 tops.
3.) Even more critical not have it below 20% roughly 50 miles without immediately charging.

There you can see that you have an effective (Michigan summer) 150 range in real miles. (100+ real miles in the cold, below freezing)

This will slow battery degradation, but that will happen. But I will continue to use the same charging protocol so my real world range stays the same.

 

[Kopsis]

Even more critical not have it below 20% roughly 50 miles without immediately charging.

That's actually a bit of a misconception. It's based it fact -- you do want to keep individual MNC cell voltage above about 20% of it's capacity. But 20% "indicated" SOC on the car's systems doesn't actually mean the cells are at 20%. For a variety of reasons, reported SOC on the low end is conservative. How much so varies, but typically a 0% reported system SOC reflects about 10% actual cell SOC. Obviously, limiting yourself to 20% won't hurt anything, but it won't get you any major improvement vs. limiting yourself to 10%.

On the high end, it's a different story and the 80% charging limit is usually a good practice. Though most manufacturers recommend charging to 100% at least monthly because cell balancing by the BMS usually starts somewhere around 95% system SOC.

 

[beatle]

I wonder if the Slate will have a buffer like the Mini Cooper SE where you can charge to 100% every day. On that car you can't even set a lower percentage to stop.

It's fine to lop 20% off the top and bottom for daily driving, but there's no reason you can't charge to 100% and run it down below 10% for road trips. Saying an EV can only use 60% of its battery is how misinformation starts.

 

[danielt1263]

Since I will only use the truck a few times a month, I'll be keeping mine at about 50-60%. After a trip (generally 30 miles with a boat in tow), I'll charge it (level 1) for 24 hours.

 

[E90400K]

What is with his Eddie Munster hair cut?

 

[E90400K]

And the lava lamps...

 

[Luxrage]

And the lava lamps...

His videos have always been really fascinating deep dives into the most mundane and often overlooked topics (ever year he does very very in-depth videos on his quest to find LED christmas lights that look 100% like traditional incandescent bulbs in color temperature). He's finally adopting a look to match his very esoteric interests LOL.