Official Charging Recommendations

[captcory]

here are the numbers for the standard range. if you charge to 90% it's actually 83%
If you charge to 85% it's actually 78%. If you wanted to charge to 80% actual then you would set it to 87% but as far as I can tell that is not possible. It only does increments of 5. So I'm leaving mine at 85% which is under the 80% actual and I'm comfortable with that.

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[MickeyAO]

Challenge accepted! This is a great post. That's why this is a personal decision and there is no one size fits all rule. I plan to keep my truck 10 years and will probably amass at most 50-70K miles. In those last few years I would rather have a battery with 92% of it's capacity instead of 75% (hypothetical example) for those occasional road trips. Think ER range instead of closer to SR range. But my use case allows me to do that (low daily driving to your point). But I have no issue with those that want or need to do 100% all the time.

You might find a post or two where I tell you how to make the cells last for virtually forever, and how I'm not going to follow the advice because I want to have fun with my truck...but I still follow my charging recommendation.

 

[MickeyAO]

here are the numbers for the standard range. if you charge to 90% it's actually 83%
If you charge to 85% it's actually 78%. If you wanted to charge to 80% actual then you would set it to 87% but as far as I can tell that is not possible. It only does increments of 5. So I'm leaving mine at 85% which is under the 80% actual and I'm comfortable with that.

Can you post the actual and useable capacity so everyone can check your math?

 

[Fryballin]

There is no way I would charge to 100% on a regular basis. Not only does ford *specifically* say not to do this, it highly stresses the electrolyte and the cells themselves. This is basic chemistry.

Fully charged batteries in hot temperatures are a known point of failure. Even if it doesn't fail, significant long term damage, slower discharge, loss of total power results.

Honestly since all the charging data is stored on the vehicle, if you were to have any warranty battery issues, all Ford would have to do is point to the data and say that you did not charge according to recommendations and they would be fully with the right to deny you any warranty repair.

There's a video (approx Summer of 2022) with Tom Moloughney (Inside EV's/State of Charge YouTuber) interviewing Darren Palmer (I think the VP of EV's for FORD), and they were talking about the Lightning warranty, and I remember Darren specifically telling Tom that the warranty is designed to cover lightning owners as though they were charging to 100% everyday. He said if they had the data that showed owners were only charging to 90% then they could open up some more of that total capacity into useable, but right now, they are reserving it to protect the battery.

 

[Maquis]

Look to see who runs a L-ion testing house (maybe called the Energy Storage Technology Center) and look to see if he left up his previous posts

After cycling cells for 12 years (many different chemistries to include LMO, LTO, NCA, and NMC), I want to keep my daily charge under 80% of the actual capacity...so how do I do this when the useable is different from the actual capacity?

All numbers are for the extended range since that is what I have. We know the useable capacity is 131 kWh and I know the actual capacity is 141 kWh. 131/141 = 0.929, so we going to 93% if charging to 100%.

If we charge to 90% of usable capacity, (131*.9) /141 = 0.836 or 84% of the actual capacity, but I want under 80% of actual capacity...once again, I really wish I could share the graphs.

So let's look at 85% of useable. (131*.85)/141 = 0.79 or 79%. That is under my sweet spot AND meets my daily driving needs...the second part of that is what you really need to consider!

If you have a standard range, make sure you recalculate with the appropriate numbers.

I will start cycling some Lighting cells in a couple of months, so if you see me change my recommendation, you will know I saw something in the data (like I did many years ago with the Bolt cell)

Those calculations don’t take into account that part of the buffer is at the bottom. Displayed zero % is not fully discharged.

If, for simplicity’s sake, we assume that half of the buffer is at the top, charging to 100% would be 136 kWh instead of 131. I have no idea how much buffer is at the bottom, but there is some.

Or am I missing something here? Wouldn’t be the first time!

 

[MickeyAO]

Those calculations don’t take into account that part of the buffer is at the bottom. Displayed zero % is not fully discharged.

If, for simplicity’s sake, we assume that half of the buffer is at the top, charging to 100% would be 136 kWh instead of 131. I have no idea how much buffer is at the bottom, but there is some.

Or am I missing something here? Wouldn’t be the first time!

From my experience on many different EVs we have tested, the lower buffer is very small and does not have an significant impact on the calculations on the upper end. When I do a deep dive into the vehicle battery data we have recorded (including when the vehicle shut down due to low voltage) and compare it to the cell level, I will have a better idea of the buffer at the lower end.

 

[RickLightning]

There's a video (approx Summer of 2022) with Tom Moloughney (Inside EV's/State of Charge YouTuber) interviewing Darren Palmer (I think the VP of EV's for FORD), and they were talking about the Lightning warranty, and I remember Darren specifically telling Tom that the warranty is designed to cover lightning owners as though they were charging to 100% everyday. He said if they had the data that showed owners were only charging to 90% then they could open up some more of that total capacity into useable, but right now, they are reserving it to protect the battery.

It is actually about the Mach-E but yes. That is exactly what I stated and the source.

 

[captcory]

Can you post the actual and useable capacity so everyone can check your math?

yes please do. useable is 98kw and actual is 107kw. found from the interweb so let's double check.

 

[shutterbug]

AND meets my daily driving needs...the second part of that is what you really need to consider!

This! Totally!

 

[Maquis]

From my experience on many different EVs we have tested, the lower buffer is very small and does not have an significant impact on the calculations on the upper end.

Thanks! That’s why I stated that I have no idea how the buffer is actually split. It makes sense to pad the upper end.

 

[MickeyAO]

yes please do. useable is 98kw and actual is 107kw. found from the interweb so let's double check.

Based on these numbers...
98/107 = 92% at 100% useable SOC
90% charge for usable is (98*.9)/107 = 82.4 SOC
85% (98*.85)/107 = 78% SOC.

Please make sure that the available energy at these levels can meet your daily needs!

 

[Scorpio3d]

@MickeyAO
I know this is an older thread, but wanted to check on your testing of the cells in the lightning!

 

[csukoh78]

@MickeyAO
I know this is an older thread, but wanted to check on your testing of the cells in the lightning!

No issues, a full charge is still 320 miles or so

 

[Sedawk]

There is so much good information and research on battery degradation that I find these threads frustrating. People who want to charge to 100% every day (about 94% actual) go right ahead. Ford has done the math and you will most likely have greater than 70% state of health in 8 years.

However, I don’t want 75% or 80% of my original capacity in 8 years - you are transforming your ER into a SR. I want +90% original capacity and the research is clear on this - in you want your truck to have long-term battery health, then charging to 80% (display of 85%) is the way to go. In hotter weather set a lower target. Leaving you truck for a few weeks on holidays then leave it at 50%. Your battery is happier in the middle states of charge - very high or very low states of charge lead to long term degradation.

”I’ve been smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day for the last year and I feel great” - sure - let’s X-ray those lungs in 10 years and see how you are doing. High states of charge and high heat causes accelerated long-term degradation for the chemistry of our batteries — period.

When I need the range I will charge 100% or let the battery drop less than 20%. But if you don’t need the range for up your daily driving then I find the desire to convert your ER to a SR truck over the long-term bizarre.

 

[WilliamRobert]

The best thing you can do as a new owner is to set up an account at ford.com. There you can find everything you need to know about your lightning, recalls, costumer satisfaction program, a online manual and lots of other information you will need.
Here's a screenshot:

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