3 Common Mistakes That May Harm Your EV Battery - Engineering Explained

[hls811]

Do all EV manufacturers have that “buffer” of extra capacity that Ford has? I had an MME and now my Lightning and I’m someone that charges to 100% at home every night and I starting doing so once I realized there was already a built in buffer. 100 isn’t really 100% and while on a given day I’m not going to be driving 200+ miles, I just don’t know when I may want/need to. (The odds of me holding onto a vehicle 8 years/100k to outlast the warranty are slim).

As I watch videos like this, I wonder if other manufacturers don’t have the buffer and it applies to them more - as far as charging to 100% and really being 100%

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[Pioneer74]

 

[Ffxdude]

after I reach my targeted % should I keep it plugged in? Is there any benefit for keeping it plugged in? If I want to precondition, I would just plug it back in so do I really need to keep it plugged in?

Short answer is no you don’t need to. However it’s a good idea to keep it plugged in when cold because it will suck some electrons to keep warm.

I personally keep it plugged in when it’s home and in the garage unless we have storm rolling through and I’m concerned about a power surge.

 

[Lightning Rod]

Good video. I usually keep my app to charge to 85 percent everyday. I went into the app to set it to 75 percent but it doesn't have that option.... only 70 or 80 so I set it for 70, for now. During the weekdays, that will be a perfect setting for me. On the weekends, we tend to do a lot more driving and may set ot for 80 or 85 for the weekends. I will see what my daily and weekly commutes look like with these settings. If I know I may be traveling more on some days, I charge up accordingly, anyway.

Thanks for the video drop.

 

[MickeyAO]

Do all EV manufacturers have that “buffer” of extra capacity that Ford has? I had an MME and now my Lightning and I’m someone that charges to 100% at home every night and I starting doing so once I realized there was already a built in buffer. 100 isn’t really 100% and while on a given day I’m not going to be driving 200+ miles, I just don’t know when I may want/need to. (The odds of me holding onto a vehicle 8 years/100k to outlast the warranty are slim).

As I watch videos like this, I wonder if other manufacturers don’t have the buffer and it applies to them more - as far as charging to 100% and really being 100%

All manufacturers have a buffer to protect them from warranty claims. You might want to read my previous 2 years worth of post about how to make the cells live (virtually) forever. But please note that I don't follow all of my own advice because I'm having too much fun in the truck. But I do follow my advice for charging to 85% SOC of useable capacity (~80% of actual capacity).

But then again, what do I know

 

[MickeyAO]

So I'm watching the video for the first time and will just compile comments as I go.

~3 minutes started talking about storage at high temps and high SOC. - I'm pretty sure I shared a graph of a cell under test that showed the calendar life degradation at 3 SOCs (30, 50, and 80%) and 3 temperatures (25, 45, and 55C). It was pretty dramatic if anyone can pull it up.

~ 4 minutes - mentioned Dr. Dahn. I've brought his name up before as he is in the same class of legends as the late Dr. Goodenough (last at UT) and Dr. Judy (formally at NASA, now with UL). I have a friend that has managed to work under all three in his young career. I have replicated several of Dr. Dahn's papers to confirm and build on.

~ 5 minutes a bunch of small charges is better than full depth - I have mentioned MANY times the delta is important! But I will invariably hear someone say they have been cycling from 10%-100% for many years and never saw degradation. This is where the warranty buffer comes into play

~7 minutes - doi.org link - this type of aging testing makes up the majority of my work. I have a lot of brilliant scientists and engineers that take my data and can build the life expectancy of the cell over any type of use case.

~11 minute mark - I'm seeing a lot of video of 4680 cells, most likely from Tesla. I think people might be surprised when the papers start getting published on the early Tesla 4680 cells

end of video - Fast charging -my research was in the early days of fast charging, so may not apply now, but here is the poster on what we did.

Great video that goes into much more than I have ever mentioned on this forum. I basically only mentioned lithium plating and damage to the lattice.

 

[wighty]

if your treatment of the truck's battery now can be documented later, these batteries will be in high demand for secondary use in power storage situations when we are done with it.

OBDII sensor gives you a battery health percentage. Mine is at 98.5% after 17k miles.

I think people might be surprised when the papers start getting published on the early Tesla 4680 cells

Spill the beans! Unless you are under an NDA, I'll respect that

 

[Maxx]

If you look at the video lecture by Dr. Jeff Dahn Dalhousie

The video is well worth the watch in it’s entirety but if there are folks that don’t want to invest an hour, here is the summary in min 42:

 

[Jim Lewis]

And don't forget, because the Ford owner's manual recommends charging to 90%, none of the above can matter much! (sarcasm directed towards taking the Ford manual as gospel and not tainted in the least by marketing, social behavior theories, and the 8-year/100K-mile limit on a measly 70%-capacity-left warranty).

 

[peoples1234]

I am convinced that we spend way too much time worrying about the battery. You could charge to 100% everyday, leave it parked for weeks in the summer, and still probably have relatively minor battery degradation over the normal life span of a vehicle.

 

[Maquis]

And don't forget, because the Ford owner's manual recommends charging to 90%, none of the above can matter much! (sarcasm directed towards taking the Ford manual as gospel and not tainted in the least by marketing, social behavior theories, and the 8-year/100K-mile limit on a measly 70%-capacity-left warranty).

Exactly. The Ford recommendation is an attempt to get everybody through the warranty period while giving the driver as much leeway as possible.

 

[Txxthie]

Lightning battery cells uses NCM9 (Nickel, Manganese, Cobalt with 90% Nickel) according to articles by SK Innovation on 6-18-2021.

Kyle Conner (Out of Spec) has mentioned that early Audi eTrons charge better in cold weather, due to the high Nickel content in the battery. I have noticed excellent DCFC speeds with the Lightning even with minimal preconditioning. My TMY has poor cold weather charging performance in comparison and requires much longer DCFC preconditioning.

I believe the 1st Gen Lightning will be one of the best built BEV trucks looking back in 5 years. There was minimal cost cutting when producing this vehicle. Tesla vehicles get "cheaper" as they find ways to reduce costs around the battery. Tesla reduced COGs sold yet again for Q4 2023. I personally will not keep any TM3/Y newer than 2021 out of warrantee. A failing HP can be up to a $3k fix, as Tesla wants to replace the thermal system is it was installed, in one piece.

 

[Maxx]

One thing that is still a question for me after watching all of these is if I operate in 30%-50% SOC range in summer and 50%-70% in winter, is it the same as doing 30%-70% all year or it is still only a 20% worth of expansion and contraction damage.

 

[Maxx]

Kyle Conner (Out of Spec) has mentioned that early Audi eTrons charge better in cold weather, due to the high Nickel content in the battery. I have noticed excellent DCFC speeds with the Lightning even with minimal preconditioning. My TMY has poor cold weather charging performance in comparison and requires much longer DCFC preconditioning.

I wonder if this is why Lightning does not reduce regen in cold.

 

[Nomoregas]

that guy does lots great videos and that's another one!

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