Heard a guy at the charging station say he only charges to 80% and never goes below 20%

I was waiting at the Electrify America spot off I-5 last Tuesday and this older dude in a Kona was explaining to his friend how he treats his battery like a phone. He said he sets his charge limit to 80% for daily driving and only tops it up to 100% before a long trip. I mean, I've been charging to 100% every night like an idiot for 6 months. Now I'm wondering if I've already messed up my battery's long term health. Has anyone else changed their charging habits after hearing something similar?

2 comments

2 Comments

paige5141mo agoTop Commenter

That 80% to 20% range is what my friend at the BMW service center told me too, but I think the panic over charging to 100% is way overblown for most modern batteries. These packs have battery management systems that handle a lot of this stuff automatically, so unless you're leaving it at 100% for days on end in extreme heat, you're probably fine. Your 6 months of full charges likely didn't cause any measurable damage, I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

haydenp951mo ago

Ha, totally fair point! And hey, I'm probably the last person who should be giving battery advice anyway (I once left my phone charging on the dash in July and it swelled up like a little pillow). But @paige514, I think you hit the nail on the head with the BMS thing. I mean, my work van spends half its life plugged into a janky extension cord at the store and the battery hasn't exploded yet, so I'm pretty chill about it. Honestly, people stress about this stuff way more than the engineers who built it probably do.