You may see one automaker claim its EV can use fast charging to charge from 10% to 80% in 35 minutes, while another touts that its EV can add 100 miles of range in just 20 minutes. It's nearly. Contact online >>
You may see one automaker claim its EV can use fast charging to charge from 10% to 80% in 35 minutes, while another touts that its EV can add 100 miles of range in just 20 minutes. It''s nearly...
EV Charging Test: Genesis GV70 Is Fastest, Chevy Bolt EUV Is Slowest. We rank the fastest- and slowest-charging electric cars, with the Korean triumvirate claiming the top spots and Chevy''s...
We teamed up with P3 to test the charging speeds of a number of new EVs. These are the five fastest-charging electric vehicles — and the three slowest.
What really matters is the average charging rate and how long it takes to add real-world miles. We test from a 10 to 90 percent state of charge on the fastest equipment an EV can handle.
The ''new'' one I am referring to is what I will call here the 80/20 ''rule''. This myth says that batteries should never be charged beyond 80% or discharged below 20% lest ''irreversible damage'' occur.
Another slightly different version of this “rule” suggests that if EV batteries can''t be taken safely above or below these limits, then they are really only 60% of their stated size/driving range.
So where has this nonsense come from? Like all good urban myths: it is based loosely on a couple of pieces of information that have been taken out of context, and are borne out of “rules” that might equally apply for an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle.
So what is the significance of the 80 per cent charging limit?
80% is the recommendation for normal day-to-day charging of non-LFP EV batteries, which are still found in most EVs. (More on the other main lithium battery chemistry type, LFP, later).
For longevity of EV batteries, it is considered best not to stress them unnecessarily by charging to 100% every time you plug-in. For today''s EV battery sizes, it is also completely unnecessary to charge to 100% on a regular basis. Even charging my Kona electric to 80% for daily driving, I still only need to charge once every two to three weeks.
It is also worth pointing out that the early EVs with smaller batteries were almost always charged to 100%, and their batteries did not ''die'' early as a result. Many are still going with those original batteries, albeit with reduced range. To give an example, my 13-year-old iMiEV is still on its original battery with a reliable 70km of its original 110-ish km range left.
The corollary to the above is that you will not ''irreparably'' damage the battery by occasionally charging to 100% when needed. (For instance, when leaving home for a long trip). So yes, the top 20% of the battery is available for use when needed, it is not ''lost''.
The other reason for only charging to 80% is when you''re at a DC fast-charger. The physics of battery charging is that the time for an EV battery to charge from 0% to 80% is very roughly the same as it takes to go from 80% to 100%.
(LFP chemistry batteries start slowing at slightly higher percentages, but the effect is much the same: DC charging slows as you near the top of the charge).
This means that if you don''t need that last 20%, don''t waste your time (and potentially delay others waiting for that charger) by staying there. Get moving and, if you need, do one extra stop during the day for 20 minutes or less to get that 20% when the battery is at 40 or 50% and the charging speed is much faster.
As mentioned earlier, this is similar to the recommendation for ICE vehicles. In the case of EVs, it:
If by the way you do reach 5% or below, just recharge it as soon as practicable on arrival and no harm will have been done there either.
As a final note: the only true way to flatten an EV battery below its absolute minimum is to park at a low point and then leave it that way without recharging for weeks to months as it will slowly self-discharge to a dangerously low level. Even then, the car will at a certain point defensively shut all systems down to slow the process.
Summing up: just like the top 20% of the battery, the bottom 20% is also not ''lost''. It is there if you need it, but just like an ICE car: don''t drive till the low fuel light turns on before refilling!
Batteries are still an evolving technology – especially lithium chemistry ones. However lithium batteries have reached a certain level of maturity where changes are incremental rather than revolutionary.
After all, a quick look at the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on lithium battery manufacturing plants is all you need to realise that the EV industry does not expect a revolutionary ''killer app'' battery to turn up any time soon. (Unless you''re Toyota, but that''s more to do with finding excuses to not build battery electric cars than reality!)
All the advice I''ve referred to above is what is recommended for cars with standard lithium ion battery chemistries like NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) or NCA (nickel cobalt aluminium).
As the chemistries evolve, some of these recommendations have altered. One recent innovation in lithium battery chemistry is the LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) battery. In LFP batteries, the cathode material is replaced with iron and phosphorus instead of the nickel or cobalt in NMC or NCA formulations.
As these materials are cheaper and in more plentiful supply, LFP batteries are cheaper to produce. However, LFP batteries still only represent an incremental change in lithium batteries.
They still contain lithium and are still considered a ''wet'' battery chemistry. (As opposed to the much talked about but yet to be commercialised ''dry'' lithium chemistry batteries).
However, being cheaper to produce and not containing cobalt, they are being adopted by some manufacturers in an effort to reduce EV manufacturing costs as well as being one way to avoid the issues surrounding cobalt mining.
However, they too after 90-ish percent charge at little more than a 7kW AC charger would offer. It has also been suggested (and recommended by Tesla) to regularly charge LFP batteries to 100%. It would seem therefore they are slightly more robust and capable of this treatment if you so wish to regularly charge to that level.
LFP batteries also have their downsides, the main one being they are less ''energy dense'' (that is for the same kWh, they weight more/are bigger as compared to other chemistries) meaning LFP is unsuited to large battery packs where space for the battery is at a premium.
Like all good urban myths, the ''80/20 rule'' has a real sounding basis that in fact does not stand up to scrutiny. It is in fact an attempt by some EV doubters to increase the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) around EV adoption to slow the transition by restating in other terms the long-dead myths about EV batteries not lasting or not having enough range.
Unfortunately, the public is not yet fully up to speed on EV technology and are therefore susceptible to cleverly designed disinformation campaigns such as this one.
EV batteries in fact do last well and are quite robust, whatever the chemistry used. They also have high quality battery management systems fitted to ensure they are maintained within the manufacturers set voltage, temperature and charge/discharge limits.
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