Choice of charger to keep battery healthy.

[xdcthedoc]

So I understand that repeated rapid charging can be bad for your battery in the long term... though i am still a bit unclear how much constitutes a risk.

Where I live in the UK there are quite a few 'charge my car' points that give an option for an AC type 2 connection, but also a 50kW 125A CCS (Combo)

The latter charges at a fairly better rate than the AC... but is nowhere as powerful as the Tesla rapid chargers.

So... if you pull up at one of these stations and had to choose... if time was not an object... would there really be much benefit from plugging into the AC despite it being so much slower? Is there a way to quantify how much more damage a 'fast' DC charge like this would do (rather than truly rapid) compared to the slowest option?

I will usually be charging AC at home... but if out and about would like to use these DC chargers fairly frequently... but not totally necessary if the trade off is too much.

 

[srs5694]

Some Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles have documented problems with reduced charge rates after more than a certain amount of DC fast charging (Supercharging or via the CHAdeMO adapter -- this was before Teslas could use CCS, but I expect it's included now). AFAIK, there have been no documented cases of Model 3s being affected by this, just Model S and X vehicles with 75kWh and 90kWh battery packs; however, it's possible that Tesla will implement something similar on Model 3s in the future, if they discover a problem caused by frequent use of DC fast chargers. Thus, if you don't care about the extra speed, I'd recommend using the slower AC charging rather than the DC fast charger.

For more documentation on the known issue, try Googling it, or check out this video:

 

[xdcthedoc]

Some Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles have documented problems with reduced charge rates after more than a certain amount of DC fast charging (Supercharging or via the CHAdeMO adapter -- this was before Teslas could use CCS, but I expect it's included now). AFAIK, there have been no documented cases of Model 3s being affected by this, just Model S and X vehicles with 75kWh and 90kWh battery packs; however, it's possible that Tesla will implement something similar on Model 3s in the future, if they discover a problem caused by frequent use of DC fast chargers. Thus, if you don't care about the extra speed, I'd recommend using the slower AC charging rather than the DC fast charger.

For more documentation on the known issue, try Googling it, or check out this video:

Yeah I know about those issues as per my original post.

I am specifically asking how things stand with this specific scenario...

1) Model 3 rather than model S.
2) CCS 50kw charge rather than the powerful tesla rapid charge.

Maybe the info isn't out there yet - but it would be great if someone in the know re battery tech could quantify the risk a bit better.

 

[Rocky_H]

1) Model 3 rather than model S.

Maybe the info isn't out there yet.

Model 3: the info isn't out there yet. There have been no reports of it with that model.

 

[webbah]

I always think of charging like this. Charge as fast as necessary and as slow as possible. Different situations dictate that. The first Model 3 to cross 100,000 miles used a lot of DC and SuperChargers and he only lost 2-3%. Can find link once I’m back in my home if needed but I like my approach and also enjoying the car so I let the situation dictate my charging and don’t worry about it.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Lots of posts from frequent Supercharger users that degradation is not excessive, even when using them exclusively.

Biggest issue seems to be from frequently Supercharging over 90%. This sometimes will trigger a warning from Tesla to reduce charging to full.

 

[webbah]

Tesla owner becomes first to push Model 3 to 100,000 miles, here's how it's doing - Electrek

 

[ewoodrick]

Charge at home and then charge as fast as possible when traveling away from home.
Not only is the battery happy, but the owner is as well.

And then stop worrying about the battery

 

[srs5694]

Yeah I know about those issues as per my original post.

I am specifically asking how things stand with this specific scenario...

1) Model 3 rather than model S.
2) CCS 50kw charge rather than the powerful tesla rapid charge.

Maybe the info isn't out there yet - but it would be great if someone in the know re battery tech could quantify the risk a bit better.

The Model 3 is still relatively new, so there's little information on long-term battery issues with it specifically. We do know that EV batteries in general react badly to frequent fast charging, to regular charging to full, to wide charge/discharge cycles, and so on. This forum is littered with discussions of such issues. OTOH, people also often pay too much attention to such factors, and agonize over every DC fast charge session for fear of trashing their batteries. IMHO, it's not worth worrying about an occasional DC fast charge -- but I also wouldn't recommend using a DC fast charger on a regular basis if Level 2 charging will work as well for your needs.

Also, note that the issue I cited was that Tesla is artificially lowering the maximum DC fast charge rate on the affected vehicles. It's not 100% clear why they're doing it, but I wouldn't call this a "battery health" issue per se. For that term to apply, I'd expect to see a range degradation. You can use the terms differently if you like, of course; I'm just trying to clarify what I mean. It's possible (perhaps probable) that Tesla is reducing the maximum DC fast charge rate in order to prevent a range degradation from occurring, but the two issues (reduced maximum charging speed and reduced range) are distinct, at least in terms of their effect on owners.