No at home charging, LFP or not?

[urbaniser]

Hi did a quick search but couldn't find anything on this.

I won't have the option to charge at home (or work) so charging habits are quite irregular. Does anyone know if the LFP battery is suited to this?

From what I know, the LFP seems great at being at 100% (which is what I'd normally charge it to when I can), however how happy is it to be left at say 40% for a week or so. I'm guessing the NCA battery is fine with this as long as staying in the 20-90% range.

Any thoughts appreciated, still wandering the mouse between an m3, m3lr and mylr...

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

LFP potentially makes no difference, you can do what you suggest. The thing to consider is where will you charge when you do. You ideally need to charge the LFP battery to 100% periodically, and on a rapid charger that will take a long time, whereas with a non LFP battery you're more likely to just charge to 80 or 90% and never worry about it which is quicker. The more full it is, the slower it charges. If on the other hand you're intending to leave it on a fast AC charger (or charge point for the odd pedant on here) and don't mind it taking 6 or 7 hours to charge then it's not a problem, I used to do this as the railway station had chargers and I'd go to London for the day and it would be charged (in my case 90%) usually by mid afternoon. Of course you could use a rapid charger and it's still quicker than the 6 or 7 hours on a fast charger but it's a quick way to lose friends as pulling only 5 or 6 kw at 98% on a rapid is not a popular move. A third option is to rapid charge and now and then plug in to a fast charger and let it brim it to 100% but that might start making things a bit awkward logistically.

TL;DR - leaving the car for a week or so is fine irrespective of the battery, but if you only intend to rapid charge the LFP battery then filling it to 100% is not going to be quick and is pretty anti social.

 

[GRiLLA]

There is a specific note in the manual, I would count this as the official guidance.

If you can't ensure it's charged to 100% at lest once per week, I would avoid LFP.

 

[SGPips]

In winter you're going to potentially have very slow charging as well if using a rapid when the car hasn't been driven previously and the battery is properly cold. Non LFP batteries will also be slower when cold but not to the same extent.

 

[qwickshot]

I wouldn’t buy an EV if you don’t have anywhere to reliably charge it.

Setting aside all the grief of using the public charging network, Public chargers, particularly rapids are getting to the point that they are as expensive as diesel at this point.

If you don’t have somewhere to charge it reliably, I’d be buying something else.

 

[Lord Farquad]

Where will you be charging? If the OP has a schedule that means they can leave the car on public charge as part of their normal routine (parked at a gym, railway station etc), I can see an EV fitting in with their life well.
If this routine will easily facilitate charging to 100% then an LFP would seem fine. Will you be using a Supercharger to achieve this or other infrastructure? The length of time, frequency and speed of charge are needed to provide the advice requested.

 

[Mrklaw]

305 miles from 100% could potentially easily last you a week if shortish commutes. If you can leave it for a couple of longish 7kw charges or one overnight you'll probably be ok. Not as comfy as a home charger but it can be very workable

 

[urbaniser]

Thanks All. We have quite a few chargers locally (London) and for longer journeys would hopefully rely on the SC network. It's a good point when could I get the full 100% charge though, as having had an id.3 in the past it never really hit that.

And I get the point about hassle with charging, though it's not a huge burden and am fairly reluctant to buy a petrol car now, especially with the various congestion and emissions targets around where I live.

Thanks all, have some thinking to do.

 

[Lord Farquad]

If you’ve already lived with an EV and found it works, you’ll be fine.

 

[qwickshot]

If you have had an ID3 and can make it work, I don’t see you having any issues with the Tesla. The battery will be fine either way.

Are you leasing? It’s the wrong attitude to have but if so I really wouldn’t be worried about it.

I’m just out in the sticks so I’d never consider owning one out here if I didn’t have a drive.

Someone mentioned 300 miles above, you’ll not even get close to that on short journeys. Real world usable range on a run in winter will be 200-220 miles. It will be less over short journeys in traffic.

 

[MrT3]

If you don't charge to 100% periodically then you need to be careful about going too low on the charge level as the BMS won't really know where it is - you could go from 20% to 0% in a very short space of time for example.

 

[VTECMattes]

So collect mine on Saturday, no idea what battery it has or when to charge it, best get reading up.
Unfortunately my home charger won’t be installed for a few weeks so can I just plug it into the wall via a three pin adapter? How long would it take to charge do you think?
Mine will be kept in my garage so easy to do, the other cars are on trickle charge and have plenty of spare sockets.

 

[VTECMattes]

Model 3

 

[MrT3]

Unfortunately my home charger won’t be installed for a few weeks so can I just plug it into the wall via a three pin adapter? How long would it take to charge do you think?

If you purchased an SR+/RWD model then it has an LFP battery and you should charge it to 100%. If you have an LR or Performance model then it doesn't have an LFP battery and you shouldn't charge to 100% unless you need the extra range for a long trip.

Charging via the 3 pin adapter is fine. If your battery was completed flat it would take up around 26 hours for the RWD and 35 hours for the LR/Performance.

 

[VTECMattes]

Thank you that is helpful

 

[Mrklaw]

If you purchased an SR+/RWD model then it has an LFP battery and you should charge it to 100%. If you have an LR or Performance model then it doesn't have an LFP battery and you shouldn't charge to 100% unless you need the extra range for a long trip.

Charging via the 3 pin adapter is fine. If your battery was completed flat it would take up around 26 hours for the RWD and 35 hours for the LR/Performance.

why does the LFP get confused if you don’t charge it to 100%, but the LR and P are ok?

 

[qwickshot]

why does the LFP get confused if you don’t charge it to 100%, but the LR and P are ok?

The voltage drop between completely full and empty is very small and needs quite careful calibration.

In my view the whole once a week thing is a little over egged by enthusiasts though, I’ve not seen any complaints about any issues when not following the guidance. With the number of these things on the road now in ‘normal peoples’ hands, you’d expect there to be complaints daily on places like Facebook if there was widespread problems.

I think I’ve only charged my LFP car up to 100% a handful of times in 3 months. I don’t use it to commute in the week so there is very little need to keep it at high states of charge and I usually don’t bother to top it off before the weekend if I don’t need the range.

 

[MrT3]

In my view the whole once a week thing is a little over egged by enthusiasts though, I’ve not seen any complaints about any issues when not following the guidance. With the number of these things on the road now in ‘normal peoples’ hands, you’d expect there to be complaints daily on places like Facebook if there was widespread problems.

Agreed. The only thing we have really seen is this low voltage battery issue below with newly delivered vehicle in Germany which may be teething problems with the new 15.5v battery or just a calibration issue because the cars have been in a boat for 4 weeks.

As an aside, rumours are starting in Germany that new cars with LFP batteries and the new Li-Ion low voltage battery can get caught out with low voltage battery going flat within 20 mins if the main battery falls below 10%. The fix seems relatively easy as a 100% charge will calibrate the main battery pack and helps insure it can charge the low voltage battery, as does keeping the battery above 10%. Might be worth at least one 100% charge a month to maintain the calibration.

 

[DrJFoster]

Reinforcing the view of many, as long as you can charge to 100% periodically, and I think weekly is a bit impractical for many people despite the manual saying you should, monthly seems more reasonable, then you'll be fine.

On the 100% charge being weekly, I'm trying to work out the logic as to why it should be done that often. For calibration purposes then if its drifts out that quickly to be noticeable then its a design issue, for battery longevity and looking after the cells, again, if they're that sensitive I'm not sure I'd want an LFP battery but I thought LFP batteries were meant to be the most robust you can get, albeit heavy. The flip side is the NCA batteries where you shouldn't really charge to 100%, if you do the build up is fairly gradual. I kind of feel a mildly abused battery might lose 10 miles more range over 50k miles than a well cared for one and you can take a view whether that's a price worth paying.

 

[MrT3]

For calibration purposes then if its drifts out that quickly to be noticeable then its a design issue

Design issue or not, you need to do it to stop yourself having inaccurate remaining % figures and potentially getting stranded.

I guess monthly is probably fine, provided you aren't going to take the level down below 20% during that period - if you are then charge up beforehand to 100% to make sure the calibration is correct.