Question about charging to 100% for a long trip

[SylvainG]

Hi, I'll be going on a 500 km trip and I'll be charging to 100% before leaving tomorrow morning. I'm currently at 80%. From what I read, it's preferred to be at 100% as you're about to leave. How do I configure the schedule programming so I reach 100% as I'm about to leave tomorrow?

I've set it to 100% and to start charging at midnight and be ready for 8am. Will it start charging at midnight (I'm at 80% and it hasn't started yet) or sometime after midnight so it's at 100% at 8am and not before?

 

[jjrandorin]

There is scheduled charging and scheduled departure. Scheduled charging starts at a time and scheduled departure tried to finish at a time. I dont use scheduled departure because from all reports here its "glitchy" and somewhat unpredictable.

You likely know how fast your current connection charges. Work backwards from that, and allow a 30 to 45 minute buffer, then schedule charging to start then.


I dont know what your charging rate / speed is, but, for example, if you need 72 miles to get from your current charge level to 100 percent, and your current charge rate is 42 miles an hour, and you want to leave at 8am, you would set scheduled charging to start at 6am.

Its not going to hurt the car to be at 100% for a couple of hours or something, its "dont leave it at 100% for a long time" (like days).

 

[SylvainG]

Thanks, I know supercharging slows down the rate from 80% but does a Level2 charger does the same as the charge gets closer to 100%? Can I account the time it takes to go from 80% to 90% to be the same as the one it's going to take to go from 90% to 100%? I only charged once to 100% so far so I have no point of reference.

 

[jjrandorin]

Thanks, I know supercharging slows down the rate from 80% but does a Level2 charger does the same as the charge gets closer to 100%? Can I account the time it takes to go from 80% to 90% to be the same as the one it's going to take to go from 90% to 100%? I only charged once to 100% so far so I have no point of reference.

I havent experienced slower charging on L2 as it approaches the top. What you will see, however, is that when you get to 100% the car may spend "some amount of time" balancing the cells, so appear to. "get stuck" at 100%. You want to let it finish, because its balancing cells and such. It could be 10 minutes, it could be 40 minutes.

I dont think you need to time your 100% charge to "right" when you leave. Calculate getting done 1 hour early, which should give the car time to balance the cells etc and still finish.

 

[GtiMart]

I charged my 2020 LR AWD 3 to 100% a few months ago. My car took the whole 11kW until 97% at which point it started going down. It reached 100% indicated at 7kW and continued charging slowly at 100% for an additional hour ramping down slowly towards 1kW.

EDIT: Added graphic.

 

[jjrandorin]

I charged my 2020 LR AWD 3 to 100% a few months ago. My car took the whole 11kW until 97% at which point it started going down. It reached 100% indicated at 7kW and continued charging slowly at 100% for an additional hour ramping down slowly towards 1kW.
View attachment 798473
EDIT: Added graphic.

I came back to say that I am charging to 100% right now, and noticed that my charging speed changed from 48 amps to 32 amps for some reason, as the car is around 95-97%, so there is some slowdown. I just dont charge to 100% very often so never noticed it before, and dont think its a big deal.

 

[GtiMart]

Agreed. Slowdown is at 97% so you'd be close to your target anyway. I presume that additional 3% isn't going to make or break your trip. The additional 1h at 100% "probably" does some balancing? Anyway, not a big difference in available range when you start driving I would think. At least now you know

 

[animorph]

I usually charge to 90% at my usual late night scheduled start. Then I set the limit to 100% and start charging again about two hours before departure.

Scheduled departure never seemed to work very well for me. I tried it to keep charging within our super-off-peak electric rates, but often enough it would start too early or too late. Too late ran charging into our peak period rates, so I went back to scheduled start. That has been much more predictable and reliable, though it can start hours late if the car just needs a top-off.

 

[SylvainG]

Ok, thanks. I'll charge it so it's at or close to 100% at 7am and keep it plugged until it's time to leave at 8am. If I would charge to 100% now (from 80%), it said it would take 2h45 so I'll start the charging at 4am. Should give it enough time to balance the batteries by 8am.