Theory: People who baby their batteries experience more "degradation"

[Dolemite]

From the light reading I've done on this subject on TMC & elsewhere, it seems to me that people who have "never done this" and "always done that" seem to experience more "degradation." As has been discussed ad infinitum, this throws off the BMS & the car simply begins reporting inaccurate range. In the long run, I suspect these people (like myself) will ultimately end up with a battery that lasts longer, even if the estimated range/capacity is not perfectly accurate throughout its life.

change my mind

 

[EV3_]

Let me get the popcorn ready. This is going to be a good show.

A watched pot never boils? Or maybe those that obsess are laying in wait for the first 0.1% "degradation".

I'm in the use it and enjoy it camp. Let the technology do it's thing and if I keep the car 20 years, I'll pop a new roadrunner in it...

 

[Dolemite]

Same here. Especially if I can DIY it. I'm OCD to the nth degree, and as soon as I got the car, I just set it to % and let it go. I'll do a range/% calculation every now and then to see what's going on, but the numbers are constantly fluctuating, so whatever. If I can get 15+ years and/or 300K miles out of this thing, I'm good. By then the market will be flooded w/ batteries and the Chinese will be selling 2-packs on Amazon.

 

[Matsayz]

Same here. Especially if I can DIY it. I'm OCD to the nth degree, and as soon as I got the car, I just set it to % and let it go. I'll do a range/% calculation every now and then to see what's going on, but the numbers are constantly fluctuating, so whatever. If I can get 15+ years and/or 300K miles out of this thing, I'm good. By then the market will be flooded w/ batteries and the Chinese will be selling 2-packs on Amazon.

If you were really OCD, you’d be CDO... /Dad Joke

 

[timmy818]

I always top it off just in case something comes up and I can't afford to wait couple hours or go to a super charger to charge.


The lack of superchargers in the immediate LA area reeks of political corruption/lobbying.

 

[dhrivnak]

I agree. My 3 is now 28 months old with 42,000 miles. When new I got 310 miles on a full charge. Two weeks ago I did another rang charge as I do about every 4 months when I take a long trip, and got 310 miles again. My default charge is 90%.

 

[holmgang]

Mine hasn't degraded at all. When I leave it plugged in for a long time, the percentage still runs all the way back to 100%



:deadpan:

 

[Silicon Desert]

Mine hasn't degraded at all. When I leave it plugged in for a long time, the percentage still runs all the way back to 100%
:deadpan:

Hmmmm, doesn't tell me much. How long have you had the car and how many times you charged it? I'm guessing it is a fairly new car if you haven't seen much degradation yet. Even an old battery will charge to 100% (mine does), but the actual mileage available on a full charge is less.

 

[Dolemite]

 

[Arctic_White]

From the light reading I've done on this subject on TMC & elsewhere, it seems to me that people who have "never done this" and "always done that" seem to experience more "degradation." As has been discussed ad infinitum, this throws off the BMS & the car simply begins reporting inaccurate range. In the long run, I suspect these people (like myself) will ultimately end up with a battery that lasts longer, even if the estimated range/capacity is not perfectly accurate throughout its life.

change my mind

Interesting theory.

I drive my car normally: sometimes I accelerate fast but most of the time, it's been driven easily. I'll keep you posted to see how the battery degrades.

Either way, I am not worried. Batteries will eventually degrade and as long as the car doesn't give me too much trouble, I intend to keep it for at least the next 5 years.

 

[Apprunner]

I only have 13k miles on my car but i bet i have higher degradation. they were very hard 13k miles

 

[alexgr]

From the light reading I've done on this subject on TMC & elsewhere, it seems to me that people who have "never done this" and "always done that" seem to experience more "degradation." As has been discussed ad infinitum, this throws off the BMS & the car simply begins reporting inaccurate range. In the long run, I suspect these people (like myself) will ultimately end up with a battery that lasts longer, even if the estimated range/capacity is not perfectly accurate throughout its life.

change my mind

You might be on something.... I rarely supercharge, charge home 30%-80%, and I only have 288 miles max left after 12k and 1 year. I think I charged to 100% about 3 times or so. I went on one 3k trip though with superchargers and wildly changing temperatures.

 

[Dolemite]

You might be on something.... I rarely supercharge, charge home 30%-80%, and I only have 288 miles max left after 12k and 1 year. I think I charged to 100% about 3 times or so. I went on one 3k trip though with superchargers and wildly changing temperatures.

I'm in a similar boat: <8K miles and suddenly the car decided to lose 10 miles of range. The other day it was 8. What's more likely - that the BMS is off, or the battery just suddenly decided to lose exactly 10 miles? Everyone I hear about flogging their cars etc. seems to have far fewer concerns about this stuff. Occam's razor and all that...

 

[Gasaraki]

Same here. Especially if I can DIY it. I'm OCD to the nth degree, and as soon as I got the car, I just set it to % and let it go. I'll do a range/% calculation every now and then to see what's going on, but the numbers are constantly fluctuating, so whatever. If I can get 15+ years and/or 300K miles out of this thing, I'm good. By then the market will be flooded w/ batteries and the Chinese will be selling 2-packs on Amazon.

I totally agree. Setting the display to percentage and drive.

 

[camalaio]

I'm in a similar boat: <8K miles and suddenly the car decided to lose 10 miles of range. The other day it was 8. What's more likely - that the BMS is off, or the battery just suddenly decided to lose exactly 10 miles? Everyone I hear about flogging their cars etc. seems to have far fewer concerns about this stuff. Occam's razor and all that...

As long as it's an "accurate" reported 10 mile loss (via car at 100%, not some TeslaFi extrapolation or something, around 25C temps), I don't see a reason why it couldn't have suddenly reported lower capacity. I'm pretty sure I'm in this boat. We recently went on a long trip, probably over 6000km covered, and only finally saw evidence of degradation over a month after we got back. I'm sure that degradation happened during the trip (Supercharging etc.), but the BMS didn't catch up on accounting for all that until later. What's funny is this happened when we started storing it at lower SoC to preserve it better (yepp, the topic of your thread indeed!) since this was about when COVID hit the fan in North America.

The thing not often discussed with "incorrect" BMS estimates is that it can go both ways.

 

[dmurphy]

Charging to 90%, set it and forget it. I even leave my gauge in miles instead of %, since that the unit street signs are printed in.

I'm a baaaaaaaaaad boy. Clearly, my Model 3 will be totaled by September.

 

[Lloyd]

I think it's more a notion that the people who brag about 'Never Charging over XX%' are also the ones who complain the loudest when they see the slightest degradation which could be absolutely normal.

 

[PhysicsGuy]

In the long run, I suspect these people (like myself) will ultimately end up with a battery that lasts longer, even if the estimated range/capacity is not perfectly accurate throughout its life.

yep.

 

[ElectricIAC]

From the light reading I've done on this subject on TMC & elsewhere, it seems to me that people who have "never done this" and "always done that" seem to experience more "degradation." As has been discussed ad infinitum, this throws off the BMS & the car simply begins reporting inaccurate range. In the long run, I suspect these people (like myself) will ultimately end up with a battery that lasts longer, even if the estimated range/capacity is not perfectly accurate throughout its life.

change my mind

I'm inclined to agree. According to some folk, I beat the snot out of my battery yet over the last 24K miles i've only lost about 2 rated miles of range in my P3D and I charge to 90% every night.

 

[chdavis]

Set the energy readings to percentage and forget about it. Imagine if our ICE vehicles' fuel gauges read in miles left. People would be going nuts