Best practice or startegy for charging? I need help!

raramuri · Mar 4, 2014

This is my 2nd post and it is most certainly a question that's been asked and answered. I've done some searches, though, and haven't been able to find the right thread.

I'm one week in to my Rav4 EV and I am curious if there is truly a best practice for charging to get the best longevity out of the battery. Or, whether that is really even a thing one should care about. I'm leasing, but am likely to buy, unless there are much better EV options out there in 3 years.

I've read people here state that the battery should ideally be left at a 50% charge. Does anyone here really do that? I've also read about heat being an issue in degrading the battery. For the sake of argument, let's presume I'm charging in a temperate location.

So far, I've been charging nightly or bi-nightly. I drive about 30 - 40 miles per day.

The manual doesn't say anything about whether it's healthy or not for the car to be brought to charge daily (what I have been calling "topping it off"). Is that bad?

So many questions. I do wish we maybe had better information from Toyota on charging practices.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Note: I'm now using a Seimens VersiCharge (Level 2) at night. Sporadically, using the stock 110V Panasonic during the day, while at work.

davewill · Mar 4, 2014

As long as I'm not doing extended charges, I just charge up nightly (or more often if needed). If you need an extended charge occasionally, try to have it finish as close to the time you intend to leave as you can reasonably manage. Other than that, just charge the car to make using it the most convenient.

smkettner · Mar 4, 2014

For those distances you should be using normal charge not the extended range charge.
Set the charge timer to finish charging at your morning departure time to minimize the time at full.
Otherwise you should be fine charging every other day and grabbing what you can at work.

I am also just a first week owner but had driven a LEAF for almost 3yrs.

fooljoe · Mar 4, 2014

My outlook on longevity is you want to avoid the car sitting at full charge and sitting in high temps, and especially avoid sitting at full charge in high temps. Maybe target your charges to happen more toward the end of your off-peak window so you minimize how long it sits at high charge (RavCharge can help with this, and can also help you estimate how much degradation you're seeing.)

It's an open question whether it's best to have a deeper discharge and charge every couple days or just "top it off" every night. In your case I would just charge everyday to a normal charge and not worry about it.

The 50% thing is really only something you should think about if you're going skip town or something and leave the car for a while.

Since EVs are still so new, there's really isn't much data out there yet on how exactly the batteries degrade, so you're right that it is a little frustrating since there's no clear answer on the best practices.

raramuri · Mar 4, 2014

These are excellent responses. Thanks.

I'm trying to avoid being too anxious about degradation. At the same time, I'd like to be able to follow a plan/strategy and just maintain it.

mark_rivers19 · Mar 4, 2014

My onevway commute is 42.1 miles a day. So i'm doing close to a 100 every day.
That includes trip to the grocery store and some errand.
So i have no choice but to charge every night, STANDARD charging does the trick.

Before i used to charge at work, but now, a lot of people own prius plug in, volts, LEAF, fiat E, i decidec not to compete with them with the parking spot (4 spaces).

Don't worry about the degradation.
I read an article before about a 3 yr Old Tesla ( probably a roadster) with very minimal degradation.

Have fun with the RAV, like you, im purchasing this after the lease end.