When should you charge your electric car ?

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The average lifespan of an electric car battery is estimated at 8 to 10 years. But you can get the most out of your range and battery life by taking a few simple precautions, especially when it comes to charging. So, is it a good thing to charge your electric car every day ? Should you always charge to 100% ? In short, how to best optimize your battery ? We answer all these questions here.

Does an electric vehicle battery degrade ?

We have seen it: electric car batteries are limited in time, and degrade over the years, which will push an average user to have to change them every 8 to 10 years. But why do they deteriorate ? There are three types of deterioration to be observed. First, calendar aging, which actually represents the natural degradation of the battery over time, not based on its use, regular or not.

The battery also loses its lifespan due to its cycling, or the repeated use of the battery as it charges and discharges. Finally, there is combined aging, which is caused by more or less intensive periods of the device. Thus, the battery will tend to deteriorate more easily after long periods of rest followed by intense periods of charge/discharge.

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All of this data, if coupled with extreme weather conditions (hot or cold) can have a significant impact on the lifespan of a battery in the long term term. However, there are a few things you can do to improve the performance and potential lifespan of your battery.

Is it recommended to charge your electric car every day ?

It is obvious that the less you charge your vehicle's battery, the longer its lifespan will be. In other words, daily charging is not generally recommended, but this will obviously depend on several factors. First, the range of your battery: if your battery doesn't last more than 100 kilometers, it seems logical that you will have to charge it more often.

On the other hand, it will depend on your usage. If your vehicle has a range of 500 kilometers for example and you use it daily for short trips (let's say, for example, 30 kilometers per day), it will not be necessary to recharge it daily. In this case, a charge every 3 or 4 days should be enough.

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Finally, it all depends on the composition of your vehicle's battery. Lithium-ion batteries (which is the vast majority of electric vehicles) do not necessarily appreciate very low and high temperatures, which can alter performances. In this case, more regular charging is recommended.

Should you charge your electric car battery to 100% ?

Most of the time, the main recommendation is to not exceed 80% charge, and to not let the battery discharge below 20%. These are the optimal recommendations in order to benefit from a better battery life. Indeed, a complete recharge repeatedly can eventually damage the cells of the lithium-ion battery. On the other hand, there are some exceptions depending on the context in which you are charging your car.

For example, in case of very cold winter, it is recommended to recharge your battery to 100% to prevent it from freezing. Before a long journey, recharging your battery to 100% will allow you to postpone fast charging as much as possible on the motorway, which is more expensive. Furthermore, each electric car has a BSM (Battery System Management). For proper operation, recharging your vehicle to 100% from time to time remains a good idea.

Note that there are a number of smart charging stations, which help control power consumption when charging, by limiting power to prevent overheating. They can also have a programming system to limit the recharge to a certain percentage in order to respect these recommendations.

How to optimize the autonomy of an electric car& nbsp;?

There are a whole host of steps you can take on a daily basis to optimize both battery life and battery life. electric car. First, if you can afford it, install a charging station at home. The latter will allow you to better manage the frequency of recharges, and to avoid plugging your vehicle into a domestic socket for an entire night, which can ultimately generate a risk of overheating.

On the other hand, avoid fast recharges as much as possible. While they are useful for a long journey to quickly recover battery power on the highway, for example, they can alter the capacity of a battery in the long term. Lithium-ion batteries are designed to be recharged slowly (at least, more slowly than what fast recharges allow).

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Finally, the enemy of batteries is obviously high heat. Lithium-ion batteries do not like extreme temperatures, but this is especially true for heat, which can damage certain components. Therefore, before recharging, try to let the battery cool down if you can, otherwise you risk losing its lifespan and autonomy in the long term.

Also note that other factors can affect the autonomy of your vehicle, starting with your driving. Regular tire checks, combined with reasonable use of the vehicle's equipment (such as air conditioning, for example) and smooth driving will allow you to greatly extend the duration of the charge cycles. It's all about parsimony.

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