Charging practice

[Cliff Mitchell]

I have had my ZSEV for nearing two years. I have always charged the car at home and generally to 80-88%. Over the two year period (35000 kms) I have balanced the battery about one a month. Yesterday after the balance the car registered 251 Kms (N) and 263 (E). I have read on this forum that some people charge their cars to 100% all the time. If there is someone out there who charges to 100% most of the time and has had the vehicle for about 2 years or 35000 kms, give me an indication of how many miles/kilometers registers on the vehicle when fully charged.

I ask the question to simply determine whether I need to change my charging practice or leave it as it is, although I would like to increase the charge percentage if it doesn't create any issues.

 

[mj224]

At home, with my 7KW charger, I always charge to 100%, and balance after that. Generally, I charge once a week, and on occasion use a public Rapid Charger if on longer trips away from home. With these cold winter temperatures, the mileage after a full charge is around 150 miles, of which I may get 120+ after lots of motorway use. My EV is a CV70 reg.

My thoughts are that the full charge range is little enough, without only charging to 80%. Being an OAP, my needs don't usually take me far from home, and I really don't worry too much about battery degradation........

 

[Miles]

Hi Cliff, et al,
I have had my ZS EV since January 2021, so just about 2 years. I have only done 12,000 km and by choice charge to 100% as a matter of course. My three main reasons 1) battery degradation is of little concern given my driving habits 2) I almost always use a 7kW AC charge point and 3) there is no way of automatically stopping the charge process at a specific percent on this version of MG ZS EV.

Simplicity drives my habit.

For the first 18 months, at 100% charge (balanced or not) the range was always guessed at 263km, then drops to 224 km (N) 235 (E) once the a/c fires up. (A/C is on 99% of the time up here on the Gold Coast). Recently those numbers have fallen to 256, 218 (N) and 228 (E) respectively. This is about 3% loss of range over 2 years - within the bounds of reasonableness for Li-Ion batteries.

Friends with Teslas, EQCs, Leafs, argue I am doing it all wrong, but they have yet to provide evidence that their degradation (by charging to 80%) is significantly better/less.

I hope this was useful.
Miles

 

[Cliff Mitchell]

Thanks Miles,

The information you provided was very useful. It appears the vehicles are about the same age but I have done about twice the milage. It appears that my 5% loss is comparable to your 3% given the milage difference.

I live on the Central Coast of NSW, we don't have the heat you do, but it rains all the time lately. I use a 7kw home charger on which I can select the amperage. I have always charged mine on the 15 Amp setting (3.3 kw) and it charges the car at 20 kilometers per hour. It also has a 6 hour delay timer on it, so I can manage the charge to provide what I want and when it needs to finish (still have to turn it off).

In recent times I have gone all out and obtained a Tesla powerwall 2 - now I can charge on solar without the inevitable dips in solar requiring drawing energy from the grid.

Thanks for the information about 100% charging - it appears I can go to 100% more often, allowing for a couple of days without charge.

Thanks again Cliff