Good Practice for Battery Life and Home Charging

[greeiig]

Hi all,
I just got my home charger installed - a PodPoint.
I'm typically going to do very few miles -just short trips round town - with the off longish trip thrown in.
My limited research would suggest that good practice would be:
1. not to continually recharge the battery - I'm thinking I'll just drive until the battery drops to around 20%, then charge it. This is likely to be less than once a week or until I know a long trip is coming up
2. When charging - best not to fully charge to 100%. I'm thinking I'll try to charge to 80% each time - unless I'm about to go on a long trip where I need the range.

Any views on the above would be appreciated. And also....

Assuming I'm not totally off the mark with the above: one thing I would like to be able to do - but don't think there is a way way with either the MG5 or my PodPoint charger - is to get the charging to automatically stop once I get to the charge level I want to. It would be great if that could be programmed either in the car or the charger. I think this functionality exists with some EV car makes?
Anyway, it looks like if I want an 80% charge, I need to either
1. stop charging manually at the right time - based on the estimated charge time shown. or
2. Set the Podpoint schedule to stop at the right time after I plug it in - but that means updating the time schedule manually once I've worked out how much I need. It seems a bit clumsy. Actually the more I think of it, if I know that it takes - say - 7 hours to charge from 20% to 80%, I just set the podpoint schedule for 7 hours by default. I'd just need to remember to take the schedule off if I want it to go to 100%.

I'm sure some of you clever lot have dealt with all this - I'd appreciate any wise words / suggestions

 

[MarkLynn]

There is nothing in the manual that I could find about the 20/80 charge level. The only thing is to complete a slow equalisation charge once a month.
Also says slow charging is better for the battery, anything below 7kw is classed as slow charging.

 

[EVsince2016]

There is nothing in the manual that I could find about the 20/80 charge level. The only thing is to complete a slow equalisation charge once a month.
Also says slow charging is better for the battery, anything below 7kw is classed as slow charging.

Evidence so far is that Rapids do not cause problems to the battery if the temperature is controlled, cooled in summer, pre-heated in winter.

 

[MarkLynn]

Yep no problem so how do you cook the battery in the summer, I guess using it in the winter will warm it, also what temp rang are we talking about and how do you get the temp is it on the info system?

 

[MarkLynn]

Above should say cool not cook lol

 

[EVsince2016]

Above should say cool not cook lol

It has coolant to cool it unlike the Nissan LEAF but the LEAF had a battery temperature guage on the dash

 

[GeoffJ]

All that wasted regen energy on top of the extra cost of getting to 100%!

I think the rationale is that if the battery is at 100% then regen 3 would be trying to take it over 100%. The full range of regen seems to be available again from about 95%.

 

[Harry]

Hi all,
I just got my home charger installed - a PodPoint.
I'm typically going to do very few miles -just short trips round town - with the off longish trip thrown in.
My limited research would suggest that good practice would be:
1. not to continually recharge the battery - I'm thinking I'll just drive until the battery drops to around 20%, then charge it. This is likely to be less than once a week or until I know a long trip is coming up
2. When charging - best not to fully charge to 100%. I'm thinking I'll try to charge to 80% each time - unless I'm about to go on a long trip where I need the range.

Any views on the above would be appreciated. And also....

Assuming I'm not totally off the mark with the above: one thing I would like to be able to do - but don't think there is a way way with either the MG5 or my PodPoint charger - is to get the charging to automatically stop once I get to the charge level I want to. It would be great if that could be programmed either in the car or the charger. I think this functionality exists with some EV car makes?
Anyway, it looks like if I want an 80% charge, I need to either
1. stop charging manually at the right time - based on the estimated charge time shown. or
2. Set the Podpoint schedule to stop at the right time after I plug it in - but that means updating the time schedule manually once I've worked out how much I need. It seems a bit clumsy. Actually the more I think of it, if I know that it takes - say - 7 hours to charge from 20% to 80%, I just set the podpoint schedule for 7 hours by default. I'd just need to remember to take the schedule off if I want it to go to 100%.

I'm sure some of you clever lot have dealt with all this - I'd appreciate any wise words / suggestions

I am waiting for a ZS - so don't yet have personal experience, but from what I have read, the car software can allow you to tell the charging to stop at 80% - that might be the case for the MG5 as well as the new ZS. Otherwise your time on charge idea should work, and you will learn by experience how long that should be as the rate drops as charging gets to the higher levels. Also, I think it is recommended that once a month or so, you should charge to 100% - slowly - say on a grannie charger when you don't need the car and it's already up at 80% or so. This is to equalise the cells as some tend to get to 100% while others remain at a lower SOC when charging to below 100%.

 

[Ozzie1989]

I am waiting for a ZS - so don't yet have personal experience, but from what I have read, the car software can allow you to tell the charging to stop at 80% - that might be the case for the MG5 as well as the new ZS. Otherwise your time on charge idea should work, and you will learn by experience how long that should be as the rate drops as charging gets to the higher levels. Also, I think it is recommended that once a month or so, you should charge to 100% - slowly - say on a grannie charger when you don't need the car and it's already up at 80% or so. This is to equalise the cells as some tend to get to 100% while others remain at a lower SOC when charging to below 100%.

That isn't the case on the MG5.

You can balance on granny or fast AC charger. You cannot balance on a rapid DC charger.

 

[CuriousIslander]

There is nothing in the manual that I could find about the 20/80 charge level. The only thing is to complete a slow equalisation charge once a month.
Also says slow charging is better for the battery, anything below 7kw is classed as slow charging.

Since I only charge roughly every 10 days or so, is there anything against balance charging every time? The last time I did this I seemed to get good range and wondered if I could do it every time. It is certainly convenient to plug in and leave it to get on with things, without worrying about stopping at 80% or so.

 

[Gomev]

Since I only charge roughly every 10 days or so, is there anything against balance charging every time? The last time I did this I seemed to get good range and wondered if I could do it every time. It is certainly convenient to plug in and leave it to get on with things, without worrying about stopping at 80% or so.

There is nothing against it, although some say, don't leave it charged at 100% for long periods.

 

[CuriousIslander]

Than

There is nothing against it, although some say, don't leave it charged at 100% for long periods.

Thanks for this. I don't leave it at 100% except overnight. I always charge the day before I know I am going to use the car. I don't charge overnight, but I could try that I suppose. I don't have a cheaper overnight tariff so there is no financial incentive to charge overnight

 

[MarkLynn]

The car should only equalise when it needs to if you left it plugged in it would just stop when full and then equalise, the book does not say you can't do it every time.

 

[Petriix]

There's a slight benefit in winter to charging as close as possible to your departure time. The battery retains some heat from charging and is therefore more efficient in the early part of your journey.

 

[Deleted member 6627]

Still getting used to mine but will likely charge to 100% twice a week at work. Will still need to top up once during the week as I drive 70 miles a day. The reality of driving high mileage and having limited chargers at work mean that I don't get much choice. I could do the 80-20 rule but it would mean charging at home which makes it an expensive option. Probably more expensive than the battery cost. Yes, I am aware of EV tariffs but these just shift the cost onto your house usage. And with free charging at work it doesn't make sense.

If I ever go back to 150 miles per week commute I will change my charging habits but for now the 80-20 rule just won't work.

Love the mg5 though. Soooo relaxing to drive.

 

[Deleted member 7171]

limited chargers at work mean that I don't get much choice.

May be speak to your work colleagues who use chargers too and work out a rota so everyone gets an equal use if the work charger.

 

[greeiig]

Still getting used to mine but will likely charge to 100% twice a week at work. Will still need to top up once during the week as I drive 70 miles a day. The reality of driving high mileage and having limited chargers at work mean that I don't get much choice. I could do the 80-20 rule but it would mean charging at home which makes it an expensive option. Probably more expensive than the battery cost. Yes, I am aware of EV tariffs but these just shift the cost onto your house usage. And with free charging at work it doesn't make sense.

If I ever go back to 150 miles per week commute I will change my charging habits but for now the 80-20 rule just won't work.

Love the mg5 though. Soooo relaxing to drive.

Pretty good workplace that allows you to charge for free!

 

[robin Donnelly]

What is a realistic range for the current ev5 long range battery option ?

 

[greeiig]

What is a realistic range for the current ev5 long range battery option ?

How long is a piece of string? It really depends - you'll see lots of discussion about this. The 250 miles range is guidance only. For reference I did a 2.5 hour drive with 4 passenger, 30 mins of town and 100 miles of motorway driving - total of 120 miles. Arrived with 30% of battery left. So the range on that journey was around 180 miles. But I knew I had could get there easily so drove fairly quickly and didn't do anything to extend range.
I'd say if you are fully charged before you leave, 200 miles is reasonable.

 

[Deleted member 7171]

What is a realistic range for the current ev5 long range battery option ?

Have a look at this and James's other videos. He does mixed trips in a 5 as his work "van".

 

[biffo]

Have a look at this and James's other videos. He does mixed trips in a 5 as his work "van".

James&Kate are on the forum, but worth a follow on Twitter too - going to be interesting to see how the SOH of these two MG5LR they're running varies over the next year or two given the mix of AC overnight & at customer location along with DC charging en-route.

https://twitter.com/Cleevely_Mobile