Target Charging Percentage

General rule of thumb most people say is to keep charge between 20-80% unless you need charge to 100% for further trips, etc. Same thing for current cell phones, etc. Supposedly helps with the degradation of the battery over time. Elon Musk recently said that with their new batteries, the Tesla can be charged to 100% without significant impact on degradation. I personally believe there are a lot of what if’s currently. There’s the classical theory of batteries based on physics and then the new theories with all the computer management of batteries. Most people I personally know with EV’s limit the daily ish charges to 80-90% with 100% reserved for when needed.

Like my current X45e the vehicle will never charge to the full 100% even if your display says so. This 80% is a Tesla legacy that is polluting the market.

It is part of the chemistry of a NCC-battery.
To keep your battery capacity over the time, you:

• Charge between 20 to 80%
• In case of very cold weather and you don't use the car, keep the battery charge above 40% (and below 80%)
• Precondition your car before driving away, as the batteries will also be 'pre-conditioned' before leaving which will result in lower degradation, higher efficiency of the charged energy.
• Before fast-charging, select the fast-charger in your navigation system (and not waze), the car will know that you will go fast-charging and pre-condition his temperature to limit degradation.

For more detailed information:

hans.olbrecht said:

It is part of the chemistry of a NCC-battery.
To keep your battery capacity over the time, you:

• Charge between 20 to 80%
• In case of very cold weather and you don't use the car, keep the battery charge above 40% (and below 80%)
• Precondition your car before driving away, as the batteries will also be 'pre-conditioned' before leaving which will result in lower degradation, higher efficiency of the charged energy.
• Before fast-charging, select the fast-charger in your navigation system (and not waze), the car will know that you will go fast-charging and pre-condition his temperature to limit degradation.

For more detailed information:

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Sorry type mistake. It is NMC batteries (NMC811 means 8 parts of Nickel, 1 part of Manganese and 1 part of Cobalt for the ). The positive electrode is made of this material. In the former hybrid systems of BMW the battery was a NMC622 type.

hans.olbrecht said:

Sorry type mistake. It is NMC batteries (NMC811 means 8 parts of Nickel, 1 part of Manganese and 1 part of Cobalt for the ). The positive electrode is made of this material. In the former hybrid systems of BMW the battery was a NMC622 type.

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Thanks Hans, very interesting. I read about the NMC811 batteries used by BMW. Is it primary for ESG reasons they decided to use 811 rather than 622? Are there any negative performance aspects besides the positive environmental effects of limiting the use of Cobalt?

I am not an expert but yes, I have heard that the battery lasts longer when charged between 20% and 80%. Charging to its full capacity could impact its durability in the long run.

Scania said:

Thanks Hans, very interesting. I read about the NMC811 batteries used by BMW. Is it primary for ESG reasons they decided to use 811 rather than 622? Are there any negative performance aspects besides the positive environmental effects of limiting the use of Cobalt?

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I think that also financial reasons are behind as Cobalt is very expensive.
Normaly 622 batteries could have a longer live then 811, but if you have a excellent battery management system, you should not see any differences.
Knowing that Tesla is using NCA (nickel-cobalt-aluminum) batteries until recently partially switched for their model 3 and Y to LiPF (lithium-iron-phosphate), these batteries have a less 'quality' in lifetime compared to the NMC-batteries and are less expensive.
Nevertheless their battery management system is outstanding so that users will not encounter a degradation higher then 1 to 2 % a year which is also outstanding in battery lifetime. Let's call it "technologic advantage" in batteries for Tesla. They use it to make cars less expensive compared to the concurrence.
But don't forget that the driving behavior of BMW is outstanding compared to the Tesla's before everybody wants a Tesla (driving behavior disappointed me in a Tesla Model Y).

hans.olbrecht said:

I think that also financial reasons are behind as Cobalt is very expensive.
Normaly 622 batteries could have a longer live then 811, but if you have a excellent battery management system, you should not see any differences.
Knowing that Tesla is using NCA (nickel-cobalt-aluminum) batteries until recently partially switched for their model 3 and Y to LiPF (lithium-iron-phosphate), these batteries have a less 'quality' in lifetime compared to the NMC-batteries and are less expensive.
Nevertheless their battery management system is outstanding so that users will not encounter a degradation higher then 1 to 2 % a year which is also outstanding in battery lifetime. Let's call it "technologic advantage" in batteries for Tesla. They use it to make cars less expensive compared to the concurrence.
But don't forget that the driving behavior of BMW is outstanding compared to the Tesla's before everybody wants a Tesla (driving behavior disappointed me in a Tesla Model Y).

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Thanks, suspected that. Makes sense, future will tell but hopefully the lifetime will be acceptable and BMW battery management improve over time.

hans.olbrecht said:

Tesla Model 3, Model Y Got New Battery Chemistry, and Here's What It Means

Tesla quietly offered a new, cheaper battery chemistry; here’s why it’s important.

www.caranddriver.com

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Nice video on Tesla's batteries.

I think the other piece about charging between 20 and 80% is the battery's ability to take a charge is greatest in that range. Once the battery starts to get close to "full" the charge rate slows down. For most daily drivers, you won't need to charge the iX every day, so if BMW is going to recommend to charge in that range unless you absolutely need to, it probably makes sense to follow that lead unless you are going on a long range trip and you can't map chargers to help you along. We may be in a better place once Tesla's super charger network opens to non Tesla vehicles possibly late this year. The move to electric is gaining speed and that would do nothing to hurt that(other than maybe annoy some Tesla owners that their network is now open).

The Tesla batteries that are recommended to always charge to 100% are lithium ion phosphate. Those are batteries sourced offshore not their internally manufactured ones. Their mainstream batteries are still recommended only to go 100% when needed for a trip.
the 80% is not really Tesla lore. There was a paper done by a professor I think that determined that 70% was the optimal everyday charging rate. Then Elon tweeted about it.
What I used to do when I had predictable daily habits is charge so that my daily use has 50% as the midpoint. So if I generally use 30% capacity, i charge to 65% and hit a low of 35% at the end of the day.

Pefrog said:

Hi Everyone,

Took delivery today of my iX 50 today. The BMW genius did a great job of setting up all the features. Some really amazing stuff. But one thing seemed odd to me. He reduced the Target Charging percentage from 100% to 80%. He said charging the car to 100% all time will wear out the battery and could be damaging. He said the car will trickle charge to 100 % if its plugged in. I'm at 90% now and I plugged it in and the car sent me a message saying charging was not necessary as the battery percentage is above the target percentage.

Has anyone heard this regarding battery damage at 100% charge?
What is your Charging Target Percentage?
Will the car charge above the Target ?

Thanks, This is my first EV. So I don't want to break it on the first day.

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Hi, because the dealer has set the maximum charge to 80% the car stops charging when it reaches the target.
You can change the target charging percentage in the car or in the app to 100%.
I generally only charge to 80% and only charge to 100% when needed for long trips.
Hope that helps.