Battery health

[xrtdr]

Is there any benefit to letting the battery fall to a low SOC?
I rarely let it get much below 40% before charging to 80%.
(85 on days I know I'll drive 80-100 miles)

Also I plan to leave it plugged in to level 2 at 50 percent for a week unused. Does that sound like a good idea?

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[SergeyIndy]

Is there any benefit to letting the battery fall to a low SOC?
I rarely let it get much below 40% before charging to 80%.
(85 on days I know I'll drive 80-100 miles)

Also I plan to leave it plugged in to level 2 at 50 percent for a week unused. Does that sound like a good idea?

Lots of science and discussion around this.

Overall theme: The battery will outlive the car. Let the BMS manage it and do not worry about it, and if anything goes wrong then the battery warranty will cover it including intermediate degradation levels.

However, if you want to maximize the health of the battery, as it to say why not, my learning of 2 years owning an EV is to keep it as close to 50% for daily driving and charge as often as necessary, which is exactly what you are doing by staying in 40%-80% range or say 35%-85% when more needed.

Also, I keep it at 50% when not driven for a few weeks, which is exactly the right thing to do.

The only thing that is recommended is to rebalance the cells once on awhile using simple protocol (available for Taycan as a TSB) which requires a deep discharge to [EDITED] 5% SoC, leave it alone for at least 6.5 hours (overnight), then charge back up using level 2 to 100%, and leave it alone again for at least 6.5 hours, then drive normally.

 

[BigApple]

Lots of science and discussion around this.

Overall theme: The battery will outlive the car. Let the BMS manage it and do not worry about it, and if anything goes wrong then the battery warranty will cover it including intermediate degradation levels.

However, if you want to maximize the health of the battery, as it to say why not, my learning of 2 years owning an EV is to keep it as close to 50% for daily driving and charge as often as necessary, which is exactly what you are doing by staying in 40%-80% range or say 35%-85% when more needed.

Also, I keep it at 50% when not driven for a few weeks, which is exactly the right thing to do.

The only thing that is recommended is to rebalance the cells once on awhile using simple protocol (available for Taycan as a TSB) which requires a deep discharge to 2% SoC, leave it alone for at least 6.5 hours (overnight), then charge back up using level 2 to 100%, and leave it alone again for at least 6.5 hours, then drive normally.

define "once in a while" please ? every 6 months or once a year ?

 

[SergeyIndy]

define "once in a while" please ? every 6 months or once a year ?

I am doing it every 5k miles and as a result after each rebalance I see a 2% increase in SoH. The reason for that is that the car reports SoH and Range based on the worst cell in the pack. Therefore, although this may not be a real increase in SoH and Range it keeps the cells balanced and healthy. I hope Macan EV will get CarScanner support soon so you guys can gather the same data that we do on the Taycan that is very useful. Specifically: SoH, Battery Energy, Cell SoC graph, Cell Voltage Graph, Cell Temp Graph, Launch Control Count...to name a few.

 

[SteveInKirkland]

I am doing it every 5k miles and as a result after each rebalance I see a 2% increase in SoH. The reason for that is that the car reports SoH and Range based on the worst cell in the pack. Therefore, although this may not be a real increase in SoH and Range it keeps the cells balanced and healthy. I hope Macan EV will get CarScanner support soon so you guys can gather the same data that we do on the Taycan that is very useful. Specifically: SoH, Battery Energy, Cell SoC graph, Cell Voltage Graph, Cell Temp Graph, Launch Control Count...to name a few.

The only part that I'm unsure about is whether to drop SoC to 2% or a slightly higher number on the Macan EV. I don't think the car reporting "2%" means the same thing on the Taycan and the Macan.

 

[SergeyIndy]

The only part that I'm unsure about is whether to drop SoC to 2% or a slightly higher number on the Macan EV. I don't think the car reporting "2%" means the same thing on the Taycan and the Macan.

You are absolutely right. Taycan has Display SoC value shown and actual SoC with about 5% difference between the two (based on OBD data), meaning that Taycan has a pretty good buffer that Macan EV does not have. Therefore, it would be totally fine to drop SoC to 5% as part of the procedure and make sure not to disrupt it with anything like comfort access, app access, or anything else to allow this part of the procedure to complete that takes a percent or two of power.

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