New Macan 4 EV owner, some insights and question about battery longevity

[pseudonym25]

Hello All!

An extremely happy brand new Macan 4 owner here. I don't usually do forum write-ups, but feeling so excited about finally receiving the car, I somehow find my self writing this post now.

We configured an Ice Grey, 22" Spyder, Sports Chrono with air suspension, +other stuff. And the looks are just amazing. Hard to explain but when standing in front of the car it just looks incredible and 100x better than in pictures. All the details and accents just work. Also the Ice Grey seems to change it's color or shade depending on light conditions.

Recuperation did not work when received, but after some kms/miles and a few racetrack styled braking maneuvers it started to recuperate. I think people on this forum were wondering what's the mileage mark, but I think it depends on the brake wear or some other equivalent logic. I think on mine, it started to do recuperation at ~100 km. Also the recuperation or "engine braking" can be turned on in the Car -> Settings menu (I firstly had to use diamond button to turn it on, but realized there was a button in the menu).

Powerwise Macan 4 is not a party piece, but good enough for daily commute. However the handling is surprisingly good. When at Sport Plus, I think it handles better than most normal sedans and more like a sport suspension equipped German sedan. I thought "handles like a Porsche" slogan was just marketing talk, but man I'm surprised. Braking feel on corner entry also feels very good (I think this car has a brake-by-wire?) and gives a lots of confidence on entry. I'm on Bridgestones but they feel ok-forgiving on the dry (haven't had chance to test on wet yet). The only problem I've found is that I think the gas pedal has a lag (maybe 0.5s or something) and power delivery vs. gas pedal position is like exponential. When accelerating out of corner I find it very hard to control (maybe I need to get accustomed) and finding my self snapping the rears a lot.

Consumption has been dropping gradually now to ~18.8kWh/100km (@10-15C), which I think is quite good for 22" Bridgestones. Started out as 27 - 25kWh/100km. Also had that driver door shutting needing more force -problem, but it seemed to go away when doing a window reset.

But being a new EV owner, I'm wondering whats the optimal way to recharge these LFP batteries (CATL?) so that one could maintain the battery SOH? I mean the daily commute usually takes approx. 5% of battery in my case. One way could recharge the car everyday and keep the SOC at 55% -> 50% -> 55%, or like 80% -> 75% -> 80%, thus cycle amount becomes roughly or theoretically 365 per year. Another way is to do something like 80% -> 20% -> 80% or 60% -> 40% -> 60%. Then the cycle amount is theoretically 30 cycles per year or 91 cycles per year respectively.

I thought there are many Tesla and Taycan owners here (don't know if those also have LFP), but if anyone has tips and insights about how to maintain battery SOH, would be great information for us all!

Thanks

 

[SergeyIndy]

Great to hear that you like your Macan EV with very helpful insights from firsthand experiences.

I can chime in on the optimal charging approach having read what's out there with the following outcome:

Overall: The HV batteries are very resilient and will outlast the car.
Daily: Keep daily SoC in the 40%-60% range and charge as frequently as necessary
Never: Keep the SoC too low or too high for long periods of time
Other Cases: Refer to the manual on ambient temperature impact during charging, etc.
Long Trip: Use Timer to charge to 100% by the time of taking off on a trip
Reduce charge speed of home EVSE if not in a rush from 48Amp to something lower
Rebalance HV battery periodically (I decided on every 5k miles) using correct procedure described in the TSB with a summary below, which is for Taycan, but I do not see it being any different for Macan EV:

- Measure HV SoH (State of Health) before the procedure
- Drive the battery below 2% SoC
- Don't drive or charge the car for at least 6.5 hours
- Recharge to at least 95% SoC at home AC EVSE
- Don't drive or charge the car for at least 6.5 hours
- Measure SoH again with a typical gain of 1%-2%

Taycan forum members like me, measure and report SoH to the forum thread periodically (I do it every 1k miles) and look for anomalies in battery cells which requires an OBD reader and free app. I am not sure if Macan EV is supported at this time, since the app has to have car specific profile to read and report data properly.

Also, this is the video that we at the Taycan forum recommend watching:

 

[Daniel]

Congratulations
After a Taycan, i am also very happy with my Macan 4, like you.
IMHO , HV battery chemistry is NMC811 ( a ratio of eight parts nickel to one part each cobalt and manganese), not LFP
For now, only your dealer can measure the SoH

 

[Salmonfisher]

I really think you shouldn't worry about it. Modern batteries are very resilient. Most of the advice was about early days before they had good management systems. I have had a Polestar for three years and charge it to 90% whenever it drops much below 50% or when going on a trip. Happy to charge to 100% if I am off on long trip. The only thing I wouldn’t do is leave it parked for days on 100% or below 20%. Anyway after 3 years still getting the same range as day one.
Enjoy your car and don’t worry.

 

[SergeyIndy]

Congratulations
After a Taycan, i am also very happy with my Macan 4, like you.
IMHO , HV battery chemistry is NMC811 ( a ratio of eight parts nickel to one part each cobalt and manganese), not LFP
For now, only your dealer can measure the SoH

The dealer can measure the official SoH but based on owner measurements via OBD on the Taycan forum the difference is plus/minus 1%. The importance of measuring it yourself is to identify any anomalies in battery cells or sudden drop in the SoH ahead of time so you do not miss any intermediate battery warranty points. Specifically, you are watching for excessive loss of capacity drops to 80% and 70% levels, although there is a typo there, since in the US it is 8 years and 100k miles. This is a Taycan example, Macan EV owners need to check their specific warranty details.

 

[rpbrazil]

Hello All!

An extremely happy brand new Macan 4 owner here. I don't usually do forum write-ups, but feeling so excited about finally receiving the car, I somehow find my self writing this post now.

We configured an Ice Grey, 22" Spyder, Sports Chrono with air suspension, +other stuff. And the looks are just amazing. Hard to explain but when standing in front of the car it just looks incredible and 100x better than in pictures. All the details and accents just work. Also the Ice Grey seems to change it's color or shade depending on light conditions.

Recuperation did not work when received, but after some kms/miles and a few racetrack styled braking maneuvers it started to recuperate. I think people on this forum were wondering what's the mileage mark, but I think it depends on the brake wear or some other equivalent logic. I think on mine, it started to do recuperation at ~100 km. Also the recuperation or "engine braking" can be turned on in the Car -> Settings menu (I firstly had to use diamond button to turn it on, but realized there was a button in the menu).

Powerwise Macan 4 is not a party piece, but good enough for daily commute. However the handling is surprisingly good. When at Sport Plus, I think it handles better than most normal sedans and more like a sport suspension equipped German sedan. I thought "handles like a Porsche" slogan was just marketing talk, but man I'm surprised. Braking feel on corner entry also feels very good (I think this car has a brake-by-wire?) and gives a lots of confidence on entry. I'm on Bridgestones but they feel ok-forgiving on the dry (haven't had chance to test on wet yet). The only problem I've found is that I think the gas pedal has a lag (maybe 0.5s or something) and power delivery vs. gas pedal position is like exponential. When accelerating out of corner I find it very hard to control (maybe I need to get accustomed) and finding my self snapping the rears a lot.

Consumption has been dropping gradually now to ~18.8kWh/100km (@10-15C), which I think is quite good for 22" Bridgestones. Started out as 27 - 25kWh/100km. Also had that driver door shutting needing more force -problem, but it seemed to go away when doing a window reset.

But being a new EV owner, I'm wondering whats the optimal way to recharge these LFP batteries (CATL?) so that one could maintain the battery SOH? I mean the daily commute usually takes approx. 5% of battery in my case. One way could recharge the car everyday and keep the SOC at 55% -> 50% -> 55%, or like 80% -> 75% -> 80%, thus cycle amount becomes roughly or theoretically 365 per year. Another way is to do something like 80% -> 20% -> 80% or 60% -> 40% -> 60%. Then the cycle amount is theoretically 30 cycles per year or 91 cycles per year respectively.

I thought there are many Tesla and Taycan owners here (don't know if those also have LFP), but if anyone has tips and insights about how to maintain battery SOH, would be great information for us all!

Thanks

55% - 50% is the better option. The battery counts a cycle when you charge 95kWh. So in your case you would take 20 days to count 1 cycle as you are charging just 5% of that every day.