Petrol fill-ups vs EV charges?

[Scratch]

So at the moment the panic buyers are filling their ICE cars up, even if they don't necessarily need to. I was just wondering, what do all you (us) EV chargers do, regarding your charging schedule? Let's call full as an 80% charge. Do you charge up irrespective of how much you may need? Or do you wait until you get down to, what you perceive to be, your minimum charge level, whatever that is?

[Utumno]

I'm quite interested in this too, as my current plan is basically to keep the Tour on the drive connected up and top it up during Octopus Go hours to a maximum of 80%. If it doesn't get to 80% after a long-ish journey one night, it'll complete the charge to 80% on subsequent nights. I only intend to stray from this approach in exceptional circumstances (like doing two long-distance journeys on consecutive days etc).

But I've no idea how this will work in practice !

[Raxacorico]

Since our mileage is quite low I top it up at my cheaper rate once in a while. It's certainly not always plugged in. In the last several months I've topped up with sunshine from the solar panels, but as Autumn and Winter close in that won't be possible here. Only once have I been down to 20% SOC (with accompanying orange battery warning from the car) and then I plugged it in overnight for a 29kW 'boost'.

[Deleted User 314]

We use a granny trickle charge during the day (when it's sunny) to get to 80% and do this whenever possible. So it floats between 60% to 80%. If there's a long drive then we charge to 100% immediately before.

[G43FAN]

Over the summer I have been trying to use excess solar as much as possible, but that's a bit trickier now so I have been letting it get down to 40-50% then using Octo Go overnight at 5p. I notice on the app I can now specify 70% as full charge so might do that overnight and top up during the sunny days. (never tried in car so don't know if that option is new).

[Scratch]

All that is really interesting. I suppose I might be different from most, as we don't have access to cheap overnight charges, here in the wilds of North Yorkshire (12 miles from York City Centre?). So our electricity rate is the same all day, therefor it doesn't really matter (financially) when I charge it. I also wondered if continuous small top up charges were detrimental to battery health?

[Deleted User 192]

I let mine run down to about 20% then charge it back to 80% at home, I can add that 60% in a single night with my home charger with the 5 hours off-peak tariff I have.

Unless I know I'm doing longer journeys, which are always known about in advance.

Early EV-ers might say "Always Be Charging (ABC)" but that's when capacities were lower or when they rely more on public charging.

[MotMot]

I have limited access to home charging at the moment. So tend to charge it up and leave it until it’s down to 20% or so. If I know I’ve a journey the next day then I get it charged.

I’ve been caught out with needing to make a journey when near empty (Sunday in fact - 15%) and am lucky to have a bank of 8 100kw chargers 10 min from home. So I grabbed 20 min of charge then and was fine. Jist topped up to 75% this morning at home.

So I treat it a bit like a ice in that respect. Is keeping it topped up to 80% every day is especially good for the battery… AFAIK discharging - or charging the battery as infrequently as needed is best. Whether that makes any difference get the time you’ll own it is a good question.

[Utumno]

The "battery longevity" question I intend to get some information on over the course of our 3 year lease.

And if I get it wrong, it's a lease so

[NewId3]

My installer suggested that the EV charger has a limited life because one component will wear (the switch contactor?). I won’t pretend to know anything about this but I generally try to limit the number of charges per week if I can.

[Mandarinfish]

I'm quite interested in this too, as my current plan is basically to keep the Tour on the drive connected up and top it up during Octopus Go hours to a maximum of 80%. If it doesn't get to 80% after a long-ish journey one night, it'll complete the charge to 80% on subsequent nights. I only intend to stray from this approach in exceptional circumstances (like doing two long-distance journeys on consecutive days etc).

But I've no idea how this will work in practice !

This is precisely my approach. Working well atm

[Leccy]

I tend to top up to 80% (at cheap rate time) when it goes under 50%, which was/is my ICE/petrol habit. It also coincides with having enough range to get over to older relatives should an urgent need arise.

Unnecessary as there is still ICE in the household, think I’ll let it discharge further taking the points about battery health and charger wear and tear on board. Will keep the EV topped up in these dodgy times though!

[Colin1517]

Might be a daft question, but I’m still new to the EV way of life. My pod point home charger has been installed and the cheap rate tariff sorted, just waiting for my Tour pro S to arrive now.
My question is - there seems to be a common theme for only charging to 80%, is there a reason for this, am I missing something? Why not charge to 100% ??

[Utumno]

Might be a daft question, but I’m still new to the EV way of life. My pod point home charger has been installed and the cheap rate tariff sorted, just waiting for my Tour pro S to arrive now.
My question is - there seems to be a common theme for only charging to 80%, is there a reason for this, am I missing something? Why not charge to 100% ??

It's to minimise stress on the traction battery. More here https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/electri ... ranty.html

And the key "golden rules" from that page

Three golden rules for more range
It is relatively easy to keep your high-voltage battery well maintained. If you adhere to the three golden rules then you have already done the most important thing to maintain a high range for the vehicle.

1. Please do not charge the vehicle to more than an average of 80% during daily short-trip usage.
2. If the vehicle is not moved for more than 12 hours it should be charged between 30 and 80% of capacity.
3. To fully charge the vehicle (100%) use a charge timer in the charge manager and then drive off immediately after charging is completed.

[Colin1517]

Thanks @Utumno, I’ll have a read now.

[colonelpurple]

It depends. We live in London, On a normal weekday I take the train and my wife drives to work, which is around 15 miles round trip. Then the rest is shopping or being a taxi for the kids.
So during the week I generally charge to 80 when the car is getting to 30. But I am risk averse, when I had an ICE it was rarely less then 50% full and never less then 25% full.

On the weekends, I generally charge the car to 80 Saturday night, as we normally do a lot of driving on Sunday, and can go 2 hours each way to visit a stately home or some such,