BATTERY LIFE ISSUE

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martin0

New member
Joined
Sep 3, 2017
Messages
1
The instruction booklets for my new Leaf advise setting a limit of 80 percent charge, to make the battery last longer.
My question is how important is it to battery life, to charge only to 80 percent?
Thanks a lot.
 
For the first 3 years of the lease of my 2012 I followed the charge to 80% recommendation unless I needed 100% to make a journey. After I bought the lease out I started charging to 100% as the battery started to degrade, and now my car is currently in getting the battery replaced at 5 and a half years old. So if you ask me I would say no charging to 80% doesn't extend the battery life at all from my own personal experience. Your local climate is going to play a bigger factor in how long the battery lasts than whether or not you charge to 80% all the time.

As a side note I am assuming you bought a 2010-2012ish car. If memory serves me right in 2013 and newer they removed the charge to 80% feature in all LEAF's. Only the original Japanese cars have the feature to my knowledge. So seeing as Nissan removed the feature I imagine they figure it doesn't do to much to extend the battery life as I have observed.
 
The 2013 Leaf has the charge to 80% option as part of the car's general options, as opposed to an 80% charge timer only. The timer option was also retained. Starting in 2014 the feature was removed in the US, probably because of EPA range estimate issues with it.

It may be misleading to dismiss the value of the feature based on packs made before April of 2013, as they all degrade rapidly over time as well as from heat. Starting with Leafs manufactured in April of 2013, the packs don't degrade as fast over time, and so the 80% charge option may be of more value in extending pack life. I use it all the time, charging only to 100% when needed. So of all the Leafs sold in the US so far, only those made for 9 months in 2013 have both the more age-resistant chemistry and the 80% charge option. European Leafs still have it, AFAIK.
 
Roadburner440 said:
If memory serves me right in 2013 and newer they removed the charge to 80% feature in all LEAF's.
No. It is still present in US 2013 model year cars. This is true of my former leased '13 and my current used '13. And, as Leftie notes, they actually improved the feature on the '13.

It was removed on model year 2014+ US Leafs: http://insideevs.com/2014-nissan-leaf-mostly-unchanged-as-range-technically-moves-up-to-84-miles/.
Roadburner440 said:
If memory serves me right in 2013 and newer they removed the charge to 80% feature in all LEAF's.
Only the original Japanese cars have the feature to my knowledge. So seeing as Nissan removed the feature I imagine they figure it doesn't do to much to extend the battery life as I have observed.
No. Irish 2015 Leafs still had it: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=416013#p416013.

I wish the PDFs of the manuals esp. in English for Leafs outside the US were more easily/readily available. I probably should also start a roll call thread about those with 2014+ Leafs outside the US and whether theirs has charge to 80% feature.

OP, out of curiosity, what country are you in? What model year of Leaf? Do you know if the PDFs of your owners manual are available? If so, where?
 
Interesting the 13's had a straight charge to 80% feature. I always wished my 2012 had it when I was using the 80% timer. I just set the timer to 30 minutes prior to me leaving for work everyday and never had any issue though. To be honest I don't even feel my battery pack was ever exposed to really high heat. It would get up to a pack temp of 100 maybe for a week or 2 out of the year, with a few months in the 80-100F range, and then the vast majority of the year it is 80F or less. Is the main reason I feel charging to 80% didn't help my car except maybe a little bit. I may go back to 80% with the new battery though and see, but from looking at the lizard battery stats on here it seems they hold up extremely well even fully charging them. With some people only dropping the first bar at my current mileage.
 
My take is that,,,, Yes, the manuals have always recommended that you charge to 80% for "long life". However, the question is If you cant drive the car below 20% charge and should only charge up to 80-% charge, then you only got a 60% of the car you intended to get and paid for.

Yes, the media may say that you will live longer if you only eat celery, but that is ridiculous. I have a 15. I drive about 50 miles per day, and charge it up to 100% every night. It has 40K miles, at 97% state of health, and 12 bars on the dash. I don't think that 3 years of charging to 100% has done too much damage.....

I say... Charge er up to 100% if you drive 20-50 miles per day. If you only drive 10-20 miles daily, then charge her up to only 80%.
 
However, the question is If you cant drive the car below 20% charge and should only charge up to 80-% charge, then you only got a 60% of the car you intended to get and paid for.

Is someone threatening you if they find out you drove below 20% SOC? Call the police! It's actually fine to go below 20% as long as you try to plug in immediately afterwards. Lots of commuters here do it several days a week, with no reported problems. I wouldn't recommend going below the point where the SOC % disappears often, but driving to even the second low battery warning should be no problem at all, if you're just about at your destination then.
 
If I had to choose between ending my day below 15% SoC or starting out above 90% I would pick the high start. Not only would I prefer to avoid the range anxiety, I consider low SoC more detrimental in general than high.
It is probably best to charge in the early morning if possible since that is the coolest time of day, and it has the added benefit of not leaving the battery at a high SoC for too long.
 
Not only would I prefer to avoid the range anxiety, I consider low SoC more detrimental in general than high.

It may 'feel wrong' to run a lithium battery low, but as long as it isn't left sitting while low, there is no harm in doing it. Try to find evidence of damage from going below 20% regularly and recharging immediately. You won't find it.
 
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