Does driving style affect durability of batteries/engine?

Hi all,

Just curious: Does 'bad' driving style affect the durabilities of the batteries and/or engine? I know that accelerating/decelerating fast does not give me the same mileage as doing this gently, but will it actually affect the battery and/or engine in a negative way? Or just the # of kms/miles I'll get out of a full charge?

Nominally, maybe. But I don't think it's a huge concern.

mwalsh said:

Nominally, maybe. But I don't think it's a huge concern.

Click to expand...

Good! Then I can drive it in the same rally-style as I drive my Prius currently, with 0-impact on the environment or my car!
(unlike the Prius, which does spew out more exhaust when I drive it like this...)

evert said:

Good! Then I can drive it in the same rally-style as I drive my Prius currently

Click to expand...

Wait. This isn't Petter Solberg writing, is it? I'm not sure about "rally-style". Or at least not the rally-style I think of when I see you Scandinavians rally. That might be more detrimental than me blasting up to 94mph on the 405 freeway every once in a while.

mwalsh said:

evert said:

Good! Then I can drive it in the same rally-style as I drive my Prius currently

Click to expand...

Wait. This isn't Petter Solberg writing, is it? I'm not sure about "rally-style". Or at least not the rally-style I think of when I see you Scandinavians rally. That might be more detrimental than me blasting up to 94mph on the 405 freeway every once in a while.

Click to expand...

Nope, the name is Evert :lol:
And I'm not even a true Scandinavian. Just a Dutch emigrant who moved out here... I guess I was mostly referring to going 0-60mph with pedal-to-the-metal, and 60-0 in similar fashion

Changed my mind completely, and am now of the opinion that driving style matters hugely when it comes to degradation in an original type battery pack (non-lizard). Where aggressive driving can increase the temperatures in a pack that is already experiencing detrimental effects from high ambients.

evert said:

mwalsh said:

evert said:

Good! Then I can drive it in the same rally-style as I drive my Prius currently

Click to expand...

Wait. This isn't Petter Solberg writing, is it? I'm not sure about "rally-style". Or at least not the rally-style I think of when I see you Scandinavians rally. That might be more detrimental than me blasting up to 94mph on the 405 freeway every once in a while.

Click to expand...

Nope, the name is Evert :lol:
And I'm not even a true Scandinavian. Just a Dutch emigrant who moved out here... I guess I was mostly referring to going 0-60mph with pedal-to-the-metal, and 60-0 in similar fashion

Click to expand...

Somewhat like this ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMjsAMlXGBI

mwalsh said:

Changed my mind completely, and am now of the opinion that driving style matters hugely when it comes to degradation in an original type battery pack (non-lizard). Where aggressive driving can increase the temperatures in a pack that is already experiencing detrimental effects from high ambients.

Click to expand...

I agree. I think my degradation is accelerated, despite my otherwise mostly cool climate, by the relatively high kW needed to climb steep grades every time I leave home. I've had a meter for a couple of years and can watch the battery warm up as I go up in elevation. Aggressive driving at high power levels ought to have much the same effect. And we well know that degradation is closely related to battery temperature in the 2011/2012 batteries. Might be less of an issue with the 2015 "lizard" battery.

Battery life is definitely affected by the rate at which you discharge or charge it, heat being a big part of that. That being said, just how much it's affected for any given chemistry is something only the engineers and scientists know, unless they're willing to share what is sometimes proprietary info. So, your battery will unquestionably last longer if you're gentle with your accel, but whether that means you'll get five more days of useful life, five months or five years, we just don't know, and probably not measurable in the real world except statistically - there's too many other independent variables.