[Lee]

Curious to know if there is a best charging practice?

I use my Leaf mainly for my commute to work and back, 38 mile (76 total) 98% on an A road @ 60mph which uses approx 50 -60 mile of my range each journey. I charge via 10A while at work for 8 hrs, then 32A on an evening for approx 5hrs.
Should I be running the battery down occasionally to improve available capacity? Or is there anything I should be doing to my current charging method (work are planning a 32A Chargepoint installation)?

 

[Duncan]

For any device using a lithium chemistry battery the rules are pretty much the same. Small frequent charges are best, never let it run completely flat, avoid charging to 100%
So do what you are doing, avoid running the battery down unless you need the miles, and only charge to 80% unless you need the miles.

Though probably however you treat it you won't notice a difference for many years.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

There are enough Leafs out there now with all kinds of charging regimes being used from only rapid charging, charging only to 80%, running down occasionally, never charging to 100%...

From what I have seen the Battery Management System seems to handle most of this pretty much the same. Charging not to 100% unless you had to was the original advice from Nissan but now there is evidence that it doesn't make much difference (if any) and so Nissan now have removed that advice. In fact, on the latest version of the USA Leaf you cannot charge to 80% and all charges are to 100%

Similar advice was given regarding rapid charging. Again, it seems to make little difference. In fact many people only use rapid charging and they are seeing no detrimental effects. Nissan now say that even rapid charging on average daily shouldn't have any significant effect on battery life.

I would say that what is much more important is to charge when you want or when you need to, how you need to, and enjoy the car. The car pretty much takes care of itself.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

By default my Tesla Roadster charges to 80% and gives me a warning if I charge beyond that level. When not in use my car sits at 80% in the garage and I only top it up to 100% as I'm about to leave home (i.e. it doesn't sit at 100% charge for any length of time).

I do a lot of long distance travel charging to 100% and after 52,000 miles and 46 months my Tesla has lost ~10 miles range (~5%). I suspect that battery chemistry and battery heating/cooling promote long life but we'll have to wait 10 years to find out

Jack Rickard (EVTV) is extremely knowledgable in this area and he has long argued that the chemistry in the Nissan/Renault packs will not provide a long term solution. Personally, I think this is ok now they have a warranty.

Plug In America have published some great battery surveys (here).

 

[Lee]

I am currently charging to 100% but will try 80%.

I did read the warranty terms and was abit confused that the car in general has a 3 year / 60,000 mile warranty and the battery has a 5 year / 60,000 mile warranty, how can the mileage remain the same from 3 to 5years ???