Paul Churchley said:
I believe Vauxhall recommend that the Ampera is always left plugged in when not in use but I don't! I only plug in at night. I am on Economy 7 and don't want it charging during the expensive hours.
You can set up a charging schedule such that (unless overridden) it will only charge during the off-peak hours.
Also, by keeping it plugged in the car maintains the battery at the optimum temperature ready for immediate use. I think this is not appropriate for us and perhaps for many others. Sometimes we can go days without using the car and it seems silly to waste electricity keeping the battery up to temperature if the car is not going to be used.
I believe it only maintains the battery temperature while charging. Once fully charged it doesn't warm or cool the battery. I left my Volt plugged in fully charged for more than 2 weeks this summer. When we returned it had used less than 20p worth of electricity, so just over 1p per day at peak rates.
As far as I know I don't think keeping it plugged in or not has much effect on battery life. In fact, charging frequently when the battery is only slight depleted could possibly have a detrimental effect as it keeps the battery at full (or as near as the car allows) but I have heard that it makes little difference so not 100% sure of this one.
'Full' is about 80%. If leaving the car for several months you might want to go for a half charge, but I doubt it makes any measurable distance.
