How often do you charge to 100%

[akc5247]

Depending on the week. Commute is about 120 miles per day, so I charge once every 3 days to 100%. Made my peace with it.

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[Bob R1T]

It depends upon battery chemistry. The R1 standard battery is LFP. LFP batteries have a bit of a memory problem, so they do recommend charging to 100% regularly to clear the memory. The R1 large and max are NMC. NMC does not have memory issues, so no need for 100% charge. Tesla recently added a feature to recalibrate their NMC battery. As Tesla explained it, the feature will drain the battery then fully charging it (takes hours to run). It does not effect your actual range, just more accurate estimated range on a trip.

Good point. Go to Engineering Explained on YouTube. He does extensive explanations for both LNMC and LFP batteries. The only reason to go to 100% is to clear memory on LFP's for range calibration, only once in a while, if you insist on total accuracy.

 

[MidnightRivian]

Usually once a month I am charging to 100% typically when starting a long day of driving / road trip.

 

[mkhuffman]

I charge to 100% every time I drive to my office location, 145 miles from my house. I usually arrive with 60+%, and can make it home without charging unless I drive around there. Which I often do, so usually I need to add some kWh to make it home. In the winter, definitely.

I charge to 100% 2-3 times a month. At home I have been charging to 80% but I decided to drop that to 70% to go easier on the battery. When it gets down to 50% I charge it back to 70%.

 

[babock]

LFP needs to be charged to 100% occasionally so that the cells get top balanced.

 

[ENVErider]

So I was ask a question I didn’t know about not just Rivian but EV’s i general.
Ok I know you don’t need to charge to 100 percent for daily around town use and if you heading out on a long trip go for that 100% on the battery to get that great range from the get go.
So what about some one that only does 70-75% cause they won’t need more than that average. Do those people really ever need to charge to 100%?
Book says once every five hundred miles to calibrate the Battery Management System (BMS)
Guy asked me that question and I just honestly didn’t not so that I would ask the community at large here and does that apply to other EV brands you know of?

I run at 70% of the time and have very rarely gone to 100%,partly because of the battery health but even more so due to the slow charge rate towards the top. I have the Gen1 large/NMC pack. If I had a Gen2 standard, I'd run at 80% and regularly go to 100% so my range estimate is accurate. As already stated by others, voltage curve is very flat for standard/LFP and computer has to calculate energy in and out, over time the errors build up in the Calc and full charge resets it. It's supposed to be better for the LFP health too. Lots of good YouTube videos on this topic if you have the time and interest to go down the rabbit hole.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Charge to 85% every 3-4 days is working for me. 99.9999% of my driving is within 75 miles. I'd only charge to 100% if I was about to take a long trip (rare) or getting it for free: e.g., my local airport has free chargers, I set it to 100% as my return flight is heading in.

This is probably another "unique to me" scenario, but due to a death in the family outside the country, I've been having to take a lot of red-eye flights since last summer while I take care of affairs. If I'm flying back to the US at 4am, it's nice to return to my truck "fully charged". Makes for one less thing to have to think about that week and really makes me appreciate having an EV. Would hate to need to stop for gas after spending hours and hours cramped on an airplane.

 

[HaveBlue]

I charge to 100% right before I go on any long trip. Otherwise between 70-80 around town. 80% is still 300 miles for me so I don't charge that often. Maybe once a week even with my lousy efficiency.

 

[Megaman0025]

This is still not ideal for battery health. It’s best to do many small charges, such as 55-70 percent, daily. Deep discharges and recharges have multiple studies confirming this will hurt longevity. This is why Tesla’s manuals say to alway plug in every night. If you want that battery to last 15 years, plug it in, every single night. Even if it’s just a 5 percent recharge to hit your 70 percent limit.

 

[zefram47]

I'm a 70% daily guy and 85% if I need a bit extra. If I'm doing a road trip or longer day trip I have no qualms about charging deeper, but I live on top of a hill, so I tend to only go to 94% unless I really need the extra range which is rare. At least for my truck, 94% seems to be where I can still get decent regen and any higher it limits it significantly.

 

[CharonPDX]

Charge to 70% daily except in Winter when I do 75%.

Charge to 100% only immediately before a road trip in which having >75% is a *MUST* (such as certain towing trips where I need 95%+ to reach the first >150kW DC station that's more than 5 miles from my house.) Road trips when I'm not towing, or I'm going in a direction that I know I'll have a good charger in the 150-250 mile range? I'll only charge to 85-90%.

 

[Bill P]

My wife and I are full time rv'ers. We pull a pretty aerodynamic 27' trailer with a R1S dual max pack. The computer says we have 345 miles range with a 100% charge, but we don't normally want to drive much more than 200 miles in a day. And we usually recharge overnight at rv parks (level 2 with the portable charger).

I don't normally take it all the way to 100%, but I don't worry about it much. I figure by the time I've trashed my battery pack, I'll want to trade in for something with solid state batteries.

 

[flybone89]

My daily charge is 50% because I unfortunately don’t get to drive my R1T that much day to day :-( - I am in a hybrid role so it’s a combination of working from home or driving only 5 miles to the office. Somewhere I read that for infrequent driving it was better for long term health to keep it at 50%.

But I do charge it to 100% with no concerns right before we head out on any long trip, especially when trailering. I pull an Airstream trailer and camp about twice a month, so it is always better to start with a full pack to have more options before I have to charge again - especially since it’s hard to find trailer friendly charging. On the trip though we never go above 80% - takes too long! So we also fall in to that 20-80% charge group.

Kevin

 

[MountainBikeDude]

First 6 months or so, I was a full charge kinda guy. First EV, and love to drive, so always wanted full range.

As time went by toned that down to 85% normally, unless going somewhere on a weekend, then 100% twice a month.

Now, I typically maintain charge between 45-70% saves me time, there's also a DCFC station close that charges by the minute instead of kWh, so minimizing cost, and time spent charging while also preserving the pack within that 25% discharge window.

If I road trip, I still use the full capacity of the battery, it's there to use.
Worst case according to Electrifi is I've lost just over 4% overall capacity in 2.5 years, and 58,000kms. Pretty happy with that overall.

Edit * just to add, I primarily DCFC 9/10 charges.

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