How To Ruin Your Electric Car's Battery - 3 Common Mistakes

Here in Chile, in my company, we have more than 800 electrical buses with around 250KWh of original capacity, bought almost yearly from 2016 to 2023. We currently don't see a significant (statistically) degradation in capacity (SoH) even after 300.000 KM, but we take precautions: we avoid charging to 100% wen in the higher side of the city to avoid loosing the possibility of recharging on the road, we do a full charge at least once a week, we rotate the buses from different routes, we don't start routes with less than 30% of charge to avoid running out of energy due to unexpected problems on the road. We have some cases of degradation of around 3%, but once again, on a fleet analysis, degradation = 0% statistically.

With the high number of LFP batteries now being sold, it would be fantastic if you could make a similar video focused on LFP.

This video will be shared like crazy in the EV forums, among new owners. Well done

See timestamps for points, reasoning and caveats: 1) 0:58 don't store your car at 100% battery for long periods 2) 4:30 Don't wait to charge your car (many short changes are preferable to fewer big charges) 3) 8:30 Don't regularly charge to 100%

The real challenge will be getting the general consumer to actually follow these best practices. Even after decades of preaching we still can't get people to follow routine oil changes.

We have used Level 1 charging on all of our short distance EV's with great results. I just sold a 2013 Leaf SL with 92% battery health. It did have an 80% charge setting.

I just bought an ev and was looking for a video like this for a while. Thank you so much for all the quality content engineering explained.

Fantastic. This is the first youtube presentation of Li-ion batteries that not only gets it right but also have real in depth explanation. It is probably not that obvious for the viewer why the cracking is the a problem as you explained SEI formation early and didn't mention the cracking when the intercalation materials expand exposing the electrodes so they form new SEI and lose capacity. A part 2 about charging speeds and temperature maybe even coupled with risk if lithium plating might also be interesting. BTW I used these guiding 'rules' above for the first EV I had. When I sold the Nissan Leaf 24 kWh (notorious for degradation), I still had SoH at 93% and 'all bars'. (I know this is not precise but a guidance).

Excellent video, Jason. I appreciate that you don't take a side, but rather evaluate things from an engineer's perspective, looking at the advantages, disadvantages, and requirements of the topic at hand.

This should be a required syllabus for anyone who has an EV or buying an EV. Great video!

WOW - this was excellent! Really appreciate your summarization from other sources while still sharing important details about the "why" of this stuff!

Excellent video Jason! My relation to this topic comes from 5 plus years of ownership of my 2018 Zero SR motorcycle which has a 14.4 KWh pack. I have a little less than 18,000 miles on the bike and have not had any issues nor noticed any battery degredation. This makes sense since I've followed basically the rules you have on this video. I store the bike at about 50% SOC during the winter months, I keep the SOC when riding between 40% and 80% normally, charge right away and only charge to 100% before taking longer rides. I think I just aquired this knowledge over time from different sources but this video was vindication for sure.

As always.. LOVE your breakdowns and simple understanding of some real complex automotive concepts! Appreciate it as always!

Hey Jason, I have an idea for helping us nerds and engineering geeks get the most out of your whiteboard discussions: zoom in on the portion of the whiteboard that you are discussing. A close shot will help us see the details, see your hard work, a little bit better. Would you consider that? PS the two Jason‘s videos you and Cammisa do are a hoot!

So glad you got to highlight the Doc's video!

My first visit to your channel. Your explanations are absolutely perfect! Thanks so much - can't wait to watch some more! Subscribed!

Thanks for putting this together, Jason. I've owned a Model 3 Performance for about 1.5 years now and have seen little to no degradation of the battery. I rarely charge to 100% (only on trips). My ideal capacity range has been 20%-80%. After watching this video, I will charge more frequently if below 80% and keep the cap there.

Watching these videos makes me way less fun at parties

Awesome work. Thank you, sir!

Thanks Jason, excellent presentation as usual.