How often to charge to 100%?

[Firn]

Oh thanks for that. I didn't realize that. I mostly charge at home so I was referring to my AC charging. I suppose that setting has to be done in the truck, not on the app?

Yep, that's for AC charging and can be done on the truck or in the app

Sponsored

 

[Henry Ford]

I recommend charging to 100% before you actually need it. There is battery module failure that has no indications except that it the SOC immediately goes to about 87% after start. If you never charge higher than 87% you will never detect the failure.

I charge to 85% or 90% daily depending on the season. I discovered a bad battery module as we were pulling out of the driveway for a camping trip. The good news is if you experience this failure you aren't stranded. We did our camping trip with a slightly modified charging plan.

 

[Literider150]

My Lightning is my 5th EV in 15 years. I always charge to 100% when I plug in regardless of what anyone says and I plug in twice a week on average despite daily driving. None of vehicles ever experienced degraded battery performance...

I appreciate this so much; and I believe you. Of course I want to believe you. But I've been an EV owner for 4 years now - my first one was an EV6 Wind AWD. It seems like this idea of over charging and experiencing noticable degradation is not new, but, at least on YouTube Premium there is definitely many videos on it. And it seems now some are saying to keep your charge between 40 to 70% ideally! People aren't going to do that if they use their vehicle regularly; and I can't believe these EVs would have gone so mainstream over the last decade if they were THAT fragile.

 

[Literider150]

Your statement is false. A higher state of charge for our NMC batteries WILL degrade the battery. It is physics.

Also, don't quote "battery health". It is a proprietary marketing term that Ford made up as a pacifier for people who don't understand lithium ion batteries. The number you want is percent degradation, and it is non-trivial to measure.

Obviously time is factor as is ambient temperature. For people like me in Arizona, it is a much bigger problem than for someone up north.

The relevance of that battery degradation depends on your use case. For someone on a lease with no intention of keeping the vehicle, the extra degradation is meaningless. For me, I plan on keeping my Lightning for more than 10 years. Therefore, I charge the truck daily for my regular commute with the gentlest cycle possible while keeping a buffer for extra driving or an unexpected charging issue.
[
So by gentle as possible you are referring to level one A/C charging?

 

[Firn]

I appreciate this so much; and I believe you. Of course I want to believe you. But I've been an EV owner for 4 years now - my first one was an EV6 Wind AWD. It seems like this idea of over charging and experiencing noticable degradation is not new, but, at least on YouTube Premium there is definitely many videos on it. And it seems now some are saying to keep your charge between 40 to 70% ideally! People aren't going to do that if they use their vehicle regularly; and I can't believe these EVs would have gone so mainstream over the last decade if they were THAT fragile.

They are not that fragile, they will last a very long time even when charging to 90%+. The question is not if they will "last", there is not on or off with this, the question is if you will have 90% battery life in ten years, or 80; if you will have 80% battery life in 20 years, or 60%.

Batteries age, and degrade from what percent they are kept at. The higher the SOC the faster the degredation happens. It isnt a question, it isnt an "in the lab", it is a fact. We dont talk about this because we are determining if our trucks will be "bad" in 15 years.

At the end of the day every single percent above 50% degrades the battery faster. 70% degrades faster than 60%, and 80% even faster still when compared to 70%, and the degredation of 90% over 80% is yet again even faster, etc. Charging to 100% daily in a hot climate could result in the battery degrading to 80% in one tenth the amount of time as someone who charges to 70% in a cool climate. That will be meaningful 10 years from now when the vehicle is sold used.

 

[jobofly79]

I charge to 100% 3-5 times per month. My office is a little over 3 hours away from where I live and have to go there a few times per month. I am at 29,000 miles and still showing 100% battery state of health.

 

[bc1]

It seems to me that we are talking about much to charge a battery up to in order to achieve the most longevity in years. Right now the Lightnings haven't been around long enough to get a track record.

So, what about rating the battery by the total number of miles driven? I've had my 2025 with 131 kwh battery for about 7 months now and just turned over 12,000 miles. I know the ford vehicles with the 5.4L engine that is taken care of can get up to 400,000 miles or so and many much less. My 1998 Expedition I just sold had 313,000 miles and was doing fine. Usually when the engine goes, the vehicle goes to the junk yard.

Guess I'd like to hear from some with high mileage on their trucks and how the charge rate affected them assuming there are some out there that have a 100,000 or 200,000 miles on one yet. And maybe we don't have enough high mileage vehicles yet to get a track record.

 

[Maquis]

So, what about rating the battery by the total number of miles driven?

Of all the factors influencing battery health, miles driven will probably show the least correlation.

 

[Firn]

Of all the factors influencing battery health, miles driven will probably show the least correlation.

2nd

You can drive 100 mile every day at 55mph, charging on L2 twice a day to 60%, in a cool climate, and put 40,000 miles a year on.

Or you could do 30 miles per day at 80mph, hitting a dcfc when you get down to 10%, in a hot climate, and with an even hotter battery, charging to 95%.

Those two would have very different percentages remaining after 10 years.

 

[ctuan13]

For NCM/NMC batteries, top end balancing is needed far less frequently than with LiFePO4 batteries. This is for two reasons, (well sorta one , but it has two consequences).
1. NMC batteries have a wider, more varied voltage curve (I.e. at any given point along the SOC curve, the voltage is distinct and varied enough to give a pretty accurate idea of SOC) - this means that even if there is a colmbmeter used to measure SOC that eventually gets mildly out of calibration due to inefficiency and losses, etc, the BMS can use voltage to give a pretty accurate measure of SOC.
2. LiFePO4 batteries on the other hand, have a very very flat voltage curve. Until they're nearly full or nearly empty there is very very little voltage variation. This means they must use a columbmeter to measure SOC and inevitably due to inefficiencies and losses, that shunt device will slowly slip out of calibration, leading to erroneous and inaccurate SOC readings. But not only does the SOC accuracy of the entire pack suffer, the inter-cell balance is far more likely to slip, because unlike an NMC chemistry battery, there isn't enough voltage differential at the middle SOC levels to balance cells.

So by regularly charging to 100%, not only do you reset the accuracy of the shunt-type device providing a more accurate SOC, you allow the voltage differential to grow large enough between cells to allow for the BMS to actively balance them.

What do I do? I most often charge to 85-90% displayed (this is different than SOC actual, where 90% displayed is actually 85% SOC actual). And then a few times a year I'll charge to 100%.

Sponsored