Stored for weeks: no issues, no worries...

[Maxx]

A couple folks in the deep south west with high;s in the 90's to low 100's have pointed out that the Lightning does kick on the chiller to moderate pack temperatures while plugged in.

I suspect a narrow TOU time frame such as 1 hour a day to suppress excessive charging from your 30% to the trucks minimum floor of 50% will also prevent the conditioning aspect outside that one hour.

HOT condition, getting the SOC to ~50%, then plug it in and let the energy available time frame be all day if possible, or the maximum your TOU schedule will allow.

COLD conditions, 30% and pull the 12V cable if long term storage.

Thanks a bunch. This helps. Maybe I could start from 30%, hook up my portable charger that can go as low as 6A on 120V. Even at hottest 8 hours of day TOU, it will take 4 days to get to 50%.

I wonder what happens if I set onetime max charge to 31% after I plug it in (no 50% limit). Would it keep it at 31% until I unplug or next day TOU will kick in and go to 50%.

I feel like there's a non 0% possibility that the only reason OP made this post was to yell at the first person to tell him not to charge to 100%.

To make everyone happy, let's assume OP meant SOH when he said 100%. Otherwise we all need to practice saying Serenity Now

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[TaxmanHog]

Thanks a bunch. This helps. Maybe I could start from 30%, hook up my portable charger that can go as low as 6A on 120V. Even at hottest 8 hours of day TOU, it will take 4 days to get to 50%.

I wonder what happens if I set onetime max charge to 31% after I plug it in (no 50% limit). Would it keep it at 31% until I unplug or next day TOU will kick in and go to 50%.

I'm not sure the one time limiter was designed to work that way, ie. scheduled charging schemes may overrule it with the minimum floor of 50%

I'm guessing it would take about 36-40 hours for the battery to charge 50%, this assumes the cooling / preservation process doesn't draw the SOC down when active.

 

[chl]

please don't PREACH to me, or everyone, about how they should 'charge'... I've been doing this a LONG LONG time, and with 43,000 miles on my Lightning, and just driving another 300+ miles today, I don't need the advice.

chillax

 

[chl]

That's great. But you should rarely charge to 100% and definitely shouldn't store it at 100% if you want to treat your battery well. Best long term storage is around 50%.

A word to the wise is sufficient - but cast not your pearls before swine.

 

[chl]

There are many articles about companies working to develop software to determine the true SOH of auto batteries for secondary use. When that tool comes along, some trucks might have lower value than others...

It's tough to do because of the flatness of the battery curve.

Individual cell measurements give a 'pretty good' reading, but...
a bench test would charge the battery, then discharge it, to determine the capacity is still the best.

https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-904-how-to-measure-capacity

EDIT: PS: see also: https://harveypoweress.com/how-to-test-lithium-ion-battery-capacity/

 

[Zprime29]

It's tough to do because of the flatness of the battery curve.

Individual cell measurements give a 'pretty good' reading, but...
a bench test would charge the battery, then discharge it, to determine the capacity is still the best.

https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-904-how-to-measure-capacity

EDIT: PS: see also: https://harveypoweress.com/how-to-test-lithium-ion-battery-capacity/

Battery capacity alone doesn't tell the entire story on an EV battery. Let's say there are two similar EV's that have batteries reporting 85% of original capacity. One is 2 years old and the other is 8 years old. Which battery would you want?

 

[Zprime29]

Sitting still, and still @ 100% since parked...

You've been around long enough to know that this is not considered best practice but did it anyway. Very curious as to your reasoning for doing so? I feel like there's some context not provided that would be helpful.

 

[chl]

Battery capacity alone doesn't tell the entire story on an EV battery. Let's say there are two similar EV's that have batteries reporting 85% of original capacity. One is 2 years old and the other is 8 years old. Which battery would you want?

I misread the SOH (state of health) as SOC (state of charge) so apologies, but the two are closely related:
----
"...An EV battery’s condition is called its state of health (SOH). Batteries start their life with 100% SOH and over time they deteriorate. For example, a 60 kWh battery with 90% SOH would effectively act like a 54 kWh battery. ..."

"Assessing battery health involves evaluating several key parameters such as: State of Health (SoH): The State of Health indicates the remaining capacity of the battery compared to its original capacity when new. "

https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-battery-health/

and

https://www.flo.com/insights/assessing-battery-health-when-buying-a-used-electric-vehicle/
-----
But yes there may be other factors to ponder, like age, though the 85% number is the most important in your example..

To answer the specific question, the 2 year old one would still have 6-8 years of warranty so I might want the 2 year old one for at least that reason.

However, if 15% capacity was lost in 2 years, that may indicate heavy use and rapid degradation, and only a 15% loss in 8 years may indicate 'gentle' use I'd say.

The mileage on the vehicle would be important as well.
If low mileage and low age, maybe there is an internal defect in the battery?
Maybe it was used in a hot climate that sped up loss of capacity?
Maybe it was stored at 100% for long periods of time?

I would not want one stored for long periods of time at 100% like the original poster plans on doing.

Age is a factor, but not as big as was expected - how the battery is used or abused seems to be a more important factor, esp if a lot of DC fast charging is done.

So a battery that was charged L2 and never Fast charged is probably going to be in better condition internally than the other, even if the other is newer.

" The difference between those vehicles that never used DCFC and those that used it even occasionally in seasonal or hot climates was notable. While other factors may be at play (we want to stress that this wasn’t a controlled experiment), charging via lower power Level 2 charging should be prioritized. "

The capacity is the best indication of the battery's health, internal health.

However, how that capacity is determined is important. The vehicle display of capacity can be misleading and where real money is involved I'd want the capacity to be measured precisely using known methods and not rely on what the guess-o-meter in the vehicle displays.

That's what I was getting at in my post - measuring the true capacity.

----- Also from https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-battery-health/ ---

Several key factors determine how long lithium car batteries last. These include

1. Age
2. Temperature
3. Operating state of charge
4. AC vs DC charging
5. Usage (energy cycles)
6. Make and model

-----
They have a nice tool for calculating it at the web site too.
-----

EV battery charging best practices

• Avoid keeping your car sitting with a full or empty charge. Ideally, keep your state of charge between 20-80%, particularly when leaving it for longer periods. Only charge it fully for long-distance trips.
• Minimize direct current fast charging. Some high-use duty cycles will need a faster charge, but Level 2 should be sufficient for most of your charging needs if your vehicle sits overnight.
• Climate is not within a driver’s control, but do what you can to avoid extreme hot temperatures, such as choosing shade when parked on hot days.
• High use is not a concern for EV battery lifespan, so fleets shouldn’t hesitate to put electric vehicles to work. An EV isn’t useful sitting idle and putting on more miles per vehicle is a better fleet management practice overall.

 

[kknoedle]

I was going to create a new post for my story, but I think this thread is fitting..

Sharing my experience leaving a 2023 Lightning Lariat ER stored parked for 3.5 months.

In early 2024 I found a deal on a Lariat ER that I could not pass up. I parked it at a friend's house in his driveway as I still had a few months left in my overseas assignment. I had read from Ford if leaving long term to keep the main battery around 50%. It also spoke about disconnecting the 12v battery, however I did not do this. Now was my test of leaving the truck not/not plugged in for over 3 months. Below is how it all worked out. For reference the vehicle was parked in Northern Virginia outside Fairfax, outside on a driveway.


- Left truck and 52% on 27 Feb 2024.

- On 08 March the Ford pass app still showed 52%, however there was now a notification "Drive your vehicle to reconnect Ford pass and exit battery saver mode".

- My friend entered the truck on 10 Mar to install a windshield screen to try and keep the sun off the interior. Doing this seemed to have brought the truck out of saver mode and now the SOC is showing 53% and is updating live again.

- On 23 March, the Ford pass app started showing "Drive your vehicle to reconnect Ford pass and exit battery saver mode" again; SOC was 51%. This only occured once over the entire storage time, never saw it again.

- Picked the truck back up on 16 June with 48% battery and 146 miles of estimate range left. As my commute is only 20 miles each way I drove it for two days after picking it up before I charged it back up.


The entire time I could see the truck and information on battery state on my Ford Pass app from overseas. Overall I am very pleased with leaving the truck stored for this amount of time and share to hopefully debunk any myths that leaving it parked for over 30 days is a problem. I think this is a general practical example based on moderate exterior temperatures ranging from 32-90 degrees fahrenheit. The entire time the truck was outside in the driveway.

 

[Jim Lewis]

Sharing my experience leaving a 2023 Lightning Lariat ER stored parked for 3.5 months.

It would add to the interest if you had monitored what the % SOC of the LVB was doing while you were away. Presumably, it was dropping to 40% to 30% SOC before the BMS system recharged it periodically. If you sign in to your ford.com account and go to https://www.ford.com/myaccount/?gnav=header-account, the % Charge shown there is the % LVB SOC. To get the latest LVB % SOC, it seems to help if you fresh the FordPass app, which may trigger the truck sending data updates to the cloud (but that may wake up the truck, too). Perhaps 3.5 months away is not long enough to take much out of the LVB, but I think disconnecting the LVB for long-term storage saves unnecessary wear and tear on the LVB.

 

[shutterbug]

A couple folks in the deep south west with high's in the 90's to low 100's have pointed out that the Lightning does kick on the chiller to moderate pack temperatures while plugged in.

Also when not plugged in. And last year we hit 119.

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