100% or 80%.... myth?? [preparing for a road trip]

[rengel79]

Hi guys, firstly apologies for this thread as I know there are some topics on this - but is there an issue with charging the car to 100% prior to going on a bit of a road trip?
I've owned my MYLR now for a whole 2 weeks, loving it.. factory setting was to charge up to 80% which seems to be working fine.. but given the long-ish drives ahead of us (Melbourne-Geelong return) + day trips in between I don't particularly want to be charging where we're staying and rely on the 1 charge to get us there and home over the upcoming long weekend. I've just been overwhelmed with so many youtube clips claiming 'for' and 'against' 100% charging... I just don't know where it stands anymore!

Tx...

 

[skriefal]

but is there an issue with charging the car to 100% prior to going on a bit of a road trip?

No. If there was an issue with this then the option to do so would be unavailable. But do avoid charging to 100% at all times, where the car might end up sitting at a 100% charge level for much of its life.

 

[jjrandorin]

. I've just been overwhelmed with so many youtube clips claiming 'for' and 'against' 100% charging... I just don't know where it stands anymore!

None of those youtube clips and the thousands and thousands and thousands (and thousands) of posts of discussion about charging, say anything about not charging to 100% if you are going on an actual road trip.

If you are going on a road trip and want to charge to 100%, do so. the car isnt going to explode.

=========================
(Moderator note)

Added "preparing for a road trip" to the thread title, because that was your specific question and in the first couple of sentences of your post.

There is a market difference is "can I charge to 100% all the time" and "can I charge to 100% while I am preparing for, or on a road trip?" and the second thing is the one you asked. If you want to discuss "all the time" there are several dozen threads I could point you to instead.

 

[rengel79]

None of those youtube clips and the thousands and thousands and thousands (and thousands) of posts of discussion about charging, say anything about not charging to 100% if you are going on an actual road trip.

If you are going on a road trip and want to charge to 100%, do so. the car isnt going to explode.

Thanks @jjrandorin and apologies again for the thread on this.. I know there are a bazzillion of these q's out there... good to get it validated!
I didn't think it was an issue as rightfully so - it wouldn't be an option if it presented itself as an issue.
I'll be going 100% charge the night before we head off for the trip... (first stretch of road will be approx 95km so the first X% will get gobbled up pretty quickly already!)

 

[jjrandorin]

If you want to alleviate a little bit of the concern people tend to have with "charging to 100%" the "best" thing to do is to have the car finish charging to 100% as close to when you are actually going to leave on the trip as possible.

So, if you are charging to 100% the night before, do just a bit of math and see how many hours its going to take for your car to charge to 100%. Leave a buffer of around 45 minutes (in case the car wants to balance its cells while sitting at 100% before finishing).

Then, set scheduled charging to start at a time that has the car finishing charging about 45 minutes before you are leaving.

None of that is necessary, of course, but if you have the leeway in charging time its a bit better to have the car hit 100% close to when you are going to leave.

 

[davewill]

Absolutely nothing wrong with it, at all. However, I will say that it is also not necessarily as useful as we tend to think. If you're going to have to stop to charge on your way to the destination, anyway, then that extra 10-20% at the beginning probably isn't going to make a significant difference in your overall travel time.

Of course, there are edge cases where that extra charge is the difference between having to stop or not, or having to make an extra stop, but those cases really don't come up very often.

I am reminded of a one overnight trip where a snafu caused us to fail to charge the night before and we had to set out on our trip with 40% charge. It was a bit of a bummer to have to hit the Supercharger so early in our trip, but in the end, it was no real problem.

Of course, Since I started out with a first gen LEAF and had to REALLY plan even mildly long trips, any trip in a Tesla seems like child's play.

 

[Calliope]

No problem - I do it before road trips all the time (but only for road trips). It cuts down on the time (and cost) I have to spend at the Supercharger along the way.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

Absolutely nothing wrong with it, at all. However, I will say that it is also not necessarily as useful as we tend to think

That's a valid point. If you want to do the whole trip on one charge, then maybe 100% at the start would be the way to go, but if you'll be stopping to charge on the way, then remember that you'll charge faster the lower the SoC is (think of loading the trunk with suitcases and how easy it is at the beginning, then how it gets progressively more difficult as the trunk fills)

I'd say, put your route into ABRP, then give yourself an extra 10% or even 20% just so you feel comfortable. Then once you've done a few trips you'll see that arriving at a SC with "only" 10% is really not that big a deal

 

[ucmndd]

but if you'll be stopping to charge on the way, then remember that you'll charge faster the lower the SoC is

This is true, but for a given trip assuming the charging stops are fixed, leaving with more energy will always be faster.

There’s no reason NOT to start out a long trip at 100%. It can only be a positive in terms of time and options.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

I'm not sure I understand: the only way it would be faster is if you left with enough to skip one of the planned stops

...or do you mean that if at your first stop you were supposed to charge to 60%, then that would be faster if you arrived with 40% rather than 10%? That certainly makes sense and I hadn't looked at it that way

 

[davewill]

The main reason it usually makes little difference is because at the first charging stop, it takes maybe 5 minutes less to reach the charge level you need to reach the next stop and then the rest of the trip goes exactly how it would have anyway.

While it's true that arriving with a lower charge means you can initially charge at a faster rate, it won't take less time to get to, say 80% from 20% instead of 40%.

The time it makes sense to arrange to arrive at a charging stop with less charge is when you can do it by driving to a stop that is farther away, or by leaving a charging stop sooner.

Purposely not charging to 100% at home can't ever speed things up.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

. . . unless (and yes I'm being pedantic here) it was time to go and you were only at 90%

but I take your point

and if I was doing any kind of a long trip I'd get it to 100% first if I could, just because . . . runway behind you and fuel on the ground etc

 

[sirwm]

Hi guys, firstly apologies for this thread as I know there are some topics on this - but is there an issue with charging the car to 100% prior to going on a bit of a road trip?
I've owned my MYLR now for a whole 2 weeks, loving it.. factory setting was to charge up to 80% which seems to be working fine.. but given the long-ish drives ahead of us (Melbourne-Geelong return) + day trips in between I don't particularly want to be charging where we're staying and rely on the 1 charge to get us there and home over the upcoming long weekend. I've just been overwhelmed with so many youtube clips claiming 'for' and 'against' 100% charging... I just don't know where it stands anymore!

Tx...

you will discover that there is no real reason to charge above 80% with a supercharger while traveling.

For my two round-trips NJ-FLA, charging from 5% to 80% took the same amount
of time as charging from 80% to 100%.
It simply is not worth my time waiting for the car to charge above 80% on a supercharger
unless I am eating a relaxing lunch/dinner.