Is it better for the battery to charge at 120 or 240?

[genec]

I heard that quick DC charging is the worst for the battery. But what about these slower methods?

 

[Don]

Both L1 and L2 are relatively 'slow' charging protocols - I doubt one is much better for the battery than the other. Anything 1C or less is considered fine. DCQC involves charging at 2C or 3C. If it matters, L2 is slightly more efficient than L1. More miles for fewer electrons

Best thing for the battery is to keep the SOC between 20% and 80%. If you want the battery to last as long as possible, avoid full charges unless you really need a full charge to get where you're headed, and especially avoid full charging in hot weather. When you do charge to 100%, drive the car and don't let it sit at full for days or weeks

Don

 

[genec]

i heard that it is impossible to charge to 100%. The i-miev is engineered to actually charge the batteries to abotu 80% even when the meter says 100%, as a way to prolong battery life.

 

[Don]

Every device that uses lithium cells has their own charging procedure - Some charge to only 4 volts, some to 4.1 and some to 4.2 . . . . or some number in between. It's true that using a lower voltage makes the battery last longer because it's not charged to 100% of what it could be, and pushing closer to 100% is harder on the battery, but gives you a larger watt hour capacity . . . . for as long as the battery lasts

So, keeping it to 80% of the 'maximum charge' is better for the battery, especially in hot weather than a 'full recharge' . . . . if that's important to you

Others may disagree with my use of 100% charge for when charging on our cars stops, but that's 100% of what you can put in as the protocol won't let you go any higher. So 'full charge' and '100% charge' are the same thing to me - The most energy you can put into the battery pack - Granted, that's less than the battery could hold if you pushed things, but we can't do that. A full charge is all we can do and no more

Don