Battery Degradation with high mile usage

[danielczap]

Hello,

I'm a California super commuter and Im considering buying a new 2023 Chevy Bolt . My commute is 82 miles each way 164 mile round trip commute. I have access to level 2 charging at work and was gifted a level 2 charger with my solar installation.

My questions are what are best practices for battery health for preventing long term degradation and if im driving 82 miles at 3:30 AM charging my car for a few hours while I work and then driving 82 miles again at 1pm and charging again is that going to make the battery wear down faster due to the constant activity? I seen a couple videos where a few guys had 90-93% battery efficiency after 100k-125k miles. Id like to drive the car for 300k miles and was trying to understand what reasonable expectations are for the bolt batteries and what kind experiences are out there for those with higher mileage

 

[BoltEV]

Many horror stories are told by the first-adopters of the Nissan Leaf and its battery degradation.

GM learned much from its release of the Spark EV, the Chevy Volt and now the Chevy Bolt EV/EUV.

My opinion, FWIW, is that your plan to use two L2 chargers, is the best way to do it for battery health.

Some believe that charging to 100% every night can be harmful, but I believe that GM has that problem solved, built into their battery electronics.

I drive 200-250 miles per day, 6 days a week for Uber, capped at 93% because I still have my Michigan built battery; with my plan to get my new rebuilt battery in late July.

I L2 every night for up to 11 hours to recharge to 93% (my Clipper Creek charger is only 25 amps @ 240V from my Chevy Volt days in 2014).

Now I DCFC almost 5 nights a week during my 2nd break because having an EV, Uber gives me all the long drives that the ICE Uber Drivers reject. I rarely DCFC over 80% because I get enough to finish my night, go home and get my 9 hours sleep and the charging rate drops dramatically over 80%.

One Uber driving Bolt EV owner on the other chevybolt.org, now has 140,000 miles on his Bolt and claims only a 6% degradation before getting his updated battery.

 

[danielczap]

Thanks for the response.

Another question I've had is I heard using dc fast charging a lot can lead to early degradation. Is that inaccurate? I know Tesla owners live on the supercharger network so I don't see why it would unless possibly because your going from 1-93% every day.

 

[BoltEV]

Stop DCFC at 80% and top off to 100% at L1 or L2 at home.

Usually I go from about 28% to 80% at DCFC, drive down some then go to 93% with L2 at home.

The lowest I have gone before L2 charging at home is 5%.

I hypermiled on the way home to keep it from going lower.

 

[summit]

I'm one of those "Tesla" user living at the supercharging stations. The Bolt's charging profile is really conservative, maxing at about 54kw and tapering to 24kw rather soon. That's less than the 1C of the 60kwh pack. My 2016 with 90kwh Tesla is now limited to 120kw max. I don't think it's a problem with frequent fast DC charging, given the active cooling system. I think it's more important to keep it within 20-80% SOC for max pack longevity. The argument against the L2 charging is the prolonged high temperature exposure period.

Our Bolts has 95kmiles & 92kmiles with undetectable range lost. Getting a recall replacement in a few months.

And keep pack below 80% when it's hot, especially parking & undriven.

 

[BoltEV]

OP has never returned, so we are whistling in the wind on this topic!

 

[Porsche]

I hypermiled on the way home to keep it from going lower.

I'm curious. What specifically do you do to hypermile? Please share as many details as possible. I do some, but would love to add to my bag of tricks.

 

[BoltEV]

I drive Uber and last week I got a rider from LAX to DTLA to San Diego.

I started the drive to San Diego with 10 extra miles on the GOM vs. the destination mileage listed on Waze (on my Apple CarPlay). These are the important variables to watch during the drive plus the amount of KwHs used on the main screen vs. the 66 available.

Plus I knew there was an uphill portion of the drive (110 miles vs. 120 miles on the GOM).

First thing: turn off the HVAC; I sometimes turn on the fan with outside air if it is cooler outside, which it was at it was near Midnight.

My goal is to drive around 50-55MPH, so I stay primarily in the slow land and get behind a truck driving at a constant speed. I then use Cruise Control at that speed and L on the Shifter to be in one-pedal driving mode.

As I got closer and knew I was going to make it there, I could turn off the Infotainment screen light as well.

I got to my destination and there was a DCFC one mile away and about 61.4 KwHs lefts on the battery and I had driven 284 miles.

I charged up to 50% and then drove home.

 

[BoltEV]

I hypermiled on the way home to keep it from going lower.

I'm curious. What specifically do you do to hypermile? Please share as many details as possible. I do some, but would love to add to my bag of tricks.

Please share your tricks, too!