is it bad for battery life to charge when already 60%?

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user 5363

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My 64 plate GH3 predicts 23 mile range on a full charge, and driving carefully using B5 I can get that no problem.
If it's down to 14 or so miles I'm tempted to plug it in overnight as my commute is 18 miles.
Is this detrimental to battery capacity over time?
 
There is probably no single straightforward answer. I think a 40% discharge is enough to warrant a safe top-off. There are 2 or 3 general rules...

Charging up to 80% is probably better for your battery than charging to full all the time. Some recommend only doing a full charge once per month (if you can get away with that).

It is better not to leave your battery at full charge for very long, after charging, by leaving the car unused.

Do not charge heavily if the battery pack is extremely hot or cold. Hot such as some heavy EV driving during a heat wave, and cold such as sub freezing temperatures overnight.
 
Fjpod said:
There is probably no single straightforward answer. I think a 40% discharge is enough to warrant a safe top-off. There are 2 or 3 general rules...

Charging up to 80% is probably better for your battery than charging to full all the time. Some recommend only doing a full charge once per month (if you can get away with that).
80% of what? The battery already has sizeable top and bottom buffers, so you're adding an extra buffer to the top buffer. This may be true for Tesla batteries, but I've seen no proof on others. Please show me any evidence that this is true for the PHEV battery.

IMHO it's fine to top-up the PHEV battery whenever you need. Mitsubishi will have stress-tested it in far worse conditions than most (?any) of us will find. Plus the battery is so tiny that not charging it fully just makes the car less economical. Just don't leave it for extended periods (more than a week or two) at high or low SOC as this can damage any Lithium battery
 
I follow Tesla Björn's advice of ABC - Always Be Charging. There is a hidden top buffer so you can't (without some trickery) charge to true 100% anyway. I always plug in the car and after 6 years the GOM range in ideal temperatures is still 50km. This allows me to maximize the distance driven in pure EV mode.
 
I have a similar aged car and have never worried about battery health, frequently topping up from a part charge. As noted above, living & driving in Inner & Central London, I also want to maximise EV range and I can't be sure what distance I will need to travel the next day, so always want to start with a full battery. After 6 years and 50k miles I still get over 20 miles - a drop of about 5 since new. :)
 
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