Partial charging

[GeekyAU]

Howdy all,
LONG time lurker, first time poster. Picked up my 2023 PHEV today and she is B.E.A.Utiful

Question, what is the word on partial chargers with a wall charger 22kw or less? I.e. not a DC fast charge, just a top up.

I know with the fast DC chargers it is always recommended to let it complete the charge cycle. However, for example if I go to the shops, will be there for an hour or so and they offer a free 22kw charger, is it ok to plug in and top up, but not complete a full 100% charge?

Many thanks,
Stuart

 

[nrayanov]

It's not worth using fast DC chargers to be honest, unless you find a cheap/free one. Using petrol is usually cheaper than fast charging, and ChaDeMo is also rare to find these days.

Of course, if you care about the environment so much and want to definitely use a DC Charger, you should know it charges only up to 80%, and it takes about 30-40 minutes depending on factors such as starting %, the temperature outside, battery temperature, the charger power, etc.

 

[rwh86]

In terms of battery health, what's going on is that the car will periodically do cell balance operations. Sometimes this happens at the start of charge "bottom balance" sometimes at the end "top balance". This helps to keep the cells, well, balanced which is to say they all have the same voltage, so that one cell doesn't become over or under changed relative to the others.

If you *always* partially charge, then the cells will never be balanced. If you only sometimes partially charge there should be no problem as the balance operations only need to happen occasionally.