Charging to 100% on AC

[spinna1969]

Hi. We’re going on a trip on Monday and we want to have a full battery. How long is it ok to safely keep the battery at 100%?
It’ll probably reach 100% at 3.30am but we’re not setting off until late morning, say 8 hours later.
Would that be safe and not detrimental to the battery?

[anglefire]

Not an issue. Mine came from the dealer with 100% SOC - and that was at least a full day. The battery has move capacity than the 100% listed so isn't actually at 100% when it says it is.

But I wouldn't leave it days at 100%. A few hours is totally fine.

[spinna1969]

Not an issue. Mine came from the dealer with 100% SOC - and that was at least a full day. The battery has move capacity than the 100% listed so isn't actually at 100% when it says it is.

But I wouldn't leave it days at 100%. A few hours is totally fine.

Thanks for that

[RichR]

As above - charging to 100% (especially slowly via a home charger) then using the car in the next 24 hours is absolutely fine.

What can cause degradation is sitting at 100% for several days.

[Dav00]

Also, can't remember if it's mentioned in the Skoda manual, but it is recommended elsewhere to charge the battery to 100% from time to time to perform BMS balancing. E.g. in the Kia manual they say "Once a
month or more is recommended.".

[spinna1969]

Cheers for the advice. Appreciated. Testing charger’s smart schedule tonight with car on charge immediately to 100%. (IOG currently paused until next month)

[richardp]

Also, can't remember if it's mentioned in the Skoda manual, but it is recommended elsewhere to charge the battery to 100% from time to time to perform BMS balancing. E.g. in the Kia manual they say "Once a
month or more is recommended.".

Is it also a good idea to let the battery drain to nearly zero to test when it will run out? (obviously this is quite a challenging task to undertake, just wondering if it would be worth it if possible?)

[RichR]

Not really, it's not great for battery health. You'll find car reviewers such as TeslaBjorn have done this for you with press cars so you don't have to. For the Enyaq, I seem to recall that it starts limiting power below about 5% (you can still get to 60mph, but it'll take a lot longer), and when it gets to zero you can still drive another 20 miles or so at more and more reduced power output until it eventually provides no drive power at all.

I tend to aim to be at my next charge stop at no lower than 15-20% as that gives plenty of leeway to find another if the planned one is out of order or too busy. Often I'll arrive with 40%, take it to 70% then head off again to my next planned stop.

[Dav00]

Not really, it's not great for battery health. You'll find car reviewers such as TeslaBjorn have done this for you with press cars so you don't have to. For the Enyaq, I seem to recall that it starts limiting power below about 5% (you can still get to 60mph, but it'll take a lot longer), and when it gets to zero you can still drive another 20 miles or so at more and more reduced power output until it eventually provides no drive power at all.

I tend to aim to be at my next charge stop at no lower than 15-20% as that gives plenty of leeway to find another if the planned one is out of order or too busy. Often I'll arrive with 40%, take it to 70% then head off again to my next planned stop.

I made my own test in early Winter, trying to understand what happens when you get to zero before learning it the hard way. Sadly I cannot find any "notes" but it went into turtle mode quite early if I remember correctly. When I read about similar tests, I realised it's not fixed percentage and, perhaps worse, it doesn't predict/tell you you when it would go into turtle mode. Bottom line: I think it can go into turtle mode well above 5% SoC, in cold weather.

[RichR]

Yeah - so it's good to aim to never let it get that low. The only time I'll let it go below 10% is if I know I'm within a few miles of home because I know I can charge there with no issues.

If I'm down at 15%, I'm starting to look on Zap-map or similar for any nearby charger, even if it's an AC one at a supermarket. But generally I've never needed to resort to that, despite dozens of 500 mile+ journeys in the last few years. A little bit of prior planning to have an idea where you might stop every 2 hours for a bit of charge, the loo and a cup of tea and it's not really a worry. Even when I've found chargers out of order I've found something else nearby before it gets below 10%.