We are looking at purchasing our first electric car. It will be primarily used for comuniting to and from work so less the 50km/30miles a day. The dealers tell us this would recharge in a few hours on a 240v 10amp gpo at home. I have no reason to not believe them but is this the best thing for the life of the battery? Or should the plan be to run the battery down and charge for longer at home or visit a fast charger once a week?
Also for not it will be used for longer trips 2 or 3 times a year. Up to 1200 km round trip.
It won’t hurt the battery. You can charge once a week or every day. Doesn’t matter. You can slow charge at home or fast charge at fast charging station. Doesn’t matter.
Really the only thing that matters is that you don’t run your battery too low (say, less than 5%) AND let it sit at that state of charge for days…or charge it too high (say, above 95%) AND let it sit at that state of charge for days.
In each case you’re pushing lots of lithium ions into the anode/cathode respectively which makes them swell and can develop microcracks (which is what degrades battery health)
To make it clear: it’s perfectly fine to charge to 100% if you need the range and leave relatively soon (e.g. within an hour) when you reach that state of charge. Similarly it’s OK to run the battery down to 0% if you immediately plug in to charge again.