Tesla Supercharging Not Dangerous To Batteries After All!

For a few years now, it has been suggested to not quick cost electrical automobiles an excessive amount of, that doing so may result in speedy degradation of your EV’s battery. It’s at all times been unclear how a lot this issues, although, and particularly throughout totally different automobiles with totally different battery administration techniques. At instances, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former CTO JB Straubel have stated to not fear about it, and to Supercharge as a lot as you want. At different instances, it’s been really useful that you just solely do it on highway journeys and that you just not depend on it for all of your charging. As somebody who has performed 85% of my charging at Superchargers prior to now yr (and 90% prior to now month), I’ve in fact hoped that “it’s not such an enormous deal” is the proper reply. In line with latest analysis, that’s certainly the case!

One key level is one thing I realized from Mark Z. Jacobson years in the past throughout dinner is that batteries degrade fairly a bit early on, when they’re new, after which degradation is usually minimal for years (and even nicely past a decade), after which there’s one other important drop a lot in a while. JB Straubel estimated a number of years in the past that Tesla EV batteries would most likely retain good capability (not see greater than 30% capability degradation) for 15+ years. Recurrent Auto’s Liz Najman summarizes it like this: “Degradation shouldn’t be linear. We’re together with battery degradation curves that illustrate how nicely these batteries maintain up over time. There’s some drop to start with then it ranges out for an extended interval.”

Najman can also be trustworthy about the truth that we nonetheless don’t know rather a lot. “How lengthy is that EV battery going to final? The one easy reply is that we don’t know for certain as a result of electrical vehicles haven’t been round lengthy sufficient for us to inform. The very best we are able to do is observe the obvious degradation in these vehicles on the highway.” That’s what I usually say when folks ask (or just remark) about EV battery lifespan. She provides:

“Arising with a precise reply to what a battery lifetime is sophisticated as a result of:

1. Batteries are sophisticated techniques. We are able to’t observe them straight, and need to depend on a pc interface to present us details about their state of well being, state of cost, and extra.
2. We all know extra about battery cells than battery packs. Many of the rigorous scientific checks on lithium ion batteries are performed on particular person battery cells, not the high-tech techniques utilized in EVs.”

Certainly.

The helpful factor with Recurrent Auto is that it’s received a group of 15,000 electrical vehicles. In that article, you may dig in rather more to how batteries have degraded in numerous EV fashions.

Extra not too long ago, although, Recurrent Auto revealed one other article simply on the affect of EV quick charging. Blake Hough begins the article like this: “One of many largest considerations with quick charging is that it might, theoretically, injury the battery by pushing an excessive amount of vitality into your automotive too rapidly. This might result in irreparable, long-term vary loss.” Nevertheless, to check this out, researchers dug into the impact of quick charging on 12,500 Tesla automobiles. Whereas the corporate nonetheless recommends that occasional quick charging is okay however not essentially frequent quick charging, the outcomes confirmed no statistically important distinction in battery degradation between Tesla Mannequin 3 automobiles that charged a minimum of 90% of the time utilizing Superchargers and Mannequin 3 automobiles that charged not more than 10% of the time utilizing Superchargers. Yay for me! The identical was the case for Mannequin Y automobiles.

Apparently, wanting on the graphs (Mannequin 3 right here and Mannequin Y right here), Mannequin 3 automobiles and particularly Mannequin Y automobiles that hardly ever Supercharged had misplaced extra battery capability, or vary, over the identical time period as Mannequin 3 automobiles and Mannequin Y automobiles that incessantly Supercharged. Nevertheless, do not forget that the distinction isn’t statistically important, so don’t learn into that. I’m simply highlighting this shocking consequence to emphasise that the other shouldn’t be a priority.

The problem is that a lot analysis on battery degradation has been performed on battery cells, inherently ignoring the work battery pack producers and automakers have performed to restrict any impact of warmth and quick charging on cells. It seems, these efforts have truly paid off. Cells are protected, and quick charging doesn’t appear to have any impact on the long-term well being of batteries. “In brief, the sturdy thermal, voltage, and battery administration techniques that EV makers have invested in do defend their batteries from injury with routine quick charger use,” Hough writes.

Once more, this can be a aid for these of us who’ve relied on a number of Tesla Supercharging, however I’m nonetheless not encouraging folks to go quick cost extra — for those who don’t have a very good motive for it. We had no dwelling charging choices with my 2019 Tesla Mannequin 3 for a few years. Previously couple of years, in the meantime, I’ve simply not been wanting to cost at dwelling as an alternative of utilizing free Supercharging — although that will be extra handy. In the end, although, after 4+ years of this, I can lastly be utterly guilt free when utilizing the Superchargers! I additionally discover consolation in the truth that these are nonetheless 150 kW Superchargers, which aren’t as quick as newer ones (however nonetheless a bit quicker than I’d usually desire).

What do you consider this analysis and the final idea and dialogue of the subject? Do you see the findings as convincing sufficient — for now, a minimum of? Or do you see some flaws within the analysis and findings? I’m completely satisfied to listen to all opinions, so long as you don’t smash my newly elated view of Supercharging!