Know the feeling with your smartphone? One day it just doesn’t last like it used to. Electric cars are similar, but there’s plenty you can do to help your battery age gracefully. Some phones do a few clever things in the background; in an EV, you’re in the driving seat.
Here are a few simple tips to help your EV battery go the distance:
There are three main things that do your battery no favours:
Heat: High temperatures are hard on the cells.
Very low charge: Regularly running it right down isn’t wise.
Very high charge: Keeping it topped to the brim is convenient, but it speeds up wear over time.
Worst of all is heat combined with a high state of charge.
Lithium‑ion batteries are more prone to forming crystal‑like deposits when kept at 80% and above. Those deposits nibble away at capacity and lifespan.
By all means fill up for long trips, but for everyday use it’s better to stop around 70% — or even a touch lower.
Very low charge levels can also encourage those deposits.
Try not to let it drop below about 30% in normal use.
In theory, a battery lasts longest when it’s neither often empty nor often full.
The sweet spot is keeping the charge around 45–55%, which is lovely in a lab and hopeless in real life.
The further you stray from that middle ground, the faster it will age. Don’t worry — a bit of wear is perfectly normal. If you steer clear of the extremes below 20% and above 80%, sticking to roughly 30–70% will keep it happy for a long time.
If you won’t be driving for a while (holiday, etc.), leave the battery at roughly 30% and park somewhere cool.
Whatever you do, don’t leave the car sitting for ages fully charged in a warm place — that’s about as bad as it gets for a battery.
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