For longer battery life: drive it like you stole it

[Cosmo Cruz]

"The findings similarly seem to contradict commonly held assumptions about what types of driving quickly degrades batteries. Though many drivers believe rapidly accelerating and braking degrades EV batteries faster than steady driving, the researchers found a correlation in their data suggesting sharp, short accelerations may actually lead to slower battery degradation. Pressing down hard on pedals with a lead foot didn’t seem to speed up battery aging. It may have actually had the opposite effect."

Everything you know about EV batteries is wrong


Except this, this remains a bad idea:

“Keeping your battery at elevated State-of-charge (high battery percentages) will definitely be detrimental to lifetime… Intuitively, at high state of charge, your battery stores the most energy, so [it] is more prone to side reactions and thus degradation,” Geslin said.

 

[Amster]

"The findings similarly seem to contradict commonly held assumptions about what types of driving quickly degrades batteries. Though many drivers believe rapidly accelerating and braking degrades EV batteries faster than steady driving, the researchers found a correlation in their data suggesting sharp, short accelerations may actually lead to slower battery degradation. Pressing down hard on pedals with a lead foot didn’t seem to speed up battery aging. It may have actually had the opposite effect."

It's great to know I'm helping the battery last longer!

 

[scal_air]

My god - Drive slower for better efficiency, drive faster for longer battery life

Drive it how it makes you happy

Just don’t complain about the tires if you drive like a maniac

 

[borski]

My god - Drive slower for better efficiency, drive faster for longer battery life

Drive it how it makes you happy

Just don’t complain about the tires if you drive like a maniac

Or if you’re using summer tires in the snow

Otherwise have fun, be safe, and charge when you need to. Cars like this were made to be useful and fun; not trophies of efficiency you can brag to your friends about.

My friends and family give fewer than zero fucks about whether I got 3.1 or 2.8 or 4.5 on this drive.

They sure do love the car though.

Or they don’t; and that’s fine too. One of my buds bought a Rivian R1S because he didn’t like the look of the Air (and decided he wanted an SUV). Fine. It’s okay, we’re still friends, lol

He replaced his extremely sexy R8 with it, which is the car I almost bought before I bought the Air DE

Lucid isn’t the first or last brand of car I’ll own. It’s not even the only one I own now. I have loved many brands. And soured on others.

But please just drive the car. Just drive it. Stop staring at numbers, and just drive it. Everything melts away when you do.

And if that’s not true, that’s okay. We can still be friends. We just clearly look for different things in our cars.

I don’t stare in your fridge and claim it’s all icky. Wouldn’t do that to your garage either.

Respect my fridge, and I’ll respect yours. Even if it’s full of Musk’s Mars MREs

If you’ve got a Hummer EV, that’s awesome. It’s also ridiculous and absurd, but that’s fine - efficiency isn’t where it wins. “Insanity”? Totally.

Same for the Cybertruck. It’s nuts. It doesn’t actually make sense for nearly anyone for anything. It’s absurd. But that’s fine. I don’t have to like it, because you do.

 

[borski]

Sometimes I think this forum forgets what brought us all together in the first place. It wasn’t the stock price, or whether it looks like a minivan, or whether it gets EPA.

It was the car, and how it drives, and how it makes us feel when we drive it. That’s what I love so much about the new ad campaign.

But it’s easy to forget that if you don’t drive it.

Trust me, I just spent 3 weeks in a GMC Acadia driving >4000 miles. The amount of anger I felt was, uh, not low.

But driving the Air is sublime. Just pure pleasure. Even in traffic. I can’t explain it. It isn’t the name, that it’s perfect, or anything else. It’s not perfect. In some ways, it sucks. It just doesn’t suck in any of the ways I seem to care about.

So yeah, sure, flame me and others for being a fanboy. Whatever. But if you do, you haven’t listened to anything any of us have said, and are hearing things you think we’ve said.

That’s fine. Can’t hear you. Driving away too fast.

 

[hmp10]

"The findings similarly seem to contradict commonly held assumptions about what types of driving quickly degrades batteries. Though many drivers believe rapidly accelerating and braking degrades EV batteries faster than steady driving, the researchers found a correlation in their data suggesting sharp, short accelerations may actually lead to slower battery degradation. Pressing down hard on pedals with a lead foot didn’t seem to speed up battery aging. It may have actually had the opposite effect."

What a relief. My battery pack is destined for a very long life.

My tires . . . maybe not so much.

 

[EZEVDriver]

Hmmm. I think that the most important take-home point is that the previous method of testing - continuous use with daily charging - is the worst one for battery life. So, this is good news, but it's still a little counterintuitive that the harshest driving conditions in terms of acceleration and braking provide better battery life.

But the fact that battery life has been underestimated should give more confidence for the Lucid team to take another look at the charging curve.

 

[borski]

But the fact that battery life has been underestimated should give more confidence for the Lucid team to take another look at the charging curve.

I do think they could make it less conservative in general and score some big wins. But I know ~nothing about batteries, so I'm really just speaking out of turn here.