Regen with a full charge

[Amster]

We've had the car about a month and this is the first time we've had the battery all the way up to it's full 512 miles. I have to drive to LA tomorrow morning. We normally drive it in smooth mode with the regen set on high, pretty much one pedal driving.
My husband drove it back from the EA charger and said that under 20mph, it feels normal, but above that you have to use the brake because it doesn't stop. How many miles do I have to put on the battery before it reverts to it's normal driving feel?

 

[DeaneG]

We've had the car about a month and this is the first time we've had the battery all the way up to it's full 512 miles. I have to drive to LA tomorrow morning. We normally drive it in smooth mode with the regen set on high, pretty much one pedal driving.
My husband drove it back from the EA charger and said that under 20mph, it feels normal, but above that you have to use the brake because it doesn't stop. How many miles do I have to put on the battery before it reverts to it's normal driving feel?

You just have to run it down a bit. The car's software, like in most other EVs, limits regeneration at very high states of battery charge. I haven't noticed when this happens in my Air, but in other EVs have found regen to become mostly normal by 90% charge, or say 40-50 miles from a 100% charge.

 

[Adnillien]

We've had the car about a month and this is the first time we've had the battery all the way up to it's full 512 miles. I have to drive to LA tomorrow morning. We normally drive it in smooth mode with the regen set on high, pretty much one pedal driving.
My husband drove it back from the EA charger and said that under 20mph, it feels normal, but above that you have to use the brake because it doesn't stop. How many miles do I have to put on the battery before it reverts to it's normal driving feel?

I have found the normal regen will come back when the SOC gets down to about 96% SOC.

 

[Rogue]

The car at full charge is perhaps the only time I dislike driving the car. Regen kicks in at odd times at unexpected strengths mixed in with the application of mechanical breaking. Others may feel differently.

Closer to 90% has been my experience, but I could have been paranoid from the full charge weird mix.

 

[TakeDuo]

It’s an overt reminder that you shouldn’t keep EVs at 100% SoC

 

[Bus Driver]

It’s an overt reminder that you shouldn’t keep EVs at 100% SoC

Very true. Keeping it at 100% or close to, is pretty much like frying your battery slowly. You had better plan on driving off pretty soon after charging to 100%. I wouldn’t let it sit at that level for more than about a half hour.

 

[Bobby]

Very true. Keeping it at 100% or close to, is pretty much like frying your battery slowly. You had better plan on driving off pretty soon after charging to 100%. I wouldn’t let it sit at that level for more than about a half hour.

Oops. I do that a lot when traveling.

 

[HC_79]

Oops. I do that a lot when traveling.

Road tripping is the only time you should be going to 100% for daily driving keep it at 80%. Given the range though you can judge whether you need to go to 100%.

Going from LA to SF I tend to leave around 70% SoC as I know I need to stop for a charge and I want to pull into the charger with the lowest SoC possible to take advantage of the higher charging speeds. Sadly, this plan is heavily reliant on EA actually delivering the speeds they’re supposed to.

 

[Bus Driver]

Oops. I do that a lot when traveling.

On road trips, if I’m stopping somewhere for the night, and oh, look, the hotel has a DC fast-charging station, I charge to 90%. I unplug and free up the charging stall before going to bed. The following morning, I plug back in again and let the car charge to 100%. During that hour or so, I’m getting ready, having coffee, and checking out of my room. By the time I get back to my car to resume driving, I know it won’t have sat at 100% for very long.

I only go through all this rigamarole if I know for sure that I need to charge to 100% to get to the next charging station.

 

[Bobby]

Long trip from home early morning… 3-4x per year…I’ll leave the car plugged in overnight with 100% as goal. This is bad?

 

[Steveinarizona]

Long trip from home early morning… 3-4x per year…I’ll leave the car plugged in overnight with 100% as goal. This is bad?

I don't know the answer but I have a thought. When you get up, do you have breakfast before leaving? If yes...why don't you charge to a bit short of 100% leaving an amount that you can generate while you are having breakfast. That way you won't have 100% charge except for very briefly.

 

[Bus Driver]

I don't know the answer but I have a thought. When you get up, do you have breakfast before leaving? If yes...why don't you charge to a bit short of 100% leaving an amount that you can generate while you are having breakfast. That way you won't have 100% charge except for very briefly.

Exactly. This was the recommendation repeated over and over again on the various Tesla owner fora/ forums. Don’t charge to 100% until you’re intending to leave pretty soon after doing so.

 

[Bus Driver]

Long trip from home early morning… 3-4x per year…I’ll leave the car plugged in overnight with 100% as goal. This is bad?

I believe the recommendations about how best to treat the main battery, as dispensed generously by various Tesla owner forums, can apply equally to our Lucid battery. Avoid charging to 100% and then letting the car sit for hours, as much as possible. It’s not good for the battery, especially when the goal is to minimise and delay battery degradation.

If you’re starting from home early, charge to 90% the night before. When you’re jarred awake by your alarm, start your coffee, run to the garage or open up your phone, and charge up to 100%. That way, by the time you’re ready to go, the car won’t have been sitting at 100% for very long. It was explained to me that having all those electrons roiling and percolating at the top of the battery cells, with nowhere to disipate, generates a lot of heat; and excess heat is the enemy of battery longevity. Nothing will degrade a battery faster. Ask any owner of the first generation Nissan Leaf. Those early EVs had NO battery cooling system whatsoever so it wasn’t really any great surprise that their main battery would degrade by as much as 20% after only one year.

But I digress. Sorry.

The above was my technique, driving our Model S or Model X from Chula Vista to LAX every week, for the last seven years.

 

[TakeDuo]

Long trip from home early morning… 3-4x per year…I’ll leave the car plugged in overnight with 100% as goal. This is bad?

FWIW… Owner’s manual says maintain a healthy SoC between 40-80%