Electric Vehicle Battery Maintenance: A Comprehensive Guide

EV and its Battery

Your electric vehicle's battery is its most important and expensive element, so it is crucial to take proper care of it and maintain it. An EV battery can cost as much as one-fourth of the entire vehicle, which can be quite alarming for many users. Also, the degree of dilapidation impacts the EV’s residual value and maximum usable range.

Your EV’s battery degradation is mainly due to 3 different factors such as cycles, operating temperatures, and time! Want to know more? Keep reading the blog to know more about EV batteries and how to maintain them for a smooth and lasting experience.

Charging your EV regularly and on time, maintaining a moderate driving style and speed, and minimizing or maintaining the most common three risk factors, such as deep discharging, fast charging, and extreme temperature exposure, are a few essential tips to follow if you own an electric vehicle.

With the hike in the price of petroleum and other gases, electric vehicles have already started to boom the automobile industry for being cost-effective globally. Despite having its advantages and being one of the most recent technological progress toward a healthier environment, electric vehicles have their own set of pros and cons. Let us take a look at a few advantages and disadvantages of such a tech-savvy invention.

Advantages of owning an EV

Save money on fuel! You do not have to shell out a lot of money on fuel or gas ever again! Buying petrol and gas has become extremely expensive, especially for the common man, with its increasing prices and demand in the country and globally. Electric vehicles have brought some ease to this major concern.

Charge anywhere! You do not need to run to the petrol bunk or gas station to refuel your vehicle. You can charge your electric vehicle in a normal household socket, too!

Go Green in style! You not only save yourselves from the huge rates of fuel but also save the environment by not contaminating it with toxic emissions, yet conveniently travelling from one place to another. That sounds cool, isn’t it? Electric vehicles are environmentally friendly, and you get to contribute to the global concern of depleting mother nature’s resources.

Cost efficient! Electric vehicles have become a part of the automobile industry worldwide as well as in the Indian market, and it does not cost a bomb to buy one. With technological advancements and newer inventions coming your way, electric vehicles are not as expensive as they used to be initially. Almost all your favourite car brands have launched their versions of electric vehicles!

Disadvantages of owning an EV

You need to pay electricity bills! As you know, electricity is chargeable, and hence, there is some cost to recharging your electric vehicle. Make sure you do your research and invest in the right electric vehicle so as not to let it reflect on your monthly electricity bills!

Limited range and speed – electric vehicles are not going to have the same speed and pickup as fuel-driven vehicles, and that’s a fact! However, it is expected to improve with time and more progress in the field.

Top Tips to Maintain EV’s Battery Life

The average lifespan of an EV’s battery is estimated to be ten years under normal driving conditions. Factors such as extreme heat, an extreme state of charge, and fast charging can negatively impact the lifespan of an EV.

Minimize exposure to extremely high temperatures when parked.

Exposure to extreme heat while parked unplugged is when the danger starts. An automated temperature control system installed in your electric vehicle will unnecessarily drain your batteries to keep the temperatures low for ideal efficiency. While this performance should only work when your EV is on the road and running using its battery, park your electric car in the shade or a plug-in state so that its thermal management system functions properly. 

Minimize the batteries to a 100% state of charge.

Electric cars come installed with a battery management system that prevents them from being charged and discharged dangerously. Maintaining battery charge optimally by charging it from 0% to 100% and not over-doing or under-doing it improves the performance of the battery life of your EV. Even though a full charge will give you the maximum operating time and perhaps performance to some extent, it is advisable to maintain the optimal or limited charge as per your EV advisory for the overall lifespan of the battery.

Avoid using fast charging

If your EV’s batteries are soon to die out, using a fast-charging portal is a convenience for sure. However, it mediates so much electricity into the batteries in a short period, which stresses your EV’s battery and wanes them quicker. Though it is not easy to notice its degradation; statistically, eight years of standard and optimal charging will give you 10% more battery life compared to 8 years of using fast charging.

Optimize battery state of charge during long storage.

Electric vehicles that are parked away for a long time or stored with an empty or fully charged battery degrade the battery life. If your use of the electric car is not as often or if you are planning for a long trip, get a timed charger and plug it in. If you leave your vehicle parked at 100% charge at a certain place for a long period, the battery will struggle to preserve its state of charge. One strategy is to set the charger to keep the charge just above the low mark, not filling it up to the maximum capacity. The average charge level should be between 25% and 75%.

Conclusion:

Choosing to drive an EV is a new thing for many car users. With all the advantages it possesses and the contribution to the environment with it, also keeping in mind that the world may one day be taken over by EVs, as it had been for years by the traditional fuel-run vehicles, it is all about the choice that you make. Any technological invention has its pros and cons, good and bad. It is the consumer or the user who identifies whether or not it is user-friendly and successful for further progress. The above-given information is a product of our research and analysis. If you have any other points that can be added to the list of information available above, please mention them in the comments section. Be smart, and make smart choices.