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Charge to 100%? Always?

Johnt

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Oct 6, 2024
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Kingston Ontario
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I note that on some electric vehicles, it is recommended to charge to 85 or 90% in order to preserve the lifetime of the battery. Can we do this on our CE 04? I thought I saw something in the app that allowed me to charge to a lower percentage, but I cannot find it again… Help!
 
I note that on some electric vehicles, it is recommended to charge to 85 or 90% in order to preserve the lifetime of the battery. Can we do this on our CE 04? I thought I saw something in the app that allowed me to charge to a lower percentage, but I cannot find it again… Help!
I believe there is a reference to this possibility in the owners handbook, but I have not been able to find it anywhere in the sub-menus on the bike itself. Manufacturers don’t seem to be interested in battery longevity, but whenever I read something about maintaining battery health the sweet spot seems to be between 20 & 80%.
 
Hello Johnt, what I've read is yes they says 20 to 80 % charge, I didn't see anything about charging limit on the app. More than anything else I think it's the speed you charge your battery who's important, the slower the better, I personally charge at night at 6 amp no rush and wait that the battery cool out after coming home.
On the quality of the battery BMW if you look in Europe especially in France The first EV the C Evolution there a lot of them still on the road and they were introduced in 2014 up to 2020.
Yves
 
I don't recall where I read it, but I came across something in the past that says BMW limits access to a portion of the battery which essentially limits the max charge 80 or 90 percent. So, charging to 100% really isn't charging to 100%. Not sure if that is true, though.
 
I don't recall where I read it, but I came across something in the past that says BMW limits access to a portion of the battery which essentially limits the max charge 80 or 90 percent. So, charging to 100% really isn't charging to 100%. Not sure if that is true, though.
Hello regarding the charging I will see next week, I have a appointment for my 2 years and I hope they did a update on the software, this week I charge into the night and it didn't charge all the way I had to restart the charge even them I was not able to charge up to 100%, then yesterday in the evening I start a charge
and around 5 o'clock I wake up when to check and it stop at 80% so restart the charge and in the morning I was at 100% so I'm pretty sure it's the software it's not the scooter charger who is defective will see next week. Regarding the charge any electric unit like the CE04 when let says the battery is at 0% there still power with in the battery because you don't want the battery dead but for the 100% the unit know when it's fully charge.
Yves
 
Never used my home plug, always use the banks free Level 2 charger which...when I forget charges the bike to 100%
Below info is from my OneNote app where I posted information about charging the CE04 battery. Hoping most of it is correct. Thinking I got most of thie info from this site.

Wait to charge when down to 20% (if you need 100% for a long trip then charge day/night before to get to 100%; do will ride it within (maybe) a week.
Leaving the scooter parked for long periods, that a very low or very high state of charge can more readily damage the battery.
******************************************
Battery cooling/heating
*our scooters do not have the liquid cooling/heating for the battery like the i4/iX though it still has adequate passive cooling to handle the low rate of charging the CE04 is capable of
*our motor has active thermal management

Charging
*At either 3 or 6.6 kw, the battery will not be stressed anywhere near the level which DC fast charging creates.
*Your level 1 home charger will be only marginally gentler on the battery as compared to a level 2 charger.
*Ride down to 20% charge then recharge to 80%
*If you need 100% charge for a ride then ride it that day after it reaches 100% charge.

Battery drain
*If you drain your battery pack to a very low state of charge, but you plug it in as soon as you get back for a charge you should be ok.
Key point is did not let it sit at that low level, that woud be bad for the battery.

*If run the battery to a low state of charge infrequently, you will not significantly reduce the lifespan of your battery.
*The Battery Management System (BMS) will protect the battery when the scooter is in operation, and not let the motor drain the battery as quickly (reducing the discharge rate) when in a low state of charge, compared to a higher state of charge - like 4% versus 40%. TFT will display a message about this if it happens.
*It is when the scooter is parked for long periods, that a very low or very high state of charge can more readily damage the battery.

Other Charging Note -
Even DC fast charging, which we cannot utilize, does not always significantly reduce the lifespan of an EV's battery pack.
For example, if fast charging was an option and is used infrequently,
and the pack is not drained lower than 20%, or charged to 100%
and left sitting in that state of charge for weeks with temperature fluctuations (stressing the battery because of voltage drift),
a battery pack can still last many, many years.

The AC charging rate is significantly lower than DC fast charging; 3/6.6 kw (12kw for some vehicles like Zero bikes with the charge tank) versus 50-300+ kw.
 
Last edited:
Never used my home plug, always use the banks free Level 2 charger which...when I forget charges the bike to 100%
Below info is from my OneNote app where I posted information about charging the CE04 battery. Hoping most of it is correct. Thinking I got most of thie info from this site.

Wait to charge when down to 20% (if you need 100% for a long trip then charge day/night before to get to 100%; do will ride it within (maybe) a week.
Leaving the scooter parked for long periods, that a very low or very high state of charge can more readily damage the battery.
******************************************
Battery cooling/heating
*our scooters do not have the liquid cooling/heating for the battery like the i4/iX though it still has adequate passive cooling to handle the low rate of charging the CE04 is capable of
*our motor has active thermal management

Charging
*At either 3 or 6.6 kw, the battery will not be stressed anywhere near the level which DC fast charging creates.
*Your level 1 home charger will be only marginally gentler on the battery as compared to a level 2 charger.
*Ride down to 20% charge then recharge to 80%
*If you need 100% charge for a ride then ride it that day after it reaches 100% charge.

Battery drain
*If you drain your battery pack to a very low state of charge, but you plug it in as soon as you get back for a charge you should be ok.
Key point is did not let it sit at that low level, that woud be bad for the battery.

*If run the battery to a low state of charge infrequently, you will not significantly reduce the lifespan of your battery.
*The Battery Management System (BMS) will protect the battery when the scooter is in operation, and not let the motor drain the battery as quickly (reducing the discharge rate) when in a low state of charge, compared to a higher state of charge - like 4% versus 40%. TFT will display a message about this if it happens.
*It is when the scooter is parked for long periods, that a very low or very high state of charge can more readily damage the battery.

Other Charging Note -
Even DC fast charging, which we cannot utilize, does not always significantly reduce the lifespan of an EV's battery pack.
For example, if fast charging was an option and is used infrequently,
and the pack is not drained lower than 20%, or charged to 100%
and left sitting in that state of charge for weeks with temperature fluctuations (stressing the battery because of voltage drift),
a battery pack can still last many, many years.

The AC charging rate is significantly lower than DC fast charging; 3/6.6 kw (12kw for some vehicles like Zero bikes with the charge tank) versus 50-300+ kw.
Just wanted to add that depending on the version that you have (if it is power restricted or not, depending on your personal license type), your 20-80% healthy charging habit makes even less sense due to the fact that the usable battery energy is capped to ~6.1kWh. That means that you can without fear use your bike fully from 0-100% every time due to bigger energy buffer, because the battery pack is the same (8.9kWh), but capped by software, so you are always using it in the ideal range.
 
I don't recall where I read it, but I came across something in the past that says BMW limits access to a portion of the battery which essentially limits the max charge 80 or 90 percent. So, charging to 100% really isn't charging to 100%. Not sure if that is true, though.
The C-E 04 has a battery capacity of 8.9kWh with a useable limit of 8.5kWh, so 100% isn’t really 100%.
 
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