Only using EV Mode between 20% and 80%

David NZ · Nov 19, 2024

Hi I could not find this on searching. Apologies if I missed one.
I’ve read that best to keep EV battery between 20% and 80% to maximise its life. Is this meaning only charge to 80% on the gauge and then change to hold mode at 20%? So that gives you only 60% of range to use.
I get 37km (19miles) from my car from a full charge till it turns off EV in NZ, so 60% gives me only 22km (11.5 miles). Or is empty not empty and full not full in regard to actual battery charge?
Sorry about the convoluted question.

IliveIn1EV · Nov 27, 2024

David NZ said:
Hi I could not find this on searching. Apologies if I missed one.
I’ve read that best to keep EV battery between 20% and 80% to maximise its life. Is this meaning only charge to 80% on the gauge and then change to hold mode at 20%? So that gives you only 60% of range to use.
I get 37km (19miles) from my car from a full charge till it turns off EV in NZ, so 60% gives me only 22km (11.5 miles). Or is empty not empty and full not full in regard to actual battery charge?
Sorry about the convoluted question.

I only charge mine to 100% only if I have a long ride.

AudiDriveR · Dec 12, 2024

David NZ said:
Hi I could not find this on searching. Apologies if I missed one.
I’ve read that best to keep EV battery between 20% and 80% to maximise its life. Is this meaning only charge to 80% on the gauge and then change to hold mode at 20%? So that gives you only 60% of range to use.
I get 37km (19miles) from my car from a full charge till it turns off EV in NZ, so 60% gives me only 22km (11.5 miles). Or is empty not empty and full not full in regard to actual battery charge?
Sorry about the convoluted question.

Hm, I have never thought about it that way. It is hard to admit, but I think you are right. I supposed we can't leave the battery to go to 0% to use at least 80% of it...lol

Jacks A3 ET · Dec 26, 2024

While I have read many articles about the 80 / 20 rule of Battery charging, I do not think it applies to the A3 using the supplied Audi charger. There is no setting for limiting charge that I am aware of. I have my Audi charger mounted on the wall of my garage plug into a 240 volt line. When the A3 Battery range gets below 8 miles or so, I plug in and using the 240 volt setting (Audi sets the Charge to 50% rate) I see a 2+ hour recharge to the full (?) range of 24 miles.
I have never charged the A3 at a public Charger so I assume they might give me the option to limit to 80% - but why would I do that and perhaps cut my range by 20%? I know that the A3 never fully discharges as the switch to Hybrid is automatic when the remailing mile range show 0 - but the A3 still has reserve charge to continue the Stop state function for a long time. I took a round trip in heavy traffic of 100 miles. The charge showed 0 after about 18 miles of this drive. 3 passengers and lights and A/C on. The start stop and hybrid mode continued to work till we returned home. And the recharge time was about 2.5 hours. I do not know how far you drive in Hybrid and still have some EV battery left -but I would hope the Audi System wool warn you that you "Must Stop and Recharge" - because without the HV battery you have no Starter motor! Maybe when the Gas tank is almost empty (350 miles or so) a warning will require a Fill-up with Gas and Volts???

bruuster · Dec 27, 2024

I believe JacksA3ET is correct. I read an article a while back that Audi was releasing a software update to reduce the battery reserves to 15% to extend the range but only on the full electric models. It stated that the reserve on all EV current batteries, including the A3, was 20%.

Nuje · Dec 27, 2024

The battery / charging system is designed to only ever fill to 80% - while it's a ~8kWhr battery, it only ever gives you ~6.5kWhr to work with. The system takes the guesswork out of it and manages the load-leveling among the cells.

So, just charge it to "full", drive 'til "empty" and rest assured that you're never actually very close to 100% full nor 100% empty.

icee · Dec 27, 2024

Jacks A3 ET said:
I do not know how far you drive in Hybrid and still have some EV battery left -but I would hope the Audi System wool warn you that you "Must Stop and Recharge" - because without the HV battery you have no Starter motor! Maybe when the Gas tank is almost empty (350 miles or so) a warning will require a Fill-up with Gas and Volts???

On a 91F day, I was relaxing in the car with the AC on maximum for around 30 minutes waiting for my brother to finish his shopping. The battery was already on "empty" from the long trip. I ran the battery down to the point where the car went from "ready" mode to off/accessories mode. I only noticed because the HVAC was blowing humid and warmer air. I power cycled the car thinking it would be like a Honda hybrid...get the gas engine running to charge up the battery and have it shut back off with enough power recharged to keep the AC going for another 5 minutes on battery. It didn't quite act like the Accord Hybrid I did this in. The engine stayed on for the entire time powering max AC for the additional 10 minutes I sat there.

However when we left, I got the message on the dash, "Low battery charge. Starting ability at risk. Battery will be charged while driving". You could tell the car was not happy with what I had done. The car still shut off the engine at stop lights while in forced battery hold / No EV mode but accelerating from a stand still felt like there was less HP. The starting of the engine was not as smooth as the engine would kick on noticeably sooner. Everything returned to normal after 10 minutes of highway driving.

I won't be doing that again for sure! Well...maybe in the future when I'm close to an open L2 charger, I'll look at the SoC using my OBDeleven dongle to see how much deeper this actually drains the traction battery.

Only using EV Mode between 20% and 80%

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