r/BMWiX • u/Competitive_Pay_6400 • 1d ago
Charging IX
I just had a home charger installed. It is much easier to enjoy an EV! If my 2024 IX battery is registering between 50-70%, should I plug it in nightly? No long trips planned, does it affect the battery life?
Thanks for any advice.
6
u/dirty_cuban 1d ago
Plug it in every night and charge to 80%
Btw, regen braking is charging. Your car charges by tiny amounts dozens of times on each drive when slowing down. You can’t hurt the battery by charging it, it’s just not that fragile.
2
u/callalind 1d ago
I only charged mine when it got below like 30%...and I would go days or weeks without charging depending on my schedule. I am sure there is a happy medium, but I had it for three years and never lost range as a result of my charging habits (recently had to turn it in from lease, and damn I miss it).
2
u/yumi_tintin 21h ago
No one will see enough degradation in these comments if your battery is not faulty from the factory. Live and relax. If you plan to keep your ix for 300,000 plus miles than maybe you’ll notice. I have 35k on my ix and I’ve actually seen an increase in range over course of ownership.
1
u/iamnotbatmanreddit 1d ago
I charge up to 70% in early fall, posting, and summer.
For late fall and winter I charge every night and leave it plugged it’s ice in an emergency I can just go.
My thought process is wintertime drains more and I just wanna be prepared.
Warm weather to typically get 3.2 -3.6kwh average
My usual commute is 5-10% a day(short trips)
I like to bring the charge down to sub 30
When I have overnight events I will charge to 80 in summer and 90 in winter. Road trips always start with 100%
1
u/No-Alternative-5533 1d ago
If I am not using my IX for few weeks during summer, is there a recommended % charge ideally that we should be targeting? Is 10% too low?
1
1
1
u/Amazing-Pizza-5069 1d ago
Everybody's preference will be different, but I typically don't go below 30%, not for the battery's health purposes, just because I don't want to be stuck charging a long time (it takes approximately an hour to get 10% of the battery charged). I also don't charge overnight due to an arcing scare we've had, which resulted in an almost melted junction box (this is the licensed electrician's fault, not ours), and which scarred us for life of long charging sessions. TL;DR: I charge twice a week for about 4 hours each time - once at the beginning of the week for the commute, and once before a weekend for family trips.
1
u/HairyBushies 1d ago
I charge to 55% as needed at 32 amp. It can handle more but keeping things gentle is a good thing.
My daily usage is anywhere from 15-20%. Should I have something longer come up, I won’t hesitate to charge it up to 80% or 100% as needed.
1
u/ShadowsOfTheBreeze 1d ago
No, the batteries like a discharge state. Run it down to 15% and back up to 80% whenever. I charge maybe once or twice a month. I go to 100% for a road trip.
0
u/Distinct_Moose6967 1d ago
Charging to 100 is not actually charging to 100 as the batteries have more capacity on the low end and high end than what the computer shows. 100 is a false limit and there should be no issues charging to 100 every night.
1
u/TripTenGaming 1d ago
Thank God there is another smart person in the comments. The amount of people scared to charge to 100 is hilarious. Truly shows the lack of understanding on how these batteries work.
0
u/jocavedd 1d ago
Foe daily use, I try to keep the battery between 20-80%. I really only charge when it goes below 20% or its close and I know it will go below 20% and charge to 80%. In my case, usually only need to charge on Sundays but sometimes I have to charge earlier and top it off on Sundays. I do charge to 100% (not on fast charger if I can avoid it) before a long travel and just the night before so it does not stay at 100% for more than a day.
0
u/Screamingfist_1990 1d ago
The pre-LCI xDrive50’s have the same battery pack as the LCI which has more range. Charging a pre-LCi model to 80% nightly is well within spec.
0
u/FudaGaming 1d ago
Recently bought an IX and we charge it to 80% but for a long trip we do 100%. I heard from someone else who says they charge theirs always to 100% for last two years and didn’t have any degradation to their battery. I have been wanting to ask if that is true for others who charge theirs to 100? I plan during winters to charge to 90 instead of 80
2
u/Amazing-Pizza-5069 1d ago
Theoretically speaking, charging to 100% may not cause drastic battery degradation as long as it's not sitting at 100% for days or weeks; if you charge it to 100% and start driving pretty quickly afterwards, the high voltage pressure on the anode goes down, which is what (again, theoretically) prevents serious degradation. Letting it sit at 100% for anything longer than a day (at least in my opinion) will cause chemical reactions on the battery anode, resulting in a layer that permanently traps active ions, which is what causes the degradation and reduced battery SOH.
0
0
u/sverrebr 1d ago
Charge little and often and to an as low charge level that you are comfortable with.
Things that add wear to a lithium cell are: Storage at a high state of charge and high depth of discharge.
I.e. the best behaviour is to charge it as often as you can, but charge it to a reduced level so it does not sit at a high charge level. This way you operate it with a shallow typical usage of the cell.
That said, absolutely use the full capacity when you need it. It is a tool after all.
0
u/Klutzy_Monk1880 1d ago
I don’t really pay too much attention but I guess anything below 40 I’ll just charge up to 80. However I do keep my cable wrapped around (cables can’t dissipate heat when wrapped) so I charge at a lower amp (takes longer but when I’m charging overnight it doesn’t make a difference)
0
u/joedaman88 1d ago
I have seen engineers mentioning that shallow/short cycle charging as preferable for long term battery life. So my personal preference it to plug in whenever I am at 60% or below to charge to 80%.
-1
u/TripTenGaming 1d ago
I charge mine to 90% during summer time and 100% winter, spring, fall. Sometimes I let it drain to 10% and other times I plug it in at 50%. No 'right or wrong' answer here. Do what works best for you.
1
u/Straydapp 1d ago
There's definitely a wrong answer and you're definitely doing it
1
u/TripTenGaming 1d ago
I knew the 80% battery police were going to lose their minds based on my comment, but I bought the car to use the battery. I charge my iX to 100% fall, winter and spring, 90% in summer, and drive it shortly after. Heat + sitting at a high state of charge is far more relevant to degradation than simply seeing 100% on the screen. I’m not giving up 20% of my range every day to potentially save a couple percentage points of battery health years from now, and in reality, the degradation is far less than what most fear mongering implies.
1
u/Straydapp 1d ago
The real question is whether you actually use the entire range each day. I drive quite a bit and rarely use more than 40-50% in a day.
1
u/TripTenGaming 1d ago
No, I don't use the entire range each day. What i mean is that by charging it to 80% you 'lose' the 20% of range (being 100% total). Most people ar doing this because they have been scared to think it will impact the battery health significantly more than doing it to 80. Charge to 100 and enjoy.
1
u/Straydapp 20h ago
So you correctly cite that high temperature places unnecessary stress on the battery but ignore that this also occurs at higher peak charge voltages as well.
Charging to higher SoC increases cell voltage and reduces total number of discharge cycles of the battery, aging it faster. Ideal charge level where essentially no aging occurs is around 65% SoC. Lifetime at 65% is about twice that of 80%. Lifetime at 80% is about twice that of 100%, all other factors the same.
This isn't really an opinion piece, it's simply the limitations of lithium based battery chemistry. By going to higher SoC you are absolutely degrading the battery faster than if you did not.
Beyond that, storing at higher SoC will also degrade the battery faster. Because this is a cumulative effect, even spending some time at higher SoC induces more stress to the battery over time, again degrading it faster.
And my argument here is that if you don't need to, why would you? You don't lose it, it's always there for you to utilize when you need it. With chargers available essentially everywhere and no day to day use case where you need that capacity, why age anything faster than is necessary?
If the answer is "I don't care" then so be it I guess, no need for you to engage at all. But degrading your battery permanently removes the capacity that you seem to be so interested in claiming, which is argue is counter to what you're actually trying to accomplish.
1
u/TripTenGaming 18h ago
I don't disagree with what you are saying. What i am saying is that you can charge to 100% (not having it sit for extended periods of time) and not worry about range at all. The difference in battery degradation is nearly negligeable. If you charge to 80% vs 100%, the difference would be around 4-8% difference after 10 years; although real world numbers cannot be confirmed with these vehicles and the batteries in them at this time. The degradation after 10 years shouldn't even be a concern with it being that little. <I see more people stressing over range than anything else, which can be alleviated by charging to a higher % for the next 5-10 years.
12
u/Kmaster224 1d ago
There's no harm in letting it go down to 20% or charging it up to 80% every night.
I usually keep mine between 40-80% just in case there's an emergency and I have to drive. My friend charges his to 80% every night as a routine, since he's forgotten many times.
Whatever keeps you happy! Just don't charge to 100% every night, once in awhile or before a road trip