The Top 5: Steps To Ensure High Performance From Your EV Battery 

For an EV, the battery is the most critical component. Even from a cost viability perspective, the battery’s cost constitutes around 30-40 per cent of the total cost of an EV. Thus, getting the best possible performance and longevity from the battery certifies the worth of the EV too. This article outlines the five steps necessary for maintaining the high performance of EV batteries.

#1 Driving Habits

The driving habit has to be first aspect under your control to ensure high battery performance. Abrupt acceleration or braking drains the battery quickly and results in performance problems. Apart from challenging driving conditions, aggressive driving or rapid acceleration will only lead to draining the battery faster.

Keep your vehicle’s speed at moderate levels as higher speeds use more energy. Thus, going at moderate speeds will give somewhat more range than when you are going fast.

Anticipatory driving is also suggested to increase the performance of the EV battery. Keeping a safe distance from other cars, slowing down smoothly for corners, and using driver assistance systems to help you drive at an even speed may provide a longer range and is also safer.

#2 Keep Optimum State of Charge

Avoid letting the battery go below a 10 per cent state of charge or charging a battery above 90 per cent, or up to 100 per cent, regularly. Charge your EV fully only for long-distance trips and try to limit your SOC between 20-80 per cent. Partial cycles of lithium-ion batteries are beneficial for EV battery life as deep discharging can cause damage to the battery.

#3 Use DC Fast-charging (High-speed Charging) Rarely

Automakers love to highlight how quickly you can charge nowadays. But what they don’t tell you is the damage it can do if you do it regularly, Minimize fast charging to extend your EV battery life. Level 2 charging is sufficient for ordinary charging needs. Fast charging presses too much electricity into an EV battery in a short period. This damages battery life in the long run. Using standard charging for one year ensures 10 per cent more battery life compared to one year of fast charging.

#4 Minimize Exposure to High Temperatures

Avoid exposure to extremely high temperatures when the vehicle is parked. Several EV fires occur due to vehicles parked in high temperatures. To counter this, electric vehicles generally come with an automated temperature control system which keeps the temperature under check for optimum efficiency as well as safety from such incidents. However, the system works when the ignition is on and the vehicle is using the battery power. Hence, it is advisable to minimize the exposure to extreme temperatures to keep the vehicle at ambient temperature with minimal use of such a system and ensure high performance from your EV battery.

#5 Tend to Tyres

Just like a conventional vehicle, driving your EV with its under-inflated tyres will not only increase its energy consumption but can lead to uneven and/or premature tread wear. Keep checking air pressure regularly and maintain the tyres properly inflated according to the pound per square inch (PSI) recommended by the automaker.

Keeping tyres inflated sufficiently will maintain the optimum power usage ensuring high performance of the EV battery.