An electric car battery gradually degrades every time it charges, and needs replacement when it no longer delivers sufficient power. How soon this happens depends on two factors. These are (a) how much power it had originally, and (b) the number of times the owner / driver recharges it. But that’s not all: an electric car battery owner needs to know how to get best value for their money.
More Facts Every Electric Car Battery Owner Should Know
A conventional vehicle using gasoline has an engine with a few accessories attached. Whereas an electric vehicle battery comprises hundreds, even thousands of individual cells. These cells combine their power to produce energy for the electric motor and vehicle accessories.
An electronic battery management system controls the charging and recharging cycles. While at same time, it ensures the battery performs the way the designer intended. This helps ensure that the electric car battery owner can rest assured that everything is working the way it should.
When electric cars go in for a service, auto electricians check their battery health in terms of two parameters:
- Battery capacity, meaning the amount of electrical energy it can still hold.
- How this compares against the standard when the battery was brand new.
What an Owner / Driver Can Do to Extend Battery Life
A complete recharging cycle allows an electric vehicle battery to drain fully, and then top up completely. Smart athletes don’t stress their muscles that way, and there is a lesson in this that every electric car battery owner should know.
To continue with the analogy, aging batteries and athletes are not as strong as they once were, when they were young. Therefore it follows that electric vehicle owners and drivers should avoid over-stressing their batteries.
In practical terms, this means avoiding full discharges and recharges. Electric car batteries should remain useful longer, if their charge is always somewhere between 15% and 85%. As an added bonus, the battery should take less time to top up too.
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Better EV Battery Information Benefits Users