Update usable battery levels over time?

[Olagon]

Does anyone know if the Ford dealers can adjust our packs so we can use more of the battery as our FFEs age? Am guessing that will give us a little more range after our packs age.

 

[sefs]

As of now, there is nothing in IDS to change the battery window.

 

[michael]

That's a good idea, and in principle it would work, but I don't think it's practical in the FFE.

It's generally believed that the Volt includes this capability, and that it happens automatically. In the Volt this is possible because only a small portion (about 2/3) of the battery capacity is used. Because of this extremely conservative design, battery degradation is expected to be quite small, and the portion of the total capacity that is used could be increased while still using only a small portion. GM has stated that users will not notice any decrease in range with use over the life of the car.

The FFE uses somewhere between 80% and 85% of its total capacity. Therefore there is little room to increase. Furthermore, any further increase in used percentage would serve to accelerate future degradation. So my expectation is that Ford decided on a charge window that they believed was a good compromise between range and life and this doesn't change as the battery ages.

Of course you can help things yourself in the meantime...try to restrict your use of the battery to the lower charge ranges except when needed for specific trips. As the battery ages, you can use a wider window. And as we have discussed here, there have been few if any reports of significant battery degradation among the posters on this forum. The design seems pretty good.

 

[Olagon]

Thanks guys good info. Coming from an iMiev folks on that forum said Mitsubishi shops can adjust battery levels over time to make up for degradation. From what I've read on the forums there is also very little battery degradation and there are lots of iMievs from 2011 or so. I did read about two or three battery replacements and appreciated that all three cases were handled swiftly by Mitsubishi with a battery repair.

 

[michael]

In the Toyota RAV-4, Tesla handles this by providing standard and extended charging options. As the battery degrades, the standard charge remains at 35 kWh, while in the increment provided by extended charging is reduced. Initially the extended charge is 42 kWh but that number shrinks over time.