Tobias Gausemel Backe
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Is the electric car battery damaged by too much fast charging
An electric car needs to be charged, and although most people charge their car at home, quite a few visit Fortum Charge & Drive’s fast chargers.
If you have no way of charging at home, and maybe not at work either, there is a good chance you will be fast-charging a lot. What does it actually do to the battery if you fast-charge a lot?
Not dangerous to fast-charge
The first “modern” electric cars came on stream in 2011, and people are now starting to gain a bit of experience in using a car and charging the battery.
While Nissan and VW, in their user manuals for early eGolf and eUP! models, recommended limiting the use of fast charging, the other manufacturers did not. All of this is discussed in this article, which we should also mention is from 2015. A lot has happened since then.
“The experience gained from the electric cars that came onto the market from 2011 until now indicates that it is not dangerous to fast-charge a lot,” says Fortum Charge & Drive’s technical manager, Morgan Lind.
He points out that charging and discharging will naturally wear down the battery, but that this will not make much difference in normal use.
“If you charge to a high level or draw a lot of power from the car’s battery, it will cause wear, especially in combination with high temperature. On the other hand, the wear seems to be so little in Norway that it is not a consideration that customers making normal use of the car need to think about,” Lind goes on.
Find out everything you need to know about charging an electric car here
NOT DANGEROUS: The Technical Director at Fortum Charge & Drive, Morgan Lind, assures us that there is nothing dangerous in fast-charging your electric car if you are an average driver.
Moreover, the car’s battery management system (BMS) will limit both the charging effect and the effect to the motor if control parameters such as the internal temperature of the battery being monitored by the system are outside the values specified by the battery and car manufacturers.
“In any case, we advise you to familiarise yourself with the guidelines from the car manufacturer, and read the instruction manual,” says Lind.
No noticeable loss of capacity
Fortum Charge & Drive has also built up its own experience.
“We serve electric car drivers who basically rely exclusively on fast charging, and do not see any noticeable reduction in capacity,” concludes Lind.
So there is no danger of your electric car’s battery losing more capacity than usual if you fast-charge a lot.
