EV Car charging Habits (Specific to Tata Evs)

 

General guidelines

Please note all these are just suggestions. At the end of the day, car is having a utility, so sometimes we may not be able to do all these. That's perfectly normal.

1) Always try to slow charge from 15%-25% to 100%.

If your daily routine drive takes 20%, try to charge on every fourth day if you don't have any other emergency.

2) During fast charging,

a) always leave your phone number visibly in the vehicle before leaving the fast charging station and keep monitoring the SoC using charging app/zconnect app.

b) it is better to stop charging before 90% if it servers your purpose and you are using only one or two fast charging.

c) It is better not to stop charging at 95%. Try to do it before 94%.

d) Please note that 95% to 100% may take 10-20 min. So go above 94% only if you have patiance to wait that much time (you may be blocking another vehicle which can charge 25% or more by that time)

e) If charging stops due to some unknown reason above 90%, it is better not to try again.

f) If someone else is waiting for charging their car, it is better to stop when you have sufficient charge in your vehicle to reach the destination or next planned charger. *Just because you are paying for the energy doesn't mean that you can unnecessarily hog up the charger* (especially when under utilising - after 90-95% charging power decreases a lot).

g) In long drives you may need to charge from 15-20% to 100% for cell balancing (once in three or four fast charging). In that case use good and reliable fast charging machines. But ensure you are not blocking anyone in need. You can use type 2 gun after 93% (if you have sufficient time).

h) There is a common belief that high capacity chargers will charger your car faster. If your car is having fast charging capability less than 25kW (including Nexon EV prime/MR, TIGOR, Tiago MR and LR), it charges with same speed in any charging station greater than 25kW. You should choose 30kW station than 60kW station as another high power FC capable vehicle (such as Nexon EV Max/LR, ZS, BYD etc.) may come and utilise the benefit.

My suggestion regarding deep discharging

If you are saying that you are not supposed to go below 10%, consider a situation where you are planning to reach home with 15% and in between there was a big traffic or a road deviation which eats up 10% SOC or more. So there is no other option but you need to go below 10%. Mostly at that point of time your family will be with you. It is pretty risky getting an error at that point of time.

So my advice to everyone is once in a while (atleast once or twice in a year) try to discharge your battery below 5% at a situation when the other conditions are favorable for you (your own location, even if error comes near by service centre, near by slow charging facility, provision to park the car etc.). It will give you confidence that even in a worst case scenario you can trust your vehicle.

*Please note* that deep discharging and fully charging is not good for single cells of the battery but it is a tradeoff.

*First tradeoff* (deep discharging once) is for avoiding risk at some in emergency requirement in near future. To avoid surprises.

*Second tradeoff* (full charging) is for cell balancing and keeping all the cells at equal potential for long term health. Try to use the vehicle as soon as possible after reaching 100%. If possible, plan charging accordingly

NB: If you have any problems while deep discharging upto 5%, you should go to service centre with 20% and tell them to drive upto 5% and show you (it would be better if you take appointment for first slot of that day and ensure EV technician is available).

If they asks to hold the vehicle, ask for an EV loner vehicle. If EV loner vehicle not available, ask for ICE loner vehicle with fuel charges and if both are not available, ask for daily compensation. If they tells about battery replacement, use the vehicle above 20-30% till the battery pack reaches (do follow-up every two days).

Edit: 2023-11-23 It is better to fast charge atleast 5-10% and ensure your fast charging system is working properly without any errors once in a year or before a long trip.

Daily which EVSE should I use? 13A (3.3kW) EVSE or 32A (7.2kW) EVSE?

It is upto you to use. Try to use the lowest charging power possible for better battery life. It is upto your use case only.

If your car is having 3.3kW OBC, the 13A EVSE or 32A EVSE gives you almost similar results. If your vehicle is having 7.2kW OBC, then the 32A EVSE will help you charge your car a lot faster than 13A EVSE. Most of the vehicles come with the same OBC instead of variant. In Tiago EV, there is a variant with 32A EVSE (for marketing everyone says it as 7.2kW EVSE) and variants without EVSE also. But all the variants have 7.2kW OBC onboard. So even in the base variant of Tiago EV, you can get the benefit of 7.2kW OBC.

For regular use if the 13A EVSE helps you to fill your car overnight, then use 13A EVSE only. Only if that's not sufficient, go for 32A EVSE. If you are considering battery health, it is all relative. If you compare 20kW DC fast charging with 7.2kW charging, 7.2kW charging is better for the battery. If you compare 7.2 kW charging with 3.3kW charging, 3.3kW charging is better. But keep in mind that the vehicle is having a utility, don't sacrifice the utility thinking about the battery life.