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  • Buffalox
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    7 days ago

    When we bought our EV in the middle of winter we had the battery tested first, and we were told it was 89% of original capacity.
    But inspired by my wife telling me about this article, and having to make an about 25% charge today, I thought I’d try to calculate the capacity from the information on the charger (Zaptec).
    This is probably not the most accurate way to do it, but I was very surprised that the result of my calculation is that the battery still has 99% of the original capacity!! Even if that is 10% off, it means it may not have lost capacity in the 9 months we’ve had it.
    Maybe it’s because conditions today are better than in the cold of winter, where a garage even though it is indoor gets a bit cold.
    And today was probably near perfect conditions with 20°C.
    Our car VW ID.4 77 kWh battery, is nearing 5 years old, and 130.000 km. But the battery seems to be in very good shape. 😎

    • MinnesotaGoddam
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      6 days ago

      The salesman tried to scare us with the idea of battery replacements every four years at ten thousands of dollars each (he really wanted to push us to a leased car. Fuck that I drive them til they die). 110k miles, battery still has at least 95% capacity.

    • Dkiscoo
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      6 days ago

      You can get a Bluetooth ODB scanner for cheap on Amazon and it will tell you the exact battery life

      • Buffalox
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        6 days ago

        I have one already, but I haven’t used it for 3 years, but from what I’ve heard that built in status isn’t very precise.
        At the shop they run a test that takes 2 hours to determine the battery life, and you can have a more accurate test done that takes 24 hours. But that’s a bit expensive.