In the now 3 months of ownership, I've been a bit of a wimp and the lowest I've gone is 28%. However as of late, I'm not as anxious anymore and I use about the same rate of range as you to and from work, so I just charge at work.

As for my ICE SUV ('06 4Runner) I don't let it go below 1/4 tank, but that's because the gas tank float is wonky and I have to go by an assumed mileage range lol.

 

You're ok for another 2 days!!! You're damn good for a guy with range anxiety lol!! When I had that I'd recharge when at 50% lol. Now down to 20% and sometimes a little lower. BMW's recommendation is 20% low and 80% high.

I do E too on gas cars and wait for the light to show up. That E is actually plenty. E is for Enough gas, and F is finished pumping.

 

I've been as low as 11% on a road trip. At home I now have solar with battery so I just charge 10-15% on sunny days. By Monday i4 is charged to 80%.

 

I don't recall the exact number, but down to mid-single digits.

From my research, this type of battery prefers to be between 30-50% charge, and the shallower the charging session, the better. That would optimize battery life. Given these constraints, I tend to charge everyday, and shoot to straddle the 50% charge mark from the beginning of the day to the end. For example, if I expect to use 30% charge throughout the day, I'll charge to 65% and end the day at 35% before recharging. That usually gives me plenty of spare capacity if needed for unexpected trips. It's an easy habit for me to just charge everyday and only takes seconds.

That is the ideal situation for the battery but I certainly use the full capacity if needed. I've charged to 100% on trips to avoid extra stops. Given the rare occasion of stretching the battery, it should have limited extra degredation. It ends up being a couple times a year.

 

I’ve been as low as 8% on a road trip (battery preconditioning turned on and I could watch the range dropping - I initially expected to get to the charger with 11%) and I’ve gone down to 3% when arriving home to charge. I will admit I was doing constant calculations on the last 30 min of that trip!

I do find the navigation % at charger/destination estimates update frequently and I rely on that pretty heavily.

And yes, I was one of those people that drove a gas tank down to E.

 

I once had a 1959 VW Beetle. That model had no fuel guage, rather a lever on the floor that you could kick over to transfer to the “reserve tank”. It was not a separate tank, but a fuel tap that was lower than the normal one.

If you forgot to track your range, you engine would conk out. Then you pushed in the clutch to keep rolling, switched the tap, and released the clutch to kick-start the engine again.

I think Bjorn Nyland or someone else once did a video about driving an i4 down to zero range.

As I recall, you can still drive a mile or so after “zero” range. I doubt it is good for the battery.

 

It’s best you avoid going down on charge. Anything below 60% you should plug back in for a variety of reasons, one being battery health.

BMW says to keep the SoC between 10-80%, but it’s best to not let it go down too low. Best SoC to keep the battery is right around middle but that’s not very practical.

 

Before last week 20%, but just took a road trip that brought me down to 6 miles or 3%. Definitely made for a more stressful last bit than I would've liked, but overall the car did what it said it would do so next time I'll have more trust in the numbers.

 

Got to 3% once…. And filled more gas than the tank capacity once too 🤪

as for the the battery health I don’t think “abusing” (that is go at 100% or 0%) the battery isn’t going to do much, it’s more if you do it constantly.

 

About 40%
😅

I charge every day the car is used up to 80% unless a longer journey is planned - then I charge higher.

As others stated, the battery ideal would be to stay about 50%, but that's not practical.
But the less time you have it on very high or very low charge the better.

Couple of useful tips:

ABC - Always Be Charging.

Fuelling - Don't treat it like an ICE car. Treat it more like your phone.

 

No clue. Maybe teens on a trip?

I plug in pretty much every night at home and rarely go below 70%

 

I think the lowest I've ever gotten was 9%? but it's rare for me to go below 20% and above 80%. I have a charge limit of 50% and rarely use more than 5% on a regular day (work from home). When I need to travel, I usually bump it up to 65% since that brings me to 35% at a convenient stop, where I charge to complete the trip

 

Try to keep it between 10 - 80 percent,
Except when arriving home, or other private places with a charging possibility (not fast chargers). 2 - 3 percent.
Or when leaving home for longer distances (99%).

In practice : International trips - down to six percent - planned charger not available..
Once 20 km after SOC was at zero percent. - not a real problem, car behaved normal, except for all the warnings.

10 - 80 percent is recommended - and do that daily - however not afraid of using the whole range 1 - 2 times a month - when needed.

 

Once 20 km after SOC was at zero percent. - not a real problem, car behaved normal, except for all the warnings.

I did not realize that you are actually TeslaBjorn. 😆

 

I got as low as 3% once. Just to see what would happen.

The hints to charge get more obnoxious as you keep going. At some point it will even reroute to the nearest charger without asking you.

All that time it kept telling I would arrive at my destination, where I could charge, with 2%, so I kept pushing on. And then, as always, it was pessimistic about the amount of charge I would have because it was 3%.

But normally I keep it between 10% and 80%, sometimes going up to 100% for longer trips.

 

Peer reviewed technical studies on battery health in electric vehicles, particularly when managed by computer algorithms which we do not know, isn’t very impressive. Personally, I don’t worry about battery health since I’ve seen no indication that for a period of five years or less charging status will make any difference. I charge to 100% and if I’m traveling locally, let it come down to 5% or so. On a trip, I charge to 100% and then try not to get below 10%. Just me but that’s it.

 

So you believe the car is worthless after 5 years ?
There is some, and I believe more in the future - Battery analyses when selling/buying 2nd hand EV's.

I believe that I will have the car for more than five years - and I believe taking care of the battery will result in less range reduction when battery gets old.

However, when I need to, or it is convenient, I go outside the 10 - 80 percent rule.

 

No, not worthless at all. I drove a Tesla S 8 years charging to 100% typically down to 5-20% with very little degradation in range. Not worth it to me to be frequently charging.

 

7-9% a couple times returning home from a road trip; Maybe 3% once while running errands within a couple miles of home. Pretty happy with the estimated SOC at destination calculator.
When I program a route from NC to FL, ~544 mi, it sometimes wants me to stop 3 times, which seems unnecessary, so I play with the parameters to do it on 2 stops. Rather have 2x 30 min stops while eating, etc than 3x 20 min stops.

 

Well, I'm wimping out and going to plug in at work since it's "free" to charge. I'm at 14%. Good to know that you can trust the range indicator. I finally have level 2 charging setup at home and work (and my wife's work), so that makes things convenient.

 

The time I referenced where I pulled in with 7% the original navigation estimate for state of charge at destination was 18% so it's definitely something to keep an eye on as you drive. My guess is that we were driving into a stiff head wind, but I never bothered to check weather apps and confirm that at the time.

 

got down to 3% on a road trip to France as I missed the turn off. luckily the next charger was in range. was a bit worried and first time I'd experienced range anxiety but the car didn't even reduce available power so must still have a little bit in reserve just incase. thanks to the fast chargers on the continent was off on my merry way in no time.

 

I got down to about 15% after an out of town trip. I usually charge at home once it gets below 50%

 

3%. Yesterday I hit 7%. I’m over here thugging 😂

 

Now I'm at 85%, so I guess I can knock off of work early!

Also... I wonder why BMW, etc. don't put in an analog charge gauge that looks just like a gas gauge. It seems that would be a good way for ICE converts to get comfortable to an electric car. When I first got the car, I was thinking "oh wow - I went from 100% to 94% just driving to work!!!!". But, if it were a "gas gauge", you would barely notice that change.

 

Ha! If they made it an item you could customize through Settings, that'd be something, but I doubt BMW would ever consider something silly.

I did add this during the first couple of weeks of owning the car as I kept forgetting which side the charge port was on lol

 

1%, hit last Saturday. We took a spur of the moment trip, and I hadn't really looked at the SOC. It ended up being a 200 mile trip. On the return leg, the distance to go was exactly matching the remaining miles per the GOM. I decided to keep going. We hit some traffic that slowed us a down a bit, so I actually ended up w/ 2 miles left. Previous to that, 11% was the lowest.

I will say that I didn't turn the HVAC off (heat was running), or really slow down.

 

I feel like the car handles a bit better in the turns with a lower state of charge. Less weight due to less electrons in the tank..... 🤓

 

I typically keep the state of charge between 40-60% in the winter for the daily commute, i.e. I have to charge every day. In the summer, I charge every other day (35ish - 65%). I don't think I have ever driven the car below 10% and it's super rare that I charge beyond 80%.

 

Checking in - I just drive non-stop from Charlotte to Pooler Ga, 253 miles in 3:45 hrs. Started at home at 99%, arrived with 15%.
I was averaging 4.4-4.5 mi/kwh in the first half of the trip, but it dropped down to 4.1 by the end. I guess I sped up 😎

 

Checking in - I just drive non-stop from Charlotte to Pooler Ga, 3:45 hrs. Started at home at 99%, arrived with 15%.
I was averaging 4.4-4.5 mi/kwh in the first half of the trip, but it dropped down to 4.1 by the end. I guess I sped up 😎

What kind of speeds were you driving? I can barely do better than 3.5 in the best of weather.