[ai4px]

By now we all know hill top mode limits the top charge to 90%. What if you have a really short commute and want to charge even less each day to preserve your battery life?

1)program the on peak / off peak charge times to 100% on peak.
2)set the car to charge based on rate schedule.
3)when you bring the car home with less than 40% battery, it'll charge to 40% and stop.
4)set the off peak charging to home only, so when you travel away from home the car will charge fully (or 90% if hilltop mode is on).

This could be advantageous for tightwads (err thrifty people) with a lot of L2 chargers in their area... go to the store and the car will charge as long as you are there... but only to 40% when charging at home.

 

[Vertiformed]

By now we all know hill top mode limits the top charge to 90%.

Actually, it's about 87–88%, depending on the phase of the moon.

What if you have a really short commute and want to charge even less each day to preserve your battery life?

1)program the on peak / off peak charge times to 100% on peak.
2)set the car to charge based on rate schedule.
3)when you bring the car home with less than 40% battery, it'll charge to 40% and stop.
4)set the off peak charging to home only, so when you travel away from home the car will charge fully (or 90% if hilltop mode is on).

This could be advantageous for tightwads (err thrifty people) with a lot of L2 chargers in their area... go to the store and the car will charge as long as you are there... but only to 40% when charging at home.

Interesting idea. Have you tried it?
'
Frankly though, I'm not sure that (assuming you don't plug in elsewhere) having the car hover in the 30–40% or lower range is better for it than hovering at 78–88%. There's precious little evidence that charging to full every day has ever harmed a Bolt, and even less that charging to hill-top level every day causes any issues.

Let's suppose however, that there actually is some advantage to this behavior, and that ten years from now your car will have 12.5% battery degradation instead of 15%, giving you 208 miles of EPA range instead of 202. On the one hand, six more miles! On the other, how many times over that ten year period will you have been inconvenienced by having only 30% battery when you need to handle some unplanned situation.

Chevy designed the car so people didn't have to worry about these things, just plug it in however you like and drive it. The only thing they tell you not to do is leave it for a very long time baking in the sun.

 

[ai4px]

You could be right on all points... I’m only suggesting options that might be suitable for some people who don’t drive much each day.

And yup, 88-90% based on phase of moon.... who knows?? Lol.

 

[Vertiformed]

You could be right on all points... I’m only suggesting options that might be suitable for some people who don’t drive much each day.

Although I do think your idea was clever, I still worry about the message this sends to anyone thinking about buying an EV. One of the most common questions I've had from drivers of ICE-age cars is “aren't you worried about running out of battery” and I always say that it's like my cell phone, I plug it in at night and I wake up with a “full tank” every morning. I note that they probably have more anxiety about fueling than I do because they put off filling up until the warning light comes on, and even then they may be busy and doing the math as to whether they can delay it a little longer (especially if they have a routine they like to follow or a favorite gas station).

If these folks hear some people claiming that the right way to have a car like a Bolt is to keep it at a low state-of-charge where you only have 70 miles of driving range because 238 is just for special occasions, well, they'll go back to their way of thinking that electric cars aren't dependable and run out of battery easily.

And yup, 88-90% based on phase of moon.... who knows?? Lol.

Most commonly, mine charges to 88.24%. The highest I've seen is 88.63%, and the lowest 87.45%. I've never seen 90%.

 

[NewsCoulomb]

By now we all know hill top mode limits the top charge to 90%. What if you have a really short commute and want to charge even less each day to preserve your battery life?

1)program the on peak / off peak charge times to 100% on peak.
2)set the car to charge based on rate schedule.
3)when you bring the car home with less than 40% battery, it'll charge to 40% and stop.
4)set the off peak charging to home only, so when you travel away from home the car will charge fully (or 90% if hilltop mode is on).

This could be advantageous for tightwads (err thrifty people) with a lot of L2 chargers in their area... go to the store and the car will charge as long as you are there... but only to 40% when charging at home.

Yes, that was basically my recommendation when someone asked early on. Not my greatest video; I should go back and edit it: