Everything you ever wanted to know about your electric car's battery....

but so far did not dare to ask

Nicholas Mayerhofer

Do you drive an electric car or are you planning to buy one? Here is the most important thing you need to know to enjoy your ride for a long time and safely. In this and the following texts you will have the opportunity:

1. to inform yourself in detail and correctly about the battery in an electric vehicle,

2. Understand how trivial or even dangerous myths surrounding the battery are and

3. Provide better handling of your battery.

Your battery will thank you when you return safely after a long ride.

Let's start with how long your battery will actually last until the next charge, that is, what are the gross and net values of a battery. If the battery is brand new, you'll find two energy values in the datasheet: usable (net) and installed (gross). These two values determine the energy of your battery in the maximum (gross) and real (net) amount. Something like a salary: what you see on your pay slip at the end of the working month is gross, while what you see on your bank account and what you have at your disposal is net. How it looks in reality is best illustrated by the example of a beer stein. The foam from the top of the beer stein is called "buffer full." Those few drops at the bottom, which always remain in the glass even when everything has been drunk, are called "buffer empty." In a battery, it's energy you CANNOT USE, but it's built in. The buffer full is the energy reserve when the battery is full, the buffer empty is the energy reserve when the battery is "empty". It is important to emphasize here that batteries configured in this way are never completely empty. Why access to this energy is limited is another topic we will write about later. For now, it is important to know that this buffer exists and that this is the case for most batteries (but not all).