An electric car is seen as the best option to help save the environment, compared to gas powered cars.
However, for electric car owners that don’t drive much in their cars or even work from home, they may have wondered how long their electric car can sit without needing to be charged.
In this article, I will be discussing how long an electric car sits for without being charged. The ultimate tips for long term parking.
How Long Can Your Electric Car Sit For Without Being Charged?
It’s critical to look after your electric vehicle. It won’t need to be charged for several months if you keep it parked.
Yet, the battery percentage will eventually start to decline. It is important to keep an eye on your car’s battery even when you aren’t driving it.
Additionally, the temperature and weather can impact how effectively and how long your battery can maintain its charge.
As long as the charge is about 50%, the car will continue to have charge while it is parked for weeks at a time.
People decide to have a car for various reasons, yet you may not need to use it a lot.
This could be because you work from home, or you naturally don’t do a lot of driving.
However, even if you use your electric car very little, you still need to make sure that you keep it in as good condition as possible.
Therefore, you need to make sure that the battery of your electric car is charged properly.
In addition, you need to be aware of what are the best percentages that your electric car should be kept at.
Studies have shown that an electric car can sit for months without needing to be charged.
Although, this is only possible, if your car has around 50% battery or more charge left in it.
It is a common thought that you should charge your electric car to 100% if the car is going to be sat around, not being used for a while.
Yet, you shouldn’t do this, because when an electric car has a full battery for an extended period of time, then the battery cells of the car start to get damaged.
The same can also be said if you leave your electric car’s battery at a low percentage of charge for an extended period of time.
As a result, it has been suggested that you don’t let your car sit when it has a battery percentage of 20% or lower.
In addition to this, you need to think about the different kinds of weather your electric car may be sitting in during this time.
It is known that when an electric car’s batteries are exposed to extremely high temperatures, then the capacity of the battery begins to decrease.
Unfortunately, you cannot stop this issue from happening.
Thus, it is best to leave your car in a garage or in the shade out of sunlight, if it must be sat for an extended period of time.
With all this being said, it is important to make sure that you drive your electric car, when you can.
Otherwise, over time, the batteries within the car will start to degrade much faster when the batteries aren’t being used.
What Temperature Is Considered Too Hot For Your Parked Electric Car?
As we have mentioned above, when an electric car is exposed to high temperature while it is sitting, this can affect the battery cells of the car.
Manufacturers of electric cars have asked that you keep the car battery under 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
Yet, studies have said you should really be aiming for 100 degrees Fahrenheit or less to make sure that you are preventing any damage to your car’s battery.
Therefore, it is best you park your car in the shade, and out of direct sunlight.
Will Your Electric Car Lose Any Charge While Parked?
Even though you can leave your electric car sitting for months, and you don’t have to charge it.
Yet, during this time that your car is sat, it is slowly losing minimal amounts of charge.
To really minimize the amount of charge that is lost while your cat is sitting parked, then you can change certain settings in your car.
Even though the car isn’t moving, the battery is still working while the car is parked.
The battery is still providing power to other systems within your car, and this is what causes the slight power decrease over time.
Settings You Can Change To Save More Power
While you are sitting parked, it does slowly over time start to lose some of its charge.
This is only a tiny amount, but there are settings in your car that you can change to prevent or make this decrease of charge as small as possible.
The following are the settings that you can change to converse as much power as possible.
Power Save
In each brand of electric car, there is a setting that is similar to power save. This setting has various different names like power save or energy saving.
The name will be something to do with saving energy. Therefore, activating this setting will help you save more power while your car isn’t being used.
Preset Features
Certain kinds of electric cars will already have particular features activated for you.
These settings could make your car warm up or cool down, depending on the weather.
However, if you aren’t going to be driving your car for a while, these settings are not necessary.
Therefore, you could deactivate them, which will help you save even more battery power.
Deep Sleep
Electric cars are clever, and some have a feature that will recognize when the car isn’t being used.
When the car realizes that it isn’t being used, the electric car will naturally start to conserve its power instead of providing systems within the car unnecessary power.
If you aren’t sure whether your car has this feature, check with your manufacturer or the car’s manual.
What Happens When An Electric Car Runs Out Of Power?
Now, we understand that your car’s battery will become damaged when not used for a long period of time.
However, it can also become damaged when left at 100% as well.
Sometimes your car may just run out of power. When this happens, the car will just stop working.
You will then need to plug your car into a charging station as soon as possible. It is best to try and never let your battery run dry that often.
If it happens too often, this will cause more damage to the battery, and you may have to replace it.
Conclusion
It is important to take good care of your electric car. You can leave it parked for months without it needing to be charged.
However, over time, the battery percentage will begin to decrease. Also, the weather and temperature can affect how well and long your battery will hold its power.
The car will remain charged for months while sat parked as long as the charge is around 50%.
I hope you have found this article useful and that the tips have given you an insight into how long your car can stay charged while parked.
You should always keep an eye on your car’s charge even when you’re not driving it.
He made this website to help answer people’s questions about new technologies, green vehicles, and as the title suggests, really anything to do with zero emission vehicles.
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