[gizmotek12]

picked this car up this past summer, so far i love it!!

few things here have my brain going... is anyone who leaves their car plugged in for 3-5 days coming to your car to find the 12v battery us dead?

also my car has 26k on it, battery life seems good. im getting decent range even in the winter months. curious what people are getting for miles out of these battery packs. i know longevity of a battery is largely based on how its treated. i just want to know whats out there and what to expect from this things months,years to come.

thank you

 

[jwight]

Welcome to SCoA!

 

[hafwrite]

I'm a newbie too! Just got a 2014 ED last month.

I haven't left it plugged in for longer than overnight yet so can't answer your first question. My instinct would be that it's just an old battery and probably needs to be replaced soon.

As for cold weather. When it's in the teens out, I top out at 45-50 miles on a full charge. Imagine my surprise one day last week in the 60's and my full charge read 79 miles! Nice! Weather has a big impact. I asked a friend who owned an older Smart ED and he said it was very normal to see that fluctuation with temperature. Running the heat totally sucks battery life too. So when I know I need the miles and it's really cold out, I put toe warmers in my shoes and bundle up. (My ED has a fancy radio but no seat heaters.)

 

[gizmotek12]

still learning tons about this car, just hoping that its going to treat me well, not seeing many high mile eds out there. makes me wonder where i stand. my car has over 26k on it. and its 5 years old!! should i worry?!?!?

i got this car to test out the electric car life and so far im impressed to say the least. i wish i had tesla range but for now its my daily commuter and i do just fine going to work and home with the heat cranked! i usually get home with 50-60% charge. my commute is short lol. here in Maine last few weeks have been nice. not needing the heat mixed with the warmer battery has really amplified my range. i went to work 3 days in a row with out a charge!

 

[hafwrite]

I'm getting to know mine too. 2014 w/25k miles. That's pretty high for an ED. But this is how I look at it. It came off lease, one owner. Who ever that was, they drove it regularly which means it was also charged regularly (that's very important for the battery). It's from CA so unlikely it sat for weeks in sub-zero weather (also important). Probably garaged as the exterior is in good shape.

I drive it 2-3 days and charge it when it drops below 60%. From what I've read, you should avoid charging when it's over 80% and try not to run it until it dies.

It really is a fun little car.

 

[Johannesl]

Welcome to SCoA.

The EDs are a blast. I bought one in November and haven’t put more than 100 miles on my gas smart since I bought it. I have, however, driven about 3k miles in my ED. (Bought at 26,5xx miles and about to roll over 30k miles in a week or so)

My commute is a bit longer. I commute 43 miles round trip daily and 40 of those miles are highway. I charge nightly and on occasion I have to charge for an hour or so to complete my trip home (on those extremely cold days here in central California).


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[InjuredAgain]

still learning tons about this car, just hoping that its going to treat me well, not seeing many high mile eds out there. makes me wonder where i stand. my car has over 26k on it. and its 5 years old!! should i worry?!?!?

i got this car to test out the electric car life and so far im impressed to say the least. i wish i had tesla range but for now its my daily commuter and i do just fine going to work and home with the heat cranked! i usually get home with 50-60% charge. my commute is short lol. here in Maine last few weeks have been nice. not needing the heat mixed with the warmer battery has really amplified my range. i went to work 3 days in a row with out a charge!

There are a couple of owners in Europe who are at or have exceeded 100,000 miles in an ED, and their batteries are only showing degradation of a few percent. Recently also, an article was linked to on a FB page stating the battery pack was good for 9000 full charge/discharge cycles with no more than (I believe) 20% degradation. That would be about a half million miles of driving.

Your situation is the same with us - ours was also to test an electric vehicle out and our other gas cars mostly sit as we prefer to take the smart for our running around. For 99% of that, it has enough space and range, and the ease of parking can't be beat. We've put 6000 miles on ours since last June and intend to drive the wheels off it, which may literally be decades as far as the battery goes.

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[Tony Margulis]

Recently also, an article was linked to on a FB page stating the battery pack was good for 9000 full charge/discharge cycles with no more than (I believe) 20% degradation. That would be about a half million miles of driving.

I remember a similar article, I believe it was 3000 cycles before it was 20% degraded and 9000 cycles before it was completely dead. But still that's about 150,000 miles before it's 20% degraded. Obvs that was in a closed environment. Real world will probably drastically vary. Either way, it's a lot more miles than most people realise. They used to offer 100,000 mile warranty on the battery, the new cars have an 80,000 Mike warranty which means all of MB's testing probably showed these batteries lasting way longer than 100,000 miles, or else they probably wouldn't have a warrant like that.

 

[InjuredAgain]

I remember a similar article, I believe it was 3000 cycles before it was 20% degraded and 9000 cycles before it was completely dead. But still that's about 150,000 miles before it's 20% degraded. Obvs that was in a closed environment. Real world will probably drastically vary. Either way, it's a lot more miles than most people realise. They used to offer 100,000 mile warranty on the battery, the new cars have an 80,000 Mike warranty which means all of MB's testing probably showed these batteries lasting way longer than 100,000 miles, or else they probably wouldn't have a warrant like that.

Actually, it is approximately 9000 cycles at 1C discharge rate, according to the author. The referenced paper wasn't available at this time but I did manage to dig up the German language version at some point in the past.

https://cleantechnica.com/2014/09/07/ev-batteries-awesome-thought-probably/

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[Tony Margulis]

Wow, that's a fantastic article. I hope it's true. Unless you're on the freeway a lot, your discharge rate is probably less than 1C which is even better than 9000 cycles. I would point out that outside factors like the climate you live in can also drastically change that number. But even if you cut it in half, that's still over 300,000 miles.

 

[gizmotek12]

well thank you guys for the comments! my 13 is just about 27k now. i get into town and back to the house (14 miles) and have about 80% left. i never let my car go below 40%. and i average 4-4.2 mpkw without heat or heated seats going, i love the car. i have been asked by so many people just to look inside the car. definitely a conversation starter! we have a 2012 vw GLI and that only gets used on the weekends. if only it was a 4 seater. having a family of 4 makes it hard. ultimate goal is to get a performance telsa.

i hear there is a cartridge in the battery pack for water? that should be replaced annually? up here in maine with all this snow driving and cold weather im wondering if i should replace this cartridge sooner than later.

 

[InjuredAgain]

There is a dessicant cartridge that screws in from underneath. It is to be replaced every two years and costs roughly $50 from a Mercedes parts store (prices seem to vary widely). A part number, which I don't have handy, has been posted in many threads here and can probably be found by searching on "dessicant".

I have the battery inspection tool that Len Sokoloff makes and sells and it does seem that occasionally running the battery down to a lower percentage, in my case around 10%, seems to help even out and increase the storage capacity of the individual cells as reported by that tool.

 

[gizmotek12]

these onboard charges must have some type of balancing built into their charge algorithm. these battery packs amaze me! punished through the winter months and punished during the summer months. yet the battery in my car is performing like its new!

who here uses the factory charger? thats all i have at the moment. was considering getting a wall mounted 240v charger for the garage to speed up charge times. is it worth it?

has anyone driven their smart in a snow storm?! what a ride without traction control on! as soon as you let off the accelerator pedal your sideways! with factory rubber on my car still 27k ish miles. the car still tanks through the snow. very impressed there as well. we have a ton a cars and i find myself in this smart just about everyday. i just cant get enough of it! i had no idea what i was getting into when i went to get this thing. such a blast. and just to think we got this thing to leave in the camper to replace our polaris gem car. looks like this replaced all my cars lol.

 

[gizmotek12]

few weeks ago i found a twin at the hockey rink! here in Auburn Maine! yohb? lol

 

[Tony Margulis]

these onboard charges must have some type of balancing built into their charge algorithm. these battery packs amaze me! punished through the winter months and punished during the summer months. yet the battery in my car is performing like its new!

who here uses the factory charger? thats all i have at the moment. was considering getting a wall mounted 240v charger for the garage to speed up charge times. is it worth it?

has anyone driven their smart in a snow storm?! what a ride without traction control on! as soon as you let off the accelerator pedal your sideways! with factory rubber on my car still 27k ish miles. the car still tanks through the snow. very impressed there as well. we have a ton a cars and i find myself in this smart just about everyday. i just cant get enough of it! i had no idea what i was getting into when i went to get this thing. such a blast. and just to think we got this thing to leave in the camper to replace our polaris gem car. looks like this replaced all my cars lol.

I use the factory charger. I've never needed anything else. I keep it plugged into the garage.

 

[sokoloff]

I use the factory charger. I've never needed anything else. I keep it plugged into the garage.

Never used anything but the factory charger on mine either. I have no need for a faster charger. Plug mine it at night and it's "full" in the morning.

Len
2014 EV Coupe 14,500 miles
2014 EV Cabriolet 4,000 miles

 

[MB DNA]

who here uses the factory charger? thats all i have at the moment. was considering getting a wall mounted 240v charger for the garage to speed up charge times. is it worth it?

As others have reported, after 3+ years with OEM Level 1 charger - what's not to like about filling your "tank" while sleeping?

Do have a NEW (3 year old) Clipper Creek Level 2 but have never found the need to plug it in? :shrug:

 

[Johannesl]

I use the OEM level 1 charger. Only time I wish I had a level 2 is those days when I only have 6-7 hours between shifts. On those days I play musical cars and drive the gas smart to work.


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[Rob22304]

I stopped using the factory charger once I installed a 240V outlet in my carport and got a level 2 charger. Full charge in 3-4 hours with the ability to get a useful quick charge in 1/2 - 1 hour. Totally worth it for me but it didn’t cost me much since I only needed about 3 feet of Romex and an outlet/cover and a breaker. Plus the cost of the charger.

 

[kcfoxie]

We have a 2013 and 2014 Cabrio electric drive in my household. I am not a fan of the included Level 1 charger. All our cars (2 Smart EDs and a shared one between the Zero motorcycle and BMW i3) have an AeroVironment TurboCord Dual as the travel Level 1, and the unit is also a (16A) Level 2 with an adapter. I drive a fair amount -- I have 34k miles on my car that I watched roll 9k miles back in April 2016.

Level 2 was a requirement for me and my usage, and I opted for ChargePoint Home. I have two (16A and 32A) installed, and I would highly recommend them.

It's not unusual to see this on any given weekend at my house (we don't own the white one):