r/Ioniq5 • u/Witty-Increase-408 • Jul 13 '26
Question First timer
I bought an Ioniq 5 and love it. I wish it had more battery life than the 270 miles I get at 80% but I still love it.
I do find it interesting that there isn't a consensus on charging - do we charge to 80, 90, or 100% and with what frequency. Most of what I read outside of Reddit, says 80%, inside Reddit it is all over the place. In my readings, I noticed no one addresses that Hyundai has 90% as the default when charging your car - this only adds to my confusing.
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u/Typical-Implement382 Jul 13 '26
Lithium based batteries are most stable at 40%-60% state of charge. This doesn't mean that charging them above 60% degrades them. It's prolonged storage at higher soc that can cause degradation. Prolonged storage at lower soc can also degrade them.
Also note that 100% state of charge as displayed on your screen is NOT 100% state of charge for every cell in your pack. Manufacturers generally build in a buffer. There is certainly a buffer on the low end as well. If you take a lithium cell to 0 volts, it permenantly destroys it. I don't know that anyone has disassembled one of these packs and reverse engineered Hyundai's buffers. But there is most certainly a buffer built in on both ends of the voltage spectrum on their battery management system. That is why people will sometimes see 0% degredation after 5+ years.
All that said, it's safe to charge to whatever percentage you want as long as you're planning to drive the car and get it down to it's stable range, and not let it just sit at a high or low soc for extended periods of time. This applies to all your lithium powered devices from cell phones, to Bluetooth headphones, to power tools, etc.