CUPRA Born Forum

Firstly, i absolutely love this cupra born … only issue i have with this is i travel 50 mile daily twice (there then back from work)… and currently charging it (at home) every night, when initially buying the car i told the dealer what i wanted and the miles i do… it worked out that if i was to base the total mileage (at 100%) on around 200miles i’ll have ti charge every other night, but with the recommended “don’t go below 20% kind of feels i as miss old this car.

It’s recommended not charge over 80% and not to go under 20%.

I guess the solution would of been to get the better range model but it didn’t fit my budget at the time.

If you go to 100% and don’t let it sit like that for too long, you shouldn’t have a problem.

Tbh I don’t think the sales people have a clue about battery care. The ID3 was charged to 100% when I collected it and so was the Born, with both set above the recommended level. The Born was also sat in the showroom on 19% for god knows how long (against manufacturer recommendations) before I got it. I’d say accidentally mis-sold.

If you are planning on keeping it a long time I’d stick to 80% and plug in every night. If not do 100% and every other night plug in.

Really though, in the winter you’ll not be able to do 200 miles on a single charge anyway. Also you’re not going to get all the way back from around 10% to 100% in the Octopus Go cheap rate period and probably not in the intelligent Octopus period (assuming you’re on one of those tariffs). Realistically you’re probably better off just plugging in every night unless doing so is a problem (it won’t harm the battery),

I just worry that charging my car every night may harm the battery. But if you are saying it’s fine then i feel slightly better about the situation.

I trialed it once with a full charge. But i was about 20 miles from home and it his 20% and the car constantly warned me to charge so i just stopped and charged for the sake of doing any damage.

Guess these are the litttle things we don’t consider (well i didn’t) when buying an EV. Certainly not a show stopper and i love the car just still learning,

I know what you mean. I thought I’d charge mine every 4th commute but that’s really turned out to be 3 and probably going to be every 2 in the winter.

You won’t damage the battery taking down to even 5% unless you make a habit of it. It starts properly telling you off when you get below 10%. Even if you run out there is a bottom buffer to protect the battery.

Same as you I didn’t know about the 20% 80% thing until after I ordered, plus I’d not considered charge time. I was a bit worried about it but when I looked into it, it seems it’s more about cycles than charge frequency. Little and often is better for it (but not to 100%) as is slower charging. So going from around 35% to around 80% daily is better for battery life than 10% to 100% every other day. Especially if the charger can ramp down the charge rate to do it.

My Ohme seems to do most of the charging at 4kW since I switched to intelligent Octopus with the 6 hour cheap rate.

Here is what the Ohme charge app says about battery cycles, might put your mind at rest.

I've had a Mustang Mach-E for a year now and have a Born on order. My experience of charging is as follows:
- the batteries are warranted for 8 years
- there is a buffer which protects the battery
- the car istelf slows down in the charge curve to protect the battery.
- AC charging at home to 90% is recommended now by quite a few manufacturers as they learn more about battery management. They also state you can charge to 100% as long as you use the car and don't let it sit for long periods.
- it's DC charging that they dont recommend going regularly in above 80pc. But even here Tesla and Ford have moved that to 90pc.

In short, use the car - there are loads of systems in place to protect the car.

I also don't plan to keep any car for 8 years.

^ To add to the above, when VAG set up their recommendations, they presumably had no reliable long term time/distance/recharge data over a decade, just accelerated simulations over perhaps the space of 3 or 4 years.

If you cane your battery from 100-2% every cycle, the warranty will still kick in to 8 years/100k miles.

Most peopleeon't get near treating their battery like that more than a handful of times a year, and on that rare occasion you do, I really wouldn't worry about it.

I’ve rune electric cars and sold them for about 7 years now and never have I seen a battery drop below 97% of its original
Charging capacity. ( that was on a 213 Nissan leaf ) ac charging is generally fine to charge to100% and most smart chargers will cut off when car fully charged anyway so no harm can come to them. I’d say take it to 90% if you are using DC but 100% on AC. The past 2 years using the same EV and doing almost 30000 miles charging from home to 100% 2 or 3 times a week proved no issues so don’t panic

Thank you all, very reassuring feedback. Highly appreciated.

Thanks.
This is a very nice thread which has some good advice from forum members who know about charging and batteries having lived with different EV's.
Very reassuring for us newbies to read this advice This is what we want on the forum, guys good solid knowledge.