Lessons from Apple and Google re: Battery Longevity

Notebook and phone batteries have in common with the LEAF battery no thermal control and relatively poor battery longevity. So I find it interesting that both Apple and Google have implemented software that attempts to minimize the time the battery sits at 100% SoC as a way to extend battery life.

Neither company has been transparent with how much longevity they hope to add to the batteries but if the LEAF battery is anything to go by they made a smart move. Nissan can learn from its own error in removing the option to charge to less than 100%. In the meantime car owners are well advised to limit the time the battery is at or near 100% by charging close to departure time.

For context, at least for Apple, I think Sage is referring to these:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210512 - "optimized battery charging" on iOS 13+. Seems like showed in up iOS 13 betas in mid 2019: https://www.macworld.com/article/3408336/ios-13s-new-optimized-battery-charging-feature-explained.html.
https://9to5mac.com/2020/04/16/macos-10-15-5-battery-health-management-feature/ - in developer beta of Catalina 10.15.5 from April 2020

That said, Apple already had something kinda like this in iOS 11.3: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208710 "charge management". 11.3 was released March 29, 2018.

But, others have been doing it for MUCH longer. https://web.archive.org/web/20070211062206/http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=52 was published by Lenovo probably in early 2007. I've been enjoying this feature since my late 2007 era ThinkPad T61p. They let you indicate at what % to start charging and what % to stop at. I still have that T61p and all Thinkpad T-series laptops I've had since then, including my T460s have such options via a Lenovo utility.

I asked in 2010 at http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/power-manager-on-non-thinkpads-similar-tool-on-other-brands.478664/ if there were any other Windows laptop makers providing something similar. I didn't really get many answers. Fujitsu, supposedly yes. HP and Dell maybe...

I agree. In the Phoenix meeting in 2013 at https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11057 (video at https://youtu.be/uuPQe23vP0Y), someone in the audience asked Nissan to be able to have owners help Nissan by providing more % values than just 80 and 100%. Sorry. I don't have the time index.

For an unknown reason, Nissan ignored that and removed the 80% limiter starting w/US model year '14.

The other big stressors on phone batteries are that they are often recharged from a high state of charge - just plugged in when the user doesn't need the phone - and they are often run down to almost zero SOC. Nissan tries to protect from the latter, but they could implement a software change in which the car informs you that recharging from a high SOC is bad for the battery, and asks for confirmation before allowing it.

I find it strange and unfortunate that Apple doesn't offer a dead-simple "90% charge" option. I mean, developing hyper-intelligent algorithms is nice and all, but most people could get a great improvement with this "one weird trick".

Agreed. Apple would rather mess with your mind than actually help you keep your phone battery longer.

Nubo said:

I find it strange and unfortunate that Apple doesn't offer a dead-simple "90% charge" option. I mean, developing hyper-intelligent algorithms is nice and all, but most people could get a great improvement with this "one weird trick".

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I'll guess for the same reason no one else does either. No one wants to be first

Even stranger (or more Weird, if you prefer) is that I don't think any of the third party power management apps offer that either...

LeftieBiker said:

Even stranger (or more Weird, if you prefer) is that I don't think any of the third party power management apps offer that either...

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It is not in the OS API in Android; and in the case of Apple the function is not exposed to 3rd party developers.

My wife uses an App on her Android phone that sends a notification when the SoC reaches a set limit. So no automatic stop to charging but it works well enough for her to unplug at a reasonable SoC

LeftieBiker said:

The other big stressors on phone batteries are that they are often recharged from a high state of charge - just plugged in when the user doesn't need the phone

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Very good point.

I bet some car batteries get the same treatment, particularly those kept in garages since it is pretty easy to just get in the habit of plugging in every time the car comes home if the EVSE is conveniently nearby. All the more reason to frown on Nissan's decision to not give owners an easy way to limit the max SoC.

OTOH, Nissan did include functionality to delay charging to a time close to car use. Owners who want to extend battery life really should be using this feature when it fits their car use schedule. This is all the more true if the battery is warm, let alone hot.