When I'm just doing some errands I usually end up only using about half or so of the battery. So I'm left with anywhere between 5 and 8 miles of charge left. Should I run it down before a charge or just charge it up to full for my next trip?
just charge it fully for the next trip. lithium batteries don't have a 'memory' problem. don't leave it fully charged for long periods of time though, they do have a problem with that.
Cool, thanks ... It only sits fully charged for a few days at most. Charged Friday night, sit all weekend, and to work Monday ... And that's not typical.
Even "fully charged" on the PIP is only really about 85%, so it's not as bad a problem with typical Li-ion setups. It should be only something to worry about when not using the car for several weeks (I think there are recommendations for long-term storage in the manual).
I find that whenever you have questions about best practice for the battery on the PiP, just rephrase it with your cell phone or laptop and you get your answer. Would your run down your laptop battery at the end of the day before charging it?
Best practices might not be worth the effort for me. The difference in battery longevity between simply charging whenever you get home, and trying to maintain a half charge whenever possible, might not be that dramatic considering charge and discharge are already limited to preserve battery health. That said, I normally drive home near "empty" on work days, and set the charge time to complete just a few minutes before I leave for work again. I do this primarily to get the most charge that I can, since I can barely make my 13 mile round trip commute. On occasion, I'll need to use the car again before it charges, and it annoys me that I'm burning petrol rather than electrons.
