I know that battery life has been a concern of some when purchasing a hybrid. .... It seems that Toyota has deliberately engineered the battery and charging system to give the batteries a long life.
... From what I read, Toyota has designed the charging system to not allow the battery to fall below 20% of capacity before it is recharged. And when it is recharged it only charges up to about 80%. The battery spends its life operating between 20% and 80% of its capacity, which results in far less strain on the battery and thus longer battery life.
Right, Tesla and others use a similar approach.
People who may get 2-4 years from their laptop battery are suspicious of the claims, but that's one of the reasons why. A laptop is going to be run between 0%-100% of its specified limits, and that reduces its total lifetime.
Actually reminds me of the battery life saver on my dell laptop that if plugged in will only charge the battery when its is 50% discharged. In particular this is called desktop mode. So since both are Li h batteries both use the same sort of techniques.
In addition, only charging up to 80% or so really helps. Just sitting with full charge reduces the life-cycle.
I need to look around again for a utility that does this for me. I had some trouble finding one last time I looked, these controls are actually buried in firmware, rather than being controlled so much by the OS (makes sense, you can charge your battery with the computer shut down). So utilities may not be able to get into the actual controls.
If I got really motivated (I won't), I could have the OS write to a port when the battery hits >80% and again when it hits <50%. I could use that signal to control a relay on the power supply. That should do it (when the OS is running).
Geeky stuff, I know. But, I find it interesting.
Heck, some of us find it interesting
because it is geeky.
Also, an older battery from a hybrid or EV, that is no longer performing well enough for vehicle use, can be re-purposed for a stationary application, where the performance is still good enough, it would just take more batteries to get the job done. Could get a few more years out of each pack, before recycling them for the chemicals.
-ERD50