Why Mobile Phone Batteries do not last as long as an EV Battery

Car makers are extending the driving range of the electric vehicle to resemble a gasoline-powered car. This requires larger batteries that grow exponentially with the distance driven. Figure 1 illustrates the estimated driving ranges with different battery systems and hydrogen as a function of size.

Doubling battery size does not extend the driving range linearly and the vehicle becomes inefficient with increasing weight. Li-ion performs better than lead acid in energy density, but no battery meets hydrogen with a fuel cell, or fossil fuel feeding the traditional internal combustion engine (not shown). Extending the driving range with a larger tank is almost negligible compared to oversizing a battery. There is a threshold as to battery size and weight in a vehicle; going beyond a critical point has a negative return and efficiency suffers because of increased vehicle weight.

Energy Storage System Volume
Figure 1: Battery size as a function of driving range.

Oversizing the battery does not expand the driving range linearly.
Note: 35MPa hydrogen tank refers to 5,000psi.
Source: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 34, 6005-6020 (2009)

Batteries have low calorific value compared to fossil fuel and it makes little sense to power a freight train, ocean-going ship or large airplane with batteries. A study reveals that replacing kerosene with batteries could keep an aircraft airborne for less than 10 minutes. Cost is another issue and batteries take long to charge. A fill-up that is quickly and conveniently as topping a tank with liquid or gaseous fuel is impossible with an electrochemical device. Charging also needs high power. An ultra-fast EV charge draws the equivalent electrical power of five households. Charging a fleet of EVs could dim a city.

Conversely, fossil fuel cannot match the qualities of a battery that is clean, quiet, and has an instant start-up with the flick of a switch. Although fossil fuel is cheap and readily available, frivolous burning of this resource must stop to save our planet. Finding alternatives that are environmentally friendly, economical and durable is a challenge; the battery fills this requirement only in part.

Advancements made in battery technology in the last 20 years are insufficient to replace fossil fuel. Pushing the boundaries of the battery reminds us of its many limitations, which include low energy density; long charging times, high cost and a short life before the packs quits, often without warning. Table 2 illustrates the energy densities of common fuels, including the battery.

FuelEnergy by mass (Wh/kg)
Hydrogen (350 bar)39,300
Gasoline, diesel, natural gas (250 bar)12,000–13,000
Body fat10,500
Black coal (solid), Methanol6,000–7,000
Wood (average)2,300
Lithium-ion battery100–250
Lead acid battery40
Compressed air34
Supercapacitor5

Table 2: Energy densities of fossil fuel and batteries.
Fossil fuel carries many times the energy per mass compared to batteries, but electrical power can be utilized more efficiently than burning fossil fuel.
Compiled from various sources. Values are approximate.

How to Prolong Battery Life

Driving range is a key consideration when buying an EV. Cost also plays a role but seldom is battery life mentioned. This may not be the concern for a tire-kicker, nor does the salesman want to alarm the buyer of possible service issues later on. What sells is the joy of electric propulsion that is clean, quiet and exhilarating. Taxpayer subsidies also help.

Batteries have a defined life span and this is apparent with the decreasing runtime in our mobile phones. EV advocates may argue that a smartphone battery cannot be compared to an EV battery; these products are totally different. That is true, but ironically both use lithium-ion systems. This article looks at the battery in an EV and mobile phone in terms of runtime and longevity.

The battery in the mobile phone is consumer grade, optimized for maximum runtime at low cost. the EV battery, on the other hand, is made to industry standards with longevity in mind. The dissimilarities do not stop there and a key difference is how the energy is dispensed.

A mobile phone gets charged at the end of a day and the stored energy can be fully utilized until the battery goes empty. In other words, the user has full access to the stored energy. When the battery is new, the phone provides good runtimes but this decreases with use. In this full cycle mode, Li-ion delivers about 500 cycles. The user adjusts to the decreasing runtime, and being a consumer product, the end of battery life often corresponds with a broken screen or the introduction of a new model. Built-in obsolescence serves well for device manufacturers and retailers.

The EV battery also ages and the capacity fades, but the EV manufacturer must guarantee the battery for eight years. This is done by oversizing the battery. When the battery is new, only about half of the available energy is utilized. This is done by charging the pack to only 80% instead of a full charge, and discharging to 30% when the available driving range is spent. As the battery fades, more of the battery storage is demanded. The driving range stays constant but unknown to the driver, the battery is gradually charged to a higher level and discharged deeper to compensate for the fade.

Once the battery capacity has dropped to 80%, the oversize protection is consumed and the battery maintenance system (BMS) applies a full charge and discharge. This exposes the EV battery to a similar stress level of a mobile phone and the driver begins noticing reduced driving range. Battery replacement may become necessary but the cost will be steep and higher than a combustion engine.

The EV begins to impersonate a mobile phone in terms of obsolescence when the battery fades. This may be the time when the buyer is flooded with faster and flashier models; something the smartphone user is all too familiar with, but price will be the shocker. It’s still too early to tell how long an EV battery will last. Some say the battery will outlive the car and find secondary application in energy storage systems.

Driving habits and temperature also affects aging, a characteristic that came to light when EV batteries operating in a warm climate faded prematurely. It was learned that keeping a battery at elevated temperature and high state-of-charge causes more stress than aggressive driving. In other words, keeping a fully charged Li-ion at 30°C (86°F) and above hastens the aging process more than driving at a moderate temperature. Many EV batteries include liquid cooling to reduce heat-related battery fade.

Harsh loading also reduces battery life. Because of its large size, the EV battery is only being stressed moderately, even during acceleration. In comparison, the mobile phone draws continuous high current from a small battery when transmitting and crunching data. This puts more stress on a mobile phone battery than driving an EV. A battery is also negatively impacted by the pulsed load of a mobile phone rather than the DC load of an EV. (See BU-501: Basic about Discharging.)

The EV does not disclose the battery capacity to the driver and only reveals state-of-charge (SoC) in the form of driving range. This is done in part for fear of customer complaints should the capacity drop below the mandated level at the end of the warranty period. Less knowledge is often better. The same restriction applies to a mobile phone battery, although access codes for service personnel are often available. A new battery has (should have) a capacity of 100%; 80% is the typical end of battery life.

Dynamic Stress Tests (DST) on Li-ion

All Li-ion batteries fade with time and use, whether in consumer products or enduring industrial use. Figure 3 explores the longevity of Li-ion batteries with different charge and discharge end points.

Figure 3: Capacity loss of Li-ion as a function of charge and discharge cut-off points.

Limiting a full charge and discharge prolongs battery life but lowers utilization.
Source: ResearchGate – Modeling of Lithium-Ion Battery Degradation for Cell Life Assessment. ResearchGate is a social networking site for scientists and researchers founded in 2008 to share papers, ask and answer questions, and to find collaborators. Wikipedia https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303890624_Modeling_of_Lithium-Ion_Battery_Degradation_for_Cell_Life_Assessment


The Li-ion batteries in the above table perform well but the largest capacity loss occurs with the pack that is charged to 100% and discharged to 25% (black stars). Cycling between 85% and 25% (green) provides longer service life than charging to 100% and discharging to 50% (dark blue).

The lowest capacity loss occurs when charging Li-ion to 75% and discharging to 65%. This, however, takes oversizing to the extreme and the battery is underutilized. Such practice is applied in satellites to achieve high cycle life and less for terrestrial applications as it increases cost, size and weight beyond a reasonable point of return. The dynamic stress test does not include a battery that is charged to 100% and discharged to zero, as is the case with a mobile phone. A full cycle provides the best battery utilization but reduces longevity.

Batteries tested in a laboratory do not always replicate true life conditions, and the results tend to be better than experienced in field use. In a lab environment, batteries are cycled over a period of a few months, often at controlled temperature and with an ideal charge and discharge regime. Random usage in real life adds the exposure to heat, vibration and harsh charging practices.

Summary

Batteries do not have a fixed life span, nor do they die suddenly but fade gradually. Environmental conditions, and not cycling alone, govern longevity. The user has some control to prolong battery life by avoiding ultra-fast charges, operating at moderate temperature and avoiding full charges. Avoiding harsh loads and full discharges also helps. Heat is the enemy of most batteries and the worst condition is keeping a fully charged Li-ion battery at elevated temperatures. Even with the best of care, a battery only lives for a season and the pack will eventually face retirement when power fades.

About the Author

Isidor Buchmann is the founder and CEO of Cadex Electronics Inc. For three decades, Buchmann has studied the behavior of rechargeable batteries in practical, everyday applications, has written award-winning articles including the best-selling book “Batteries in a Portable World,” now in its fourth edition. Cadex specializes in the design and manufacturing of battery chargers, analyzers and monitoring devices. For more information on batteries, visit www.batteryuniversity.com; product information is on www.cadex.com.


Last Updated: 26-Sep-2018
Batteries In A Portable World
Batteries In A Portable World

The material on Battery University is based on the indispensable new 4th edition of "Batteries in a Portable World - A Handbook on Rechargeable Batteries for Non-Engineers" which is available for order through Amazon.com.

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Daniel

Hi my name is Daniel and I have a question regarding lithium ion batteries for mobile devices The recommended way to charge this laptop is from 25% to 85% that the device is on? And for example if I want to charge up to 100% that the laptop is off it will not damage the battery?

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On February 6, 2019, Tim wrote:
free APP to notify you when selected charge level reached for mobiles Accubattery on play store
On January 28, 2019, Simon wrote:
I got a question or a remark to the graph of figure 3. How are the cycles counted? Short calculation what I mean: At the end of the orange line(75%-65%) there is about 92% of the capacity left and has around 8200 cycles The violet line has at 92% capacity around 4200 cycles. So, if we calculate the used energy the violet line is way better than the orange line. 8200 * (75%-65%)=820 4200 * (75%-45%)=1260 Is there a graph where the used energy instead of the cycles is shown? This would be way more interesting.
On December 27, 2018, Colin Stone wrote:
Keep a mobile battery tween 20 and 80%. There are apps that will monitor - Accubattery shows how much of a charge cycle is used at varying charge percentages. 80% is 0.14 charge cycle compared to 0.88 charge cycle for 100%. I deliberately bought a phone with a 4000mah battery to get good life 20 - 80%.
On December 19, 2018, Frank wrote:
well, whoever compares the energy density of electrochemical storage to fuel is wrong. Of course you could compare the energy density of uranium pellets to gasoline as well; with a quite unpleasent outcome for the most widely used stuff used for transportation of all kinds. But its plain wrong. you have to compare the whole drive train. A rechargable battery is not just a storage device, but the core part of the electric drive. if you consider the whole chain from primary energy to the finally available mechanical energy, than it looks quite different. The overall efficiency of a combustion engine is about 20% from the gas station to the wheel. Electric vehicle are in the range of 85% from the wall socket to the wheel. Which simply means: the caloric energy of fossil fuel may be 40 times higher than what is stored in the same kilogram of a battery. But the final equation gives just a 10:1 ratio for the same comparison. And than - an electric motor is about the quarter of the weight of an combustion engine. It is for a reason that a luxury car competitive with a Tesla model S is almost the same weight (> 2 tons!). But anyway, the diagram shown in the introduction has nothing to do with the articles title - but proves quite well the biased approach of the author. I also doubt, that Tesla is selling a 170 kWh-Battery and lables it with half the real capacity. Its also technically impossible, because the best 18650 cells on the market are about 265 Wh/kg, meaning, that a 170 kWh-battery would be 640 kg just in cell-weight. Adding the package, cooling, wiring and all other stuff it would certainly be 1000 kg for a real 170 kWh-pack, but actually the 85 kWh version is only 540 kg (energy density of 157 Wh/kg). I would suppose, that Tesla calculates from 5% state of charge to 95% for their capacity and others like Renault and Nissan do the same. So several things are quite wrong in this article.
On September 27, 2018, Fruit4droid wrote:
Great article! Since I was a kid, I've been using all kinds of rechargeable batteries. I really was excited when the lithium batteries were launched. And ever since learning that they live longer when only used in the middle charge range, I tried to apply that to my devices as far as possible. Charging and monitoring my mobile phone every day and trying to stay within 30% and 80% is not easy. That is why, as an app developer, I decided to make an app that assists the user on this. It notifies the user when reaching a customizable high and/or low level. It's name is "Battery Health Charging" and is available for Android - small, very user-friendly, completely free and no ads! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fruit4droid.batterylevelnotifier I hope it is useful to many people! All the best
On August 7, 2018, Lix Paulian wrote:
Anyway ... have seen claims that Prius batteries are good for 200,000+ miles (my 07 is more than 1/2-way there), but if NiMH doesn’t last as long as Li-ion how is that possible? Perhaps hybrids manage charge better than BEVs? The difference is in the usage time. Suppose you drove 100,000 miles at an average 40 mph. That makes 2500 hours of effective driving, or 104 days. Compare this is with a phone which is used day, in day out, mostly being daily charged, for a couple of years. If you compare 104 days with, say 1000 days (for less than 3 years life span), things become easier to explain. An don't forget that in a hybrid, the battery is not used all the time!
On August 3, 2018, Chris wrote:
Thanks for a well-explained article. Are there any studies that examine Li-Ion battery wear when cycling the in the region of ~50% and down to ~10% ? I assume this would cause even less stress on the battery?
On June 26, 2018, John wrote:
While I agree that we must be careful with the resources the planet has, please stop the 'saving the planet' meme's. This is ridiculous and total nonsense. Some statements in the article: "EV advocates may argue that a smartphone battery cannot be compared to an EV battery; these products are totally different. That is true, but ironically both use lithium-ion systems." "The battery in the mobile phone is consumer grade, optimized for maximum run time at low cost. the EV battery, on the other hand, is made to industry standards with longevity in mind. The dissimilarities do not stop there and a key difference is how the energy is dispensed." "The EV battery also ages and the capacity fades, but the EV manufacturer must guarantee the battery for eight years. This is done by oversizing the battery" Over-sizing a battery does NOT change its basic properties. So, for either an EV or consumer grade battery, electronically they are both the SAME beast. And have the same drawbacks and advantages. "Batteries do not have a fixed life span, nor do they die suddenly but fade gradually. Environmental conditions, and not cycling alone, govern longevity. The user has some control to prolong battery life by avoiding ultra-fast charges, operating at moderate temperature and avoiding full charges. Avoiding harsh loads and full discharges also helps. Heat is the enemy of most batteries and the worst condition is keeping a fully charged Li-ion battery at elevated temperatures." Right.. this is exactly what happens with EV's driving in hot summer conditions and recharging daily. Constant mechanical, electrical and heat stresses WILL reduce the life of the battery and increase the pile of chemical waste. So, much for saving the planet.
On May 26, 2018, Mike2 wrote:
I have an old (4 years+) Lumia Windows phone. Just replaced the battery - it was still working OK, but with more use recently the original battery wasn't lasting as long (originally ran for more than a day, but at low usage). It sits on the charger overnight, but typically is only down to indicated 1/2 charge when I start (has been lower recently, though). The "new" battery (no idea how long it was on the shelf) allegedly has slightly more capacity but lasts about as long as the original one did at the beginning. We have two Prii - older ones, with NiMH batteries. The older one actually works better - peppier accel and better fuel economy - but that could be weight (newer one is heavier) and driving style. Anyway ... have seen claims that Prius batteries are good for 200,000+ miles (my 07 is more than 1/2-way there), but if NiMH doesn't last as long as Li-ion how is that possible? Perhaps hybrids manage charge better than BEVs?
On April 12, 2018, xxxxxxx wrote:
An ultra-fast EV charge draws the equivalent electrical power of five households. Charging a fleet of EVs could dim a city. CEO Elon Musk said that they plan to deploy more battery and solar systems with the upcoming ‘Version 3’ of the Supercharger, but now he went a step further and claimed that “almost all Superchargers will disconnect from the electricity grid.” Previously, Musk said that Tesla’s new Powerpack and solar arrays will power some Supercharger stations in sunny regions to go off-grid – adding that “the grid won’t be needed for moderate use Superchargers in non-snowy regions.” Now Musk said on Twitter this morning that they are not only adding solar and batteries to “all Superchargers”, but also that “almost all” Supercharger stations will eventually disconnect from the grid:
On April 12, 2018, xxxxxx wrote:
This part is deceptive, or at least the author is misinformed. It will take a while to explain the problems with each part of these statements: "Batteries have low calorific value compared to fossil fuel and it makes little sense to power a freight train, ocean-going ship or large airplane with batteries. A study reveals that replacing kerosene with batteries could keep an aircraft airborne for less than 10 minutes. Cost is another issue and batteries take long to charge. A fill-up that is quickly and conveniently as topping a tank with liquid or gaseous fuel is impossible with an electrochemical device. Charging also needs high power. An ultra-fast EV charge draws the equivalent electrical power of five households. Charging a fleet of EVs could dim a city."
On March 28, 2018, Mark wrote:
Interesting read - and timely!
On March 28, 2018, Mike wrote:
Great article - thank you for posting.
On March 23, 2018, Paul McGuire wrote:
Wow, this is a great article - glad to see new articles being posted here! My boss just got a used Tesla 90D with 13,000 miles on it. He also knew how Teslas last a long time and even after 100,000 miles retain 95% of their design charged capacity even if driven hard/charged hard - because of what this article states - only using 30-80% of designed charge capacity to increase longevity. We were sad to see that the garage of our business only charged the car at a rate of 4 miles / hour with the 12 amp 119v outlet. I really like the cellphone battery tie in. I have several external Anker batteries and I constantly use coconut Battery to monitor the batteries in my iPhone and iPad. Over the course of 1.7 years - 2 years I’ll use 220 cycles and retain most of my design capacity (my phone spends most of its life 85-100%). My wife, with the same phone and much heavier usage will have 360+ cycles and lose 3-6% design capacity - letting battery run out and charging whenever convenient. Keeping the iPhone between 30-80% is not easy and requires a lot of patience and wasted time checking charge levels. I wish there was a way to enable this feature to save the battery and because I will end the day at 80%+ with my usage, so I wouldn’t really care. It is easier for me to just leave my phone on the charger and let it trickle charge 95-100% all day. My Dell Latitude 3480 laptop has the ability to limit charging to 80% with the Dell power management. Problem is, it loses track of the charge and will eventually run battery down to 0% while displaying 80%. (Bad design). But I think most people will replace their mobile phones within 2-3 years and even with 0-100% usage, they should be >80% design capacity. Cars - especially $140k+ cars - better last 100,000 miles and 8-10+ years. Now that phones are not having massive increases in CPU speed/memory - it would be nice to use these longer. I hope to keep my iPhone 8+ for 3-4 years. So I may start trying to keep my iPhone battery 40-80% if I can.
On March 10, 2018, Bill wrote:
Really useful information. Thanks.