If I'm not mistaken the lithium-ion batteries are basically the same thing we use in laptop computers and cell phones. I noticed for example in my laptop, if you do not set your battery parameters so that it discharges down to 15% or so before you recharge, you will kill the battery in short order. (under a year). So the information appears to be correct to me. I've read this elsewhere on the web too, and have also experienced first hand killing batteries within a year, by just keeping them topped off, instead of allowing them to discharge more fully before charging. Problem is without some kind of a smart charger or monitor, you will probably kill the battery prematurely.
Interesting in the Mokai, version 1 and 2 of the ES-Kape that they are using the lithium ion phosphate batteries, and essentially trickle charging them every time you use the boat via the engine charging system. If I'm not mistaken this is also going to kill the battery within about a year. I'm not sure in this instance how to remedy that as you would need to allow the battery to run down more before charging, but that would essentially mean turning the charging system off on the boat, and manually charging the battery, and monitoring yourself.
Am I correct or missing something?
To be fair, the recommendations not to top-up or not to discharge completely aren't meant to say that any Li battery will be destroyed quickly otherwise. They are just supposed to prolong the useful life, for example, if a battery is rated for 1000 cycles to loose 50% capacity, one might get significantly more equivalent cycles by following those recommendations. And a proper battery with a correct BMS/charger will last a long time even is one fully charges it every day. Incidentally, it is a lot harder on Li battery to do one 0<->100 cycle compared to one 80<->100 cycle (however, five 80 <-> 100 cycles would be harder than one 0<->100 cycle).
Unfortunately, the batteries and BMS/chargers don't always live up to their specs and might not play well together in long term. So I am not surprised that there were lots of stories of phones and other gadgets dying in months with everyday charging. I believe those were just engineered badly. Don't hear much of that for a few last years, at least, which probably means that they finally learned the lesson. Personally, I follow the charge/discharge recommendations only when it is convenient and do not sweat it otherwise. My main portable computer is discharged to ~80-90% almost everyday when I am away from AC outlet and so when I plug it in it tops up to 100%. I bought this computer about 5 years ago and the battery is still fine with this usage...
About Escape and trickle-charging LiFe battery. My v1 Escape (2014) came with regular lead battery so I can't say for sure how well the whole thing operates, but it is very easy to keep LiFe battery happy. It likely has the built-in BMS that turns charging off when the battery reaches at 100% and won't start charging until it drops below ~95%. If so, there won't be any trickle-charging even if you spent the whole day running the motor. Also, LiFe batteries have lower power storage capacity, but are safer and live a lot longer (more cycles, 3000 cycles is commonly quoted number). So even if you run everyday six months per year, I wouldn't be surprised that it lasts 10 years or longer.
