Winter operation of GM Volt

[miscrms]

Originally Posted by usbseawolf2000

Hopefully, Volt uses A123 LiFePO4 battery. The issue with LiFePO4 is low energy density and high cost. Hymotion 5kWh L5 costs $10k at consumer hand. The pack alone without the BMS charger is probably $7k. With that guesstimate, Volt with 16kWh battery pack alone would cost about $22k.

If GM picked LG Chem Li-Polymer due to lower cost, we need to see how it performs under low temps.

How much did you pay for your after-market LiFePO4 pack? How many kWh is it?

Last I had heard they were debating between the A123 solution and a Chinese import. A123 is very robust, but pricey. Chinese will be a total crap shoot on specs and reliability (based on what EV converters are experiencing) but cheaper. Anyone heard any more developments on that front?

Rob

[daniel]

Originally Posted by usbseawolf2000

How many hours does it take to fully charge it from empty? You can calculate the kWh if you know the SOC usage (30%-80%?). I assume your dryer circuit is 110 Volt.

My dryer is electric, 230 v 30 a. The electrician wired me a plug off of half of the dryer circuit, resulting in 110 v 30 a. However, without something like the Kill-a-Watt meter, I cannot tell the usage from the run time. From dead empty it will be nearly charged in 4 hours, but then it runs another 3 hours topping off the batteries with a trickle. Without knowing the charging curve, I can tell nothing from the charging time.

However, as I said above, when the car was 500 lbs heavier (and I could use the K-a-W meter) the car went 3 miles on one kWh, so I presume it now goes the same or a tiny bit farther.