Featured Nissan Leaf vs Chevy Bolt battery management system

Logically that’s what you need to do to get any utility out of an EV

Further is sorta dumb, the best thing to do in sub zero temperatures is start charging right after coming home to keep the battery ready for your next drive.

 

Our BMW i3-REx uses a DC fast charger when returning from a cross country trip. It easily takes a 40kW charge rate at the downtown, DC charger.

Bob Wilson

 

Oops, I forgot. Crossing fingers that's the only one i missed

.

 

Some more bad news about air cooled batteries when battery energy and power gets big.
Nissan LEAF 30-kWh Battery Degrades More Rapidly Than 24-kWh Pack

This is not to say that the samsung battery coming out in 2020 will have he same issues, or even the 40 kwh pack, but it would be foolish for those of us who live in hot places to trust a air cooled pack over a liquid cooled one unless the size is very small (think the panasonic packs in the prime or ford energi).

 

Wow - At this rate, Nissan is doing more to destroy plugin confidence than Bob Lutz could EVER do - and collecting lots of carb credits all the way back since 2011.
That was a great article. I definitely felt the pain of the poor slobs (like me) that but into the lie that nissan air cooled battery packs we're more hardy then they were ever capable of being. And now they're worse.
From the article - Here's a quote of one of the typical disgruntled Nissan Leaf / tragic capacity loss customers;

To the mailbox ... that made me laugh. Misery loves company. As a precaution, we considered that even if Nissan was not up front with capaciry loss, we figured even if range dropped down to only 30 miles (way too quick) , I could still get to work where I could charge, just to get back home.
Even after babying this pack for 7 years now (vin000659) like very few do, on a 38° winter morning, if I blazed to work doing 75mph or more, I would be on the low battery warning when I got there. Way to go Nissan ...
.

 

Or the Prius Prime.

Bob Wilson

 

Just to really drive it home comparing against nissan passive thermal management, here's a 15 second video I pasted to YouTube. We were driving cross country last summer through Bryce canyon in the blazing 114° furnace/like heat. We stopped at a supercharger & man-o-shevitz ... the car's refrigerant & fans were blazing like nobody's business. Ever stand next to a box car or semi truck hauling frozen goods with its refrigeration unit blazing? That's what Teslas' active/coolent/fans sounded like ... Just awe inspiring - & way 'cool' (pun intended)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, these cars will expend about 15 miles of range on freezing nights, so that the traction pack will run way more efficiently when you go to drive it. So if you store the car for weeks on end in Sub-Zero temperatures, prepare to find only 50 miles left when you return. 50miles range remaining is when the Sub-Zero thermal protection shuts down, so at least you can get somewhere, when you finally return.

.

 

As we (the early adopters) transition from the 19th century to 21st century technology, we notice the difference. I really don't care except that my understanding and operational experience means I get the advantages others ignore. It means investing in the future . . . and I am 68 years old.

Bob Wilson

 

we call that resilience around here. For most, that's a lost art. Look how poorly so many did during the Katrina hurricane.
.

 

Even the Chevy Spark EV had a thermal management system.

 

doesn't capacity gain defy (entropy) the laws of physics?
.

 

Not necessarily as entropy is something different. Battery capacity is also a function of chemical structural changes. When built, the battery layers will be like a plain, flat. But over time the charge and discharges could form a mottled surface that increases the area. I don't know it happened in this case but my NiMH rehydration experiments have shown an increase in battery capacity as a function of charge-discharge cycles.

Bob Wilson