Featured Self-heating battery article

JC Whitney carries 12 V battery heater pads. It makes a lot of sense but living in North Alabama, we just don't have enough cold days.

I have to admit some disappointment in this mild winter. I was hoping to get more cold weather metrics but we only have February left. Once March arrives, nothing for another year.

Bob Wilson

 

We are...Penn State!
OK finally an article that talks about winter impact on Li batts...someone tell UCS that their EV CO2 assumptions are off.

 

This is a epa problem, UCS is simply using epa numbers, and not adjusting for states.

Texas and arizona are going to use more air conditioning and reduce miles. The big issue are the cold states, but ... these are rough for all cars.

With a liquid conditioned pack like gm, tesla, and bmw use, batteries take less of a hit, but there still is a lot of power used to heat the air in the car versus a gasoline car that simply uses waste heat.

Take a prius phv, ford energi, or nissan leaf though with air conditioned batteries and there is a much higher mpg hit in winter. I know there have been threads about this in the past. With the phevs though you simply get less range from the battery, the total range works ;-)

 

Those pads, along with engine block and coolant heaters, are more for keeping things freezing to the point on simply not working and starting. I did look up 12volt heating blankets for the gen2 at one point.

I don't see these self heating batteries being of much help to BEV. Even the Leaf has a resistant heater for the battery for when it is really cold. They might save some cost over that, and would be more efficient heating from within; a plus for when the car has to sit, unplugged in the cold. It just isn't going to help much in preserving range when the big hit is in keeping the occupants warm.

This is bigger boon for PHEVs. If pack chemistry and air cooling is able to handle the other extreme, then the manufacturer can save the space and cost of an active thermal management system. Then, a battery that replaces the resistant heat element for a piezoelectric one for cooling in addition to heat likely isn't far behind.