How cold weather affects EV batteries

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hwhbev
Posts: 124
Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2020 6:48 pm

Post by hwhbev »

In tomorrow's EV Cafe, Euan McTurk (electric vehicle battery electrochemist) will be talking about how cold weather affects EV batteries. It is a zoom webinar on 20th January from 12pm to 2pm. I have no affiliation with this but thought that some of this forum's members would be interested as there has been a lot of discussion about the ID.3 range in winter.

Here's the registration link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/registe ... 17UAK1nhJA

Emanuel
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2021 12:16 am

Post by Emanuel »

I missed this, but would be interested to hear if there were any juicy tidbits? Would be interesting to compare to my own experiences and maybe pick up a tip or two. I live in Sweden, park my ID3 outside and I have still managed to get very good range with mine. Last week has ranged from -3 to -16, we are back up to around and just above 0 now but expect the degrees to dip below 0 again starting Sunday night. It's a life trim model and heat pump is standard in Sweden.
hwhbev
Posts: 124
Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2020 6:48 pm

Post by hwhbev »

Emanuel wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 10:54 pm I missed this, but would be interested to hear if there were any juicy tidbits? Would be interesting to compare to my own experiences and maybe pick up a tip or two. I live in Sweden, park my ID3 outside and I have still managed to get very good range with mine. Last week has ranged from -3 to -16, we are back up to around and just above 0 now but expect the degrees to dip below 0 again starting Sunday night. It's a life trim model and heat pump is standard in Sweden.

The webinar was recorded so the video should appear on their EV Cafe YouTube channel at some point. Euan explained in great detail the workings of a Li-Ion battery and why temperature affects the rate of both charge and discharge due mainly to the viscosity of the electrolyte. Batteries work best around 20°C. Too cold and the amount of usable charge falls. Too hot and the battery life diminishes. He had a lot of praise for Tesla's battery management which, if the car knows it is being driven to a rapid charger, will preheat the batteries so that it can take the charge quickly but then cools the batteries afterwards to extend their life. He also explained how trying to rapid charge a cold battery could cause its life to be significantly shortened (dendrites form) which is why the battery management slows down the charging when it is cold. Driving the vehicle will add some warmth to the batteries to precondition them, especially if you do a lot of rapid acceleration and regen braking (but don’t do this on a motorway as you’ll annoy other drivers). For local usage keep the battery between 30% and 80% as Li-Ion batteries don’t like being outside these levels for long periods of time. Don’t do lots of small top-ups. Time your charging to finish just before you need to drive as the battery will be warm and will give maximum efficiency. Charge to 100% once a month to allow the battery management system to recalibrate - but drive soon after so it doesn’t sit at 100% for long. Try not to depend only on rapid charging – home charging is best for battery life.

Euan praised the Nordic countries where he said that cold weather packs (that manage battery temperature) are common across all EVs. He wished they were more available in other northern European countries (he lives in Scotland).

Does anyone know what battery temperature management is in the ID.3 1st Edition (UK version)?
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