Multiple DC Quick Charges did get a Hot Battery for this guy

[GaslessInSeattle]

My guess is that he got excited that he was "unlimited" knowing he could charge every 25 miles and ran the heat full blast on auto, was heavy on the pedal and cycled the battery deeply every time. From the QC-ing I've done, it really didn't seem like the temp changed much, but I have not gone one after another like this and the temp gauge doesn't tell you the details from one bar to the next, maybe it was heating up more than I thought.

It looks like you may actually have to drive conservatively, with minimal use of the climate control or greater reliance on heated seats/steering wheel to reduce the depth of cycling. wondering to if this was a 2012 or 2011. The batteries on the 2012's are supposedly insulated. Maybe skipping some of the charging stations would have been better.

Can't wait till we get us some CHAdeMO on the northern section of the green highway... eventually we'll probably be able to see where the speed/SOC/climate control sweet spot is for continuous driving.

I'm reminded that a friend who has gotten into electric toy helicopters read up on chat forums and found that the consensus was that it was very important for battery life (li-ion) to cool down the batteries before recharging them. apparently quite a few folks were toasting batteries by charging and flying for hours on end. My friend has two helicopters, flying one and cooling one off in the refrigirator prior to the next charge so he doesn't have to wait. Of course these batteries and chargers are much more primitive than the Leaf's BMS.

 

[Herm]

from the picture it looks like the 9th bar lit up, so 126°F?

Thats pretty hot for a lithium-ion cell.. I would have abandoned the car if the next bar had lit up

 

[TonyWilliams]

from the picture it looks like the 9th bar lit up, so 126°F?

Thats pretty hot for a lithium-ion cell.. I would have abandoned the car if the next bar had lit up

You're right. Less than 5C from a red bar. I'm surprised it didn't go to turtle mode above 50C. Maybe it did, if driven, or he let it cool down first.

 

[GotMyleaf]

Good to see the limits pushed on the LEAF. I agree with Gasless' - the driver charged at every charger. I would too, I think most LEAF drivers are the pioneer-type.

I use the Mitsubishi QC on a regular basis and have used it three times in one day, with hours between charges. I didn't get past 6 bars on the temp indicator. So I think this driver could have made the same trip with less strain on the battery.

I would like to see what the safe guards are once the temperature hits the red zone - in one of your cars, of course .

 

[Herm]

You're right. Less than 5C from a red bar. I'm surprised it didn't go to turtle mode above 50C. Maybe it did, if driven, or he let it cool down first.

I wonder when the Leaf will start to fold back power?.. I bet he was close. Sounds like a project to find out what it takes to overheat a Leaf.

 

[vegastar]

You're right. Less than 5C from a red bar. I'm surprised it didn't go to turtle mode above 50C. Maybe it did, if driven, or he let it cool down first.

I wonder when the Leaf will start to fold back power?.. I bet he was close. Sounds like a project to find out what it takes to overheat a Leaf.

As long is not my Leaf...

 

[adric22]

This has been an interesting thread for sure.

I have never seen my battery temperature really go beyond the range of 5-7 bars. (More or less right in the center). That includes the hot Texas Summer of 106 degree days last year as well as the winter (granted, my car is always garaged at night) Even after a long drive I've never seen the gauge move up. So I figured these batteries were rock solid as far as handling temperature.

That being said, I've never quick charged. In fact, my Leaf SL doesn't even have the QC port on it so I couldn't even if I wanted to.

That brings up an interesting point. If QC is bad for the battery, then I wonder if in a few years that might make a used Leaf without a QC port like mine more desirable because the potential buyer would know the car has never been QC'd before. That is assuming the buyer has no need of QC.

 

[edatoakrun]

Not much useful information, from just the 9 bars shown in the photo, IMO.

Next LEAFer to do this, please post:

How many charges, over how many miles, in how much time, at what ambient temperature(s)?

How long did it take, for battery temp to return to ambient, 4 or 5 bars,
after completing the trip?

I'm only about 7 to 9 hours of L2 (from RV parks-no J1772s) south of Ashland (on a warm day) and hope to try it myself pretty soon. After March weather in January, it's been January in March, in the State of Jefferson.

I'm trying to think of something to do (other than just monitoring the battery cool down) while in Southern Oregon for a day or two, if any suggestions occur to you.

 

[coqui]

In fact, my Leaf SL doesn't even have the QC port on it so I couldn't even if I wanted to.

Mine has the port but North Carolina has no QC's yet. The politicians are "talking about it" :lol:

 

[EdmondLeaf]

Mine has the port but North Carolina has no QC's yet. The politicians are "talking about it" :lol:

"The politicians" in NC trying to protect you so you will not get your battery hot.
http://nation.foxnews.com/steven-ch...ing-my-constituents-they-need-buy-nissan-leaf

 

[bowthom]

Hello,
Alan posted his travel log on the OEVA site. He charged every 25 miles or so because it was 38* and stormy (read defrost) plus he was going up in altitude in the mountains of southern Oregon. The AV QC would not stop at 80% but consistently charged to 90% which caused the extra heat build up beyond what driving uphill at 65mph on the freeway will do. The trip took most of a day south and same coming back north with all the press events. Alan is one of the guys here that continually pushes the envelope of range and EVing to far places just to see if he can (read over the mountains to the coast etc). I love reading his exploits, all I ever do is commute.

 

[TonyWilliams]

"The politicians" in NC trying to protect you so you will not get your battery hot.
http://nation.foxnews.com/steven-ch...ing-my-constituents-they-need-buy-nissan-leaf

Here's my reply:

Brian, I also drive my LEAF 2,000 miles per month, and in 10 months have accumulated over 20,000 miles. That's about 65 miles per day average. I don't recommend a Nissan LEAF to people who can't do a bit of planning with that amount of driving, since the charging infrastructure has a long way to go. But, for me, the cost savings are quite large.

Since my car is powered by solar (side note, there's a post down there about how God gave us oil and natural gas, so we should just use that.... God also gave us the sun, which can power your car AND house without noise, or pollution, or stops at smelly gas stations), my cost for energy is just the cost of my solar equipment amortized over about 30 years. In other words, quite cheap.

My local electric utility offers a 7.7 cent rate specially for electric cars, and the national average is 12 cents per Kilo-Watt-Hour, so I'll use that. At 2000 miles per month, with an average economy of 3 miles per kWh, 2000 divided by 3 is 667 kWh used for a month. 667 multiplied by 12 cents equals $80 per month in electrical cost. If you only drive the more typical 1000 miles per month, that cost would be $40 per month. To drive a 20mpg car 2000 miles at $4 per gallon gas (we're at $4.50 now in San Diego) means 100 gallons of gas for the month, or $450 for gas, versus $80 in electricity.

No oil changes, spark plugs, smog checks, air/oil filters, transmission service, just rotate the tires. That saves a bunch, too. And the battery in most cars is warrantied for 100,000 miles, so no cost there, either, should something bad happen. No soldier ever died defending electricity. My money isn't exported at a rate of one billion dollars per day to middle eastern countries that really don't like us very much. Virtually all the electricity is produced right here in the USA (some might come from Canada or Mexico).

The subject of anything electric cars really brings out the knuckle dragging idiots, so I'm sure some loony will tell me how it doesn't work and, of course, he / she / it won't have any experience whatsoever with an electric car. Don't forgot, Obama is an idiot, and he invented and is forcing us to have electric cars. And he's from Kenya and a terrorist. For you guys, I tried to make the math REAL simple.

 

[edatoakrun]

Hello,
Alan posted his travel log on the OEVA site...

Link?

Can't seem to find it.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Hello,
Alan posted his travel log on the OEVA site...

Link?

Can't seem to find it.

This one doesn't work:

http://alan.batie.org/nikon-l24/2012/0316-wceh/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[DarkStar]

Hello,
Alan posted his travel log on the OEVA site...

Link?

Can't seem to find it.

He posts on the OEVA mailing list, you can find an archive here: https://groups.google.com/group/oeva

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

there is no instant cure, but what Bush and Obama did was get behind an option that will one day provide the needed competition to help bring down the price of gas. Until now, the oil companies have had a monopoly... that's about to change!

Mine has the port but North Carolina has no QC's yet. The politicians are "talking about it" :lol:

"The politicians" in NC trying to protect you so you will not get your battery hot.
http://nation.foxnews.com/steven-ch...ing-my-constituents-they-need-buy-nissan-leaf

 

[edatoakrun]

Photos of the dash battery temp bars are at the report here:

http://media.batie.org/wceh/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[TonyWilliams]

The trip down:

* Leav Corvallis: 2pm
* Arrive Eugene: 3pm, leave 5:20pm - 47.8 miles, 13.1kWh
* Cottage Grove: 6pm, leave 7pm - 25.2 miles, 7.8kWh
* Rice Hill: 7:26pm, leave 7:45pm - 26.7 miles, 9.2kWh
* Roseburg: 8:17pm, leave 8:35pm - 23.9 miles, 7.5kWh
* Canyonville: 9:10pm, leave 9:34 - 25.6 miles, 8.7kWh
* Wolf Creek: 10:05pm, leave 10:26pm - 23.0 miles, 8.7kWh
* Grants Pass: 10:51pm, leave 11:28pm - 18.2 miles, 5.8kWh
* Ashland: 12:24am - 45.0 miles, 14.5kWh

Total: 75kWh

The trip back:

* Leave Ashland: 8:32am
* Ashland: 9:10am, leave 10:08am - 30 miles, 8.6kWh
* Central Point: 10:30am?, leave 12:30pm? - 18.4 miles, 4.3kWh
* Grants Pass: 12:49pm, leave 3:42pm - 25.4 miles, 6.4kWh (10.7 total from Ashland, vs 14.5 to go the other way)
* Wolf Creek: 4:03pm, leave 5:06pm - 18.4 miles, 6.0kWh (vs 5.8kWh)
* Canyonville: 5:32pm, leave 5:49pm - 23.2 miles, 6.5kWh (vs 8.7kWh)
* Roseburg: 6:16pm, leave 6:42pm - 25.3 miles, 7.1kWh (vs 8.7kWh)
* Rice Hill: 7:09pm, leave 7:29pm - 23.2 miles, 7.1kWh (vs 7.5kWh)
* Cottage Grove: 8:01pm, leave 8:57pm - 26.3 miles, 7.2kWh (vs 9.2kWh)
* Corvallis: 10:16pm - 64.4 miles, 14.3kWh (vs total of 20.9kWh and 73 miles)

Total: 67.5kWh
Grand total: 142.5kWh

 

[edatoakrun]

Looks to me, like he only got to 7 or 8? bars temp on the trip back?

Any reason to think the same trip, with fewer charge stops, would produce much different battery heating?

 

[lpickup]

Mine has the port but North Carolina has no QC's yet. The politicians are "talking about it" :lol:

"The politicians" in NC trying to protect you so you will not get your battery hot.
http://nation.foxnews.com/steven-ch...ing-my-constituents-they-need-buy-nissan-leaf

I know it's O.T., but sheesh...I keep getting confused about what markets the government should never get involved in and let fair market economics dictate prices, and which markets the government should step in and intercede on "our" behalf to force a certain price point.