Cold Weather New Battery Capacity

Just picked up a new 2015 SL with about 60 miles on it. I'm in New England and it is very cold here right now. My Leaf lives outside all year long. I drove my 2013 SL for a year and a half so I am familiar with the impact on rage from cold temperatures. My question here is that this is a new battery but is only charging to 97% based on the dashboard read-out. My memory of my 2013 Leaf is that it always went to 100%, but I might be wrong about that. Anyone know if cold weather will temporarily reduce the charge capacity on the battery pack? Will I see 100% on warmer days or is this battery pack already degraded?

Thanks,
Rick

rfelty said:

Just picked up a new 2015 SL with about 60 miles on it. I'm in New England and it is very cold here right now. My Leaf lives outside all year long. I drove my 2013 SL for a year and a half so I am familiar with the impact on rage from cold temperatures. My question here is that this is a new battery but is only charging to 97% based on the dashboard read-out. My memory of my 2013 Leaf is that it always went to 100%, but I might be wrong about that. Anyone know if cold weather will temporarily reduce the charge capacity on the battery pack? Will I see 100% on warmer days or is this battery pack already degraded?

Thanks,
Rick

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How are you charging though? Are you setting up a timer so that it charges in the morning right before you leave? Or does it charge as soon as you get home and then sit for 12 hours before being driven? Climate control timer on?

It should go to 100%, but it does take a long time at the top to get there.

Thanks for the quick response! I am trickle-charging over night and as you suggested, letting it top out and remain connected to shore power for like 8 hours or so. This morning I ran climate control while still connected to the 110, so I didn't look at the charge before doing that. Last night's low here was probably around 17F. - Rick

rfelty said:

Thanks for the quick response! I am trickle-charging over night and as you suggested, letting it top out and remain connected to shore power for like 8 hours or so. This morning I ran climate control while still connected to the 110, so I didn't look at the charge before doing that. Last night's low here was probably around 17F. - Rick

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Is running CC normally what you have been doing? The 120 V EVSE doesn't supply enough power to run the CC in cold weather so some of the power would come from the battery. I'd expect a lower number than 97%, although I suppose it depends on how long you preheat.

If you preheat a lot you should get better results with Level 2 (240 V) charging.

If you haven't been preheating and you still see 97%, my guess is that the battery charges to full while it is still warm from driving. As the battery cools the charge level declines because colder batteries have less capacity. If you were to warm the battery up again my guess is that the SOC would rise, even with no more charge added, although I've never done the experiment.

rfelty said:

Thanks for the quick response! I am trickle-charging over night and as you suggested, letting it top out and remain connected to shore power for like 8 hours or so. This morning I ran climate control while still connected to the 110, so I didn't look at the charge before doing that. Last night's low here was probably around 17F. - Rick

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Bingo.

Running climate control while only connected via L1 will still draw battery power. Mystery solved.

Awesome. Will do some experiments this weekend without CC and on days where the temps get a little higher. I'll report back here.

Thanks folks.

- Rick

I've noticed 99% after the car completed charging several hours later.

however immediately after charging completes, or while it's cell balancing, it'll read 100%

Also, I've noticed the car losing 1% every day or 2 while it's parked.

I live in a similar climate, and when I run the CC for 5 minutes with the car plugged in, I lose about 2% charge. 10 minutes loses 4%. I usually run it for no more than 5 minutes before driving it.

Even on my 2015 connected to 20a 240v if I run remote climate control it will drop a few percent from the battery for the initial warm up. It does tapper off as the heater needs less power. On L1 with remote climate control for 30 min I'm looking at around 95%.

You could also probably lower the temp the remote climate is set to to minimize the impact while on L1.

minispeed said:

Even on my 2015 connected to 20a 240v if I run remote climate control it will drop a few percent from the battery for the initial warm up. It does tapper off as the heater needs less power.

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+1 on my 2011 @ 16A. I think you need 6.6kW/32A 240v charging before you maintain 100% or start increasing the charge in a car that's below 100%.

Success and confirmation of previous info from you guys! This morning after overnight charging in very cold weather (low's in the teens F) I did not run Climate Control, and with the car still on the trickle charger I checked the battery and got a reading of 100%. Yay!! So it turns out my first 97% reading at the dealership was the result of some minutes/hours of cold weather while off the charger, and my second 97% reading was the result of CC running while connected to 110 shore power. The coincidence of both readings being 97% got me concerned that the battery pack was already degraded, but now I know that in both cases it was an expected result, but with oddly coincidental precision.

Thanks for the info on this. I learned a lot as always.

- Rick