- Joined
- Jun 13, 2011
- Messages
- 3,809
Agreed, but please keep in mind that it's very difficult for us to quantify and predict capacity loss accurately. Several of us collaborated on the aging model for this very reason. There will always be questions from new owners, and it's difficult to continue in a complete void. Although the manufacturers could close this gap tomorrow, and release more information, for the time being, it makes sense to draw a line in the sand, and at least put different types of capacity fade in the right ballpark.Volusiano said:I would rather be in milder climate (68F-75F) than be in colder climate (25F-68F) so I can get much more improved range at a tiny expense of capacity loss. That's why I drilled into this cold climate claim and made a big deal out of it, because to me the range advantage of milder climate far outweighs the minimal capacity advantage of much colder climate.
For the average LEAF, calendar aging appears to make up the majority of capacity loss, at least initially. Charging and driving habits appear to play a much lesser role. The convenience factor aside, without wanting to discount it, there is an incentive to store the battery pack at a low temperature, and warm it up before use. This could work pretty well, except not every trip will be predictable.
The consensus based on anecdotal owner reports is that we have seen very little to no battery capacity fade with the Volt, and more noticeable and sometimes even severe loss with the LEAF. Why this is exactly, and how the different engineering and manufacturing approaches play into it, we can only guess. There is, however, a significant correlation between local climate and capacity loss with the LEAF.
That said, the Volt is and will likely remain a more convenient vehicle. It does not suffer from the range restriction, and GM went out of their way to cover a lot of use cases and scenarios. There are downsides as well, and like many here, I gravitated to the LEAF for those reasons. I have much more respect for the Volt now than I had initially, it has done spectacularly well. But in the longer-term, pure EVs have the potential of being very disruptive. Although it sounds laughable today, they could be much cheaper than ICE vehicles not too far down the road.