abasile
Well-known member
The reason for this post is that I demand a lot of my LEAF, I own the car outright, and am willing to go out of my way to prolong the life of its battery pack.
My question is, at a non-optimal, low SOC of 20% (or sometimes even a tad under LBW), would be better for battery pack longevity to let it cool upon arrival at home, rather than charging immediately? Some evenings I must charge upon arrival because of additional driving that we do after I get home from work. However, there are many evenings I could let the car cool first.
These days I've been arriving home from work (after a ~5000' mountain climb) with roughly 20% SOC (one bar of charge for those without an SOC meter), six temperature bars, and an ambient temperature around 70°F. Normally I plug in and start charging upon arrival, manually stop the charge at roughly 40%, and use a timer to complete the charge early the next morning shortly before leaving for work. My guesstimate is that the battery pack temperature is at minimum 85°F when I arrive home. Thanks to my relatively cool mountain location, the pack always drops down to five temperature bars overnight, and does not typically reach 6 temp bars until later in the day thanks to my access to shaded parking at work in the hot Valley.
Based on recent data from Arizona and Texas owners, it now seems that high temperatures are much more significant in terms of pack degradation than SOC. On the other hand, the negative effects of letting the car sit at a non-optimal low or high SOC could be amplified by higher temperatures.
My question is, at a non-optimal, low SOC of 20% (or sometimes even a tad under LBW), would be better for battery pack longevity to let it cool upon arrival at home, rather than charging immediately? Some evenings I must charge upon arrival because of additional driving that we do after I get home from work. However, there are many evenings I could let the car cool first.
These days I've been arriving home from work (after a ~5000' mountain climb) with roughly 20% SOC (one bar of charge for those without an SOC meter), six temperature bars, and an ambient temperature around 70°F. Normally I plug in and start charging upon arrival, manually stop the charge at roughly 40%, and use a timer to complete the charge early the next morning shortly before leaving for work. My guesstimate is that the battery pack temperature is at minimum 85°F when I arrive home. Thanks to my relatively cool mountain location, the pack always drops down to five temperature bars overnight, and does not typically reach 6 temp bars until later in the day thanks to my access to shaded parking at work in the hot Valley.
Based on recent data from Arizona and Texas owners, it now seems that high temperatures are much more significant in terms of pack degradation than SOC. On the other hand, the negative effects of letting the car sit at a non-optimal low or high SOC could be amplified by higher temperatures.