cold weather charging and battery health, 2017 S

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FWbroke

New member
Joined
Jan 6, 2018
Messages
4
Dear All

I have a 2017 S that my wife and I bought in August.

Her commute is about 60 miles total and the Leaf works fine in almost all weather for that.

No option to charge AT work during the day, but a few L2 options and one QC option on the way home if she needs it.

We live on the east coast and some of the recent weather has been -15f and as much as -40f with the wind.

We do not yet have an L2 charger at home, but have access to an outdoor L2 about 1/2mi from our house.

We have been ( I think ) a bit cautious in both charging and operation in cold weather.

The Leaf is our 3rd car and so she has not driven it on days where it will be below -5f for any length of time.

We keep the Leaf in an unheated garage any night when it is predicated to be below 10f overnight (hasn't been below 17f in garage, even on our coldest nights)

Given that, is it the battery temp bars that matter or outside air temp?

If we have 3 battery temp bars ( coming out of the un-heated garage ) and the OAT is 0 and the wind chill is -15f should it be charged on L2?

If we have 3 battery temp bars and the OAT is 0 and the wind chill is -15f should it be charged on QC?

I understand the manual says to avoid L2 charging with 2 battery temp bars.

Very happy with the car and can live with charging it L1 in our garage, but are wondering if we can be more aggressive with L2 and QC charging in the cold weather.

Would appreciate all experience, comments and references.

Thanks,

FWB
 
I believe the car regulates the current coming in, so it may not be a problem. The up side is the battery is warmed up for the drive.
 
After not using our 2017 "S" for 3 weeks (over lease miles) with night temps around 0 degrees C, we found charging RATE was about 1/3 normal from 70% using DCFC EVSE (Dropped to 8A at 90%). Calls to EVgo and Nissan dealer produced no explanation. DCFC close to house so battery cold at start of charging. 4 bars on battery temp. gauge. Solution was to use L1 120v charger to preheat battery (to 5 bars), then DCFC charged at normal rate (25A @90%). With a cold battery our 30 minute charging session was delivering only 15% charge (from 70%) or 4.5kwh! Usually we stop at 90% charge.
 
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