Optimal Battery Temperature for Quick Charge

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Kayaktivist

Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2021
Messages
9
The manual has a fuzzy chart showing rate of charge is slowed if battery is too cold or too hot. The pictures shown is of a different style gauge than what's shown in my dash - I think they might have even flipped the cold and hot.

To get the fastest rate of charge, should I strive to have the batt temp be in the middle of the gauge, or half way between cold and middle? Has someone figure out if there's a specific temp in degree that's optimal?
 
It depends on the pack. A 30kwh pack will happily cook itself in order to minimize your inconvenience - at least until it's time to ask for a warranty replacement. I believe the Lizard pack will also charge fairly rapidly even when hot. Try to cook a 40kwh pack, though, and it becomes a game of Hurry Up & Wait.
 
Kayaktivist said:
To get the fastest rate of charge, should I strive to have the batt temp be in the middle of the gauge, or half way between cold and middle? Has someone figure out if there's a specific temp in degree that's optimal?
IIRC, try to start the charge at one bar to the right of the middle or less. I think the temperate is around 100F. Don't quote me on that, I haven't QC in almost a year. BTW, this was on a 40 kWh so I'm not sure if applies to the 62 kWh as well.
 
How could you even do anything to adjust the temperature in a car where the pack has no thermal heating or cooling system?
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
I would say start at the upper end of 5 bars or low end of 6 bars if doing a full charge at a 100kW Chademo for fastest charging.

I also see other people reference batt temp in discrete bars. I'm not seeing the divisions on my display. How many bars is the middle mark?
 
I also see other people reference batt temp in discrete bars. I'm not seeing the divisions on my display. How many bars is the middle mark?

It's the same 12 bars as the old "gauge" but with no delineation of the segments. So the middle is six bars in, but since you can't easily count the bars, the middle is...in the exact middle.
 
Nubo said:
What kind of striving do you have in mind?

I currently can't charge at my apartment, so am using public chargers. Some QC stations charge by the minute, so it's about getting the most bang for my buck. I have some control over batt temp - I can charger after a drive at freeway speed, or charge after overnight rest.

I found a charging curve for the 62kWh battery. The article doesn't specify starting temp and ambient temp.
img-2020-nissan-leaf-plus-sl-us-dcfc-power-20210322.png

Full article:https://insideevs.com/news/495913/nissan-leaf-dc-fast-charging-curve/

Looks like charging rate starts to drop after 10% SOC, with an inflection point (so more marked drop off in charging rate) at 65%, and then again at 90%. So maximizing electricity per minute, I should be charging between 10% and 50% SOC.

By the way, how do people check charging current? Is it shown in the car somewhere?
 
InsideEVs found a remaining EA charger that was still offering 200amps. In a few cases, we have seen upper 70s for the first 30%. You can see the kW rate in the car. It's on the screen with the tall blue battery pic.
 
Back
Top