- Joined
- Jun 13, 2011
- Messages
- 3,809
LEAFfan, I must disagree with this statement. High heat will absolutely accelerate the aging process for these batteries. If you took a car and exposed it to a the same usage pattern in Seattle and in Phoenix, all things being equal, the car in Seattle will exhibit less degradation. The NREL report Herm referenced last year showed this effect pretty clearly. Additionally, the lithium manganese battery chemistry the Leaf uses is known to be more temperature sensitive than lithium cobalt.LEAFfan said:Just the heat of AZ will NOT damage the battery.
Now, Nissan has said that they don't need active temperature management in the US. Perhaps in Abu Dhabi or in Dubai, but not in the US. This means that they have extensively tested their batteries in hot locales, and they must have optimized the basic battery chemistry to be more resistant to heat. However, this does not imply the same rate of aging in hot and cold locales. I don't think that anyone has made that claim before.