Ev in extreme heat

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Weswood

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Joined
Jul 2, 2019
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Can anyone comment on the overall life of a Spark ev battery in heat? I live in the desert and want to know if my battery will die prematurely because we have 115 days in the summer. Thanks
 
I leased a 2014 Spark EV for 3 years and drove it almost 45,000 miles in the extreme heat of the Palm Springs, CA area. The car was charged to 100% every night, it was regularly run down to < 10 miles of range and it was often charged at a DC fast charging station and most of its miles were on the freeway.

I only have my anecdotal experience and nothing more than the battery range estimate to measure degradation but after 3 years it was still showing over 80 miles of range and the only problem I ever had with the car is when the 12V battery died which is pretty much par for the course for 12V lead acid batteries in hot climates, I rarely get 3 years out of them.
 
I'm in Phoenix. I did the recall for the battery a few months ago. Before doing so I was charging 2-3 times a week and always getting over 90 miles. Since the "fix" the most it's charged to is 75, last charge 2 days ago was 69 and I plugged in at 18. Now, it's in the 100's and the garage is hot and when plugged in the cooling system comes on but it just get to the 80 mark likevit did. Im approaching 18000 miles.

Is it possible, not that chevy would do it, remove the update?
 
Weswood said:
..... because we have 115 days in the summer. Thanks
You should keep it plugged in as much as possible in that kind of heat. :(
The TMS is effective but it only runs when plugged in or when the car is powered up.

If the car sits all day unplugged while you are at work, for example, you can see how much the TMS / (Battery Conditioning) is running on the Energy Usage page during your drive home.
It displays in %, but you can see how long the 'BC' number increases during your drive home.
When the % number stops increasing, that's how long it took to get the pack cooled down to a 'happy temp'.

I suppose you could take it easy driving while it is trying to cool the car.

Also, a 'Preconditioning' with the app or the key fob will cool the cabin and the pack before you start asking the pack for driving power.
 
Now that it is cooling down it charged last night to 77, level 2. My wife's Volt charged to 60, the last month or so it's been in the low 50's.
When I got it last year on Black Friday it was charging up to 94, and cruising about 40mph the upper end of GOM was 117!
So, temps and cruising speed return big gains.
 
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