Nissan Leaf Fast Charging Temperature.

I had a loan of the current gen bog basic spec for 2 dya test and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. When you're not worried about range this car is a lot of fun.

It handle very well and accelerates really good but the best of all is the almost instant power, they do have it restricted a bit from take off compared to the 2011 first Gen and there is a noticeable torque reduction but still a blast to drive.

When I eventually got leaf spy working I decided before I left work for home to plug it in and have a look at what was going on.

I started with a battery temp of 21 Deg, perfect for the battery, ended up about 30 miles later at the fast charger after a 70-90 mph stint down the motorway, the car has no problem reaching these speeds.

By the time I got to the fast charger my high speed stint brought the temp to 23 degrees C, arrived with 23% battery (not from a full charge by the way) and by the time the battery was charged to 76% the temp jumped to 30 degrees C , then the salesman came back and I had to unplug leaf spy.

Leaf spy reported that after 3400 Kms a 5 % loss in capacity and 60 DC charges and 10 Level 2. So the car is mainly fast charged, I saw the sales man fast charge it to 90 % before he gave it to me for the 2 days,.

I've a feeling going beyond 80% will accelerate degradation a lot, even though beyond 80% the charge is reduced to about 9 Kw, if people charge beyond 80% on a hot battery this is worse.

It's hard to believe that that battery heats up so fast from 23-30 from 23% to 76% at only a 2C charge rate ?

I think one fast charge a day won;t be much of an issue if people don;t take it much beyond 80%, were Nissan nuts to publicly announce that the battery needed no thermal management ?

i presume you are following the discussion on mynissanleaf.com about the problems of using the fast charger in hot climates.

i think there is much more cycle life if you can restrict the battery temperature from discharge low by restricting top speeds and also avoiding the fast charging stations especially when the pack is already hot from driving fast and the outside temp is high.

it is best to charge directly before use and to use minimal charging rates to achieve the SOC needed. most seem to schedule the timer on the charger to charge at night in the SW where daytime ambient temps are so high.

the decision to offer replacement packs at cost has helped them win back some disaffected owners who banded together through the mynissanleaf website to make nissan adjust their attitude. the price of a new pack replacement is significantly cheaper than originally offered.

Sure, I've read mynissanleaf about fast charging in hot climates but I was interested how fast the temperature rose from 23 degrees to 30 at a temperature that day of about 20 degrees C.

I would love to See the temperature if I had charged to 90% !

Charging at slower rates is always good but I don't think you can own a Leaf without having to fast charge.

Wow, this seems like so long ago when I posted in this thread......Time sure does fly, I'm almost a decade older and I feel it lol.

After the Leaf I got the BMW i3 Rex, really cool car but since the Boys got older and could get in and out of the car themselves the read doors were becoming a pain in the ass.

Now I have the Volkswagen ID.3 82 Kwh and it's nice to have so much range. I've driven 300 Kms and still had 30% left but I think it could easily do over 400.

It has around 73 usable Kwh.

The price of the id.3 has gone insane since I got mine, it's the Tour 5 with 5 seats, the tour 4 4 seater is all they will allow you now with the larger battery.

I can get a model 3 SR+ a lot cheaper now than an id3 82 Kwh with the level of spec mine has, though I think the id3 82 Kwh would have a lot more range than the M3 SR+ especially in warmer weather.

It's crazy to think that there's still no cheap electric cars.......