A question for those who have been driving the clarity in warm climate region. Do you notice that some kind of fan in the engine compartment turn on after you plugged in your charger and also when you start the car after it has been sitting under the sun for a while? I noticed that for the past 2 days when our temperature is around 110F. Is this for cooling the battery/normal? Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
I have noticed a fan or pump running occasionally when the batteries are actively charging in hot weather. I presume it is the battery cooling in action, as necessary. I really would like to know how the batteries are actually being cooled, though. I just found on page 493 of the manual, that there is liquid coolant for the "High Voltage Battery and Related Parts", so apparently it is liquid cooled.
Yep. Three liquid cooling loops and three reservoirs under the hood. One each for ICE, HV battery, and inverter. Sometimes in the garage I can hear the fan run and a kind of gurgling sound. Maximum coolant change interval of 10 years or when the Maintenance Minder indicates, whichever comes first. Wonder what the dealers will be charging for doing all 3?
So there must be a pump to circulate the coolant, plus a radiator and fan to remove the heat. That is all reassuring. I just saw an article critiquing the Nissan Leaf air-cooled vs Chevy Bolt and Volt liquid systems, and I'm glad to see we are using liquid.
How about charging time? Does it take longer during hot summer, especially in parking lot with public charging stations?
Charge times don't seem to vary. After almost 11,000 miles, most EV, it has never taken longer than 2 hours and 6 minutes to charge an empty battery. Really charge times are short enough not to be a bother or even noticed. During the normal school year my wife takes our son to school, goes to the gym, then does some shopping. That involves about 30 or so miles of driving. She comes home, plugs the car in, and by the time lunch is over the car is fully charged again. Consequently we can easily drive 50-60 miles on a given day all on EV. Even in winter when the range drops to about 43 EV miles we can still do 50-60 mile days. So far hot summer days (100-112 is typical for about 6 weeks here) hasn't seemed to noticeably reduce the EV range. Can't say about public charging. We only charge at home.
We have the same here in West Texas as @jdonalds ' experience. The pump/fan/whatever runs when I charge in the hot garage - another reason I put it on the timer and charge at 4:00 am - at least garage gets under 100 by then.
Temps here in Palm Springs have been around 115°. My battery full charge mileage has dropped to 44mi. In milder weather it's usually anywhere from 55 - 62mi full charge. Maybe it's because the garage temp reaches up to 120°. As soon as I plug it in, the fan starts. Thankfully, there is no affect on the handling/driving of the car. My other plug ins, Ford Fusion and Ford C-Max struggled noticeably in the extreme heat. They both sounded like they were about to explode.
