Battery preconditioning in cold weather

insightman said:
For our Honda Clarity, someone figured out how to create an app that works with an OBDII dongle to extract the battery capacity signal Honda uses to decide if your battery has degraded enough for a warranty replacement. No one on InsideEVs Clarity forum has come anywhere close to that level of degradation.

@Carsten Haase, do you know if the app you use can reveal the battery capacity? Does anyone know how a MINI dealer determines if a MINI Cooper SE's battery qualifies for a warranty replacement?
Click to expand...

The electrified app (Android) does show state of health (SOH) but no idea how accurate it is since the app was developed for the i3.

Back in November mine showed 98% after 4 months... Extrapolating that would be 80% capacity after 4 years which is almost certainly wrong so either it doesn't start at 100 or is not anywhere close to linear.

Also, I'm just noticing that it says the percentage range for the HV battery is 11.5 to 96.7 which doesn't match the previously reported buffer of 11.3%.

IMG_20220116_185136.webp
 
Caconym said:
Two weeks into ownership and I'm getting a little concerned about low temps, especially if the SE has no battery warming tech like most other EVs. Lot of discussion here about battery performance in freezing conditions, but what is the consensus about degradation/damage? The last two nights here got down to between -10F and -15F. The car has been parked outside and plugged in to 120V (level 2 has to wait until we bring new service to the house in the spring). First night it continued to charge, but last night the car sat at 100% SOC, so no current. This morning I precondition the cabin while plugged in, and then made a short trip with 30% available traction power. This came back up, of course.

Anyone experienced any permanent drop in battery capacity? I know @Puppethead has spent a lot of time in the extreme cold. Is there a way to monitor degradation? Eek!
Click to expand...
Cold temperatures shouldn't have much of a health impact based on what I've read over the last 6 years with EV ownership. Software is quite capable in protecting the battery in regards to cold weather charging and demand while driving.

We traded in our 17 Chevy Volt for the SE, but not before living with the Volt through 3 Minnesota winters. 6 years and almost 70,000 miles later we calculated 2% usable battery capacity loss, 13.7 kWh as opposed to 14 kWh new. Yes, the software taps into the top and low battery buffers a bit to maintain a similar driving range with age, but given the numerous amount of battery cycles, significant voltage sag with my lead foot sprints, and significant temperature swings, I'd say it held up extremely well. Confident the SE will exceed even those results, with a larger battery, thus less cycles for similar mileage.

The 1 kW battery heating in the SE, or possibly lack of, is a bit of a letdown IMO. The Volt wasn't shy about using the 2+ kW dedicated heater for a smaller battery mass, with range drops between 25 -35% during Minnesota winters (under EPA range). This shouldn't be concern in regards to battery degradation, just short term battery performance......

I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.....

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks! My concern (panic?) came from some googling into EV battery behavior in subzero conditions. Sure, there's lots of 'content' out there that is pretty vague and unhelpful. But cold weather damage does appear to be a thing. At least once you get below -20C, potentially. An example:

https://acep.uaf.edu/media/304144/Cold-Weather-Issues-for-EVs-in-Alaska.pdf

My SE has already spent 4 or 5 nights under that magic number, so it is encouraging to hear other folks haven't had problems. FWIW, the mini warranty and the book in the glove box both mention that the service life of the battery can be shortened by extreme hot or cold, but this may be for CYA/simplicity.
 
Last edited:
Caconym said:
Thanks! My concern (panic?) came from some googling into EV battery behavior in subzero conditions. Sure, there's lots of 'content' out there that is pretty vague and unhelpful. But cold weather damage does appear to be a thing. At least once you get below -20C, potentially. An example:

https://acep.uaf.edu/media/304144/Cold-Weather-Issues-for-EVs-in-Alaska.pdf

My SE has already spent 4 or 5 nights under that magic number, so it is encouraging to hear other folks haven't had problems. FWIW, the mini warranty and the book in the glove box both mention that the service life of the battery can be shortened by extreme hot or cold, but this may be for CYA/simplicity.
Click to expand...
Interesting, though I would question the reference to a 2016 study, no doubt using technology from early generation batteries and software as these studies rarely use current sample sizes. Probably relevant then, but much has advanced since.

Though a relevant piece of information involved the manufacturer limits, which all happen to undercut the leading diagram in lowest temperatures, with some offering multiple days of unplugged exposure. I couldn't find a lower limitation for the Mini SE in the manual, it's possible I missed it.

If you're concerned, keeping it plugged in should pass the care onto the BMW/MINI and battery engineers, assuming a battery warming program is available while sitting idle. Worth noting also, the temperatures referenced are internal battery temperatures, not necessarily ambient temps. A battery, large in mass with possible insulation, will take some time to reach ambient after use or charging.

We usually kept the Volt plugged in, sitting idle and unplugged for no more than 8 -12 hours. Though it was unplugged during a polar vortex a few years back at the airport, soaking in temperatures approaching -30F for two or more days. The vehicle started fine, though we did plug it in for 15- 20 minutes to give it a chance to warm before setting off.



d7bd687dd74d783d95c0df38be98f01e.jpg


Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk
 
I have the Veepeak adapter and it works flawlessly with BimmerCode. I’ve had it for three years or so and used it so far successfully on a 1 Series, an X6 and an i3. It connects to the Mini too but I’ve not made any changes yet until this issue with the charge and climate timer in the app is resolved in case it has to go back into the dealer and they blame BimmerCode.
 
Urbanengineer said:
Nice link! Only one explicitly says it’s compatible with BimmerCode? Not seeing veepak compatible. Unless it’s saying R series cars should work with SE..?
Click to expand...

All adapters in that link are compatible with BimmerCode, but only one was specifically "made for BimmerCode" which probably doesn't mean much of anything
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top