SE - What battery feeds the 12VDC ports on the SE?

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fasttr

fasttr

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Just thinking about emergency use for charging cell phones / tablets or maybe even low wattage AC appliances with an inverter during a power outage. Are the 12VDC ports fed from the 12V battery in the SE and/or is the 12V battery automatically charged from the high voltage batteries? Just curious.
 
The majority of the cars electronics (pretty much everything shared with the ICE car) are fed by the 12V battery. The 12V battery is then charged by the high voltage battery with a DC/DC converter (the DC/DC takes the place of an ICE car's alternator)

Different EVs handle the charging of the 12V battery differently but most (I believe including the MINI) only charge it when the car is on.

Some EVs (like the MachE) with an undersized 12V battery have suffered from dead 12V batteries preventing the car from starting even with a full high voltage battery
 
Carsten Haase said:
Different EVs handle the charging of the 12V battery differently but most (I believe including the MINI) only charge it when the car is on.
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So can I imply if I just put the SE into start mode I can use the 12VDC port to charge a phone? Or does the SE exit start mode after not moving for some period of time?
 
fasttr said:
So can I imply if I just put the SE into start mode I can use the 12VDC port to charge a phone? Or does the SE exit start mode after not moving for some period of time?
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It definitely charges the 12V battery when you are driving around and I believe when it's plugged in to an EVSE but I'm not sure if it'll charge when in drive ready state but still in park.
 
From the owners manual (page 277):

For idle phases that last several weeks, park the vehicle with the high-voltage battery fully charged, if possible. Do not park the vehicle for longer than 14 days if the electric range is exhausted. With storage times of up to three months, if possible plug the vehicle into a compatible power source or park it with the high-voltage battery as fully charged as possible.
 
Yew, I've seen that too... But wqs wondering if anyone has tested it... Btw, leaving the battery full... Is that really good advice? I've called mini support and asked them about battery recommendations and the official answer was leave it between 20 and 80...
 
Luis Abreu said:
Yew, I've seen that too... But wqs wondering if anyone has tested it... Btw, leaving the battery full... Is that really good advice? I've called mini support and asked them about battery recommendations and the official answer was leave it between 20 and 80...
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The owners manual says to fully charge the battery.

Page 230: "In order to operate the high-voltage battery optimally, charge the vehicle regularly and fully using a compatible charger."

That is what I intend to do, ABC - always be charging.
 
Novadar said:
The owners manual says to fully charge the battery.

Page 230: "In order to operate the high-voltage battery optimally, charge the vehicle regularly and fully using a compatible charger."

That is what I intend to do, ABC - always be charging.
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This is a hotly debated topic in the Tesla world. Rule followers point to the manual, which says to charge to 90% at every opportunity. However, battery health fanatics point to all kinds of data that shows small increases in long term battery life by keeping the battery as close to 50 to 60% as possible, even if keeping their batteries there means reduced range and acceleration.

Ultimately, most settle for a middle ground; we charge ours up to 80% for daily use, and don't put it on the charger until around 40%. Seems to be working; our battery has almost no degradation.

In Jessie, my assumption is that the displayed 100% includes both upper and lower buffers. Without a way to set charging limits and her short range that demands nightly charging (given my 64 mile commute), the point is moot, for me, anyway.
 
Now that I know where the obd port is, I'll see if I can get any information about degradation... I charge whenever I can too6, but try to keep it under 90%...
 
F14Scott said:
In Jessie, my assumption is that the displayed 100% includes both upper and lower buffers. Without a way to set charging limits and her short range that demands nightly charging (given my 64 mile commute), the point is moot, for me, anyway.
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When I got my SE I asked the dealer about it, and was told it's designed to go to 100% and to charge as often as I wanted to, including no restrictions on fast charging. The buffering is built-in on the SE, so there is supposed to be nothing to worry about when it comes to charging. And I guess the 50 kW max charging rate means there's no risk of damage with fast charging.

I was really confused about charging initially, because Tesla dominates the EV world and Tesla lets you "see" the full battery capacity, which is where the 80%-90% number comes into play.
 
F14Scott said:
This is a hotly debated topic in the Tesla world. Rule followers point to the manual, which says to charge to 90% at every opportunity. However, battery health fanatics point to all kinds of data that shows small increases in long term battery life by keeping the battery as close to 50 to 60% as possible, even if keeping their batteries there means reduced range and acceleration.

Ultimately, most settle for a middle ground; we charge ours up to 80% for daily use, and don't put it on the charger until around 40%. Seems to be working; our battery has almost no degradation.

In Jessie, my assumption is that the displayed 100% includes both upper and lower buffers. Without a way to set charging limits and her short range that demands nightly charging (given my 64 mile commute), the point is moot, for me, anyway.
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We have a Porsche Taycan and the official day-to-day charging recommendation is 85%. They say only go to 100% if you need the range and plan to drive the car immediately.

To me I think this should be simpler for all EVs. If the car should "not" be charged to 100% then don't allow it. It's leaves open a lot of discretion and in turn confusion.
 
Novadar said:
To me I think this should be simpler for all EVs. If the car should "not" be charged to 100% then don't allow it. It's leaves open a lot of discretion and in turn confusion.
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Simple can be good but you can have simple and have options. Tesla's implementation seems a bit complex but I really wish Mini allowed use of the whole battery (or at least more of it) for occasional longer trips.

It could be as simple as a "charge for road trip" button in the charging menu with a warning about some additional battery degradation. That extra ~10% would bridge the gap between chargers currently preventing me from driving south, east, or west.
 
Well if you take the 32.6 battery capacity and charge it to Mini’s 100% of usable capacity, 28.9, you are effectively charging to 89% of battery capacity. Probably why they say it is safe to go to “100%”.
 
Carsten Haase said:
Simple can be good but you can have simple and have options. Tesla's implementation seems a bit complex but I really wish Mini allowed use of the whole battery (or at least more of it) for occasional longer trips.

It could be as simple as a "charge for road trip" button in the charging menu with a warning about some additional battery degradation. That extra ~10% would bridge the gap between chargers currently preventing me from driving south, east, or west.
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I like this idea quite a bit.
 
fasttr said:
Well if you take the 32.6 battery capacity and charge it to Mini’s 100% of usable capacity, 28.9, you are effectively charging to 89% of battery capacity. Probably why they say it is safe to go to “100%”.
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Actually after thinking about this, the 28.9 includes a bottom end buffer also so it would be charging to the low 90% value on a 100% charge.
 
Carsten Haase said:
Simple can be good but you can have simple and have options. Tesla's implementation seems a bit complex but I really wish Mini allowed use of the whole battery (or at least more of it) for occasional longer trips.

It could be as simple as a "charge for road trip" button in the charging menu with a warning about some additional battery degradation. That extra ~10% would bridge the gap between chargers currently preventing me from driving south, east, or west.
Click to expand...
It sounds good, and that's actually a sensible approach. But for a battery the size of the SE, is it really worth the additional risk to battery degradation? For the SE you'd get what, and extra 10-15 miles of range? That seems like a distance that can be obtained by switching to GREEN+ mode.
 
Puppethead said:
It sounds good, and that's actually a sensible approach. But for a battery the size of the SE, is it really worth the additional risk to battery degradation? For the SE you'd get what, and extra 10-15 miles of range? That seems like a distance that can be obtained by switching to GREEN+ mode.
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I'd argue it's even more important with a small battery EV since the range is so short to begin with. Driving in green+ and having the additional capacity available would be necessary for me to get to the nearest chargers.
 
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