How To Keep Your Nissan Leaf’s Battery Pack Happy In Hot Weather (Page 2)

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How To Keep Your Nissan Leaf’s Battery Pack Happy In Hot Weather Page 2

Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

3,197 views Jul 16, 2012

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2011 Nissan Leaf: One Year Drive Report
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Park somewhere cool

When you have to park during the day, we know it’s not always possible to park somewhere cool, especially if the mercury is rapidly rising.

However, where possible, try and park in underground parking garages with good ventilation, away from direct sunlight.

Not only will it reduce the temperatures your Leaf’s battery pack is subjected to, but it will give the battery pack time to cool down before you next use it.

If you have to park in an above-ground parking space, try and find somewhere that will be shaded during the hottest part of the day.

And if you’re looking for parking while out and about, park in a space that has just been vacated by another car rather than one that has lain free for a while.

That’s because blacktop that has been shaded from the sun by a car will be cooler than blacktop that has absorbed direct sunlight.

The cooler the blacktop, the less heat energy it will radiate underneath your car, helping to keep the battery pack cooler.

Charge when it’s cool

As we’ve explained earlier, charging the battery pack slowly heats it up.

As a consequence, it is always better to charge your Leaf’s battery pack when it is cooler outside.

This should be fairly easy with the Leaf, thanks to its built-in charger timer feature.

Set the finish time to be a few minutes before you plan to leave in the morning, but leave the start time blank. Your car will then start charging at a time to ensure that it will be finished in time for your departure.

2011 Nissan Leaf SL

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Slow your charging down

Generally, the faster you charge a battery pack, the hotter it gets.

The lower the charge rate, the less heat is generated.

So, whenever possible, favor slower charging over fast or rapid charging.

For most owners, that means using a 16-Amp, level 2 charging station over a level 3 rapid DC charging station.

But some owners in Arizona have reported that using the 110-volt ‘emergency’ charging cable that comes with the Leaf can help minimize the increases in temperature the battery pack undergoes while charging.

That’s because a 110-volt Level 1 charging cable charges the battery pack at 1.6 kilowatts. A Level 2 charging station charges the battery pack at 3.3 kilowatts.

Less power equals less energy wasted as heat. Less heat means a cooler battery.

Do you have any tips?

Do you live in a warm climate? Are you using a Nissan Leaf every day in extreme temperatures?

Perhaps you have some tips we haven’t thought of to help you keep your Leaf happy and its battery pack healthy?

Leave us your tips and thoughts in the Comments below.

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Comments (15)

james spearman Posted: 7/16/2012 2:02pm PDT

The problem a lot of us have in Phoenix are garages that will simply not cool down unless the door remained open all night, and that's not an option unless you want your car stolen here, as well as the contents of the garage. A garage here can easily remain over 100 degrees all night, which means the battery pack remains at 7 bars all day, every day. While it would be lovely to give my cars an air-conditioned home, it makes absolutely no financial sense.

We now know that this situaion is not sustainable for a Leaf, but Nissan continues to stonewall its owners on some sort of solution, buy-back plan (like the Volt after the over-hyped fire), or even acknowlegement.

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Tim Fulton Posted: 7/17/2012 10:13am PDT

I'd suggest adding a ventilation fan to the garage. Switch it on when you get home and set the car to charge during the middle of the night.

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Paul Sepuka Posted: 9/16/2012 4:47pm PDT

As a Phoenix Leaf owner, I am asking ALL Leaf owners to hit the DECLINE button every time you power up your Leaf until Nissan resolves this issue. It is an easy way you can tell Nissan to back their product, which you have purchased. Send Nissan a message that you are unhappy with their lack of support for the Leaf, it's early adopters and the EV market.

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Xiaolong Li Posted: 7/16/2012 2:20pm PDT

I wonder how "swamp cooler" would impact the Leaf. Installing a water mister will significantly reduce temperature in hot climate such as AZ...

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Mark Rogowsky Posted: 7/16/2012 3:02pm PDT

Some of these ideas are silly. "Don't charge your battery all the way" is a great idea unless, of course, you need all of the already slight range of the car, for example.

All of this points out (a) the Leaf's design is flawed and the car should have a battery cooling system -- sorry Nissan (b) more range is better, because a lot of things can compromise range. It sounds like, really, the BHAG for electric vehicles is a 500-mile range.

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Martin Winlow Posted: 7/20/2012 6:37am PDT

Whilst I agree that any 'proper' EV that uses a Lithium Ion-based battery should have a 'climate controlled' battery pack i.e. capable of being cooled as well as heated, I totally disagree that any 'normal' EV needs as much or indeed, anywhere near as much range as 500 miles. This is a leftover of the internal combustion engine way of thinking and is a total anachronism.

Why would any normal person on a long trip balk at the idea of driving for 2 hours and then having a 30 minute break to take some refreshment and charge their car up? 200 miles is more than enough, particularly so when you consider the average daily car mileage in the US is just 38 miles.

Just plug it in when you get home and you're ready for the next day.

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Xiaolong Li Posted: 7/16/2012 3:11pm PDT

I am really curious on the next Revision of the Leaf. I wonder if Nissan is going to address all the issues. Typically an automakers update the car every 4-5 years. Nissan will be due for a update in 2014 or 2015. But the way it is going, can Nissan wait that long for it?

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Dan Abel Posted: 7/16/2012 9:34pm PDT

So were being asked to make even more compromises for a poorly deigned car. No wonder its not selling.

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Chris O Posted: 7/16/2012 11:29pm PDT

So Nissan once promised a 100 miles of range. EPA reduced that to 73 miles of range. Now we learn that if you live in a hot climate another ~40%(?) of the battery's capacity shouldn't be used reducing range further to ~45 miles.

My tip would be: if you live in a hot climate: lease the car and let Nissan pay the price for offering a battery that's just too small to begin with and shouldn't be offered in hot climates at all without a decent cooling system.

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Dave Rees Posted: 7/17/2012 1:50am PDT

Ambient temp appears to be the biggest factor in how fast LEAF owners are losing capacity.

If you live in an area which spends it's days over 100F, you're very likely to lose the top capacity bar after approximately 1 year. So far, the vast majority of owners are in Arizona, Texas, and one person in the California desert.

http://goo.gl/Nv9VU

On the other hand, LEAF owners in Seattle appear to have very little if any measurable capacity loss despite high mileage and use.

So there's very little that can be done to slow the decline in hot climates except to park your car in a garage w/AC.

Nissan has totally screwed up - launching the LEAF in AZ lead customers to believe that the LEAFs battery could handle the heat - but it can't.

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Barry Koval Posted: 7/17/2012 8:23am PDT

I agree with this article's recommendations, even if it is difficult to actually do some of these things.

One complicating factor is the need for cell balancing. No mention was made of this. What I try to do is to charge to 80% and then top off to 100% just before departure. It is the time spent at whatever charge state that determines the rate of deterioration. Therefore I try to limit the time spent sitting at over 100%.

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David Laur Posted: 7/17/2012 9:40am PDT

i am going to have to dispute a few points here. i dont believe it wise to charge when cool, then take that fully charged pack into a hotter day. heat acts as a catalyst and i believe part of the issue is a pack fully charged at night when its cool and the pack being allowed to heat up before the user takes off in the morning.

the other thing that i think needs to be looked at is SOC. it would appear that maybe 80% is simply too high. what we really need is someone who can to run the pack in the middle say 20-60% SOC if possible. granted that is a lot of range lost but in my personal experience, its very doable. i do it on a regular basis. all my charging is done manually and i only charge to 100% maybe 3-7 times a month. no charge at al

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Stuart Humpert Posted: 7/17/2012 5:20pm PDT

Whew! High maintenance on a mental level, is the LEAF. If I recall, the 2013 LEAF will have a 6.6kwh charging capability which could worsen the overheating problem given what Nikki recommends in her article.

I doubt Nissan will be advising LEAF prospects of these recommendations. Caveat emptor.....

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Xiaolong Li Posted: 7/18/2012 9:49pm PDT

I imagine if Nissan is truly going to upgrade the charger to 6.6KW, then it is almost impossible to get away from liquid cooling.. But that will be a major "redesign" for the battery pack. I think that is why Nissan has been keeping quiet on what 2013 vesion of the Leaf will have...

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Geo Har Posted: 3/31/2013 1:36am PDT