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[MrDude_1]

If you ride hard and fast when it is fresh off the charger you can heat the battery to where there is no power reduction.

The warmer and higher SOC you're at the more power the battery can put out.  If its very cold the battery will lose its ability to put out full power as the state of charge drops low.

Good to know.  So conceivably, I could park the bike at the office (where I have no place to plug in) and discover at the end of the day that I have less range than I THOUGHT when I initially parked it...

technically the state of charge of the battery is the same... but because a battery discharging is a chemical process, the process will occur slower, with higher resistance.
so if you wack the throttle wide open, you wont have the same acceleration, but your range would be similar. That said, you shouldnt notice, because your tires are also cold, so you shouldnt be holding the throttle wide open anyway.

The range you lose is only from the higher resistance... as you try to draw more than it can supply in its chilled state, it will have resistance. that also means it will heat up. as it heats up, it works better.... so by the time your tires warm up, your battery will be close to where it is under warmer weather conditions.

[Low On Cash]

Unlike electric cars like the Volt & ELR which gauges the battery by miles, the Zero's cluster shows percentage. Even though you can have a 100% in both winter and summer, the bike will have considerable different range capability.

Unlike the Chevy Volt and BMW I3 /I8 which uses A/C pumps to cool and heat with the aid of grid heaters to heat the pack when needed, the Zero is like the Nissan Leaf with no cell conditioning, so you can expect to see a substantial drop of around 20% depending on how cold the pack reaches. Since the pack has less efficiency when cold, you can notice a drop in both performance and top speed.

When ever possible - try to store the bike in a conditioned area and another advantage is to use a 110v timer so the pack finishes charging and balancing of the cells 30-60 minutes before you depart.

What works best for batteries is to move to South Florida! LOL   

[JaimeC]

What works best for batteries is to move to South Florida! LOL

But the summer heat can be even worse for the battery than our winter cold...

[nevetsyad]

Summer heat will reduce power to the motor to prevent overheating. I've never had problems sustaining freeway speeds, and I've ridden daily at ~100F. The cold is interesting, garage kept at home and at work, but when it's freezing out, the battery temp drops fast at 80MPH. Half way home I started having reduced power due to the cold, to where I couldn't keep up with traffic. Only happened the once, never seen it in past winters.

[JaimeC]

Fortunately we don't get THAT hot here on Long Island... HOWEVER Zero does warn against parking in direct sunlight on hot days as it will hasten battery degradation.  I wonder about people living in Las Vegas, NV or Phoenix, AZ though.

[JaimeC]

Generally on the highway I keep the bike in "Eco" mode so as to not exceed 70 mph.  Even though our posted limits here are still 55mph, I've passed Troopers in a full tuck at that speed and they ignore me.  One day last summer on my way home from work my speed started to drop off.  I checked the motor temperature on the smart phone app and it was reading 160.  According to the manual, the motor controller is supposed to cut power around 140 but maybe that limit was raised for the 2016 with IPM motors?  In any event, I got out of the HOV lane and into the regular flow of traffic to let the motor cool down a bit "just in case." 

[Skidz]

My DSR is outside under a tarp, and I have commuted a few times now with outside temps around -2C (26 F for the non-metrics around here) and I use about as much for my daily commute as with temps above freezing, about 31% for 52 km's (32 mile) of highway use @ 100km/h (62Mph). When home the remaining SOC is about 38%, and the temp sensor of the bike indicates 28C (82F). I'd sure love to see the battery temperature when I drive, but then i'd need to use some sort of CAN module of sorts...

[Low On Cash]

Lithium batteries are a lot like humans and perform best at around 72-75 degrees - like us, lithum cells slow down when too hot or too cold.

[Electric Terry]

Lithium batteries are a lot like humans and perform best at around 72-75 degrees - like us, lithum cells slow down when too hot or too cold.

Well the BMS slows them down when too hot, but lithium batteries perform best when they are as hot as you can get them.  Most manufacturers set this at 120 to 140 degrees F.  The problem is they degrade 2 times faster for every 10 degrees hotter they get.  So its a trade off and to protect the cells, the BMS limits the maximum temperature they allow.  If you were going to a drag race you would want to heat up your batteries as hot as you can and charge them full before a run.  The internal resistance goes down the hotter they are and so can deliver more power.

But this is also why when cold the internal resistance is extremely high and max power discharge capabilities are severely limited

[AsherEscher]

I'm considering keeping an insulating wrap of perhaps neoprene and in inner liner to handle touring in cold weather, inspired by the Aerostich FX battery cozy, just to keep air and moisture deflected while riding.

Brian, cool - let us know what you try and what you end up with.


I'm thinking about something like this, too - maybe some system that will also let it warm up in the sun, when parked.

[Say10 15FX 16FXS]

What about something like this?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/291734761739

[AsherEscher]

Oh, fun. I was thinking either non-powered or DC like this
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1481
but I like the size of yours.

[Erasmo]

One of the Brammo owners did something similar. It wasn't heated iirc but even keeping the wind of it should make an impact.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

I'm considering keeping an insulating wrap of perhaps neoprene and in inner liner to handle touring in cold weather, inspired by the Aerostich FX battery cozy, just to keep air and moisture deflected while riding.

Brian, cool - let us know what you try and what you end up with.


I'm thinking about something like this, too - maybe some system that will also let it warm up in the sun, when parked.

After riding my 13DS in a cold downpour and clearly performing worse for it, I think I'll be trying this soon.

I think the recipe is simple: very big sheet of the kind of neoprene used in wetsuits for the body area, punch some holes and make grommets for attachment points, and wrap it around like an apron to hook bungee loops around either the frame or the crash bars on mine.

Possibly a second smaller sheet between the top of the battery and the carrier bracket for the tank area, but that clearance is only 3mm and might want to handle moisture collected better.

The heaters linked are intriguing for sure but I'm not sure how they'd apply well yet. Maybe tuck one between a side plastic panel?

[Killroy]

My coworker is having a hard time getting his FX to 65 MPH.  He says that he is required to tuck to go from 60 to 65 MPH.  Is that right?