After looking around a bit and doing some research, it seems a part of that problem is with the chargers as well. Something about them is not happy with the cold, and only certain brands too it seems. The older brands / charges seem to be doing well, as well as many other people pointed out, countries where it's typically cold most the year, are not having the issues either.
FWIW, I fast charged my Energica this morning after taking it on a romp. Temperature started out 24 degrees outside, bike was at 46 degrees in the garage and ended up at 38 degrees, with the real temp probably about 30 to 32 degrees outside by this time. My range was about one percent a mile, was running from 40 to 60 mph ish, mostly towards the lower end, as my tires were feeling really squirrely and harder regen was bipping the ABS pretty often so I didn't want to take any chances. As I was running, my range left started actually going UP. Im assuming the battery was warming up a bit. Anyways, got into the garage, left door open, battery temp was reading 42 degrees F after the run and hit it with a full 60 Amps of fast charge. It started without a hitch, charged up to about ehh, 85 ish percent then started tapering off as it said 'balancing' until we got to about 4 kw at about 97 percent then it shut down at 99 percent.
I ended up after cycling the power to get the bike to release the cable (still an annoying bug), at 100 percent charge and 103 miles est range. This is estimated at running 45 to 60 mph in freezing temperatures, (but not zero or below like Chiraq is seeing). Im seeing maybe a 10 to 15 percent range decrease from when it's in the upper 80's to 90's temp wise, but the charge went without a hitch, no limiting, no false starts or any of the other issues I see others complaining about.
Another thing to consider, those chargers are OUT in the weather, getting rained on, snowed on, sleeted on, then freezing inside their moving parts' No shit the thing is not latching properly, that's a common 'snowy crappy day' issue with anything from door handles to window twirlers to hoods and trunks when it gets ice in the works and don't want to close right. CCS Fast charge is VERY temperamental on the switches, it has to fit down hard and EXACT and the switches have to click FULLY, (if it don't fully click, then it thinks the thing is not seated properly.)
While this can be annoying, it is also critically important. Not only do the metal contacts have to meet so you have a good connection for the current to pass so it don't over heat, but you also MUST have good contact / overlap on the insulating surfaces too. Remember CCS1 Mode 4? can run up to 1000 volts, and that can and WILL arc over very easily. God help you if you get a kv DC arc going on your charging plug, you will BTFU a lot of equipment in less than a second. Now you are dead in the water, with a very expensive fix.
A general comment, you KNEW the weather is going to be shitty, they been forecasting it for days, WHY did you wait to the last second to charge your car up fully? These are the same clowns who would go out in a snowstorm with 1/4 tank of gas in the car, get stranded on the side of the highway and are now crying for help all over the CB or their cell phone now.
I am curious, lets say at 20 degrees F. Warming up your battery with it's internal heater, or whatever / however it works. I wonder how much more range yo get out of a warm battery .vs. a cold one for the KW or three you use to heat it? I mean if you burn 10 miles worth of electricity to heat it up but get an extra 40 miles range because it's warm now, that should be a no brainer.
Aaron
Author
Topic: DC Fast Charging is Sub Zero Conditions (Read 770 times)