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[SebfromBE]

Hi all,

As said in some other post, I am new owner of a Zero S 13kWh w/o PT.

Since I received the bike (2 weeks ago) temperatures here in Belgium are 0°C and below. Here are some behavior I noted/wanted to know if it feels normal.
- Range is around 150km for a mixed urban/100km/h commute
- When battery level is above 50%: all power seem to be there
- Below 50% (or around) I feel like limited power at high speed: typically cannot reach above 120km/h and limiting behavior make such that past a certain twist of the throtle, there is clearly now extra power generated -> Can this be cold-weather related? Or should I expect this as standard?
- SoC. Some clarification: Today I am at 25% on the dash after ~ 110km riden. The app says I have consumed about 6kWh (this sounds much less than 75% of battery capacity). Voltage is about 100V. I have read somewhere that some people have had issue with the latest firmware update. (I did it at the dealer upon delivery). Can these numbers be related to similar issue or can it be cold weather again?

In general: what is the Voltage from zero to full? ANd should I expect a linear behavior in between min and max?

Sorry for the long text and already thanks for your replies! As a new user it obviously takes some time to get used to the functionning/understanding of the battery management and your help is greatly appreciated!

Edit: Next week temps should go up ~5-10°C, hopefully I can update my findings/understanding then!

Seb

[Burton]

In winter the SOC means pretty much nothing ...

you will need a volt meter (think cycle analyst) to monitor the voltage of the battery in real time while under load.

At 100% in about 25F weather at 50-55mph my bike will read ~105vdc
At 50% in same conditions it will read close to 93vdc ...

At 93vdc your bike will go into power limiting mode and try to limp home. This year I managed to have 50% SOC on highway 4 miles from home when entering this mode ... when I got home (limping mind you and barely making it in the garage) I turned the bike off and then back on; 90vdc .. 0% SOC.

Get a volt meter if you plan to ride in winter.

[NEW2elec]

Burton, I know you and Terry and others have said the voltage was the best gauge for range and it makes sense.
On my 13 DS and my phone app, if I am stopped and press my throttle kill switch the app will let me check my battery voltage.  Now it's not under load clearly but has anyone done some corresponding resting voltage numbers using this method?

[hubert]

Yes, the idle voltage (no load) is the best measurement of SoC. However, the colder the battery, the higher its internal resistance, causing more voltage drop at high speed/power/discharge rate. And the earlier the power limiter hits in.

and eh, Seb from Belgium, sorry to say, but...Your Zero 13kWh is NOT a 13kWh!

It is not so well explained and written in small characters in the manual, this capacity is sort of "max capacity", alias BS because the result of multiplying the electrical capacity (Ah) by the max voltage (V). Knowing that the max voltage never exists (only at rest and 100% SOC), the true energy you can get from the battery is the integral sum of the current by the real voltage by the time.

In other words, apply a good -12% to this stupid "max" capacity to get the "real" one.

[Richard230]

A full charge should show 116 volts on the Zero app.  As Hubert says, Zero's kWh model claims are a little inflated.  As an example, my 2018 S, which is labeled as having 16.6 kWh, actually shows 15.138 kWh, using the Zero app, when fully charged - and that is on a new battery pack.  Things start to decline once the battery cells start aging.

[SebfromBE]

Hi all,

Thanks for your replies! Interesting!

Idd I was already aware (reading this forum :-) ) of the misleading capacity, but even at 11kWh and a bit, then 75% of 11kWh is more than the 6kwh usage the app was reporting.

But Ok if I understand correctly, I should basically dial down quite a bit on the numbers that comes out of the app/dash and rely to a descent extent on usual range I am able to get and SoC % as an indicator rather than an absolute gauge.

If I understand correctly also, the power limitation comes quicker here because voltage drops faster at high discharge rate when cold. Which is ok, make sense. I was just quite surprised indeed that you get power limited even when such high charge state (~ 50%) in harsh weather conditions.

Would it make senses, in these conditions, to charge more often then (I.e. would it preserve the battery better?). Knowing that my daily round trip commute is about 40km and eats up about 25% of battery (in the cold, I hope better in summer :-) )?

Cheers,

Seb

[Erasmo]

Oh yes it's way better in the summer. Qua voltage there is a pretty good app on the Android market that will let you connect to the bike and read out voltage, battery temperatures and much more.