Traction Battery Temperatures

10 months of ownership and i still can't tell yet if my traction battery fans are working ... i mean i know they work but i can't hear them. i started to use hybrid assistant recently and the highest temp ive seen so far is 37 C . I think that in hybrid assistant the Gen 4 Fan monitor can't be implemented yet ... the fans work and all but the app can't tell the speed .. cabin temp is set between 20 and 22 C

 

Yes. You can clearly see that in the start of both of these videos...

 

btw, the Torque app provided temperature data for the previous generation PHV. Here's a video of that, where I intentionally pushed the pack by not using the A/C to cool it... figuring the real-world data may come in handy sometime in the future:

 

Lastly, here's an example of the opposite extreme with PHV:

 

Overall kW is on the far right. When no electricity is being used for propulsion (vehicle on, but no movement), you can see the draw rate for accessories.

Instead, look at it from perspective of not getting hot. You don't observe extremes, right?

 

well , in hybrid assitant app we dont have the fan speed in RPM yet ( For Gen4 ) but i noticed that at 37C the little battery icon turn from green to yellow .. so maybe this is the indicator when the traction battery fans become active. I believe the fan can be forced ON at all time with the App but this is for Gen3 .. can't be done yet for Gen4.

I suggest to download and install Hydrid Reporter app .. it's a free add-on for hybrid assitant .. at the end of a run , Hydrid Reporter will generate a nice and very detailed report with hybrid assitant data. Somewhere in the report i saw a line called '' Average services consumption '' so this is probably what you are looking for .. It's the average consumption used by everything but the electric motors .

 

I've being reading about weather temperatures and battery performance on many threads in order to understand if temperature could be the culprit for the death of my battery on a 2010 Prius with 93000 mi as of today.
I bought my car used, I ignore the conditions in which it was kept, but I'm starting to think that ambient temperatures have something to do with this death just because I read of so many cases of Gen2 and 3 running for more than 200000 mi on the original battery.

This a critique on the way that these battery are badly cooled in my opinion.
I live in an area with an average temperature of 86 °F all year long, that might not be so much, in fact I was reading other threads of much worst conditions but you have to keep in mind that under the sun the closed car can reach much higher temperatures because of a sort of greenhouse effect so adding this up to the heat generated by the own battery I don't think much higher ambient temperatures are needed to damage a battery. I still haven't found concrete data on temperature working rage on the traction battery, everybody just mentions what temperatures peaks they reached.
In my case, I don't have a garage, neither at home nor work and not many trees around either, at least big enough to have enough available shade around the city, so my car is in the sun pretty much all year long. If this battery is such a critical part of the hybrid system, why isn't it cooled properly like the ICE has it's own radiator, I don't see Toyota recommending spraying water on it, blowing or making very short trips to avoid incurring in excessive temperatures, so why the traction battery doesn't get it's own cooling solution instead of depending on the user's AC... In my opinion that's a "halfassed" job.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying I can do a better job in engineering hybrids but just look at the battery own fan, it's embarrassing for such a massive piece of hardware, it doesn't take a genius to understand that it is insufficient.

 

I agree .. but i dont see how Toyota can customize the fan per region ... up here a ''hot'' summer day is 35c Top .. for sure, cars in the southern U.S.A / Mexico must have tougher life .. but what is worst ? 40c and up or bitter cold -25c ? our winter range is like an average -10 and -25 with short dip in the -30+ in January/February. Primes sold in Canada and Alaska include a battery heater .. in 15 months of ownership i never saw my battery going below 10c and never higher than 38c .. do i live in the sweet spot ? i do not know .. but im confident with Toyota engineering .. i see plenty of Gen2 on the roads.

 

My point is, that I think I'm learning a hard truth that it may not be openly spoken for obvious sales reasons, but maybe, maybe...anyone that lives in a constant very hot area, should avoid hybrids altogether or has to be at least warned that its battery expectancy will be much much lower than living in temperate or cold area. Just that..........and the cooling on Prius batteries sucks.

 

It is well known that cold temperatures are best for battery longevity but not efficiency. I believe the Gen 1, 2 and 3 cars with the NiMH batteries were expected to have an battery operating temperature of 30 to 35 degrees C. In the videos @john1701a posted above, you will see that he got much better MPG when the car was driven on a hot day without having the AC turned on, than on a cold day with no heat. I would expect that the cars with Lithium-Ion batteries have been designed similarly. I believe the battery fan does a good job of keeping the battery temperature in an optimum operating range no matter what the outside temperatures, as long as it is not clogged.

Edit: corrected reference to Lithium battery

 

If you have a spare hour, you might want to watch this video where John Kelly of the automotive technology program at Weber State University in Utah does a complete re-assembly and detailed explanation of the Prius Prime battery.

He also has produced this somewhat shorter video showing how the Prius Prime battery assembly fits into the vehicle:

At about 14 minutes into the video, he shows the ducting and the two blower motors which provide the battery cooling function.

 

Awww.. WeberAuto call me a geek if you want .. i watched all his vids with chips & pop-corn

 

You guys are the best. Best forum community I've been in years! I'm here trying to be all toxic and shit and you keep coming up with convincing arguments and videos to teach me otherwise.... I was joking, not being toxic, just very frustrated, I have a beautiful car sitting in my walkway, the very best I have ever owned and I can't use it and very probably going to sell it after I get a hold on a battery just because I'm afraid it might die on me again because of the weather I live in. I wouldn't be able to afford another battery. I can't afford one now.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I find 'hybrid assistant' so useful that i have a solar power bank connected to an old phone with the app on when i drive.

'hybrid assistant' is better than sliced bread!

 

that's why some phevs have liquid cooling. but we're not in a gen3 thread