plug in battery

If you've gotta wait till it gets below 100 F .that is probably why toyota didn't sell any PiP in Az. from what I remember reading. Those kinds of temps call for liquid battery pack cooling And really good liquid pack cooling. Like I mentioned in another thread here a PC somewhere, "I like to add heat to the cabin in winter when charging and if I lived in an area that had high temps I'd be thinking of ways to add A/C to the cabin while charging". Really, any steps you take to reduce the cabin temp, both while driving and charging, when ambient temps are that high is beneficial in my opinion.

 

fortunately, it has never had to be done, but these cars are only 8-9 years old.

i'm sure it must be documented in the service manual

 

With the cooler weather our max EV miles available now tops out at 9.8 miles. We bought this 2012 in 2017 with 37,000 miles on it and are now up to 78,000. Just over 10,000 of our miles have been EV and I don't know what it was for the previous owner. If the previous owner put only half the EV miles on that we did it would be the battery equivalent of over 200,000 miles on our Bolt. I am guessing this amount of battery degradation is normal, or am I wrong? I wish there was an economical option for getting me back up to 13 or 14 miles available.

 

It's the normal seasonal drop in EV mileage. Wait until spring, everything should be fine again. Be prepared for the engine to kick in unexpectedly when you hit the brakes and your fully charged cold battery can't accept the extra regenerated energy.

 

what have been your seasonal averages since you purchased it?

i have 73k on mine, about 50k ev only.

my seasonal high now is around 14 miles vs 16 when new, and my low is around 11 vs 14 when new.

 

Mine also dropped 2 to 3 miles from season to season. Highs were 13.x early, now down to 11. max in high season. I have no idea how you are gettin those miles, but kudos to you! And with 50k EV miles! That says a lot for lithiums too.

 

i only use ev around town, 20 mph average, and slow acceleration. car is in attached unheated garage.

 

That is helpful information. I just filled up after my new personal record-- over 2000 miles on the tank. Average speed was 25.

 

there used to be a fella here who disconnected his 12v regularly to reset the computers, and claimed he always got more actual ev miles after the reset.

 

before going to the trouble, try measuring actual miles before and after.

if it makes you feel any better, i'm down to 10.5

 

The range estimation is partially based on previous journeys. Disconnecting the 12V battery will just erase this data and will give potentially less accurate range estimation - it's not magically giving you more actual range.

 

All this talk of range being an indication of battery health and not one mention of actual capacity. Capacity is measured in kWh, not miles. Miles is the result of multiplying miles/kWh by kWh.

If I have two beakers of water and empty one of them over a period of 60 seconds and the other only takes one second, which held more water? Impossible to answer because there's not enough information.

 

You say you are familiar with Gen 2 battery packs. The PiP uses completely different Li-Ion modules. I am not aware of a source unless not you find a scrapped PiP at a junkyard.

Li-Ion modules from some Gen 4 may work but I am not aware of anybody trying that. Trim One and Two Gen 4 used the older Ni-MH modules that work in the Gen 2. Other trims had Li-Ion.

 

Besides being a good deal, it brings up a question. When your current battery runs out of ‘goodness’ you’ll be looking at your 2015 battery pack that’s gonna be 10-15+ years old. What’s the plan for storing the spare battery pack, keeping it in some sort of condition to be useful after all that shelf time?