I live in the Western Washington area and since getting my Nexcell V2 installed, I have been seeing around 45mpg when I was getting 43 with the original battery. Also, I have 3 cells that have been lighting up red during downhill regen braking, with the pack getting up over 260V monitoring with the Dr. Prius app. Should I be concerned about pack?
I don't know I don't have any of the stuff that goes with the nexcell. business. But I hear they try to stay on top of their game so you might want to contact them so that they know spot on when where and how so things are documented at least that's what I would do having I don't even know what $2,400 in a new pack so on and so forth any battery can have problems and/or fail doesn't matter what kind whose or any of that.
Hi @GillyGen2 I also live in western Washington and have been working with Nexcell for several years... The Dr. Prius app codes the blocks red when they're just below peak charge or discharge, with yellow being slightly lower and shades of green being most common. While this sounds normal Lithium doesn't like being overcharged and the battery circuits nexcell sells was upgraded in the past year to more aggressively ensure those moments of red bars don't harm the pack if you have corrosion or metal on metal brake malfunctions that can overcharge the pack. This is know as the V2 upgrade. Let us know what month you purchased your pack and we can tell you if it came with the V2 upgrade or alternatively if there's vent holes in the the tops of your modules, that means you have the V2 upgrade. If you don't have the upgrade yet I can do that for you, or you can ship the pack to Nexcell to have them do it, as well as more thorough testing than I'm able to do. Most of this work, other than labor charge to pull pack and shipping, will likely be covered under warranty.
I do indeed have the V2 pack, I purchased June 18th of this year. I did also follow advice about checking the battery ecu for corrosion, and luckily there was none at all. I noticed this happening in the morning when it's still cold. I spend about 3 or 4 minutes during the summer warming up the car, but right now, since it is so cold, I spend much longer. The average temp on the battery in the morning right now is about 48 deg F. I live on top of a decent sized hill, so going to work in the morning means I have a lot of regen charging first thing, so it slowly creeps up to 1 cell going red, then 2, then 3, and now I have seen a 4th one. It doesn't stay there, and I do work the brakes in a way to keep it from staying there, but sometimes it's unavoidable. I spent a good amount of money on this new battery pack and I am very aware of how to take care of the battery, but something doesn't seem right here, and I really don't want to damage the battery. I never let the battery go under 55% and it usually only gets to 78%.
Hi Gilly, I believe we've spoken on the phone or via email, if not, could you shoot us an email at [email protected] so that our team can assist you? Regards, Jack
Hi @GillyGen2, Sorry just read your question at the top, it is totally fine to see red bar as long as they don't persist. The Dr. Prius App coloring is designed specifically for NiMH chemistry, it needs some adjustment for the LiFePO4 lithium chemistry and we will do that at the upcoming release, FYI. Jack
