Cold temperatures and battery longevity

The lithium battery -may- have a problem with very cold temps. From what I've read so far -20C should be ok.

 

5 winters in Minnesota with temperatures that could at times were never a issue for my PHV... and that older generation of plug-in Prius didn't have a battery-warmer.

I don't see any concern for my Prime here either.

 

I live in ontario..my 2010 prius is running smoothly with 260k Kms ..the Prime should be okay with very cold weather.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Your battery should be ok, but your EV miles will be low, due to the cold. At those temps you probably will not get the 25 mi. advertised. My guess from my experience is you will probably get in the teens EV. There is a traction battery warmer setting that should help some.

 

also, when the temperature is -10 degrees C or below ICE will kick in so your EV MPG will suffer

 

Though, it will still be impressively above what a regular hybrid could deliver.

 

i would contact toyota before purchasing, don't trust the dealer to answer honestly. i think canada gets a special battery warmer.

 

Cold, in general,is better for a battery's long term health.
However, there are limits.
I would check the manual, and Toyota corporate to see what they recommend.

As an example, Tesla warns against leaving the car unplugged in very cold temps for 24 hours straight. I forget the number, but I believe it was somewhere around -30C.
In MN, I haven't had an issue in 6 years of driving Tesla vehicles. I know your weather can get colder than ours though.

 

You should not have to worry about that....BMS have parameters to deal with cold....Heat is what is much harder for BMS to control

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

First off, if your job's parking lot doesn't have outlets for engine heaters, and people aren't getting stranded because their car got too cold during the day, the Prime should be fine.

The risk for Li-ion batteries at freezing and lower temperatures is during charging. Crystals can form that reduce capacity, and the damage is permanent. To avoid this, the battery needs to be charged at a really low rate until the regular resistance of the process heats it up, or simply heat the pack up by some outside means.

The Prime has a battery warmer for this purpose, and it has extended operation cycles in cars sold in Canada and Alaska. Then Toyota isn't new to properly managing traction batteries, even Li-ion ones. There should be safeguards protecting the battery in place beyond the the warmer.

Worst case, the car won't start out of self preservation. I don't see that as likely, and other cars probably won't start under the same conditions. It is something I would only be concerned with if the car wasn't plugged in overnight. At your work's parking lot, the battery is going to be arriving warmed up, and it is a sizable mass, so some time will pass before if starts to approach freezing temperatures.

Realistically, I would count on just having hybrid operation during the winter. Better to be surprised with some EV miles than disappointed with a new car.

 

This. The available capacity will be lower WHILE the battery is cold, however.
That will go back up as it warms.

 

Reviving this old thread because this subject is still unclear for me, especially regarding this comment.

"The risk for Li-ion batteries at freezing and lower temperatures is during charging. Crystals can form that reduce capacity, and the damage is permanent”.

How about Regen braking, which is basically the same as a brief (or not so brief when going downhill) charging cycle? How does that affects the Prime's battery health?

At below freezing, that 10 minutes preconditioning isn't enough to raise the battery pack temperature to above freezing. My Model 3 will completely prevent Regen braking when the battery pack is below freezing, but so far, I haven't seen that happening in my Prime.

 

Hybrid Assistant does show the power going back and I don't see any difference between -5°C and +20°C. Mine is a 2017 so "just" 8 years/160,000 km.

 

I'm now keeping the car plugged so the battery heater can do its job and make sure the battery doesn't get below freezing.