{"id":8552,"date":"2024-04-27T11:19:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-27T11:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=8552"},"modified":"2024-04-27T11:19:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-27T11:19:22","slug":"battery-low-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2024\/04\/27\/battery-low-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Battery Low Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we bought our electric car in 2014, no one explained that it wouldn't be able to go as far as promised in Winter or when it was cold in Spring or Autumn. \u00a0Being charitable, I'm assuming that the retailer did not know about this. \u00a0They do now, of course, and it's a real problem when it's very cold \u2013 as opposed to the south of England where the cold is only really of the pretend sort.<\/p>\n

An article in The Conversation by Wesley Chang,<\/span><\/a> Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics at Drexel University, explores this phenomenon by looking at low temperature battery chemistry<\/a>. \u00a0This is his key point:<\/p>\n

\"Batteries contain fluids called electrolytes, and cold temperatures cause fluids to flow more slowly. So, the electrolytes in batteries slow and thicken in the cold, causing the lithium ions inside to move slower. This slowdown can prevent the lithium ions from properly inserting into the electrodes. Instead, they may deposit on the electrode surface and form lithium metal<\/a>.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He also notes:<\/p>\n

\"If too much lithium deposits on the electrode\u2019s surface during charging, it may cause an internal short circuit. This process can start a battery fire<\/a>.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I've learned to live with a chilly battery and mercifully, it's never caught fire. \u00a0Naive chemist as I now am, I had assumed that the changing process would increase the temperature of the battery and so counter the outside temperature. \u00a0Ten Winters on, I no longer hope for this.<\/p>\n

Ours is a small electric car which cannot go far. \u00a0We only ever charge it at home but range anxiety is never far away. \u00a0Indeed, even when the battery is full we're very conscious of the range which varies by 10-15% between Winter and Summer. \u00a0But it really is ideal for local travel and has been trouble-free apart from replacing an air bag sensor. \u00a0On the highest regenerative braking level it's possible to drive around without using the brakes very much (the brake pads are still the original ones). \u00a0But now, 10 years on, I read that this is not a good idea as range is better at a low-level of regeneration. \u00a0Who knew?<\/p>\n

We're sticking with our small BEV and still resisting buying a big one for all the reasons that are well rehearsed. \u00a0Now the government is under pressure to relax its market distorting rules forcing manufacturers to sell a rising proportion of EVs every year. \u00a0I sense another NetZero U-turn coming up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we bought our electric car in 2014, no one explained that it wouldn't be able to go as far as promised in Winter or when it was cold in Spring or Autumn. \u00a0Being charitable, I'm assuming that the retailer...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}