Charging the iCar

[senapati]

As a new iCar owner I am trying to find out all I can about charging it and maintaing battery capacity. I read somewhere that this car charges to 80-90% capacity only. Is this information accurate? If not, is there a way to limit charging to 80-90%? The remote that came with the car only seems to allow programming the number of hours you can charge it, so I have to do the math in my head...and it starts spinning!

Does anyone know about warranties/insurance for the battery that will cover lost capacity. I can sleep more soundly if I had one of those!

Also, if anyone got a 220V outlet installed in California(I have a gas dryer so no 220V outlets), please share how much it cost to get it done by an electrician.

 

[alohart]

I read somewhere that this car charges to 80-90% capacity only. Is this information accurate?

I'm not aware of any official MItsubishi documentation that states this specifically, but we do know the voltage of a fully-charged cell and that the i-MiEV charger doesn't charge to this full voltage. Also, Mitsubishi is unlikely to have offered such a long battery pack warranty without implementing intelligent charging algorithms which extend the life of the battery pack. Charging fully would not be good for longevity, so there is evidence that the battery pack is not charged to 100%. What the actual percentage is may not be known precisely, but it's probably around 90%.

If not, is there a way to limit charging to 80-90%? The remote that came with the car only seems to allow programming the number of hours you can charge it, so I have to do the math in my head...and it starts spinning!

I suspect that once you have some experience with charging, you'll be able to make this calculation more easily if you don't want to charge to a full 16 bars. You'll be able to estimate the required charging time because you'll know how many bars your charger will input per hour.

Does anyone know about warranties/insurance for the battery that will cover lost capacity. I can sleep more soundly if I had one of those!

None exists to my knowledge. But about 30,000 i-MiEV's have been sold in many countries around the world since 2009 with apparently no wide-spread battery capacity loss problems, so I sleep well at night and so should you.

Congratulations on your new purchase! If you were aware of its strengths and weaknesses prior to your purchase, I think you'll be very happy with your decision.

 

[peterdambier]

I do sleep more soundly not charging while sleeping.

At 230V/16A I see 3 bars per hour charging or 1 bar every 20 minutes. At 230V/10A it is 2 bars per hour or 1 bar every 30 minutes. Ramping down takes an additional hour.

I might miss some 20 minutes random time when the turtle is meditating on her task not charging at all.

Often charging but never running empty and never charging up to the rim saves a lot of time when going long distance - and it keep my heart pressure down. :mrgreen:

 

[Quercus]

Not fully charging seems a bit much to me. I'm not going to top mine off every single chance I get, but how much eventual degradation 10 years out will that really be preventing? If it's another 5% -- then what is that, ~5 miles?

The car is designed to be charged and used. That's how I hope to use it.

 

[Don]

Not fully charging seems a bit much to me. I'm not going to top mine off every single chance I get, but how much eventual degradation 10 years out will that really be preventing?

Depending on how you use it, you may never see ten years - The battery warranty is 8 years, not ten and that may prove optimistic. Lithium ion cells lose some capacity as they age - They also wear out . . . . ever had to replace a cell phone or laptop battery? One day, you'll be replacing an iMiEV battery too . . . . unless you sell of destroy the car first

It's a pretty well established fact that our battery pack life should be somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 full cycles, but it's also pretty well known that if you keep your SOC numbers between closer limits, that number could be 10,000 cycles or even more. Between what numbers? Hard to say for sure, but if you never discharged any lower than about 40% and never recharged above about 70%, you could very well see those kinds of numbers . . . . but then, you're limiting yourself to only about 30% of your normal range

Mitsu recharges the pack to 3.95 volts instead of the 4.2 which is possible and by doing so they give up a few percentage points of range for a much better battery life. It stands to reason that if you don't need the maximum range that 3.95 gives you, you could further enhance battery life by charging to an even lower number. Is it worth your time and effort to do this? I guess that depends on the person, how long you intend to own the car, how bad the bite a new battery would put on your pocketbook

The car is designed to be charged and used. That's how I hope to use it.

Once you've had the car awhile, you'll come to know that it was designed to mimic an ICE as closely as possible, so of course you'll never see anything about special precautions to make the battery pack last longer when you read the owners manual - You wouldn't find anything like that in the manual for an ICE and Mitsu wants you to think owning this car is just as carefree a proposition as any ordinary car and no doubt it will be for the first 3, or 4 or 5 years . . . . which is about as long as the average person keeps a car anyway

If your daily commute doesn't require a full recharge, why start with the pack full, especially once you figure out that short charging could be saving you lots on the other end?

Don

 

[peterdambier]

Never say never ...

After almost one year of charging our i-MiEV I have become more relaxed. I used to charge her to the rim after each travel. Now I like to wait a day or two until I know I need the capacity and try to charge immediately before going on the voyage. As long as I am above 2/3 that is.

Going long distance taking a break to breath and charge is a good idea and I try to stay above 1/3 if at all possible. I used to take half as many breaks as I do today. Today I am more relaxed and faster as I do not have to wait for the ramp down killing one hour.

Ok, I still have an appointment with the turtle every now and then, mostly using the heater, having power socket and EVSE ready, waiting until the gauge starts blinking and then let her charge to her liking. She has deserved it after all. :mrgreen:

The car seems to be 3 years old now and the battery feels like new. Weather has more influence on her than age does. Right now coming home after some 40 kilometers I see some 80 kilometers remaining. Filled up RR shows some 120 kilometers. That is more than I am told by other drivers who use her in real live as I do. But beware. I took RR for the bible and did drive some 111 kilometers and it was more than 120 kilometers finally until I could charge. I had to drive back that same distance and it was night and cold and we lost our way once so again 120 kilometers but we had to promise the turtle not to do it again.

Knowing the car can do 120 kilometers but satisfied to reliably go 80 kilometers I probably wont ever see it losing capacity.

 

[MLucas]

http://www.plugincars.com/after-2-years-78000-miles-high-mileage-2011-nissan-leaf-127387.html

Why worry at all? Here's a Leaf owner who's gone 78,000 miles in two years with very little capacity loss. He drives 130 miles a day and charges up twice a day. Now that should give you some confidence.

(take a careful look at the picture in the article, it shows his mileage)


I'm going to paraphrase a quote my motocycle mechanic once told me, "Put electricity in the batteries, check the air pressure in the tires once in awhile and then drive the damn thing."

 

[Don]

Twice per day, every day for two years is still less than 1500 charge cycles - I wouldn't expect he'd be having any problems . . . . yet. Since this is his work routine, he probably doesn't do the daily twofer on the weekends though

It would be interesting to ask him though . . . . if he needs a new battery pack a year from now after about 115,000 miles and three years of use, how (in his opinion) did his overall costs work out?

Don