Strange things with quick charging

[Gencis]

While charging at the quick charging station I noticed thar air cooling turns off when I reach around 70% charge. Is it normal?
Also for example yesterday I had long journey (540 km / 337 miles) and had 8 quick charges. Two times the charging was turned off by i-miev when I reached 58% and second time 75%. After that I taken off the cable, reinserted again and it starts charging again, showing remaining time to full battery. Is it normal? Where could be the problem?

 

[JoeS]

Hi Gencis!

The premature shutoff of the fan during quick charging is befuddling, but normal. Yes, it ocurs around 70%. No idea why that happens.

My 2012 North Amercan version i-MiEV always stops charging at exactly 80% SoC. I have never tried plugging back in to see if it would go higher on CHAdeMO, but I believe others have done so successfully although by then the charge rate has really tapered off.

Wow, 540km is a long trip! What year is your i-MiEV, whereabouts are you, and what were your temperatures during this trip?

 

[Gencis]

Hello HoeS,

I am driving 2012 North Amercan version I-miev. Living in East Europe. Temperature during trip was around 28C (82F). I-miev color is Labrador Black.
Another interesting thing I spotted during this trip: I came to charging station with 6 bars left. Charged to 82% till automatic stop. Station showed that it charged 5,28kWh and I-miev shows 13 bars. As 1 bar is 1kWh, so it looks like it calculates wrongly the charge?
Another anomally (maybe): when I plug in with 6 bars, station shows charge time 23 minutes. It charges till 80% within 12 minutes. then changes to 81%, remaining time shows 9 minutes and within few seconds I-miev shuts the charging. Station shows 82%. So may be it actually charges not to 82% but till 80% as you wrote due to some difference in calculation or protocol for charging station here in Europe? By the way, charging station is ABB.

 

[JoeS]

Gencis, I wouldn't read too much into the kWh put into the battery, as that might be a function of actual battery capacity. If you are interested, you might get the app CaniOn for Android and a genuine OBDLink LX or MX Bluetooth adapter, as that will reveal its battery capacity and individual cell status as well as a lot of operating information.

Yours is now the second North American i-MiEV that we know is in Eastern Europe!

ABB charging stations are also here in the U.S. and CHAdeMO is an international standard so I don't think that's an issue.

I personally try to avoid CHAdeMO, as our small battery takes quite a hit; nevertheless, it is a great time-saver when really needed.

 

[wmcbrine]

As 1 bar is 1kWh

Although we have 16 kWh, and 16 bars, I don't think the mapping is linear.

 

[Gencis]

I already ordered OBDLink LX from scantool.net. Now it is on the way. Hope having it next month. Then I will have much more information about the state battery, SOC and have real w/km calculation. Now it is based on bars and distance and it is not very accurate.
As I was looking at CaniOn, it does not have such value as SOH like Leaf Spy has. How to determine state of health for I-miev?
Should it be based on voltage? If so, what voltage must be?

By the way nice to know that I am not the only one driving I-miev from US. In our country we have few in total. Almost all drives Leaf.

 

[JoeS]

...As I was looking at CaniOn, it does not have such value as SOH like Leaf Spy has. How to determine state of health for I-miev?...

The latest version of CaniOn reads what the car has computed as its capacity, in ampere-hours (Ah). A new battery's full capacity starts out somewhere around 45Ah. For example, my replacement battery (early 2015) now has about 25,000 miles (40000km) on it and has been reading 39.4Ah for the past year. Quite frankly, I cannot tell if my range has diminished at all since it was new. Since I rarely go below two bars, my reference point when driving is RR= ~32 miles (52km) at half charge, and I have no problem achieving this number except when I'm roaring down the freeway at 130km/h. :roll: .

 

[Gencis]

Thank you for reply. Now I have to wait till my ordered OBD reader will come. Then I will try CanIon and will share the data.

 

[1kaspars]

While charging at the quick charging station I noticed thar air cooling turns off when I reach around 70% charge. Is it normal?
Also for example yesterday I had long journey (540 km / 337 miles) and had 8 quick charges. Two times the charging was turned off by i-miev when I reached 58% and second time 75%. After that I taken off the cable, reinserted again and it starts charging again, showing remaining time to full battery. Is it normal? Where could be the problem?

I've noticed two stages of battery cooling: blower only, and blower + A/C on. It's normal, that it turns on and off, I guess it depends on battery temperature.

After many QC battery is heated, result - car shuts QC off, if it exceeds high temp.limit I guess.

 

[1kaspars]

Hi Gencis!

The premature shutoff of the fan during quick charging is befuddling, but normal. Yes, it ocurs around 70%. No idea why that happens.
(..)

Around 70% QC rate is 12- 5 kW, so at that rates battery isn't heating so much?

 

[1kaspars]

Hi Gencis!



My 2012 North Amercan version i-MiEV always stops charging at exactly 80% SoC. I have never tried plugging back in to see if it would go higher on CHAdeMO, but I believe others have done so successfully although by then the charge rate has really tapered off.

Mine not exactly at 80% stops QC, sometimes 78 - 83%. Tried to charge after 80% many times - stops at 96%. It takes 30+ minutes to charge from 80 to 96% and charge rates ar from 9kw at the beginning, to ~ 2 kW at the and.

 

[1kaspars]

As 1 bar is 1kWh

Although we have 16 kWh, and 16 bars, I don't think the mapping is linear.

NO! 1 bar isn't 1kWh. It represents charge percentage of capacity. 7 bars = 50-54% cahrge. 8 bars - 55-59% .
In QC station I've calculated mine capacity from percantage and charged kWh. It's about 13,9 kWh (6 year old car, 67000km odometer).

 

[Gencis]

To: 1kaspars
nice to read that there are I-miev entusiasts in Latvia. I am from Lithuania.
I hope next week I will have OBD reader so will try to check and calculate mine battery capacity. My Imiev is 6 years old, 25000 k.
Also thank you for the relationship between bars and battery capacity percentage.

 

[Gencis]

Yesterday received OBD Link reader, so was able to connect with CanIon.
If I am rright, so it shows 44,0 Ah. It should be not bad result for 6 years old car.

Here is the link for picture:

https://ibb.co/iXhN0y
On weekend I am going for some trip, so I will try to explore this program more. I was not able to find manual for it.

 

[JoeS]

44.0Ah for the i-MiEV is excellent! Maybe the battery had been replaced at some point in the last six years... :roll:

 

[Gencis]

As I bought the car, I also bought Carfax report. It shows that it had 2 manufacture recalls:
1. SRS impact sensor replacement
2. Passenger side airbag inflator replacement.

Battery was never changed.
Car was used in Minnesota. So this could be the case that battery is good shape

 

[Zelenec]

44 Ah is really very good SOH for 2012 I-Miev. I believe you don't have much mileage on it, right? My 2015 shows not much better (46,4 Ah) after just under 20k km.

Old batteries LEV50 are not so tolerant to repeated QC on long trips, so maybe it could help to avoid QC if you want to maintain your battery in great health. LEV50N, MY 2013 and later, however, tolerate QC and the higher cell temperature much better.

Tomorrow I expect 2 new I-Mievs (MY2018) for sale. It will be interesting to see SOH of brand new battery.

 

[Gencis]

My milage is around 26 K.
I-miev I am driving was produced in May 2012. So I think it did not have LEV50N batteries.
They were introduced in summer 2012.

Please check the Ah for the new I-miev. In this forum were debates about Ah for new batteries. Would it be 48 Ah or 50 Ah.

 

[Gencis]

As I got OBD reader now I try to analize data and make the best of it. May be someone could say what is the critical temperature for the battery, i. e. what temperature has to be reached that it would be wise to stop and let battery to cool for few hours?

 

[PV1]

The blower will run pretty much during any DCQC better than 15 kW. A/C will kick on when cells get warm (can't remember the temperature threshold, but a single cell hitting it will trigger the A/C). On mine, they usually shut off at 67%, sometimes toggling on/off a few times before fully shutting off. That's apparently normal.

The station may be calculating remaining time to 100%. Some stations will allow charging straight to full, although the i-MiEV will stop at 80%. A re-plug will allow a near full-charge (mine goes to 98-99%, but stops when amperage has to drop below 5 amps). If your charge is close to 80%, the i-MiEV will go straight for 100%. I once plugged in at 75% and it cruised right on through 80%. CHAdeMO charging is faster than level 2 all the way to around 94% charge, at which point both would ramp down the same.

For charge times, I would expect 15-25 minutes for an 80% charge. EVGo units tend to only push 35 kW, and thus take longer. Signet and Eaton units can do an 80% charge in less than 20 minutes, though just barely if lower than 25% charge at the start. A full charge universally takes an hour, as the slower initial charge allows a slower ramp down further into the charge.

Each bar on the charge gauge is only about 800-900 Wh at the most. There's an additional 12% of charge left below the last bar disappearing.