Well, we know that it's a 16Kw pack and that it's 330 volts, so that gives us the C (capacity) of the pack at 48.5 AHrs - A 15 amp Level 2 charger puts power back at roughly 1/3 of C . . . . certainly nothing around 10%. True, it will supply up to 150 amps to the motor for brief periods, but I'm sure that discharging it at 3C isn't really good for it either. I'm guessing the fewer times you do that (and the fewer seconds you keep it up there) the longer it will last
We know the pack warms up some when charging with the 8 amp Level 1 charger because the battery cooling system cycles on regularly . . . . not nearly as often as it does when Level 2 charging, but even 8 amps @ 120 is enough to heat it up to some degree
Will the pack last longer if you only use Level 1 charging? I honestly don't know, but everything I've ever been taught over the past 40 years or so about recharging any type of battery is that slow charging is better for it than fast charging. So . . . . if you don't really NEED it to be recharged quickly, then why would you not opt for the slowest charge which still meets your needs of use of the vehicle, just to be on the safe side??
90% of the time, we put the car in the garage for the night around 8 PM or so and we don't need it before roughly 8 AM the next morning (sometimes even later) so why plug it into Level 2? - It gains us nothing
Your knowledge, expertise and experience may be different - I suspect that long before the 8 year 100,000 mile battery warranty is used up, we'll be reading here about some who are having battery problems and even more interesting, what Mitsu will be willing to do about it, if anything. We don't put as many miles on ours as most of you do and we use Level 2 pretty sparingly, so I *hope* I'm not one of the first to have to deal with Mitsu about getting something fixed. Hopefully by the time I need it, Mitsu will already have made some decision about what they're willing to do for 4 or 5 year old cars which only have a range of 30 or 35 miles, if that comes to be the case
Don
