Las Vegas heat, Lower Soc not plugged in versus plugged in all the time?

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19i3rex

New member
Joined
Mar 22, 2023
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Hey everyone, I’ve had my 2019 i3 Rex for about a year now. It’s wonderful I consistently get above the EPA range.

I live in Las Vegas so summer is coming up. I’m curious what your opinions might be. Would leaving the car in the heat with a lower state of charge unplugged versus plugged in all the time with a higher state of charge be better for the battery?

I know the battery will cool itself, but would like to minimize range loss.

Any ideas or comments? :)
 
19i3rex said:
I live in Las Vegas so summer is coming up. I’m curious what your opinions might be. Would leaving the car in the heat with a lower state of charge unplugged versus plugged in all the time with a higher state of charge be better for the battery?

I know the battery will cool itself, but would like to minimize range loss.
I'm pretty certain that battery pack cooling wouldn't occur just because an EVSE is plugged in. It occurs when charging is active, but within 30 minutes of the battery pack reaching a full charge, the high-voltage system and thus the A/C compressor used to cool the battery pack would turn off. You would need to turn on battery pack preconditioning for cooling to occur, but that requires a departure time to be set. Cooling wouldn't start earlier than 3 hours prior to this departure time, so a battery pack could get pretty hot while at a full charge prior to cooling starting.

As your question suggests, you seem to be aware that the rate of battery cell degradation increases with the charge level and battery cell temperature. Because cooling won't occur most of the time an i3 is parked in hot weather, I would prefer to leave an i3 parked at a charge level as low as possible considering the likely range necessary when driven next.

That's coming from the previous owner of a 2014 i3 that suffered excessive battery cell degradation although not caused by heat or leaving its cells at a high charge level for long periods. The chemistry of your 2019 i3 battery cells seems much more resistant to degradation, so maybe you wouldn't have to be as careful as if you owned a 2014 - 2016 i3.
 
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