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Old 04-04-2021, 03:41 PM   #80 (permalink)
Isaac Zachary
High Altitude Hybrid
 
Join Date: Dec 2020
Location: Gunnison, CO
Posts: 2,080

Avalon - '13 Toyota Avalon HV
90 day: 40.45 mpg (US)

Prius - '06 Toyota Prius
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I think it's going to be hard to quantify the future of BEV cooling when it's still in it's early stages.
  • BEV's are more efficient so produce less heat
  • But unlike ICEV's they don't have half or more of that heat leaving via the exhaust.
  • BEV's also don't have the large temperature differential that ICEV's have, which means that BEV temps necesitate a bigger radiator to remove the same amount of heat.

In most ICEV's you can cool the engine to acceptable temperatures even under full load in 110⁰F/43⁰C dry weather at high altitude with the stock radiator. But put a BEV under the same condition and what kind of cooling system with how much energy loss is going to be needed to keep the battery and inverter at acceptable temperatures?

Just like ICEV's you need a cooling system that can work in pretty much any part of the world. Otherwise you end up with the Nissan Leaf problem. But how small and efficient can that cooling system be made?

You could argue that on most places you don't need a huge radiator to cool a BEV and that the bay could be cooled by a hat pump or flaps that open up more radiator in hot weather. Of course the same technologies could be applied to ICEV's as well.
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