Quote:
Originally Posted by ME_Andy
I know the batteries do not need cooling...
This is just common sense...
shocking claims were made in an attempt to stir up controversy...
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Um, excuse me here. But that is controversial.
Here's the thing, you could take any modern day EV (Tesla, Bolt, Leaf, you name it) and take out all the cooling (pumps, fans, etc.) and block the air intakes making the cooling system (or lack thereof) have 0 effect on drag. And you can even daily drive an EV like that in Arizona!
But... If you do that you're now sentencing the car to a short life. Speaking of Nissan Leafs not needing cooling, are you saying you're not aware of the controversy (batterygate)? Have you ever owned a Leaf? Have you ever had the experience of watching your battery capacity fade away? I have, and that's part of the reason I got rid of my Leaf and went back to an ICE car.
Until we figure out how to get batteries to tolerate lots of heat they need a lot of cooling, especially in +100° weather. Ideally you don't want your battery to be much more than 70°F. But there's no radiator big enough to cool a battery to that temperature even in 70°F weather. Even in 65°F it would take an enormous radiator to cool a battery to 70°F even if the car is driven and charged under average driving speeds and distances.
So then what? Heat pump cooling?
There are way too many factors to say how much cooling is acceptable on an EV.
- One person in Anchorage might not understand why there's any cooling at all.
- Someone else in Phoenix isn't going to understand why there isn't more cooling on the same car.
- One person might be happy with a battery that lasts 5 years, or even less as long as the manufacturer will replace it under warranty.
- Another might be wishing his 10 year old used EV will last another 10 years before needing a $9,000-$18,000 battery.
- Because of this one person might feel that an EV doesn't need hardly any cooling (and therefore drag caused from cooling).
- But someone else may wish their car had a much bigger cooling system (potentially much bigger than one an a typical ICE car that causes even more drag).
Ideally we want EV's to perform as well as, if not better than, ICEV's in practical terms. Gaining a couple percent of drag efficiency isn't going to mean much to the average consumer. Longevity and operating costs will.