Heat wave...Is your car plugged in?

[mczajka]

I'm not driving to work this week, so I left my Spark EV plugged in, in the driveway, in So. MD. I have a pretty long cord in the garage (25 ft) which I run under the garage door (I place a broom handle next to it so when the garage door closes, it doesn't close on the cable). It was pretty hot today and there is no shade in my driveway.

When I got home, I could hear something running, most likely keeping the batteries cool.

Have you experienced this?

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Mark,

I live in the Central Valley of California and recently the temp has been in the 90 - 100 deg. F range. My 2015 Spark EV is kept in the hot garage during the day and night. When I charge at night I often hear something running in the car - a fan or pump or both? I have been collecting considerable charging data on the car and I usually find the charging efficiency drops when it is very hot and the fans / pumps are also involved.

 

[ImTedBell]

The battery pack has thermal management that kicks in when the temp gets too hot.

When you plug in you'll normally hear a little pump circulating coolant. This helps prevent hot spots in the pack. When the coolant temp gets hot enough it will run the AC as a chiller to cool the battery pack.

Under cold conditions a heater should turn on to warm the coolant/battery.

I've experienced the AC kick on while DC fast charging. Easiest way to notice is to turn on the cabin blower and you'll feel the cold air come out. You'll also hear the radiator fan spinning away.

 

[mczajka]

When these pumps are running and the car is plugged in (car was finished charging), why is the display on (but sort of white in color)? You can tell it's on at night. We had a really hot day yesterday, even at about 8:30 PM, in MD.

 

[NORTON]

I plug in to a free public Chargepoint L2 when I'm at work. It's out in the sun. It has been hotter than Hay L here recently.
I've noticed after getting the 'Charge Completed' msg from onstar (and one from charge point), when I go to the car to move it, it is still drawing 500-800 watts according to the display.
Owners that charge at home using 120V could also monitor this with a 'Killawatt', if you're interested.

I don't charge at home, so this is the only time TMS is working, other than when I am driving the car.

A side note:
The Onstar app has a notification selection for 'Plug in during extremely cold conditions' or some such terminology.
Why is there no notification for 'Plug in during extremely Hot conditions'?

 

[Sparkler]

...

A side note:
The Onstar app has a notification selection for 'Plug in during extremely cold conditions' or some such terminology.
Why is there no notification for 'Plug in during extremely Hot conditions'?

Most likely because Li batteries don't like being fully charged AND hot at the same time, so the battery will use power to keep itself cool. It will do that until it draws the state of charge down to some percentage that is considered safe for the high temp.

Cold temps, on the other hand will not harm the battery (and they reduce the available power), so the last thing you'd want was to try to keep the battery warm for hours until you need to use it using the limited battery power.

Thus the reccomendation to plug in in severe cold. If you don't, the battery may become cold-soaked and refuse to provide power till you do plug it in and it's thawed out...

 

[NORTON]

... the battery will use power to keep itself cool...

I've read that the Tesla has TMS always active, as needed, but I doubt the Spark EV does this.
If it did you'd be able to see it drop SOC while sitting unplugged on really hot days.
I have never seen this. I never hear TMS running when unplugged.

In fact, while using DCFC I hear the fans and AC compressor running strong to cool the battery.
As soon as I stop the charge the TMS cooling noise goes away instantly. The battery cells would still be warm at that point, right?
Fortunately I then drive home about 4 miles and this should be cooling the battery further before the car is parked for a while or for the day.