Hello I'm professor John Kelly and this is the WeberAuto YouTube channel the thing I want to talk
about is the thermal management of these batteries both the Bolt EV battery and the volt batteries
are liquid-cooled and liquid heated and have been on the Volt since 2011 when it came out and on the
Bolt EV here in 2017 and above and if the Bolt EV battery life is it going to be anything like the
Chevrolet Volt the battery life it's going to be very good because those 2011 and above Chevrolet
Volts with the liquid heating and liquid cooling to keep them in their preferred temperature range
always even when the vehicles off seems to be keeping those batteries in really good shape and
their electric vehicle range is still very close to what it was when it was new I had great hopes
that the 2018 Nissan Leaf would be much improved and in my opinion, it's not the Nissan Leaf 2018
is not a liquid cooled or heated battery it's just cooled by whatever temperature the air is inside
the passenger compartment so if you have your air conditioning running then the battery it's cool by
the cool air running through the air condition or through your passenger compartment if it's
cold outside and you have the heater running then the air the hot air in your passenger compartment
helps heat the battery but there's also a battery heater but the the thing that really
struck me is funny about the new Nissan Leaf is in the owners manual for you Nissan Leaf lovers
or anybody invested investigating buy in the new leaf take a look at page evey 20 of the owner's
manual you can download it for free on Nissan's website so Paige evey - 20 it has a big section
on lithium-ion battery life and I'm not going to read the whole thing but there are certain
things in here that our temperature related that affect battery life so let me read you just kind
of the introduction here the lithium-ion batteries ability to hold a charge can be affected by how you
drive the vehicle store the vehicle and how you charge the lithium-ion battery and lithium-ion
battery temperature during vehicle operation and charging and then it says to maximize the
battery's useful life use the following driving and charging habits where possible and there's
a bunch of these but I'm only going to read you the ones that are temperature related so the first
one reads avoid exposing a vehicle to extreme ambient temperatures for extended periods so if
you live in a hot climate you're out of luck avoid storing the vehicle in temperatures below negative
25 degrees Celsius for more than 7 days alright the next thing and this one's kind of humorous
is allow the vehicle and lithium-ion battery to cool down after use before charging so I interpret
that to mean you can't just drive home park your vehicle and plug in the charger and forget about
it until the next day when you need to leave again what you can do with the Chevrolet Bolt EV and the
Volt I've done it for years I've had Chevrolet Volts since 2011 alright the next thing park
and store your vehicle in cool locations out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources
the next thing avoids sustained high battery temperatures caused for example by exposure
to high ambient temperatures or extended highway driving with multiple quick charges if so equipped
with the quick charger so if you want to go on a long drive cross-country and you're going to
use the quick charger option it says don't do that without letting it cool down in between so there
you got to extend your drive even longer with this silly thermal management of a battery system they
have the next thing which is even funnier use the normal charge or trickle charging methods
to charge the lithium-ion battery minimize the use of public fast charge or quick charger why
buy the quick charge option if you if they don't want you to use it because it's gonna minimize
your battery life and then do a lot of a lot of moderate driving and use the Eco mode a lot all
right so here's the owner's manual section for the Chevrolet Bolt EV 2017 I couldn't find any
section called lithium-ion battery life like the Nissan Leaf has but the only set the only section
I found in the Bolt EV that even related to the battery was the section called plug-in
charging and this section just has two things I want to read to you that that are interesting
number one this section explains the process for charging the high voltage battery so it
just has two suggestions here do not allow the vehicle to remain in temperature extremes for
long periods without being driven or plugged in now they don't define temperature extremes but
I interpret that to mean really hot temperatures or really cold temperatures and then it sort of
defines it a little bit here it says it is recommended that the vehicle be plugged in
when temperatures are below 32 degrees Fahrenheit zero Celsius and above ninety degrees Fahrenheit
or 32 degrees Celsius to maximize high-voltage battery life okay so that's somewhat similar to
the Nissan Leaf but what they're telling you is keep it plugged in when it's hot like that
or cold like that or drive it occasionally so that the thermal management system the
liquid-cooled system can keep it in the proper temperature if it's hot outside and you've got
your vehicle plugged in so what anyone with a Chevrolet Volt or Bolt EV can tell you that
while it's plugged in there's cooling fans running the air-conditioning compressor
runs to cool the liquid going through the battery while it's hot if it's really cold the battery
coolant heater will turn on and keep it warmed up to a certain point so my point is
the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Volt battery temperature or thermal management system is far superior and
these batteries are going to last a very long time thank you for watching and have a good day