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Your EV’s battery life depends on where you live

By | July 2, 2012, 3:00 AM PDT

Recently, Nissan Leaf owners in hotter U.S. states have noted a significant drop in their cars’ battery capacity.

Turns out, according to the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy together with Pike Research, your battery life can fluctuate depending on where you live by up to five years.

As Pike Research specialist John Gartner wrote in a blog post last week, the lithium-ion battery packs found in electric vehicles exhibit the best performance and lifespan when kept at betweenn -10 and +30 degrees Celsius (that’s 14-86 degrees Fahrenheit).

Battery packs kept at temperatures higher or lower than that may underperform: at colder temperatures, the batteries may not reach full power; at higher temperatures, the battery can lose capacity.

While the 2012 Chevrolet Volt and the 2012 Tesla Model S use battery cooling technology, the Nissan Leaf does not, leaving it susceptible to such performance issues as a result of outside temperatures. It follows that a Nissan Leaf in Phoenix may lose 25 percent of its performance five to ten years earlier than the same car in Minneapolis, where summer temperatures are milder.

The lesson to prospective EV buyers? If you live in a state with hot summers, you may want to consider an EV that uses a battery cooling system.

Photo: Nissan

via [Green Car Reports]

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Channtal Fleischfresser

About Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal Fleischfresser is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal Fleischfresser

Contributing Editor

Channtal Fleischfresser has worked for The Economist, WNET/Channel 13, Al Jazeera English, Wall Street Journal and Associated Press. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is based in New York.

Follow her on Twitter.

Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal does not have financial holdings that would influence how or what she covers.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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0 Votes
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How long
I do not know how long a battery last in a EV . And cost of replace it .Its A good chunk of the cost of the car.
?????
Posted by davewsr2
2nd Jul
0 Votes
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Good Point on Battery Storage
Good article, and thanks for pointing out that EV batteries at this time act pretty much like any other Lithium based device batteries. When it is real cold out, they lose a lot of energy....up to 1/2 in some cases....same when real hot. We actually bring our eBikes inside the house at night during cold winter nights here in Nevada. The batteries perform a lot better after a night inside!
Posted by EVsRoll
2nd Jul
+1 Vote
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Ford Focus Electric
We have a Volt, and a new Ford Focus Electric (pure EV). The Ford senses the outside temperature, and suggests plugging in the parked car when it's very hot outside (presumably to regulate the battery temperature).
Posted by Pixel_Dude
2nd Jul
+1 Vote
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New Battery Type May Help
Note that A123 claims a new nano engineered Lithium based battery that holds consistent charge from -30 to 45 Celsius:

http://www.dailytech.com/A123+Systems+Outs+New+Breakthrough+in+LithiumIon+Battery+Technology/article24919.htm

EVsRock!
Posted by EVsRoll
2nd Jul
0 Votes
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Sadly, it's true.
I fully encourage people in the hotter parts of Arizona and Texas to lease a Leaf, not buy, or to buy a Volt, Ford or Tesla. Our car has dropped one battery bar and now has the capacity that Nissan said we would have in year 5. So far Nissan has stonewalled its customers here and given us token advice to improve our battery longevity, which all of us already knew. Nissan needs to stop hiding and start talking.
Posted by cheesegypsy
2nd Jul
+1 Vote
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Well whoopsie-doo
Is there anyone who didn't know this already? Apart from the researchers at Pike Research? Next they will be telling us that the amount of electricity in the battery depends on how much and often You charge it. And when they start claiming that bigger batteries give more power than smaller batteries, I think it's time for a Nobel prize.
Posted by Dukhalion
7th Jul
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