Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle? | Page 102 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?

I have realized in recent days, a sort of deficiency of the Soul battery system. When at L3 (L2 allows all the way to 100%), the BMS will shut off at 94% SoC. This is not a fault, but rather by design. My explanation is lack of active cooling makes them do so to protect the battery. From practical standpoint it doesn't affect me, since I don't use the car long distance. If I was, I would have not liked it .... Especially with our scarce L3 infrastructure.

I know Tesla allows their cars to supercharge to 100% If a driver decides to do so. How about Bolt? I expect yes due to presence of proper cooling?
 
AFAIK most EV's that use 100% of the battery (Volt excluded) taper their charge rates automatically towards the upper limit of the battery capacity. The last few percentage points of any rechargeable battery are always the hardest part to force in and yes, it does generate a lot of heat.

Not sure about why it's completely cutting off at 94% however - are you sure it's not dropping back into a L2 "trickle" (comparatively) mode at that point?
 
I know Tesla allows their cars to supercharge to 100% If a driver decides to do so. How about Bolt? I expect yes due to presence of proper cooling?

I haven't L3 charged to full yet, no proximity to an L3 charger, but I have heard from other Bolt owners that it will go to 100% but it slows down quite a bit starting around 80%. I usually have hilltop reserve enabled so I rarely charge about 87% anyway.
 
I've DCFC'ed to 90% on my Bolt and it does slow down a lot in that last 20%. I don't remember the exact number but the charge rate was dropping close to L2 level in that last 10%.
 
AFAIK most EV's that use 100% of the battery (Volt excluded) taper their charge rates automatically towards the upper limit of the battery capacity. The last few percentage points of any rechargeable battery are always the hardest part to force in and yes, it does generate a lot of heat.

Not sure about why it's completely cutting off at 94% however - are you sure it's not dropping back into a L2 "trickle" (comparatively) mode at that point?

It's a hard cut-off. I tried replug and start again, but the charger will not play along. I suppose the BMS is telling the charger that the battery is simply full.

The taper is not what's surprising, it's understandably necessary and all EV's do it. What is surprising is the 94% number. Nobody can explain it, nor does Kia explain why. I believe it's a result of the lack of active cooling. Must be, as there's no other obvious reason.

Now, to user like me who bought the car for city driving reasons, it doesn't matter. But it will surely be added to the list of questions when I buy the next EV.
 
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Where are you seeing 94%? On the dash displays?

And is it charging to 100% on L1/L2?
 
Maybe that particular charger doesn't taper well and can only be turned off. Have you tried other L3s?
 
Maybe that particular charger doesn't taper well and can only be turned off. Have you tried other L3s?

My thought as well - could be that the car is abruptly dropping it's charge rate down or something and the charger is just thinking it's done and shutting down.
 
I have only ChargePoint around me, so it's all the same. But others basically confirmed that as well and there are some people outside of Ontario. But of course, I cannot be certain what L3 unit they use.

I personally don't believe it's the charger, but rather the BMS. just because I have seen the taper go as low as 10kW. Plus, if you pull up to L3 in -20C with cold car, the L3 must be able to get as low as the BMS requires to protect the battery (it starts with very low power ...). So I don't think the charger has anything to do with it, rather the way the BMS is programmed, again, to protect the battery from heat.
 
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...nt-40-electric-vehicles-by-2022-idUSKBN1F30YZ

Ford plans $11 billion investment, 40 electrified vehicles by 2022

Looks like GM is going to have some competition. Awesome.

Logically, the other automakers can no longer sit on their hands any longer and will inevitably get serious about electric in short order. If they don't, they're going to get left in the dust.

In related news, I read an awesome article yesterday about GM Vs Tesla, and how GM is doing the same thing to Tesla now that they did to Ford back in the early 1900's.

http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-will-suffer-same-fate-as-ford-2018-1

Competition is good.
 
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Competition is good, if it is meant in serious way ... Ford has said in 2009 that will have x amount hybrids for sale by 2012 .... never happened. Since their plan is not very detailed (where do they get batteries from and where will they sell those cars? ... whole world or just China and some? All US states or just where ZEV pays well). I don't want to be pessimist, but these sort of PR releases don't get me excited anymore. Look at VW ... their PR machine cranks out, one decent size blitz per month ... has been going ever since the concept bus made into media beg of 2017 I believe. Yet look today, still cannot walk in and buy silly e-Golf .... anyway, these PR stunts cannot be taken seriously, until they back them up with actual details and production ... like GM has done with Bolt, Volt.

Someone from the legacy OEM's will be short on batteries, read vehicles ... So many cars are supposed to be released by other people than Tesla between 2020-2022 that it's clear there will not be enough batteries. Will be interesting who will draw the short stick.
 

BTW, this Matthew Debord cranks out some good amount of BS on regular basis. If you read this last piece ... he makes it sound like that Tesla's goal somehow was to beat GM as a car manufacturer and they are certainly going to fail in that ... laughable, since it has never been the goal. Not even for one day ... :) Most people who follow EV field know it, yet this fella keeps repeating the false, almost like Trump, in attempt it become the truth.
 
BTW, this Matthew Debord cranks out some good amount of BS on regular basis.

Fair enough, but the parallels do strike a chord. Tesla pioneered a lot of things, got the word out there, and put a product on the market - like Ford did with the Model T. Now GM, with their infinitely bigger production capacity, having done a little learning of their own along the way, is poised to run with that knowledge and increased public perception of EV's, and then dwarf Teslas "Mainstream car" efforts with the Model3.

Tesla will continue to have a place amongst their hard core fans, and yes, the luxury market, but I think their ambitions with the Model3 being an "everymans car" is going to be knocked out from underneath them by other automakers, especially since they just keep missing one production target after another, and the "cheap" M3's may not even enter production for another year or more down the road.
 
You see this is where you have to watch for the bullshitters commenting on Tesla and twisting what they have said, even though it never has taken place.

Tesla promised to release a USD 35K car ... aka model 3, to enable people to buy well designed EV for a lot less than model S or X money. Yes, the production is delayed, but it changes a little on the fact that they will sell a lot of them. They also have been asked many times whether they will make an even cheaper version. The answer has always been .... no, not interested, there will be plenty of offerings available from others. So they know it's not every-man's car (even though average US price for new car is close to 35K, so not exactly niche market end customer), nor they ever intended it to be. The media have turned and twisted it 10 times a day ... so now it's known as every-man's car.

Also, don't forget that Tesla is not just a car company and never will be .... again Matthew knows it damn well, poor guy just needs the click-traffic on his articles to get paid.

What people will keep rewarding Tesla for is their clear intent since day one and slowly achieving their target. Not the same can be said about others who spit out these PR figures regarding electrification in such a speed, that nobody remembers the last one ....
 
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40% more than what?

The EV market so far has been a lot more about price and size of battery, rather than size of a vehicle ....
 
Tesla 3 costs about 40% more than a Carolla/Accord? So not really an "Everyman's" car? Don't most buy a car for the size they need/want? I'm not buying a tiny Smart car sized EV if I want a minivan.
 
The claimed base price of the Model 3 is not all that far removed from the average transaction price for light-duty vehicles (not limited to cars) in the USA. In that sense ... IF Tesla were to actually build one of those in that configuration, which they haven't! ... you can argue that it's within reach of the average buyer of a light-duty vehicle. It's a legitimate 5 passenger vehicle, certainly bigger than a Corolla.

In size and price, it's perhaps not in the Honda Accord realm, but it is in the BMW 3-series realm, and there are enough of those (and its CUV relatives) on the roads. As with the BMW 3-series, they pretty much don't build any of them in base-price configuration.
 

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