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Battery capacity information

3K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  WaileaKid 
#1 ·
Is there a way to find out battery capacity for PacHy? I am looking to buy a van that is on the dealer lot for a while and has been sitting unused for last 6 months or so. I want to make sure that the battery capacity hasn't gone down in the last year or so.

I saw a thread about tracking battery capacity but the process outlined there will only work for a car once its in your garage. I'm trying to find it out before it gets to my garage.

Thanks
Wk
 
#2 ·
I have no data to share, other than anecdotal personal experience. I recently bought a 2019 that was made earlier this year, after considering buying one of the 2018s that had sat on the lot for a while. Concerns about the condition of the batteries were a factor for me. I didn't find much real data, so I relied on my own experiences.

I used to be fairly involved with RC airplanes. That hobby has transformed due to brushless electric motors and high-discharge rate batteries. My batteries never did well when unmaintained for a period of time. It really didn't seem to matter what chemistry they were--LiPo, LIon, NiMH, or NiCad. Packs that had been reliable when receiving regular use or maintenance charges often had issues when they weren't used or properly maintained. I don't know diddly about the PacHy batteries, but my previous experiences were enough to push me to purchase something more recently built.

There's an obvious flaw in my thinking. I have no idea how long the battery cells in my recently built 2019 sat around prior to being used for my van. They could have been produced some time ago, and there's really nothing to say that they're necessarily newer than the cells in those leftover 2018s. I'm happy to hope that they aren't.
 
#3 ·
In addition to what RC Mike said, perhaps you could just ask the dealer if you could test drive the vehicle. Make sure it is charged up 100% and then just test drive it and put around 33 miles on it (take care that it is a warm day above, say, 45 degrees and that you don’t turn on the climate control). If it holds out for 33 miles or close to that in electric only mode then the battery capacity is probably up to par. A few days ago I made a highway trip not exceeding 60 mph and I measured that the van went exactly 33 miles before the indicator showed the battery at 0% so it probably doesn’t make a whole lot of difference if you put highway or city miles on it during your test drive. However, higher winds that are more likely to be present on the open road could affect efficiency a little.
 
#5 ·
Pac Dave is correct. Most accurate and low tech solution is to do a drive at moderate speed without any extra draw on the battery from full charge. If you get 30+ miles before it hits zero battery, you are good!
 
#6 ·
The best way would be to ask the dealer to read data from BPCM. It will have all battery info. In any case, I doubt you will discover anything suspicious. The worst that could happen would be the van stored fully charged or fully discharged. The battery could lose 1-2%- less than the temperature related variations and not reliably measurable.
 
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