kwh remaining

[phxsmiley]

Does the Bolt have a 'kwh remaining' estimate in any of its screens, or perhaps from the Android App?

I am very interested in purchasing a Bolt, but I'm very concerned about Bolts in the local Phoenix area, that have been sitting on hot dealer parking lots, as I don't know if they've been plugged in and sufficiently charged to keep their TMS up and and operational.

I would like the dealer to show me the kWh remaining at this time so I can get the battery health, before making this purchase.

I currently have a Nissan Leaf, and have experienced significant degradation (approximately 15%) over this past summer, with a recent battery. This was a really hot summer.

 

[michaellax]

The MyChevy app will show percentage remaining.

My understanding is that as long as the battery has a minimum 30% charge the battery management feature will activate and keep the battery cool in those situations, even if not plugged in.

There is a thread that discusses this elsewhere on this forum.

 

[michael]

Even if there were a "kWh" remaining display, I would not trust it. It would at best be an estimate, and based on ...what?

It is difficult enough to know the SOC. The only way to know the kWh remaining is to do a complete discharge test.

When I had a Focus Electric, the standard way to estimate battery capacity was to fully charge the car, make sure the battery was a normal operating temperature, and then fully discharge the battery by running the heater full blast with the car parked. This imposed a fairly constant 6 kW load, so the test took maybe three hours. The kWh consumed indication at cut off was judged the best available estimate of battery capacity.

As the Focus batteries aged, the OBD estimate of Energy to Empty diverged from the measured heater-full-blast test results.

 

[phxsmiley]

I'm not sure if that is exactly what I'm looking for. The '% remaining' probably gives an indicator of '% of total charge', indicating how full the battery is. The 'remaining kwh' should give a measure of total capacity, once the battery is charged full. As years and mieage go by, I would expect this 'remaining kwh' number to drop, from normal use.

 

[Zoomit]

There is no battery capacity gauge or indication on the Bolt EV like on the LEAF. A full discharge, as described by Michael, is one way to determine this.

However, I would expect a dealer to be able to access the battery diagnostics and report battery health or degradation in some way. It might be worth talking to a dealer NOT in a hot area to give you a baseline measurement for a typical car.

 

[michaellax]

I'm not sure if that is exactly what I'm looking for. The '% remaining' probably gives an indicator of '% of total charge', indicating how full the battery is. The 'remaining kwh' should give a measure of total capacity, once the battery is charged full. As years and mieage go by, I would expect this 'remaining kwh' number to drop, from normal use.

Just keep driving, without a recharge, until the Mileage Gauge indicates LOW and the MyChevy app gives you an extremely low percentage reading.

The home screen will then tell you how many KW you have used; an approximation of the battery's capacity (this is a more detailed look screen):

 

[michael]

I'm not sure if that is exactly what I'm looking for. The '% remaining' probably gives an indicator of '% of total charge', indicating how full the battery is. The 'remaining kwh' should give a measure of total capacity, once the battery is charged full. As years and mieage go by, I would expect this 'remaining kwh' number to drop, from normal use.

Just keep driving, without a recharge, until the Mileage Gauge indicates LOW and the MyChevy app gives you an extremely low percentage reading.

The home screen will then tell you how many KW you have used; an approximation of the battery's capacity (this is a more detailed look screen):

That's a good procedure, especially if you can do it under some sort of standardized condition. That's why the heater run down test was pretty good...a steady 6 kW.

The problem is that would take nearly 10 hours in a Bolt vs 3 hours for the Focus.