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Overheating after charging complete in hot weather

6K views 19 replies 10 participants last post by  JaggaWatt 
#1 ·
Hot summer weather is back and so is the overheating after charging completes. If the air temperature is at or above 95 degrees F my 2020 IPace HSE is turned into a 4 kilowatt garage heater after charging is completed inside my garage. The measured temperatures on parts of the front of the car and the front right wheel well are up to 150 degrees F. This condition continues until the charger is removed from the vehicle. The garage becomes intolerably hot. This was not an issue during the colder winter months and happens only when using a 220V Type 2 charger. Detailed documentation of this issue was submitted to Jaguar last fall but so far the silence has been deafening. The result is that I cannot leave the car charging unattended during the summer. months. Is anyone else experiencing this problem? Has the been any satisfactory response from Jaguar?
 
#2 ·
Charging a hot battery will make it hotter. The cooling system is activated to cool the battery. That means the heat from the battery is going to go into the atmosphere of the garage.
This is to prolong the life of the battery. This is not a problem.

Your alternatives are (1) don't charge it, or (2) charge it outside your garage, or (3) provide better ventilation for your garage, or (4) put AC in your garage. To accomplish #2 at home, you can buy an extension cable to connect between your charger's cable and the car passing it under the garage door. Search for "j1772 extension cable".
 
#3 ·
There is no problem WHILE the car is charging. The problem occurs AFTER charging is completed. The car continues to draw about 3.5 kilowatts of power and dissipates it as heat. That happens whether the car is in or out of the garage. The operative parameter appears to be the ambient temperature greater than about 95 degrees F. This is a bug in the car that needs to be fixed. These temperatures are hardly unusual in the USA these days.
 
#5 ·
There is no problem WHILE the car is charging. The problem occurs AFTER charging is completed.
This is due to the thermal management of the car.

While charging, the battery temperature limit is set at "TS2", which is 45C (113F).
However, after charging, the limit is set at "TS1", which is max 35C (95F).

When the ambient air is cool enough, the battery will cool down quickly after charging (assuming it got hot in the first place). But when the weather is hot, the battery will exceed TS1 while charging and after charging is complete, will not come down on its own. So the car starts cooling the battery until it reaches 95F.

You can read about this in more detail here:
 
#4 ·
I don't have any direct knowledge but I would venture to say from what you're described is that with a level 2 charger it is at a higher rate then the level 1 charger so more heat is generated. As the battery charges and tops off that is when the accumulation of of heat build up will occur. After completion of the charge the heat has to be dissipated which is why the fans kicked on to run the cooling system. So even after you completed your charge the car is still trying to cool itself down and this will take some time as the batteries have a lot of thermal mass. The fans seem to exhaust out the top of the front fenderwell as there is a gap in the finder lining where I can feel air movement. This would be a normal operation to cool the batteries down. Its not helping that your charging in 95-degree conditions. If its really hot consider using the level 1 charger (I know it slow) but since its at a much slower speed it will not generate as much heat in the batteries. I don't think its a bug but rather just the nature of charging lithium batteries. The faster your charge them the more heat they generate. If you want to charge in your garage, try and set up fan to blow air across the front of your car, this air movement should help to reduce the build up of heat. All the trapped heat is just compounding the situation so move air around, In an enclosed garage there is no air movement so it just sits there and bakes.
 
#7 ·
I'll echo what symos and Grunt have posted. I run a very slow Level 2 charger (it's an old model from my Chevy Volt days ... faster than Level 1, but only drawing 18 amps). The I Pace resides in a covered car port as my wife has claimed the single car garage (the joys of living in a historic district). Because the I Pace is slowly charging at night and well ventilated, I never hear a fan while it is plugged in even in hot central Florida, but as soon as I unplug, I hear the fan ramp up for a short time. I haven't timed it, but it seems to be less than a minute. If the car was charging in an enclosed garage, I wouldn't be surprised if it needed to run active cooling while charging and then run active cooling at a higher level after being unplugged or reaching a full charge.

Also, I very rarely charge to 100%. I'm generally shooting for 85% unless I have a long trip planned. I recall seeing graphs that show increased battery temps as you close in on a full charge (not sure if that was for the I Pace or another BEV).

SkyKing, if you don't need a full charge, try shooting for a lower final charge level either by using the settings on your charger or a third party app for the I Pace.
 
#9 ·
All of this discussion seems logical however it does not take into account the following observations. After charging is complete the charge current normally goes to zero when all is well. In this instance, after about 30 seconds of zero current, the fan comes on full blast and the charge current goes from zero back up to 16 amperes (at 240 volts, about 3.8 kilowatts). That goes on until the car is physically disconnected from the charger. Pressing the unlock on the key fob will; not terminate it: the car automatically reengages and resumes drawing current if the charger is left plugged into the car.
 
#11 ·
How do we account for the nearly 4KW of power that is drawn from the charger indefinitely. That is way more power than is required to run the fan. It also agrees approximately with the heat production that goes on indefinitely as well. The only way to stop it is to disconnect the car from the charger. None of that happens at slightly lower ambient temperatures, say 90 degrees F. Additionally, once the car is physically disconnected from the charger the fan turns off within 30 seconds and the heat production immediately ceases. To me all that argues for a software bug!
 
#12 ·
The air conditioning compressor is operating and is a large part of the 4kW. If you unplug it the software does not allow the battery to be drawn down to cool itself to keep the SOC as high as possible. The logic is that if it is still plugged in it wants to care for the battery and cool it down. If it is unplugged at max SOC it will let the battery cool off without aid from the HVAC system.
 
#14 ·
It does make sense that the AC system would require some, perhaps much, of the 4KW being dissipated. The end result is that the car is left churning out 4KW of heat indefinitely after it is finished charging to no real purpose. That does not happen while it is charging. All that still argues for a software bug. We cannot have an electric car that can't be left charging unattended in hot weather. The software has to be able to sort that out. Thanks for all the input!!!
 
#15 ·
the purpose is to remove the heat build up in the batteries. If the cooling system was off, you would not feel the heat but that heat would be just sitting in the battery pack cooking them. The power consumption is going to running the cooling system not to generate heat. its pulling the heat away from the batteries and discharging it into the atmosphere.
 
#16 ·
@SkyKing the same thing happened this morning to me. My partner woke we up concerned that the car was going to explode. It had successfully charged to 100% and then sometime after the charging it went into a heavy fan cycle and the garage was noticeably hotter than outdoors. It’s in the 90s here in Maryland during the day but the garage isn’t insulated overnight temperature low was 80F. Did you ever notice this trend continue? Any further advice and thoughts?
 
#17 ·
The car is working as designed. It was keeping the battery down to an optimal temperature to prolong its life.

On a home charger, there is a possibility of the charge to get to 100% and then go into a period where it seems to be squeezing in a few more electrons. We speculate it is balancing cells, but it is documented that the charging balances cells as it charges. This is covered in other threads. I have graphs of mine doing this with ChargePoint and Juicebox chargers.
 
#18 ·
Hi, No problem here in Arizona. During the year i have charged at many Temps from 60f to 120f in my garage or traveling to California where midway desert temperature gets to 128f at DC fast charger, No issues at all on DC or AC . My charger at home cuts power when the car gets to 100%. Of course when temperature is high the fan makes a very loud noise while charging ;)
 
#19 ·
Had a week of heat last week, the garage was 96 Degrees at 10:30pm. The normal pattern for a charge (using a Level 2 Wallbox Charger), is a Primary Charge, then a 20 minute Balance Charge, followed by a cool down session. The Cool Down is usually 20-30 minutes. Once that is done, the Charger returns back to a "Waiting for Car Demand" state and draws Zero.
 
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