Battery health 2014 Volt

1978 Views 13 Replies 8 Participants Last post by hellsop, 4 mo ago

billdaman

Hello, haven’t posted in years, as my Volt has been relatively trouble free over 70K miles. The Volt sat for almost two years of the COVID lockdown as I didn't need it for my commute. After we returned to work, my work location is a 2 mile drive. The battery never depletes.

From what I’m reading here it appears all Volt owners will face a day of mourning when the battery gets to EOL and battery replacements are either impractical or cost prohibitive.

My question to the group is that of all the Variables linked to battery health, has anyone uncovered a specific set of criteria other than cell voltage differences to indicate a battery entering its down hill slide? It would be great to know that sweet spot at which you should drive it to the dealer to trade. The retail values of these are still high.

I used my bidirectional scanner yesterday and this is the report. Perhaps I need to dig deeper to read the individual cells, but it appears that the software does it for you. Acceptable difference of .02V. Is there anything looking strange or do I have a very good condition battery for 9 years old?

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billdaman

Discussion Starter · #5 · 5 mo ago (Edited)

voltreg said:
The likely test would be to watch cell voltages in real time while the car is being driven very hard in sport mode. One would be able to thus get a relative indication as to the variation in internal impedance of each cell. Ones that show voltage sags greater than the majority would be suspect. If they all follow together...you are good to go likely with a very good battery. I use the VX Nano to check on mine for bottom balance but have not yet had anybody drive the car in the aforementioned set up where I can monitor under heavy load. My 14 has been keeping very consistent at the depletion point with the cells tracking pretty close to each other.

Thanks for the advice. I just got back from driving it in sport mode the way a teenager treats a rental. Even with an hour of on off full throttle I still managed to squeak out over 35 miles from a full charge. I was graphing all the cells while I was driving and after depletion.

They were all consistent voltages readings across the cells through out the hour drive. Wondering if I can assume all is well and a good battery?

Here’s the energy data at full depleted:

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and the depleted cell voltages, VS where I started .
View attachment 175871

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billdaman

Discussion Starter · #7 · 5 mo ago (Edited)

Off Oil said:
The system allows for greater variation during use under certain conditions, as previously relayed by WOPOnTour, so I don't bother about data collection while driving. I collect the charged and depleted cell levels quarterly as posted here:
2017 HV Battery Cell Data (Sharing)

Some trends I've noticed to date is the highest voltage cell when fully charged has been the lowest when fully depleted. Also my actual range is noticeably reduced by ~6+ miles over the 6 year period.

At the end of the day the biggest factor will be time. I'd trade it prior to the 10 year mark, if you don't want to drive it until the battery fails.

So if all my fully charged cells are over 4V with the greatest difference between cells is + 20mV and then the battery is run until depleted / until forced ICE start, and the discharged cells are all 3.58 +10mV, then is my battery above average condition for an 8-9 year old Volt? It’s crazy, I never even thought about any of this previously, but now that I realize new cells are no longer made I’m thinking twice about keeping it.

BTW , it’s basically a one owner garage queen, rarely driven more that 4-6 miles a day and always on a charger when it’s parked for any length of time.

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billdaman

Discussion Starter · #11 · 4 mo ago (Edited)

Question, are you saying that using 65% of full capacity in electric mode as specified on Wiki holds true even if your vehicle has had the battery rebalance update? I lost 5 miles distance from a full charge IMMEDIATELY after the update, and believe me I was not happy.

However, I also bought into the hype that the range readings from the display were just estimates. Well those “estimates” have remained fairly consistent since. Also, when I took that screenshot I drove it as hard as I have ever driven it in 9 years on that day and that was in sport mode. Should that type of driving make a difference in range? I was attempting to deplete it as fast as possible and get frustrated at how long it took!

If my battery is 16% degraded at 8 years is that above average, average, at or around the mean or below average for a 9 year old battery?

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billdaman

Discussion Starter · #13 · 4 mo ago

imanjunk1963 said:
As I mentioned already for my 2014 with 120k miles of mostly 80+% EV miles and always plugged in still shows 10.2kwh usable of the 10.7kwh rated after the balance update noting before the rebalance update I was still getting about 10.5kwh. So in my mind that rate of degradation I am experiencing is good after nearly 10 years.

Got it. Assuming your 80% EV driving are full charge and depletion daily? My volt used to experience that and my range was 40+. Then I went to 17 miles each way with a charger at work at which point for 3 years I never ran it to depletion.

Then COVID where the Volt stayed in the garage for over a year with only a handful of uses. Now I drive 3 miles to work, plug it in, return 3 miles home, plug in, repeat. I never run it to depletion. Does the battery need s e depletion cycles to increase capacity?

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Battery health 2014 Volt

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