Water -- Also, battery drain from idle heating?

[ground_gainer]

Well, I got stuck in a flash flood here in Colorado on Sunday and ended up driving through 6-8" deep water for a good 10-15 minutes. I was sweating bullets the whole time but it looks like the Rav4 EV had no problems. I eventually pulled up on a central island to wait out the rain and avoided the worst of the deep running water in the lane I was in. The rain was pretty localized and the waters soon went back down.

With summer ending here in Colorado I was wondering about how cold affects the battery pack. Does the car use the 6kW Heater as part of the active TMS when the car is running and it is cold out? Aren't there problems with these heaters? I haven't really used mine yet since I got the car in mid-May.

Also, I know here in the summer I sometimes kept the car in "ready" to keep the battery cool during the hot days with the cost of a few miles of range over the course of the day. Will keeping the car in "ready" in the winter cause a significantly higher drain on the battery? Should I even bother doing it? I know cold can affect your daily range, but it shouldn't affect the lifetime battery degredation, right? So no reason to sit idle in "ready"?

Anyway, if anyone has any answers I'd appreciate.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[TonyWilliams]

You've got most of it already! No reason to heat the battery except for vehicle range, charge time and regen.

A cold battery will charge slowly, be limited in regen and power output and have shorter range. It will last a long time.

The battery heater is behind the motor, on the passenger side. The separate battery heater (from the Denso 6kW cabin heater) also does not share its Tesla G48 coolant with the regular Toyota "pink" stuff that is used in the cabin heater system.

 

[user 340]

The battery heater is behind the motor, on the passenger side. The separate battery heater (from the Denso 6kW cabin heater) also does not share its Tesla G48 coolant with the regular Toyota "pink" stuff that is used in the cabin heater system.

As usual, there is a "Wall of Death" between the Toyota and Tesla systems. Not integrated at all, but not surprising given the minimal amount of time spent developing this car. Then again, perhaps this is intentional if Toyota wanted to ensure that all EV bits were walled off and were incapable of ever "infecting" any Toyota ICE system component. :mrgreen:

 

[TonyWilliams]

The battery heater is behind the motor, on the passenger side. The separate battery heater (from the Denso 6kW cabin heater) also does not share its Tesla G48 coolant with the regular Toyota "pink" stuff that is used in the cabin heater system.

As usual, there is a "Wall of Death" between the Toyota and Tesla systems. Not integrated at all, but not surprising given the minimal amount of time spent developing this car. Then again, perhaps this is intentional if Toyota wanted to ensure that all EV bits were walled off and were incapable of ever "infecting" any Toyota ICE system component. :mrgreen:

Just the quickest and cheapest way to pump out a car to be used solely for California Air Resources Board compliance.

Plus, Tesla doesn't share well, to be honest.