Sponsored

VERY DISAPPOINTED!!! No 400+ battery until Jan. 2022?!?!?!

azbill

Well-Known Member
First Name
Bill
Joined
Jun 8, 2020
Threads
14
Messages
1,292
Reaction score
1,583
Location
Arizona
Vehicles
R1T, Mach E, Hummer EV SUT
Occupation
Engineer
I am happy that we now agree an even number is needed.

Someone posted on the thread about chats with support that apparently the 300+ mile battery is something less than 135KWH. Not sure how this plays out with respect to the actual configuration.
Sponsored

 

ajdelange

Well-Known Member
First Name
A. J.
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Threads
9
Messages
2,883
Reaction score
2,317
Location
Virginia/Quebec
Vehicles
Tesla XLR+2019, Lexus, Landcruiser, R1T
Occupation
EE Retired
I am happy that we now agree an even number is needed.
As I said in the last post you could do it with an odd number (5s3p pack of 60 volt modules can be charged at 300 V as is or at at 900 V as a 15s1p) but clearly if you are going to split into 2 equal pack then the total number of cells is going to be even.

Someone posted on the thread about chats with support that apparently the 300+ mile battery is something less than 135KWH. Not sure how this plays out with respect to the actual configuration.
This gets us into the perennial discussions as to what the capacity number represents. Is it the charge capacity or the discarge capacity? Is it from max safe to min safe or 80% or 78.65% of (max_safe - min_safe), at what charge/discharge rate? What is important to us is that the car deliver nominally the rated miles. Rivian has said that the 300 mile pack performed "better than expected" in the recent rally,
 

DucRider

Well-Known Member
First Name
Gary
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Threads
17
Messages
1,659
Reaction score
3,157
Location
ORegon
Vehicles
Polestar 2, Ioniq, R1S
f
I am happy that we now agree an even number is needed.

Someone posted on the thread about chats with support that apparently the 300+ mile battery is something less than 135KWH. Not sure how this plays out with respect to the actual configuration.
I've been wondering the same. The chat session indicated that it was slightly less to enable it to fit in the truck, which would indicate the physical size needed to be reduced, which would indicate fewer 21700 cells were used.
One possibility is they stuck with the very large modules and reduced the number of cells in them. In this scenario they would them operate at a lower voltage (96s vs the original 108s as an example).
The original 15 kWh "blocks" are awkward to fit into a vehicle due to their physical size and standardized (presumably) shape. A block of 864 cylindrical 21700 cells is going to less flexible when installing into a vehicle than 4 blocks of 216 cells. It makes more sense to me to work with smaller "modules".
Another possibility is they ditched the standardized large block/module idea completely and are separately engineering/designing the different pack sizes (this could explain the 400 mile variant delay).
Here is the SR Model 3 pack as an example:
Rivian R1T R1S VERY DISAPPOINTED!!! No 400+ battery until Jan. 2022?!?!?! 1605720330520

Tesla uses "bricks" to make up "modules" which make up the pack. The "bricks" that make up this each pack contain 31 cells. The modules are not all the same physical shape and the number of bricks and cells vary. Two of the modules contain 23 bricks (each with 31 cells), the other two 25.T his example shows that Tesla connects the modules in series and the battery then becomes 96s (23+25+25+23).

They Porsche Taycan uses pouch cells, but you can look at each pouch as equivalent to a "brick".
Rivian R1T R1S VERY DISAPPOINTED!!! No 400+ battery until Jan. 2022?!?!?! 1605721967929

There are 33 modules, each with 12 pouch cells (bricks) for a total of 396 cells. These are electrically connected as 2p 198s. Notice the the 33 modules is an odd number. The modules are not treated as a separate battery with a single =/- connection, but half of the pouches in each module are connected in series (6 x 33 = 198). 198 x the nominal 3.65V of the LG pouch cell gets you the nominal 723V of the Taycan with a max voltage of 832 (198 x 4.2V).

Both of these examples show that you can electrically connect batteries differently than their physical "modules" might indicate, and that in fact not all modules need to be identical. It is not necessary to treat each of them as a standalone battery like putting AAs into a device where the only choices are in series or parallel.

This gets us into the perennial discussions as to what the capacity number represents. Is it the charge capacity or the discarge capacity? Is it from max safe to min safe or 80% or 78.65% of (max_safe - min_safe), at what charge/discharge rate? What is important to us is that the car deliver nominally the rated miles. Rivian has said that the 300 mile pack performed "better than expected" in the recent rally,
The capacity (energy) rating is likely what you refer to as "discharge capacity" and is the amount of energy the cell/battery can provide.
In the case of the LG 21700 its energy rating is derived from discharging from 4.2V at a constant current of 0.2C to 2.50V at 25 ºC ± 2 ºC

There is no standard for what an EV manufacturer has to report in relation to the pack kWh. Ideally, all would be like BMW and give you the rated capacity and the useable capacity:
Rivian R1T R1S VERY DISAPPOINTED!!! No 400+ battery until Jan. 2022?!?!?! 1605723732355


I have no idea what "Charge capacity" refers to. The amount of energy (including charging losses) needed to charge a battery from 2.5V to 4.2V?
 

ajdelange

Well-Known Member
First Name
A. J.
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Threads
9
Messages
2,883
Reaction score
2,317
Location
Virginia/Quebec
Vehicles
Tesla XLR+2019, Lexus, Landcruiser, R1T
Occupation
EE Retired
Discharge capacity is the amount of energy you can take out in discharging the battery from its "full" voltage to its "empty" voltage at a particular rate and temperature with the parameters defined by whoever is stating the capacity. Charge capacity is the amount of energy you must put into the battery to increase its open circuit voltage from "empty" to "full" at a given rate and temperature.

Because of this flexibility in how the energy of a battery can be stated there are all sorts of games the OEMs can play with these numbers. I expect some day the government will require pack size, measured by a standard procedure, to be included on the Monroney sticker. The tendency of OEMs these days seems to be to conceal this data. For example the label on the Tesla battery pack no longer has a capacity number on it.
 

DucRider

Well-Known Member
First Name
Gary
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Threads
17
Messages
1,659
Reaction score
3,157
Location
ORegon
Vehicles
Polestar 2, Ioniq, R1S
Discharge capacity is the amount of energy you can take out in discharging the battery from its "full" voltage to its "empty" voltage at a particular rate and temperature with the parameters defined by whoever is stating the capacity. Charge capacity is the amount of energy you must put into the battery to increase its open circuit voltage from "empty" to "full" at a given rate and temperature.

Because of this flexibility in how the energy of a battery can be stated there are all sorts of games the OEMs can play with these numbers. I expect some day the government will require pack size, measured by a standard procedure, to be included on the Monroney sticker. The tendency of OEMs these days seems to be to conceal this data. For example the label on the Tesla battery pack no longer has a capacity number on it.
Discharge capacity is the number that EV drivers (and almost all others that use batteries to power things) will be primarily concerned with, and hence that is the metric battery and EV manufacturers use.
The Monroney label already includes charging losses when comparing efficiency between vehicles.
 

Sponsored

ajdelange

Well-Known Member
First Name
A. J.
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Threads
9
Messages
2,883
Reaction score
2,317
Location
Virginia/Quebec
Vehicles
Tesla XLR+2019, Lexus, Landcruiser, R1T
Occupation
EE Retired
Sure about that? The numbers my Tesla's have given me for charging capacity were closer to what the batteries were advertised as (when they advertised that). Think about it. The charging capacity is a bigger number. The public has no idea what the distinction between the two is. Which would you promote?

No question, however, that discharge capacity is the number I am most interested in knowing (but I want to know the charging capacity too).
 

DucRider

Well-Known Member
First Name
Gary
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Threads
17
Messages
1,659
Reaction score
3,157
Location
ORegon
Vehicles
Polestar 2, Ioniq, R1S
Sure about that? The numbers my Tesla's have given me for charging capacity were closer to what the batteries were advertised as (when they advertised that). Think about it. The charging capacity is a bigger number. The public has no idea what the distinction between the two is. Which would you promote?

No question, however, that discharge capacity is the number I am most interested in knowing (but I want to know the charging capacity too).
Tesla has never listed battery capacity for any of their vehicles (the old 70, 85, 90, 100 designations did have a loose correlation).
Think about it. If you know your consumption is 325 Wh/mi (just as an example), do you want to look at how much it took to charge the battery? Or how much range that battery is likely to provide?
Can you point me to any specs from any battery manufacturer that list anything equivalent to charge capacity? They all list energy or discharge capacity as tested in a very similar fashion as I gave you before.
Your Tesla-centric viewpoint sometimes leads you down rabbit holes. Just because Tesla gives you that metric from your car, does not make it an industry standard.
 

jjwolf120

Well-Known Member
First Name
John
Joined
Feb 25, 2020
Threads
1
Messages
784
Reaction score
1,122
Location
Arcadia
Vehicles
Rivian R1S
Occupation
TPA
Your Tesla-centric viewpoint
It isn't his Tesla centric viewpoint that takes him go down rabbit holes, it's his engineering viewpoint.
 

DucRider

Well-Known Member
First Name
Gary
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Threads
17
Messages
1,659
Reaction score
3,157
Location
ORegon
Vehicles
Polestar 2, Ioniq, R1S
It isn't his Tesla centric viewpoint that takes him go down rabbit holes, it's his engineering viewpoint.
Not so sure.
From an engineering standpoint, a capacity/energy test performed under specific conditions in repeatable laboratory conditions should be gold.
Wanting to know the energy used to charge an LG 21700 if it were placed in a Tesla pack and charged with the Tesla charger, inverter, wand even Wall charger is a little out there. How in the heck can any battery manufacturer publish that spec? Gets even worse if the battery they are producing is one of the myriad other form factors not used by Tesla.

They can all, however look at how much energy they get from a battery/cell if discharged from its fully charged voltage (usually 4.2V for a Li Ion) to its cutoff voltage (usually 2.5V) at a set rate and at a set temperature
LG specs their 21700 at a .2C discharge rate
The Samsung INR-2700-33J developed for Tesla has a cutoff voltage of 3.0, and they provide both a "Standard Discharge Capacity" (in Ah) and "Rated discharge energy" (in Wh).

Nowhere on any spec sheet that I've seen from any battery manufacturer have they even hinted at a charging capacity spec.
They do specify the charging parameters to be used prior to performing the capacity and/or energy tests, but no measurement of the energy used to do so id part of the specifications
A few examples from various spec sheets:
Charging shall consist of charging at a 0.5C constant current rate until the cell voltage reaches 4.2V. The cell shall then be charged at constant voltage of 4.2 volts while tapering the charge current. Charging shall be terminated when the charging current has tapered to 0.02C
This "Standard charge" means charging the cell with charge current 1,600mA and constant voltage 4.2V at 23ºC, 64mA cut off.
Nominal capacity is measured by the discharge at 0.2C to 2.75V end voltage after standard fully charged according to specification at 25 . ℃
The standard discharge capacity is the initial discharge capacity of the cell, which is measured with discharge current of 640mA with 3.0V cut-off at 23ºC within 1 hour after the Standard charge. In this case the minimum capacity of the standard discharge capacity is 3,270mAh and the minimum energy of the standard discharge is 12.0Wh in warranty. Standard discharge capacity ≥ 3,270mAh Standard discharge energy ≥ 12.0Wh

These are tests an engineer should embrace.
 

ajdelange

Well-Known Member
First Name
A. J.
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Threads
9
Messages
2,883
Reaction score
2,317
Location
Virginia/Quebec
Vehicles
Tesla XLR+2019, Lexus, Landcruiser, R1T
Occupation
EE Retired
Not so sure.
From an engineering standpoint, a capacity/energy test performed under specific conditions in repeatable laboratory conditions should be gold.
If you knew anything of what the engineers perspective is there would be no doubt. There are a couple of standards out there for battery testing (and probably more that I don't know about). ASTM has a couple, SAE a couple more but they are not specific to traction batteries. The industry would benefit from some standards for traction battery testing and I have little doubt that it is being discussed somewhere. Establishing a standard is a lengthy process. Protocols have to be promulgated and then tested within and between labs in order to be certain that inter and intra facility CVs (variations) are small enough that the results are meaningful. When the standard passes these tests it is then up to organization to adopt the standard and, in turn, for industry to accept it.


Wanting to know the energy used to charge an LG 21700 if it were placed in a Tesla pack and charged with the Tesla charger, inverter, wand even Wall charger is a little out there. How in the heck can any battery manufacturer publish that spec?
If you had the engineer's perspective you wouldn't ask such a naive question and you probably won't understand the answer but as my overall goal here is to promulgate information I'll give it anyway. Capacities are determined by recording battery voltage and current between the "empty" and "full" voltages. For specification purposes (at this point the manufacturer of the cell is free to do what he wants) and in any adopted standard particular charge and discharge profiles are imposed (e.g. charge at 0.2C until Vx, is reached then at Vx until current drops below Iy at 20 °C. ). In the vehicle the conditions are, of course, whatever conditions the vehicle is being charged or discharged under.

Gets even worse if the battery they are producing is one of the myriad other form factors not used by Tesla.
Neither Tesla nor the form factor of the battery have anything to do with this. Tesla does record this data and use it both in navigation management (range prediction) and battery health monitoring and I hope, and expect, Rivian will do the same.


These are tests an engineer should embrace.
The engineers at the OEM will demand of the battery supplier whatever testing they want done on the cells that are to be delivered. In addition to that the OEM will do his own testing. If you recall the early days of Rivian their advertising (if you can call it that) heavily emphasized battery testing.

The engineers in the consumer population would love to have more rather than less data on the battery and all the other technical aspects of the vehicles too. We lament the fact that the OEMs are reducing the amount available. But, as this thread makes clear, the lay population does not have the tools to interpret it and misinterpretation can lead to trouble for the manufacturer.

Your Tesla-centric viewpoint sometimes leads you down rabbit holes. Just because Tesla gives you that metric from your car, does not make it an industry standard.
I'm an engineer. I recognize good engineering when I see it. So do other engineers. Tesla dominates the BEV market today in no small measure from business acumen but primarily because they have good engineers. But for whatever reason they do dominate. The rest of the industry hopes to equal their success. At this point in time Tesla sets the standard and so becomes the de facto standard.

Rivian has good engineers too. I can assure you that though you, as a non engineer, may not understand and thus not appreciate the value of knowing charge capacity, Rivian's engineers do. You can bet they have measured it hundreds or times. It is risible that a non engineer presumes to tell an engineer that charging capacity isn't important but that's part of what makes the internet entertaining I guess.

I also find it rather amusing that you chose to hold up the LG 2170 published spec as, presumably, an example of what a spec should be and emphasize that charge capacity is not in it. The thing that is amusing is that the battery capacity, C, is not listed either though it is used throughout the document and information is given that allows one to figure out what its value is.
 
Last edited:

Sponsored

DucRider

Well-Known Member
First Name
Gary
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Threads
17
Messages
1,659
Reaction score
3,157
Location
ORegon
Vehicles
Polestar 2, Ioniq, R1S
I also find it rather amusing that you chose to hold up the LG 2170 published spec as, presumably, an example of what a spec should be and emphasize that charge capacity is not in it.
I quoted from 4 different spec sheets from four different manufacturers. None even hint at "Charging capacity". All give ratings in the form of the how a battery performs when being discharged.

*******
I'll ask again. Can you point me to a spec sheet or any other info from any battery manufacturer that shows anything remotely like "Charging Capacity" or even discusses it?
Sometimes the lack of answer is an answer in and of itself.
**********

And you're partially right as to C in the LG spec sheet. They do not specifically give you 1 C , so a little math is required to get that number from the .2, .3, .5, .7, 1.5 or 3 C listed. If you can't figure out C from the info given, go ahead and ask and I'm sure someone on the forum can help.

Your question was how battery kWh ratings were determined. I've given a definitive answer.
 

ajdelange

Well-Known Member
First Name
A. J.
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Threads
9
Messages
2,883
Reaction score
2,317
Location
Virginia/Quebec
Vehicles
Tesla XLR+2019, Lexus, Landcruiser, R1T
Occupation
EE Retired
I quoted from 4 different spec sheets from four different manufacturers. None even hint at "Charging capacity". All give ratings in the form of the how a battery performs when being discharged.
Evidently you think that proves something. What?

*******
I'll ask again.
Can you point me to a spec sheet or any other info from any battery manufacturer that shows anything remotely like "Charging Capacity" or even discusses it?
Sometimes the lack of answer is an answer in and of itself.[/QUOTE]

I am not sure what it is you are striving so valiantly to prove (or disprove) here. Does a battery have a charge capacity? Of course. I've told you what it is and how to measure it. Is it important in the BEV industry? Important enough that Tesla measures it on every charge. Have you ever heard of it? Are you able to understand why it's important? Does it appear on the spec sheets you have looked at? I don't know and it doesn't matter. You are stuck with it whether you like it or not (and I don't understand why you evidently don't).


Your question was how battery kWh ratings were determined. I've given a definitive answer.
In the first place I didn't ask that question. What I did was comment that unless we are given the measurement protocol attached to a a kWh rating (and we aren't), including the direction of current flow (i.e. whether it is a charge or discharge capaacity) the number is meaningless.

In the second place you did not specify an accepted protocol or attached set or parameters and so your quotations from a couple of manufacturers spec sheets is hardly a definitive answer.
 

DucRider

Well-Known Member
First Name
Gary
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Threads
17
Messages
1,659
Reaction score
3,157
Location
ORegon
Vehicles
Polestar 2, Ioniq, R1S
Your question was how battery kWh ratings were determined. I've given a definitive answer.
In the first place I didn't ask that question.
Really? Seems to me that you did:
This gets us into the perennial discussions as to what the capacity number represents. Is it the charge capacity or the discarge capacity?
Battery and vehicle manufacturers specify the amount of energy a battery can provide to the user.
I don't know of any that spec how much it takes to charge? Do you?
 
Last edited:

ajdelange

Well-Known Member
First Name
A. J.
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Threads
9
Messages
2,883
Reaction score
2,317
Location
Virginia/Quebec
Vehicles
Tesla XLR+2019, Lexus, Landcruiser, R1T
Occupation
EE Retired
Really? Seems to me that you did:


This gets us into the perennial discussions as to what the capacity number represents. Is it the charge capacity or the discharge capacity?
Ahh. Perhaps English is not your first language.

Look up "rhetorical question".

I don't know of any that spec how much it takes to charge? Do you?
Well I don't know of any that specify either capacity any more. But Tesla used to have a capacity sticker on its battery packs. The number on that sticker was closer to the charging capacity than the discharge capacity of the X I had in those days. To be honest I don't remember whether Tesla put battery size in their specs or not in their sales lit in those days but I'm pretty sure they don't now. But I had the big X which, it was widely accepted, had a 100 kWh battery and that's what it took to charge it. In driving it delivered more like 92 kWh. In any case what does this have to do with anything? No direct question was ever asked. The post that led to your tirade was:
Someone posted on the thread about chats with support that apparently the 300+ mile battery is something less than 135KWH. Not sure how this plays out with respect to the actual configuration.
The implied question is moot as his car doesn't have a 135 kWh battery. It has a 300 mile battery and mine doesn't have a 180 kWh battery. It has a 400 + miles "Max Pack". It's pretty clear that the OEMs aren't going to put out kWh numbers any more and I'd guess it's because they have seen samples of what people who think they know a lot more about batteries than they do can do with such numbers.

But I ask again: what are you trying to prove or disprove?

Anyway, enough already. It's been my experience that people determined not to learn generally don't in spite of any "genius tutelary" on my part (not that I really think I have any).
 
Last edited:

DucRider

Well-Known Member
First Name
Gary
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Threads
17
Messages
1,659
Reaction score
3,157
Location
ORegon
Vehicles
Polestar 2, Ioniq, R1S
Well I don't know of any that specify either capacity any more.
Audi, BMW, Chevy, Ford, Honda, GMC, Jaguar, Mini, Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru and Volvo come to mind. I'm sure I missed a few. (and none of these have ever mentioned anything vaguely related to "Charge Capacity")
The number on that sticker was closer to the charging capacity than the discharge capacity of the X I had in those days. To be honest I don't remember whether Tesla put battery size in their specs or not in their sales lit in those days but I'm pretty sure they don't now. But I had the big X which, it was widely accepted, had a 100 kWh battery and that's what it took to charge it. In driving it delivered more like 92 kWh.
No, Tesla never gave kWh as a battery spec. And your battery took much more than 100 kWh to charge if you go by Teslas official testing. And unless you discharged your "100 kWh" pack at a steady C rate indicated by the battery manufacturer from full voltage to cutoff voltage at the specified temperature after charging in the specified manner, you should expect a different number
But I ask again: what are you trying to prove or disprove?
That battery capacity can indeed be measured and quantified. Is it important? Since that is the metric that degradation warranties use, yes.
Example from Tesla:

New Vehicle Limited Warranty
Your vehicle is protected by a New Vehicle Limited Warranty for 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first. The Battery and Drive Unit in your vehicle are covered for a period of:

  • Model S and Model X – 8 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first, with minimum 70% retention of Battery capacity over the warranty period.
  • Model 3 and Model Y Standard or Standard Range Plus - 8 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first, with minimum 70% retention of Battery capacity over the warranty period.
  • Model 3 and Model Y Long Range or Performance - 8 years or 120,000 miles, whichever comes first, with minimum 70% retention of Battery capacity over the warranty period.
Sponsored

 
 




Top