Battery temperature

[DHS]

I'm a new EV owner (Macan 4) and ignorant of the significance of my battery's temperature. Why do I care? Why is it prominently displayed? What is the ideal temperature? What can I do to change it?

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[KJohn3333]

Good question I’m getting my new Macan in January and would like more information on this. Coming from an all electric Jaguar IPace the battery temperature is something I don’t ever recall seeing. I’d guess the temperature is relative to range and charging times. A cold battery is less efficient and I think I’m correct in saying that conditioning the battery with it plugged in before driving will improve the range.

It would be interesting to know just how long driving or conditioning before a battery reaches optimum temperature from cold, starting from different battery and air temperatures.

 

[krissrock]

all of this shown on the gauge/cluster
the right temperature is best for power and charging. I'll try to find the image, but apparently it shows on the perimeter of the gauge, what the ideal temperature for operation is ..or at least, how far from that temperature you currently are

 

[krissrock]

iirc from a video (i don't recall which), it was explained that the dial shows a marker for the current temp (the lil arrow)
and a range for the ideal temp (the grey bar above it the arrow)

 

[byebye]

 

[CDW]

I was wondering about this myself, should it not be also higher (around 30 deg. c) for normal driving?
For example this morning mine was 4 deg. and the only time I see it higher 28 deg. (even though cold outside) was when it was pre-conditioning it for the next DC charging station.

 

[Diego]

I was wondering about this myself, should it not be also higher (around 30 deg. c) for normal driving?
For example this morning mine was 4 deg. and the only time I see it higher 28 deg. (even though cold outside) was when it was pre-conditioning it for the next DC charging station.

Same results. I can not say it's correct or not since this kind of meter wasn't on my Tesla.

 

[SergeyIndy]

HV battery temperature is one of the most important vitals including 12V battery voltage. I am going to defer to other more scientifically inclined to comment on ideal temperature with my understanding the car controls it at all times. My use for it is to pre-condition it for optimal charging as shown below.

 

[Duke95]

The issue is whether using energy to heat the battery uses more energy than the loss of efficiency of a cold battery when driving. And the answer is ..probably, it depends on how cold, and how far one will drive with the cold battery. I started a post a few days ago on my first freezing road trip and the car does not seem to favor using energy to heat the battery up too much...stayed in the 40 degrees F range for quite a long time. Preconditioning the battery also takes a long time with a battery that is very cold.

 

[nulled]

What I read in the press release is that it doesn’t need preconditioning to hit high speeds of charging. And indeed when I plug it in a 150kwh charger, it hits the speed in 1min after plugging without any preconditioning.

 

[SergeyIndy]

@nulled, the graph that I posted from Macan EV documentation showing optimal conditions to reach the maximum charge speeds if desired with battery temperatures needed are pretty low (a good thing). The battery tech in the latest Taycan and Macan EV improved significantly to allow for fast charging at much lower temperatures than before, with main benefit of less or no pre-conditioning energy burn.

For example, original Taycan requires the battery temp to be between 85F and 95F to achieve maximum peak of 270kW to complete a charge from 5% to 80% in 22.5 minutes, now the refresh Taycan can reach 300kW peak charge speeds at a battery temp of 59F to complete a charge from 10% to 80% in 18 minutes vs. 37 minutes it would have taken the original Taycan to do the same.

 

[byebye]

The graph is false: temps are shown in C not in F as wrongly stated… They forgot to change the figures…
See below for the correct one, in C, not in F… so optimale temps for charging is between 68F and 131F

 

[SergeyIndy]

The graph is false: temps are shown in C not in F as wrongly stated… They forgot to change the figures…
See below for the correct one, in C, not in F… so optimale temps for charging is between 68F and 131F

I have this graph that looks identical in the US version of this document but the label on the left is F, so you are saying the US version is wrong, so the left side is actual in C. Then I have a hard time believing that the optimal temperature for Macan EV new chemistry (vs. original Taycan) is in THAT high of the range that you are suggesting 68F to 131F. Original Taycan preheats the battery to anywhere between 95F to 110F for optimal charging but not higher.

I do not know for sure about Macan EV as we cannot makes sense of the purple graph, but what I do know is that for the refresh Taycan the optimal charging temperature has been decreased dramatically, and this green graph below is 100% correct that is comparing original J1 I (2020-2024) and refresh J1 II Taycan (2025) charging performance. This shows that 15C or 59F is optimal to charge the new Taycan battery in 18 minutes from 10% to 80%. Based on that, I can believe that Macan EV optimal temperature can be in around 55F point as the purple graph is showing.

I welcome anyone's additional thoughts. Specifically, has anyone seen peak charging rates for Macan EV at battery temperatures of 55F or what has anyone observed when the battery preheats with charger set as destination. I do not have Macan EV so I cannot experiment, but I wish I could.

 

[SergeyIndy]

I found this, which does not align with the purple graph in any way and it is the same generic statement found in original Taycan brochure footnotes.

 

[craz8]

Original Taycan preheats the battery to anywhere between 95F to 110F for optimal charging but not higher.

The Out of Spec Taycan videos are interesting for info about battery temperatures.

On their latest trip across the US - NY to LA 'cannonball' in under 40 hours? they go into some info about managing the temps. Since they drive fast, the preconditioning is used to get the temps down to 90-100F to allow the high speed charging that drops off when the temp hits 130+F (55C). Since it's a Porsche, the car is designed to be driven hard, which keeps the battery temp high, and then cool down with preconditioning to allow high speed charging, and then on to the next high speed leg.

On a daily basis, you are more likely to be heating up to 90-100F to get best charging speeds.

Now, I expect the Macan to have similar behavior to the first gen Taycan when it comes to battery temps and charging.

One trick the Taycan has is that Sport+ mode when charging uses a lot of cooling to keep the battery temp under 130 for as long as possible before it then throttles to 200kw to stop it getting hotter. Does the Macan do the same thing?

Handy Conversions:
90F = 32.222 °C
100F = 37.778 °C
131F = 55 °C

(Aside - Holy Crap, my MacBook filled in those conversions above as I typed the Fahrenheit numbers!)

So, in summary, the 55 in that chart is in Celsius and is a maximum that the car will allow.

Here's the Out of Spec video: - at 1:31:40 you can see the car at 318kw at 127F and then a few minutes later it drops to 200kw as max temp has been reached at 130F

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