Originally Posted by
old's'cool
Well, yes but,... typical use case for a motor vehicle, which is taken into account at the design stage, is not only the battery but the entire drivetrain must be functional when conditioned down to -40 degrees (assuming all components are within their operational spec limits.
That means the battery must be able to crank the engine over, and the ignition (and electronic fuel system, considering vehicles produced in the last 4 decades), must be able to function at a level sufficient to start the engine.
This becomes tricky when the battery is impaired by the cold, at the same time the lube oil is tending to congeal, resulting in very slow cranking and severe voltage dips on each compression stroke. BITD when I was involved in this stuff, that meant the ignition and fuel had to function down to 6 volts (in the case of a 12 volt system).
Great info, thanks. I don't think most people (not talking about people in this forum, but in the general public) realize how well cars start these days.
Originally Posted by Chas58
I've never had a problem with Lithium. It is cold resistant (unlike other battery types that just quit working at those temperatures).
Tell that to my Iphone. Had a soccer game last night. Left the office at 100% charge, and after riding to the field still had something in the 90's (It was in my pocket, under a couple of layers). During the game it was basically sitting out, and I think it was probably around 30F (-1 or -1C), for the hour long game. When I went to check it afterward, it showed a whopping 1%.
Got home and plugged it in, and it began charging from 93%, sooo... maybe it's just reading 1%, because of the cold, but it could maintain that 1% for a long, long time?