Battery equalisation on ZSEV Trophy LR

[Data]

Thanks guys. Yes, I should have mentioned the bit about BMS calibration happening also. The dealer mentioned that too. I want to do the whole thing as the car is 5 months old & has only ever been charged to 100% once in that time. I'm only covering about 6-7k miles per year so probably doesn't need it very often. The thing about all this stuff is the lack of clear written down instructions. The variable advice given by dealers & people in forums also. It's difficult to be sure of anything. Thanks!

 

[Roldorf]

You are worrying too much about it. I don't have home charging and mostly charge DC. Occasionally maybe once every 2 months I charge on my local AC street charger to 100% because it's a lot cheaper and I have never noticed it doing a balance charge. As soon as it gets to 100% it switches off and no more charge.

 

[Data]

Ok, further to my post above. Last night, having carried out a battery equalisation charge as per advice from the forum, I charged the car from 31% soc to 100%. Out of interest this morning the GOM showed 300 miles of range at 100% (483kms) in normal mode. Pretty good.

But here's the thing, practically no equalisation of the battery cells. It went to 300W to 200W & to charge ended in about 2 mins total. Thinking either the battery is in excellent condition even though I've been ultra fast charging for the last 3 months, or proper equalisation hasn't happened.

This was an entirely different experience from when I did a full battery equalisation & BMS calibration when I ran the battery soc down to 17% & then fully slow charged. On that occasion it took 12mins to equalise & calibrate.

Comments invited along with your personal experiences. Apologies to the original poster of this thread. Not my intension to hijack it. But there has been some good points made.

 

[Data]

You are worrying too much about it. I don't have home charging and mostly charge DC. Occasionally maybe once every 2 months I charge on my local AC street charger to 100% because it's a lot cheaper and I have never noticed it doing a balance charge. As soon as it gets to 100% it switches off and no more charge.

Thanks, but I don't actually worry about it. But I do want to keep the battery in its very best condition for a very long life. I know the battery will last a very long time even if I don't equalise regularly but my thinking is to do my best for the way I use the car to look after the battery. It's interesting to hear how you charge.

 

[Chris Law]

I perform a balance / equalisation charge monthly. Living in Portugal and with solar panels I use the granny charger at the weekend (cheap electricity for what is not covered by +/- 2 kW solar panels), starting from between 60-80% SOC. Once the SOC reaches 100%, charging continues at gradually reducing kW for up to another +/- 1 hour. As I understand it, this is what I should expect.

 

[Data]

I perform a balance / equalisation charge monthly. Living in Portugal and with solar panels I use the granny charger at the weekend (cheap electricity for what is not covered by +/- 2 kW solar panels), starting from between 60-80% SOC. Once the SOC reaches 100%, charging continues at gradually reducing kW for up to another +/- 1 hour. As I understand it, this is what I should expect.

It's kinda what I expected too Chris. But nothing really happened.

 

[fred12345]

This was an entirely different experience from when I did a full battery equalisation & BMS calibration when I ran the battery soc down to 17% & then fully slow charged. On that occasion it took 12mins to equalise & calibrate.

Few times I actually paid attention to it, once it took quite some time to balance (from memory, almost an hour) and the other time it was done fairly quickly, 15-20 min ... I use 3kW charger and balance on average once every 2 months.

 

[Data]

Few times I actually paid attention to it, once it took quite some time to balance (from memory, almost an hour) and the other time it was done fairly quickly, 15-20 min ... I use 3kW charger and balance on average once every 2 months.

Fred, what soc did you start from? Is yours an NMC battery pack?

Interestingly, I don't think my car equalised the battery cells at all. I set out on my journey this morning & found my regen (set to 3) was fully operational. Virtually one pedal driving just as usual right from the word go! Not at all like the last time I did a balance from 17% to 100% soc where there was no regen available. And today was with 100% soc. So pretty sure no balancing took place. I had anticipated the car would take 48.5 kWh to complete the job yet the charger pushed 54.75 kWh into the battery. It certainly was well charged & the range on my 55 mile journey was maintained really well ie: it didn't plummet down the scale.

The lesson for me is to do as the owners manual says. I'll take the soc down to the low battery warning area plus an extra couple of percent then do the BMS & equalisation charge. That really works.

 

[Chris Law]

Fred, what soc did you start from? Is yours an NMC battery pack?

Interestingly, I don't think my car equalised the battery cells at all. I set out on my journey this morning & found my regen (set to 3) was fully operational. Virtually one pedal driving just as usual right from the word go! Not at all like the last time I did a balance from 17% to 100% soc where there was no regen available. And today was with 100% soc. So pretty sure no balancing took place. I had anticipated the car would take 48.5kwh to complete the job yet the charger pushed 54.75kwh into the battery. It certainly was well charged & the range on my 55 mile journey was maintained really well ie: it didn't plummet down the scale.

The lesson for me is to do as the owners manual says. I'll take the soc down to the low battery warning area plus an extra couple of percent then do the BMS & equalisation charge. That really works.

Data, one plausible explanation for your short equalisation duration is that your - relatively very new - battery cells actually need very little equalisation. OBD check to confirm/deny?