So no more water cooled battery in the e-Golf

[mitchell]

Hmm. Looks like Volkswagen has decided to not have active cooling in the electric Golf after all.

After much testing, Volkswagen says their lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide battery cells from Panasonic are affected so little by temperature differences, that it wasn't necessary to actively cool the battery.

"The need for a cooling system wasn't there," Harrison said. Since the cells work so well, all the e-Golf needs to keep the battery pack at the right operating temperature is an intelligent thermal control (which regulates the amount of energy expended form each of the cells to keep the heat down) and the ability to dissipate what heat is created into the chassis and away from the pack.

At least a change like that makes the vehicle lighter, less complex, and may even give an extra mile or two of range?

 

[norwayvw]

That's quite the change. At least we know that they've tested it well, and since they've made a decision to remove the system, they have to be very confident it is unnecessary.

If people have issues with packs and heat from VW in the future, then there would be a bigger uproar than what happened with the LEAF.

One thing that was unclear - the Volkswagen e-Golf has been on sale in Europe for a few months already, although, granted, they haven't started deliveries. Is it safe to assume the battery pack will be air-cooled there too?

 

[miamor]

Hmm. Looks like Volkswagen has decided to not have active cooling in the electric Golf after all.
After much testing, Volkswagen says their lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide battery cells from Panasonic are affected so little by temperature differences, that it wasn't necessary to actively cool the battery.

HOW DID YOU FIND THIS? I can believe it if they really did study the worst case and typical cases. Out here, in the summer, I can be parking the car on sun exposed asphalt at 150F. So a lot of heat will be radiating up to the battery, heating it up. And if I am using a public charger, now I'll be heating the battery pack further.

 

[f1geek]

There have been a few mentions of warranty pack replacement for the w-Golf, so it seems the vast majority of drivers haven’t seen issues. The engineers and bean counters at VW were right to save money by excluding a liquid cooling system.