Ariya battery de-Froster operation

[Ian Thompson]

Ok thanks to Carscanner and Cosmyc’s help I think I’ve figured out how the Battery defroster works.

It’s not a conventional heater the on/off switch in settings/Ev menu just enables it but it only works on a thermostat. Basically it has to be close to Zero C before it heats at all.

If temp outside is 2C or less (the frost * symbol must be showing) THEN & ONLY then will it start to work.

If temp is close to or below zero then turning on the Battery defroster (also known as battery heater) will turn on. It only draws 4 kW and battery is large (87 kWh) so this slowly heats up. It went from 6 C to 10 C in about 40 mins, I think it will turn itself off at some temp or time but my journey was too short to find this out.

So, if it’s below zero and you’re heading to a fast charger enable it, if it’s above 2 C don’t bother because it won’t activate anyway.

It’s more of a defroster than a Tesla style battery heater but I think it will help your charging speed when FAST charging on really cold days.

By the way you can turn it on whilst driving contrary to what it states in the manual.

[NISSANFAN]

Great post ……this information is invaluable
To owners who have no technical knowledge

Like me

[Yorkie1956]

Hi, after a charge up at instavolt the battery was showing 152 miles at 76% on leaving charger, however parked up overnight it’s showing 70% at 129 miles, on checking the battery heater was on this morning and I cannot remember if I switched it off before switching car off, either way if left on or not it was on this morning but without power on would this affect the loss of power and subsequently mileage. Any ideas most welcome

[Ian Thompson]

Further info, battery defroster/heater will not operate with high state of charge, must be less than 70%.
Tonight started journey with 75% battery heater on, 2C outside, no power draw or heating…but when charge fell to below 70% with temp still at 2C it suddenly started heating 4kW which took battery from 4 C to 12 C over 45 mins. Went to fast charger with about 50% and it pulled 63 kW, that soon added another 6% and also raised battery temp another 1.4 C to 13.4 C.

So looks like battery heater only actually works when temp is very cold (2 C or less) and state of charge is below 70%. That makes sense when you think about it..

From this I would say previous post loss of power overnight is unlikely to have anything to do with battery heater. I’ve left setting on before now and provided car is off never seen any overnight power loss.

[Yorkie1956]

Thanks Ian, we cannot charge at home so losing mileage is costly for us, in way to Nissan to ask . It happened again today but we are experiencing problems with Nissan app

[Yorkie1956]

Further to my last Nissan dealer just gave me bit of waffle about it’s how we drive, we are not erratic drivers and at moment just local journeys, last night it was on 71 miles and now down to 58, going back to Nissan to book in for battery test, we have only had this problem since it’s been serviced

[Cosmyc]

No battery drain on my Ariya at all, also battery heater when the car is off only works for super low temperatures.

[Yorkie1956]

Thanks cosmyc, I’m not convinced that Nissan Bournemouth want to investigate the problem, I’ve now started recording readings and again this morning it lost 5% and 16 miles, tonight got a mate charging it up overnight so don’t expect to lose much if any at all, if after a week it still shows losing those % and miles I’ll demand Nissan investigate and kick up a fuss in showroom as I won’t care by then. For the life of me I cannot see anything we have done different that would give us this problem, it all started like this after they serviced the car.

[Milkfloat]

I left mine at Gatwick for a week and it still had the same SOC as I left it when I got back.