Ouch! Mitsubishi Outlander #1 in Drive Battery Degradation

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STS134

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 11, 2018
Messages
310
Location
Saratoga, CA
https://www.tflcar.com/2020/06/ev-battery-degradation-news/

Not surprisingly, the worst degradation happens in PHEVs and not BEVs, due to the much lower battery capacity of the PHEV, much higher cycling, much higher average depth-of-discharge, and insufficient energy to maintain the temperature of the batteries while the vehicle is parked. But I didn't expect to see the Outlander at the top of the heap for first-year degradation.
 
Hmm - whilst all the above may be true, we know from this forum that measuring degradation is difficult and we aren't told how these were tested. But we also know that the apparent decline users may see in day to day use is dictated by the battery management software. So I wonder how much of the Leaf's apparent improvement over the years is due to software tweaks rather than improvements in battery technology - what improvements? I hear you ask. :?

Also looking at the hybrids, it is comparing apples and pears - from "self chargers" with small batteries used to improve consumption, to those like ours with a larger pack. The point being that unlike most of the competition, ours CAN be used as a pure EV for extended periods with a typical range of 20+ miles (as evidenced by the number of owners encountering the forced engine start after 3 months) but lacks the large buffer mentioned to manage this without eventually showing a reduction in performance.

For example, when I first bought the car in 2014, most of the mileage was done with ICE on longer journeys including trips abroad rather than the short local all electric daily commuting, I do now. So I didn't notice any significant drop for the first few years and got a 25+ range until about 2 years ago when my pattern of usage changed. Therefore, I suspect that degradation is more a function on how the car is used (and the consequential charge/discharge pattern) than mythical differences in battery engineering - other than size of battery pack. :idea:
 
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