Limelight

So I knew from reading and practical experience that my battery in the SH takes longer to warm up in the winter and doesn’t perform as well.

i didn’t ever think to wonder what happens in very hot weather. Today it was roughly 110 degrees after factoring in the humidity in the Toronto area. I had the AC on naturally on my commute home and noticed my EV performance wasn’t the greatest. I thought perhaps it was the draw of the AC so I turned it off and opened the windows. What surprised me was my EV performance got even worse. The battery gauge dropped and ICE kicked on - and more or less stayed on without the battery gauge going up. The car did cycle on and off EV but was predominantly ICE in bumper to bumper traffic.

I started doing some reading and sure enough, batteries don’t like hot temperatures either! But what I also read was advice that hybrid owners should keep their AC on to keep the battery as cool as possible. Just curious if other SH owners have experienced this and if they use AC in extreme heat for that purpose as well (in addition to the obvious staying cool as a passenger). Makes me wonder what possible long term damage is done to the battery on extreme hot days sitting out in a parking lot then since in my area, we can experience both extreme heat and extreme cold.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

Stop and go traffic is worst. It isn't a heat problem from my experience. Same experience in the MDX Sport Hybrid too.

miner

That is why there is a vent to the battery just below the back seat, above the floorboard - never block it with bags, etc.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I find that stop and go traffic never lets the batteries charge up to even 1/3 of a reserve, so the ICE continues to run more often than it would if it was general slow moving traffic in the 5-15 mph range with an occasional stop. The best mpg performance is clearly in the 35-50mph range on country roads, which is where we can easily see upper 30's to 40's in mpg in either MDX or RLX Sport Hybrid.

miner

^ Yep, that is the sweet spot in the speed range

George Knighton

With a fan. :-)

Early on in my life with the car, I couldn't figure out what a light noise was when sitting at a light and nothing running. It was the fan pushing air at that vent.