[heavyt]

Does the ID. 4 have a battery thermal Management system? Cooling and warming the battery.

 

[ChristophW]

Yes, the generous AC unit under the front hood takes care of battery heating and cooling, as well as cabin AC duty.

 

[heavyt]

Yes, the generous AC unit under the front hood takes care of battery heating and cooling, as well as cabin AC duty.

Thanks

 

[NBCGLX]

Yes, the generous AC unit under the front hood takes care of battery heating and cooling, as well as cabin AC duty.

Do we know for sure that the ID.4 battery doesn’t have its own heating/cooling system? And if not, the A/C is acting as a heat pump to warm the battery? It would seem that isn’t the case for vehicles without the heat pump, and that a resistive heater in the battery is more likely. Not sure.

 

[heavyt]

I did a little digging for more info and VW sent me this email:

"..I've reviewed with our EV Guide team and as promised, I'm following up with information about our thermal system in the ID.4. I'm able to confirm that it does not have an active thermal control system in that it does not cool differently depending on whether it is summer or winter".



Have a good rest of your day and stay safe!

Stefani S

Digital Operations Advocate, Volkswagen Customer CARE

Volkswagen Group of America

 

[RocketVol]

I did a little digging for more info and VW sent me this email:

"..I've reviewed with our EV Guide team and as promised, I'm following up with information about our thermal system in the ID.4. I'm able to confirm that it does not have an active thermal control system in that it does not cool differently depending on whether it is summer or winter".



Have a good rest of your day and stay safe!

Stefani S

Digital Operations Advocate, Volkswagen Customer CARE

Volkswagen Group of America

I think the VW person might have misunderstood the question. From a Jalopnik article on the MEB platform (The Fascinating Engineering Behind VW's Electric Car Platform of the Future (jalopnik.com) :

"The motor unit and battery pack are both liquid cooled, with the latter in a low temperature loop that includes a chiller (a refrigerant-to-coolant heat exchanger that allows for additional cooling beyond what a passive water-to-air radiator at the front of a typical automobile could offer) and the former in a high-temp loop.
You can see the coolant hoses going to the motor in the photo above the previous one, and here’s a look at where the coolant lines enter and exit the front side of the battery pack:"

"I didn’t have a chance to take a close look at the model’s cooling module (the stack of heat exchangers at the front of the car), but VW did say that there’s only a single radiator at the nose. This makes me think that the design is much like the Tesla Model 3's, which has one air-to-water radiator up front, along with an air-to-refrigerant condenser for the battery chiller (you can see the Tesla’s full schematic here)."

"And indeed, in the press image below and the photo above, I do see two heat exchangers, which back up that hypothesis, though I will say that, when I spoke with a VW engineer at a round table at the LA Auto Show in November, he seemed strangely hesitant to discuss the particulars about the cooling module.
And in an email with VW’s PR rep, I was told that the company wasn’t ready to discuss it further, making me wonder if VW’s got some kind of clever battery and motor cooling design brewing."

Seems like a pretty good system that is robust. And maybe something more going on than they have released

John

 

[ixlr08]

In one of the video's I saw, I don't remember if it was for the ID.3 or .4, but they complained that battery heating in cold climate used a lot of battery range to heat up the battery and it was based on battery temperature. The complaint was that it didn't take into account battery heating from use, like the Tesla does, it just heated the battery a preset amount.

 

[heavyt]

Thanks for the info. I forwarded your info to them

I think the VW person might have misunderstood the question. From a Jalopnik article on the MEB platform (The Fascinating Engineering Behind VW's Electric Car Platform of the Future (jalopnik.com) :

"The motor unit and battery pack are both liquid cooled, with the latter in a low temperature loop that includes a chiller (a refrigerant-to-coolant heat exchanger that allows for additional cooling beyond what a passive water-to-air radiator at the front of a typical automobile could offer) and the former in a high-temp loop.....
Seems like a pretty good system that is robust. And maybe something more going on than they have released

John

 

[ted99]

I dived pretty deep into my 2014 BMW i3 REX battery temp operations and since the REX did not have a heat pump, it could be very similar to the ID.4. There was only one AC compressor, but two expansion valves and two cooling loops. One to the cabin cooling and one to the battery cooling circuit. Battery heating, to the extent it was necessary, was resistive and BMW recommended that the the car be pre-conditioned in cold weather while plugged in. If you cannot precondition when plugged in in cold weather, it would be better to just "start and go" and let battery use heat up the battery.

 

[heavyt]

I'm sorry for any confusion. The ID.4 will have a liquid thermal control system. The system itself will not change how it cools based on the season.

Have a good rest of your day and stay safe!

Stefani S

Digital Operations Advocate, Volkswagen Customer CARE