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2015 Volvo V60 PHEV – 3700ā‚¬ per kWh – Buy a New Hybrid Battery or a Whole Tesla Long Range? Dilema…

For those of you whoā€™ve been waiting, here it isā€”a hybrid with over 500,000 km on the odometer, arriving on a trailer. Among a sea of errors, from the initial diagnosis of a faulty inverter to a detailed inspection, we finally traced the issue to the traction battery located in the trunk. The owner spent months pleading with us to take the car in.

After a lot of disassembly and detaching, the over 120 kg battery was removed. Upon opening it, the issue was immediately apparent: extreme swelling of the cells. This phenomenon typically occurs in heavily worn battery systems, where increased internal resistance leads to overheating and cell swelling. The swelling damaged the module cage, insulation between cells, and even caused a short to the chassisā€”resulting in 400V on the door handle.

Despite this shocking condition, the system was designed with LG Chem cells and active cooling (something the Nissan Leaf hasnā€™t had in 14 years). LG Chem cells deserve a trophyā€”wherever weā€™ve encountered them, theyā€™ve proven to be reliable and durable. If someone forced us under threat to use pouch cells (notorious for being the worst choice for any application) in a project, weā€™d still opt for these. The system strongly resembles the Chevrolet/Opel Ampera battery pack.

The cells now have a resistance exceeding 3MĪ©, well beyond acceptable limits, making this an extremely hazardous situation. Finding used cells is quite challenging. Used batteries in unknown conditions cost between ā‚¬4,000 and ā‚¬10,000, while a new battery system is priced at a staggering ā‚¬44,000 plus installation. With this hybrid, Volvo breaks two records: the mileage and the cost of the battery system.

We couldnā€™t shake the suspicion that the battery might have been replaced before, so we dug deep, verifying the original serial number (313101011) on the battery and through Volvo Cloud. It was confirmed to be the original. However, the cost of a new battery is utterly disappointing. Dividing that cost over 514,000 km, even if you drove exclusively on electric power without ever starting the diesel engine, youā€™d still need to spend an additional ā‚¬10 per 100 km just to pay for the batteryā€”plus electricity costs. Once again, the PHEV lifecycle proves unsustainable.

The only viable solution would be a complete rebuild of the battery system with new cells, but the problem is the lack of new cells with the same form factor and dimensions. We are currently searching for a used battery system to bring this vehicle, which has been sitting idle for seven months, back to life.

Evo vi koji ste čekali, dočekali ste. Trenutno jedini hybrid koji je uÅ”ao u dvoriÅ”te na prikolici a da ima preko 500,000km na satu. U moru greÅ”aka od prve dijagnoze da je inverter neispravan do detaljnog ispitivanja dolazimo do traga i kvara pogonske baterije smjeÅ”tene u prtljažniku. Vlasnik je mjesecima molio da primimo vozilo. Hrpa raskopavanja i otpajanja da se izvadi vani, mase preko 120kg. Nakon otvaranja problem je već vidljiv da je doÅ”lo do ekstremnog napuhavanja ćelija Å”to je inače pojava kod jako istroÅ”enog baterijskog sustava gdje se povecanjem unutarnjeg otpora povećava i pregrijavanje sustava pa i samo napuhavanje ćelija. Napuhavanje je podrobio kavez modula, oÅ”tetilo izolator izmedju celija i probilo izolaciju na Å”asiju tj imate na kvaki od vrata 400V. Iako nevjerovatno sustav je dizajniran sa LG Chem celijama i aktivnim hladjenjem (ono Å”to Nissan Leaf nema 14 godina). LG Chem ćelije zaslužuju trofej jer gdje god smo ih dosad naÅ”li pokazale su se jako kvalitetnim i izdržljivim. Mi osobno da nas neko pod prijetnjom natjera da koristimo POUCH CELIJE (koje su najgore za bilo Å”to) u nekom projektu, izabrali bi upravo ove. Sustav jako podsjeća na Chevrolet tj Opel Ampera battery pack. Celije imaju otpor preko 3Mohm Å”to je izvan dozvoljenih kontura i jako opasno stanje. Rabljene ćelije je malo teže naći. Rabljene baterije u nepoznatom stanju su od 4000-10000ā‚¬ a dok je nov baterijski sustav 44000ā‚¬ + ugradnja. Tako da Volvo sa ovim hybridom ruÅ”i 2 rekorda, broj kilometara i cijenu baterijskog sustava. Nismo se mogli oduzeti sumnji da je baterija ipak mozda mjenjana, pa smo kroz najdublje kanale provjerili čak i koji je originalni serijski broj baterije (313101011) na samoj bateriji i u Volvo Cloud sustavu gdje je potvrdjeno da je original. Medjutim cijena nove baterije je čisto razočarenje jer kad cijenu podjeliÅ” na 514,000km to znači da kad bi iskljucivo vozio na struju da nikad u 10 godina ne upalis Dizel motor, morao bi troÅ”iti dodatno 10ā‚¬ na svakih 100km da platiÅ” bateriju + potroÅ”nja struje, gdje se PHEV lifecycle opet pokazuje neodrživim. Jedina opcija bi bila da se baterijski sustav kompletno reparira novim celijama, ali problem je nepostojanje novih istih celija sa istim formfactor dimenzijama. Trenutno tražimo rabljen baterijski sustav da bi rijeÅ”ili vozilo koje stoji nepokretno vec 7 mjeseci.

Fault: Isolation

OEM : 46,000ā‚¬

EVC: unknown

Part number: 31407014T, 31394702, 3319286, 31453487, 36010491, MMHV1502A312A-L0,