FLYVOLT has extended its cold-weather testing programme to −40°C, qualifying a modified cell chemistry and heater-blanket pre-conditioning approach for public safety and arctic operations customers. The programme, conducted at a certified environmental test facility in Quebec over Q4 2025, provides the first validated performance data for FLYVOLT packs at temperatures relevant to northern Canadian winter operations.

Motivation

Several FLYVOLT customers operating in northern Canada, Alaska, and Scandinavia have reported consistent capacity degradation in winter field conditions — typically 25–40% capacity loss at −20°C ambient without pre-conditioning. For public safety applications where a pack must perform on first use after cold storage, this degradation represents an operational risk. The −40°C extension of our test programme was driven by requests from two search-and-rescue operators and one federal law enforcement customer.

Test methodology

Packs were soaked at target temperature for 4 hours (matching realistic field storage conditions), then discharged at C/2 to measure available capacity, and at 1C to simulate operational load. A second test series used a resistive heater blanket (12 W, 10 minutes pre-conditioning) to assess the benefit of active pre-warming.

Results

Without pre-conditioning: 58% retained capacity at −20°C, 31% at −40°C. With 10-minute heater blanket pre-conditioning: 89% retained capacity at −20°C, 71% at −40°C. Internal resistance at cold temperatures was the primary limiting factor — pre-conditioning reduces IR from approximately 8× room-temperature value to 2× at −20°C.

Product offering

FLYVOLT now offers a cold-weather pack option (CW suffix) for the FV-24K-4S and FV-44K-6S configurations, including a matched resistive heater blanket and a modified cell chemistry selected for cold-temperature IR performance. Contact us for specifications and pricing.