Battery incorrect readings

[Ratanpratha]

HI Phev owners does anyone had encountered this issue of incorrect battery readings in car display though at full charge.

I have put to 10hrs of charging, but only shows around 66km range and at Max 72km instead of claimed 84km. The dial gauge and battery flow full.
I suspect recent thunderstorms in Brisbane could have put the battery system to surge.

I have been using the new vehicle since mid Jan 2024 this year and didn't face and since last 2 weeks have been observing it.

With recent 15k service, dealer mentioned battery test passed no issues on charging, however have requested again to check the computer system showing in correct readings.

 

[PHEV07]

HI Phev owners does anyone had encountered this issue of incorrect battery readings in car display though at full charge.

I have put to 10hrs of charging, but only shows around 66km range and at Max 72km instead of claimed 84km. The dial gauge and battery flow full.
I suspect recent thunderstorms in Brisbane could have put the battery system to surge.

I have been using the new vehicle since mid Jan 2024 this year and didn't face and since last 2 weeks have been observing it.

With recent 15k service, dealer mentioned battery test passed no issues on charging, however have requested again to check the computer system showing in correct readings.

Very strange yes.

From your photos I see that at Odometer reading of 14,171 you had a Range of 130kms

Then at 14,175 the Range dropped to 88kms

I would point out this discrepancy to your Dealer.

 

[nev..]

My understanding is that the displayed KM remaining in the battery is just an estimate and is based only on your very recent driving history, and should not be taken as fact. There are so many more factors which equate to the range of electric compared to say petrol or diesel, and especially when the battery is quite small compared to a fuel tank size, the actual range of the battery can vary quite a lot.

 

[RobertGrover]

My understanding is that the displayed KM remaining in the battery is just an estimate and is based only on your very recent driving history, and should not be taken as fact. There are so many more factors which equate to the range of electric compared to say petrol or diesel, and especially when the battery is quite small compared to a fuel tank size, the actual range of the battery can vary quite a lot.

Guys. This is only a guess-o-meter. You do some hills b4 you charge it may show 50 km. If you come down hill and charge. It could show 130km. Similarly it shows 130km and you go up a long hill of 3km - and suddenly your range goes to 110 lm….

IMHO

 

[twiggy144]

Looks like the predicted range calculation uses the very recent energy usage per km, perhaps the average energy used in the last 5 or 10 minutes of driving, or last 5 or 10 km of driving. The calculation could possibly also include a weighted average.

Would be nice if a Mitsubishi engineer would step in share here the algorithm used for this predicted range calculation.

 

[nev..]

Would be nice if a Mitsubishi engineer would step in share here the algorithm used for this predicted range calculation.

I think the algorithm is a very simple, something like ..

Range = {Battery % remaining) / ((Battery % x minutes ago ) - (Battery % remaining)) * (Distance travelled in past x minutes)

It need not be more complex than that. It cannot make any assumptions about future driving except to extrapolate out from recent driving history.

I have only had my ZM PHEV for 2000km, mostly driven on the same route to/from work, and along my trip (round trip consumes about 70% of the battery), and along the way i see the extimated range bounce around quite a lot, but when I arrive at work, and when I arrive at home, the estimated range remaining is very consistent, always 41km when I get to work and 21km when I get home, which leads me to believe that the driving history it uses to calculate range is probably quite short, less than a minute or a km.

 

[AndyInOz]

I like your thinking but would respectfully suggest that it looks like the interval it uses may be a little bit longer than that.

My favourite example.

Usually I'm driving locally, and I live on the plain fairly close to the sea. The area around here is really flat.

On one occasion, I went out to lunch in the hills, and on the return journey drove downhill for 10 km, before doing the final flat section of about 10 km.

The next time I got into the car, the guess-ometer said that I had 80+ kilometres of range in the battery. (Normal range at the time was 45km on a full battery.)

It seems to me, that the car had put a lot of weight in the calculation from the previous drive, where I had descended from 200 metres above sea level, to 16 metres above sea level.

It took approximately 30 minutes to make that drive home, at an average speed of 40kph (lots of traffic lights).

If the car only used the last few minutes, my range should have been normal the next day, because the last 10km was all on the flat.

After a few minutes of driving the guessometer had recalculated the range to something much more sane.

This suggests that it starts by looking at the previous trip, and quickly replaces that with what is happening now, hence performing some kind of weighted average.

 

[twiggy144]

Driving a conventional vehicule was easy and straight forward.

Starting to think driving a PHEV is not as much driving per say, but it is about managing energy real time in the most efficient way.

My daughter was never much concerned about the fuel burn when she owned and drove a gasoline vehicule. But since she now drives her own Outlander PHEV, she watches the dash much more often to check the ICE activity. She gets concerned and reacts by adjusting the HVAC or by easing her foot on the accelerator pedal, when she sees the ICE has started. I told her on the Mitsubishi it is normal for the ICE to run for approximately 5 minutes from time to time, even if there is no apparent demand on HVAC or if her driving is smooth. Nonetheless, PHEV's really changes driving behaviours!

 

[AndyInOz]

Don't tell her about the five leaf display!