Distance Potential When Charged

[Jerican]

I have a Siemens US2:VC30GRYU VersiCharge Universal level 2 charger at home. Usually the charger (or the car) stops at 28 miles' range (I read on the car's meter). Sometimes, however, it goes up to 32. Charging at a level 2 in a public garage the other day, it read 32. And at another public garage with a CHADEMO it went to 36. What is going on? Are these random variations in the car's meter? Or is there a way of increasing my home charger so that I can get a few more miles?
Jerican

 

[mellobob]

My understanding is that it has nothing to do with the charge (assuming it is full). The GUESS is based on prior driving ... so if you've been doing lots of hilly stuff you'll get a lower number; flat or even better, downhill, driving before charging will give a higher number.

I don't know what the duration for the calculation is.

It's call a GUESS-O-METER

 

[ThudnBlundr]

I got a range of 38 miles the other day after charging at home. Someone on FB got one of 47. They're both guesses based on how you've driven recently

 

[Jerican]

I get it! Thanks for the explanation. Here's what I now understand: the car is charging until full, but the distance marked is the car's calculation of how far that charge will take the car based on its most recent trip. This makes a lot of sense in light of my experience because the two full charges that got very high readings were in Burlington, VT, which is 729 feet lower than my house. In their effort to simplify, the manufacturers complicate things. They would be well advised to simply post the electric charge and let us owners learn that the charge depletes faster when going uphill.

Which brings me to the great lesson that cars with consumption* indicators teach: to get the best mileage, always drive downhill.

*The first car I had with a "consumption" meter was a 2013 VW. I complained to the salesman that the car had tuberculosis.

Jerichan

 

[STS134]

Well here's my personal high. What happened was that I drove over the Santa Cruz Mountains. On the way up, I had the car in Save mode, to avoid discharging the batteries at a high C rate, which is bad for battery life. On the way down, there was a horrible traffic jam, so I was basically using gravity to descend, and the car was in Normal mode the whole way down (and barely using any energy). Then when I got near downtown Los Gatos, and the road flattened out, traffic cleared up, and I went back into Save mode on the freeway. I must have had one hell of a mile/kWh value because the meter was showing 47 miles of range after I recharged. I arrived back home with a fully depleted battery and figured, what the hell, I haven't charged to full in a while.

 

[Regulo]

On the way up, I had the car in Save mode, to avoid discharging the batteries at a high C rate, which is bad for battery life.

I'm in lovely flat Essex, England, and wonder if you are making best use of "Save", if it's battery discharge rates that worry you? Unless I'm mistaken, in "Save" the car tries to maintain a set battery level. It does that by charging to a certain level, then running on battery (thus discharging at whatever rate necessary) until a lower battery level is reached and then recharging again. So you get essentially a slow charge followed by a high discharge. What effect that has on battery life, I don't know! Thoughts, anyone?

 

[STS134]

I'm in lovely flat Essex, England, and wonder if you are making best use of "Save", if it's battery discharge rates that worry you? Unless I'm mistaken, in "Save" the car tries to maintain a set battery level. It does that by charging to a certain level, then running on battery (thus discharging at whatever rate necessary) until a lower battery level is reached and then recharging again. So you get essentially a slow charge followed by a high discharge. What effect that has on battery life, I don't know! Thoughts, anyone?

It's a combination of discharge rate, cycle count, temperature, state of charge, a whole bunch of factors that go into determining battery life. Yes, Save mode does start a hysteresis cycle where the battery stays in a relatively narrow band of about 1.5% state of charge, but charges and discharges within that band. That's a lot less stressful for the batteries than being discharged continuously, especially if it happens at a high current. A lot of times, when in Save mode, the car will have the generator running and will be generating electricity and immediately consuming it, which basically means the batteries aren't being used much at all.

Also, in general, whenever you cut depth of discharge in half, you double the number of cycles you can get out of the battery (in other words, if you get x cycles from 100% to 0% (can discharge from 100% to 0% x times), you get 2x cycles from 100% to 50% (can discharge from 100% to 50% 4x times which is basically like getting twice the total life out of the battery), 4x cycles from 100% to 75% (can discharge from 100% to 75% 16x times which is basically like getting 4 times the total life out of the battery), etc., So how many times can we do this hysteresis within a narrow band of 1.5% state of charge? A lot.

 

[seaneb]

I live in North Wales at the top of a large hill. My work is 4 miles away and is mostly downhill. At this time of year a full charge gives me 22mile range. I can just about get to work and back twice on that so only 16 miles. I will use 1 mile of range getting to work and 10 miles of range getting home.
My vehicle is a MY2014 with 65000 on the clock with full Mitsubishi service history.

 

[greendwarf]

Seems a shame to miss out on the regen potential by starting out with full battery. Have you tried stopping the charging early?

 

[mellobob]

Seems a shame to miss out on the regen potential by starting out with full battery. Have you tried stopping the charging early?

I have the exact same problem. No way out of my home but to go down a 1km hill. Not only do I lose out of the recharge (I think), but I think I'm using friction braking more than I'd like. On previous cars I'd gear down ... but, on the PHEV it seems my only option is to generate heat. When I got the car the dealer told me that in this situation it would charge the top 20% of the battery ... but I don't believe that. So, is there a way to set things so the charge only goes to 90% or something like that?

 

[seaneb]

I usually charge overnight but if there is a setting that can stop the charge at 90% then that would be very useful?

 

[zzcoopej]

I usually charge overnight but if there is a setting that can stop the charge at 90% then that would be very useful?

No such setting, however if you know you will be only driving say 20km you can set the charge timers to give you only 3 hours charge. However you would need to adjust the timer to take into account any SOC prior to charging. Way too much hassle, just enjoy your PHEV!

 

[elm70]

I usually charge overnight but if there is a setting that can stop the charge at 90% then that would be very useful?

Yes ... I think there can be a usage of having the possibility to configure to charge only up to 80% or 90% ...

I'm also charging mainly overnight ... and I have a WiFi controlled switch over the 10A car charger

So, when I know that I don't need to drive many km on the next day, I program the timer to just charge what I need plus some safety buffer

Yes, it is approximate, it require to know the last SOC of the car ... but over the mobile app for the WiFi switch, it is only few click .. and just a little guess work about how many hours of charging are needed in the night

 

[ThudnBlundr]

Not specifically - the only way to do that on this car is to use a timer to stop the charge before the battery is full. Assuming you usually get home with an "empty" battery, you can use trial and error to see how long you need to charge it overnight to leave enough overhead for the descent. Don't forget that regen will decrease as the battery gets more full on the descent.

It's not a bad idea to use your brakes first thing, as it will clear off any corrosion that appears overnight. Don't forget that many automatic ICEs don't have an option for engine braking, so the brakes will be designed to cope.