Erratic battery range

[VansRV7a]

Forgive me if this has been asked before.
I have owned the PHEV now for some 6 months and covered 6000 miles a fair proportion of which are local journeys I very rarely see 32 miles range available with heating/ AC off, more typically it is in the 22 -26 miles range. I appreciate that the heating or AC will eat into this available range and accept that but cannot understand why the range varies significantly between days of similar ambient temperature. I charge overnight and allow the car to override the time to achieve a full charge. The charge meter always shows a full charge.
Is this typical with other owners

 

[maby]

I seldom get much more than 20 miles EV range irrespective of driving conditions. In the winter with heating on, I reckon I'm doing well to get 15.

 

[Kesto]

I charge over night only . I bought my car in end april and 4500 miles. My overnight charge varies from 28 to 34 (interesting) even though officialy it should be 32.5. But on the average when outside temp is 19C it is 30miles when I start the car.

 

[jaapv]

There is a reason that the range display has earned the Forum nick-name of guess-o-meter... :twisted: :twisted:

 

[geoffshep69]

Best advice is to forget what the estimated range says, and focus on what you actually get in practice. I drive the same 26 mile round trip every day and I get a very consistent performance out of the car, regardless of whether the initial estimate is 20 or 30. At this time of year I can pretty much do the round trip on pure EV, with the battery empty when I arrive home. If it says 20 in the morning, I don't worry as I know I'll get more than that, if I says 30 I know I wont be able to get that distance from it.

 

[SolarBoy]

There is a reason that the range display has earned the Forum nick-name of guess-o-meter... :twisted: :twisted:

I've given up on the guess-o-meter, haven't looked at it for ages.

The remaining battery meter on the dash Could-Be-A-Lot-Better-Than-It-Is(™), a percentage charge remaining would be more helpful.

I have to go to the MMCS or the app to decide if to recharge. For example, Mobile App has 16 'battery' cells, 3 of those are out right now, so that leaves me with (after grabbing a calculator) 81% charge. Why can't it just say 81%?

Slightly off topic, is it okay to recharge at that 81% or wait till it is lower? I generally don't plug in unless it's a fair bit lower than this.

 

[jaapv]

Basically, for Li-Ion batteries, charging up partially discharged batteries is better than running full discharge/charge cycles, so frequent part-charges are probably to be preferred over running the battery as flat as possible before recharging.
Having said that, reconnecting a (nearly) fully charged battery to attempt to overcharge it is certainly not a good idea.

 

[greendwarf]

What is slightly frustrating is that we don't know how the estimate is calculated.

It is presumably stating that if you continue driving at this rate of discharge you will travel a further X miles. So on my journey into central London (generally downhill & lots of coasting @ 20mph (new limit in Lambeth) the range drops from a starting 26 to about 22 on arrival, whereas going home (i.e. generally uphill) I end up with a mid teens figure. This is fine, as I do this daily, so know what to expect.

However, when I make a less familiar journey the range estimate is not helpful - in particular. do I have enough battery to use the a/c and still arrive without firing up the ICE.

So does anybody know over what period the estimate is recalculated - is it just the last journey, irrespective of duration/distance, or a fixed miles and/or time figure? If we had this info we could interpret the display better.

 

[maby]

What is slightly frustrating is that we don't know how the estimate is calculated.

It is presumably stating that if you continue driving at this rate of discharge you will travel a further X miles. So on my journey into central London (generally downhill & lots of coasting @ 20mph (new limit in Lambeth) the range drops from a starting 26 to about 22 on arrival, whereas going home (i.e. generally uphill) I end up with a mid teens figure. This is fine, as I do this daily, so know what to expect.

However, when I make a less familiar journey the range estimate is not helpful - in particular. do I have enough battery to use the a/c and still arrive without firing up the ICE.

So does anybody know over what period the estimate is recalculated - is it just the last journey, irrespective of duration/distance, or a fixed miles and/or time figure? If we had this info we could interpret the display better.

I think it takes into account usage over a much longer period than that. When we first took delivery of the car, it regularly offered estimates in excess of 30 miles and I usually got around 24 miles. These days, it usually estimates around 22 miles and I generally get close to that. It seemed to take several weeks to adapt to my driving style and pattern of use.

It's possible that it does better if your pattern of use is pretty consistent than it does for drivers with more varied usage. Mine is very consistent - three days per week of short local journeys coming to perhaps 15 miles in total and four days per week away from home doing a 250 mile round trip with no ability to recharge. After close to two years of that pattern of usage, it is pretty accurate for me...

 

[anko]

I think it takes into account usage over a much longer period than that.

I think it is only the latter part of the last trip. Mine is quite consistent (usually between 40 and 45 km). But a single trip ending with a long downhill section can easily produce 80 km or more the next day. As a matter of fact the remaining range may go up to that amount even during that trip as the battery is recharged during the descent.

 

[anko]

However, when I make a less familiar journey the range estimate is not helpful - in particular. do I have enough battery to use the a/c and still arrive without firing up the ICE.

If even you are less familiar with the trip, how can you expect the car to produce a useful number? :mrgreen: