EV range in Winter?

[Sailordoc]

Hi all. Got my PHEV in the Spring, and have a 28 mile round trip commute to work. To date it has managed this in EV mode, but with the weather starting to get cooler I'm wondering what the effect of lower temps will be on battery charging and EV range. So what reduction in range can I expect as we head into Winter? I can pre-heat whilst plugged in to the mains, but even so I guess heating will chew through EV range pretty quickly?

 

[maby]

I reckon I'm doing well to get 16 miles in January - but I only get about 22 in the summer.

 

[jaapv]

28 miles is quite ambitious in winter. Something like 20-23 is morerealistic. But that is not too bad, really.

 

[david1972]

What jaapv said

 

[elm70]

28 miles is quite ambitious in winter. Something like 20-23 is morerealistic. But that is not too bad, really.

I'm doing ~24miles with temperature around 0deg .. so .. it sound my battery are quite in a good shape :?:

I'm wandering if you get these figure with all E "gadgets" off ... like heating (which would turn on ICE at 0deg anyhow)

I have to say ... so far, I did not seen any difference in range when temp was around 10/13 deg compared to now with 0 deg .. so ... not sure on summer a miracle range may happen.

What I notice .. is that on cold weather, if car stand still for few hours (without charging), at the restart the range is increase even by 10km ...

Per my understanding in cold weather the internal resistance of Lithium battery is higher, so there is less peak power, but amount of energy is the same (if battery is discharged slow) .. also higher resistance cause lower voltage under load, and this can be understood by the car as lower SOC ... as well .. the 25/30% SOC level that kick in ICE ... due to higher resistance could be "misunderstood" by the car ECU

 

[geoffshep69]

My daily round trip is 26 miles, can do that in pure EV in the summer with maybe 1 or 2 miles range left.

Right now, I am getting anything between 17 -23 miles depending on how cold it gets and how much I use the electric heater. I always preheat, but on very cold days the car cools down quickly so after the first few miles I pretty much have the heating on constantly. On less cold days, I can go a bit further before turning on the heating, and I can also turn it on and off from time to time which also extends range slightly.

I have the heated seats on virtually all the time, but I dont know how much current they draw and what impact they have on range.

 

[user 816]

I think heated seats come in the 45 to 100 watt range so are pretty negligible to use, roughly about the same as 1 headlight bulb. I do find pre-heating helps a lot too.

 

[elm70]

Forgot to mention my 24miles winter range is without any E "gadget" .. only heated seats used, but no heating in the car since at 0 deg there is no way to heat the car without start the ICE

I'm using pre-heat the car (10min from MMCS), which cause to lose 1 or 2 miles of range .. my power line for charge the car is programmed to use cheap hours, which means there is no charger active while pre-heat happen in the morning (which does only help to win ~5 deg over outside temperature .. so mainly for avoid to scratch away ice from windows and avoid sub zero temperature in the car

 

[anko]

I think heated seats come in the 45 to 100 watt range so are pretty negligible to use, roughly about the same as 1 headlight bulb. I do find pre-heating helps a lot too.

Good thinking :mrgreen: From my tools, I have learned they consume 70 watts max each. 140 Wh per hour, so after one hour of max toasting you would loose about half a mile. But at the same time, I believe there is some sort of thermostat causing the power consumption to go down after a while.

 

[anko]

..., but no heating in the car since at 0 deg there is no way to heat the car without start the ICE

There is. Either via pre heating or via the PHEV box. I had my heater set to 21 deg C during 25 - 30 minutes of driving before the ICE kicked in (I made it kick in, BTW).

With proper pre-heating this should also work without PHEV box.

 

[Fecn]

I'm currently getting around 22 miles range on the way into work... which 18 miles away over the Surrey hills, ending up 600ft lower in altitude than at the start of the journey. On the way back home I'm only just managing the 18 miles. Those numbers are with 20 mins pre-heat before I set out... cabin temperature set at 21C and aircon on for the whole journey. The commute is around 6 miles of motorway speeds, 8 miles of 60 limit single-carriageways and the rest in 30mph zones.

 

[Steepndeep]

Well it is possible to run the car on Electrical heater only, in winter if you preheat. I find preheat for 10 min is sufficient around 5 C outside, 20 minutes preheat around -2 outside. The problem is that you need to preserve the heat in the car while driving, actually to have warm air around the sensor, not only around your head. I find that manual fan setting of 5 "blips" on the heater preserves the heat, 4 "blips" barely and 3 definately not. In fact preheating the car and then running the fan on 2 "blips" caused the ICE to start after 15 minutes driving with plenty of SOC in battery. Again a mysterious implementation by Mitsubishi.

With the winter being quite warm and humid right now I would like to run the car on lowest fan setting to defog front and side windows and will be comfortable in the car with seat and steering heat. That would maximize EV range but is impossible as the "brain" decides after 15 minutes that it needs to start the ICE. :evil:

 

[geoffshep69]

Well it is possible to run the car on Electrical heater only, in winter if you preheat. I find preheat for 10 min is sufficient around 5 C outside, 20 minutes preheat around -2 outside. The problem is that you need to preserve the heat in the car while driving, actually to have warm air around the sensor, not only around your head. I find that manual fan setting of 5 "blips" on the heater preserves the heat, 4 "blips" barely and 3 definately not. In fact preheating the car and then running the fan on 2 "blips" caused the ICE to start after 15 minutes driving with plenty of SOC in battery. Again a mysterious implementation by Mitsubishi.

With the winter being quite warm and humid right now I would like to run the car on lowest fan setting to defog front and side windows and will be comfortable in the car with seat and steering heat. That would maximize EV range but is impossible as the "brain" decides after 15 minutes that it needs to start the ICE. :evil:

Thats not something I have ever experienced. If I preheat, and then start driving the car with the heating on, I have never had the ICE kick in. I keep it around 19-20C, and I dont bother to play with the fan speed I just leave it in Auto. Even on my daily commute, which can be 45+ minutes at busy times, the ICE has never come on to provide additional heating.