declining range

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revakh

New member
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
Messages
3
my car is 3.5 months old. the range has dropped from 80miles to about 65 on a charge. It seems to happen right away and continue thru the whole charge.
It has been cool but not all that cold, around 50degrees in the AM, 60s in the afternoon. Adding the miles driven to the remainder was only 65miles [40 driven, 25 left]. When i started this morning it read 82 and then started dropping immediately. It seems to drop 2 miles of range for every mile driven.
Settings E with D- for regenerative braking.

Note it did not do this 2 weeks ago.

Anyone else notice this??
 
Reverend,

Assuming all is unchanged, i.e. your settings, your trips, your driving style, etc., then it can only be the temperature change or something wrong. What is the overnight lows, 40s? Your symptoms indicate a cold battery especially your comment about immediate noticeable drop. See other posts as to strategies to warm up the car before driving.

BTW, mine drops from 65 to 35 when the cold really hits as I park outside overnight. I have reserved a monthly indoor spot for Jan-March to address this rather than constantly having to recharge during the week at a commercial charger.

Doctor JR
 
IMHO, D- is not good for economy, D+ is better
What in-cabin temp is set to? Heater consumes a lot of energy.
When is energy is most consumed, highway or city?

Also, do not forget to check tire pressure, it drops with cold.
 
I have my first service today
will update everyone on what I find.

to answer the questions, tires are fine, yes it has been cool, around 40d
cabin temp set at 75
although the defroster works great for heating the cabin, then I shut it off
 
Running the heater will kill your range, set it to 70 max, or do as I do and wear a jacket, I made it last week from San Jose to San Francisco and back, round trip 104 miles with no heat.
 
Sounds normal. Anything below 50 degrees is "cold" to an EV. Range is not much better from 50-65 degrees. Over 65 degrees is when the range starts getting good. 85-90 degrees is the sweet spot. Rain hurts range, more friction, and windshield washer motors. And the heater -- it's mostly the cabin heater and the battery heater using up hundreds -- actually thousands of watts. The cabin heater can be turned off, but the heating system for the battery pack cannot be turned off.

Ignore the range meter, reset all settings and pay attention to the From Start menu XX mpkWh. After about 25 miles driven, 2.5 - 2.7 mpkWh is pretty good, 2.0 - 2.4 mpkWh not so great. Use range charge when necessary. Worst scenario would be 72-75 miles range on range charge. 65-68 miles range on regular 28 kW charge.
 
Here is the promised update.
overnight temps are in the high 50's
I shut off the heater
I now get 83-85 miles per charge

Starting to play with not running the lights [during the day!] and trying the E+ setting.

Will experiment with the D- regenerative charging, but so far this does not seem to make much of a difference.

the heater is a battery sucker, at least 10 - 15 miles per charge
 
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