EV charging only to 28 miles, dropped from 32-33 miles

I doesn't matter what the GOM says unless it happens to be right. What's your actual range? My GOM is almost never right. Either high or low, but not right. My car is the same age as yours, but with half the miles. And I've only had it 11 months.

In fact, range isn't even the right metric. How many kWhs does it take to charge it when EV is depleted. That's the measure of capacity. Range is the measure of capacity, weather, speed, and stopping habits all jumbled together.

 

Yeah, but you cheat!!

Edit to add. I'll be checking my capacity in the morning. I reset my kWh meter because I'm only showing about 0.1 mile of EV. Close enough to depleted for me.

 

I drive about 20 miles on EV every day and use about 60% of EV SOC. That means my real EV range for a full charge is about 33 miles (20/0.6) right now in the middle of the coldest part of winter. That is much longer than what I got in my first two winters and is about the same range as I get in the summertime.

 

That's outstanding!!

 

Differences are in EV/HV distribution. Last winter I was driving contiguous ~20miles range EV mode every day but all in one stretch using all 100% of EV SOC during my ~35 miles commuting. This forced me to use a heat pump as a heat source during EV mode drive resulting in over 20% A/C load ratio and very low ~3miles/kWh EV efficiency.


This winter, I am mixing HV and EV during all distance of my ~35 miles commuting. Using gas engine as a primary heat source and keeping EV mode in a stretch of flat road and downhills. The result is about the same 20 miles of EV mode drive but much higher efficiency and very low A/C load.

 

maybe june, but probably earlier in va. around 70 degrees.

no one gets the same ev miles year round, unless the temp is relatively stabile

 

32 or 33 (ave 32.5) to 27 or 28 (ave 27.5) is a drop of ~15%
Colder air means colder tires, lower tire air pressure (check this) and higher air resistance.
Colder means you may be using the heater and/or seat heaters.
Winter means you are likely using headlights more.
Colder air means the battery doesn't take as big of a charge.
Winter may mean more days with rain and snow.

If each thing is just a couple of percent that explains a lot of it.

Also how long you charge has nothing to do with it. The battery takes what it wants then shuts off. When it is colder the number of kwh used goes down. Is your watt-hours per mile the same?

Mike

 

Are you still not seeing the typical 6.2 - 6.3 kWh from 0% to 100% charge?

Could it be that the meter is defective? Did you try different public chargers?

As for the OP, I would suggest driving with the HVAC off to see what happens.

 

The garage was 53° F this morning when I left and the outside air was 40° F. My meter said the car took 5.958 kWh to charge from 0.1 miles EV to 100%. I'd say that so far, it's holding up well. I hadn't been recording these, but I'm starting now and hoping I can find some record of previous checks. I do remember some being over 6 kWh, but those were fully depleted and then a little and they were in the summer which is probably not really much of a factor.

Even at a mere 40° F this morning, I could see the difference in m/kWh coming to work. Normally, I'd get about 5.5-5.8 on a typical 70° morning. Today was just 5.1 m/kWh and that's without using any climate control except about five minutes of fan on the windshield.

That's really cool. The bottom line for me is cost per mile. Have you tracked how that works out with your area's upside down electricity/gas price ratio? My seat-of-the-pants guess is that it's close to even.

 

Before last summer, I was driving continuous EV mode to deplete my EV range each day. I had lifetime EV efficiency (shown on DM2) of 4.5 miles/kWh. At that time, the life time cost/mile was $0.048/mile for EV and $0.045/mile for HV at ODO reading @28189miles with average $0.046/mile combined.

Since then, I changed my driving habit to mix HV and EV intermittently to increase EV efficiency. I now have lifetime EV efficiency (shown on DM2) of 5.1 miles/kWh. With this increased EV efficiency, the current cost/mile is $0.043/mile for EV and $0.047/mile for HV at ODO reading @37903miles with average $0.045/mile combined. Yeah, I lowered HV mpg a little bit by doing this, but overall cost/mile is down. That's all it counts.

 

Don't forget winter blend electricity.

 

What is that? I've heard of winter blend gas before... but electricity? Oh, I get it... It's just a joke. LOL

 

Lower temperatures also means the transmission fluid and wheel bearing grease will be thicker, and take longer to warm up.

 

Yeah, this morning low was below zero and my commute temperature never got above 10F. I tried to mix EV mode once the gas engine warmed up and provided enough heat for the cabin, but all attempts to keep the car in EV mode longer than a few miles resulted in gas engine firing. I did end up with great AC load (1%) and great EV efficiency 8.6miles/kWh, although overall mpg was waaaay down to 56.2mpg.

 

it can't be any of those things, they make too much sense. i got a lemon

 

My Dodge Ram crewcab was consistently getting 15-16mpg but then in November it dropped to only 8mpg, it does this every year must be a problem

 

Yeah - brutal commute for me too. The temp was 5 when I left and only got above 10 as I got to work.

 

Most cars lose 10-15% of their mpg with winter gas. Your truck is an outlier.

 

Nice. I figured it was close, but it's great that it's on the good side of even.