100 Mile Club

[NeilBlanchard]

I finally made a range over 100 miles - 110 miles to be exact! It took a 24.2kWh charge, so the actual wall-to-wheel efficiency was 220Wh/mile or ~4.54 miles/kWh or 153.2MPGe.



I recently also had a 96 mile drive, with nearly as good efficiency. Warmer weather is coming, so the range will tend to get better and better. Today, I am averaging ~5.5-5.6 miles/kWh on the dash.

 

[cove3]

I thought the maximum usable the car could charge was 22.1 for battery safety.

 

[jack8trades]

I thought the maximum usable the car could charge was 22.1 for battery safety.

Since about 15% of the energy is lost in the process of charging, ~21 kWh is what actually got stored in the battery. Neil mentioned wall-to-wheel, so he was factoring charging losses into his overall efficiency, which is why he stated ~4.5 mi/kWh instead of the 5.3 battery-to-wheel that the car reported (i.e. ~20.7 kWh used -- 110/5.3.)

I wonder, Neil, did you charge from the same SoC that you ended up with? (say, the percentage reported by the CarNet web portal? Oh wait, you're probably not using that yet.) Also, have you ever verified that your EVSE is reporting the correct voltage? My Juicebox consistently under-reports by about 5-10 volts now, meaning it reports a slightly lower kW rate than is actually drawn, as well. Conversely, before I did a hard reset to correct it, the voltage was read 30v+ high, resulting in significantly inflated kWh reports. I learned from an emotorwerks engineer that the method the unit uses for measuring voltage is not very accurate, while I believe the amperage is measured much more reliably (which is good because it's the most important as long as it at least knows whether it's on a 120 or 240v circuit.)

BTW, good job! Welcome to the club! :mrgreen:

 

[NeilBlanchard]

The voltage indicated on the JuiceBox Premium is accurate, as far as I can tell. And yes, it charged until full before and after the drive. The charge yesterday was slightly better efficiency, indicated on the dash at 5.4m/kWh. It was 65 miles using 14.2kWh, or ~218Wh/mile or 4.58m/kWh.

 

[oftheseven]

That's awesome. What kind of driving/road conditions were you in? Did you use the HVAC?

 

[NeilBlanchard]

This was over two days, Friday and Saturday, and it was my commute (~26 miles round trip) and errands etc. all on local roads and state highways. Speeds are up to 45MPH, typically. And no HVAC was used, or needed. Some was at night, and stereo was on almost all the time. I drive in D with as much coasting as possible, and regen levels used as needed to slow down, or limit speed down a steep hill. We do have somewhat hilly areas, but nothing too steep, really. Air temps were as cool as the mid 40's, and mostly in the 50's and low 60's. Warmer air has noticeably less drag, so coasting improves and power needed to maintain speed also drops.

I drive with traffic, at or only slightly above posted limits, and I am a well practiced ecodriver. I know these roads well, and I try to use that to my advantage. I have the tires inflated to ~50PSI, but they still are not as good coasting as our Leaf. Even though the Leaf (seems) to use more energy to charge (at about 21.5% above the dash readout) it still is slightly better wall-to-wheels efficiency.

 

[vetaldj]

Great job!

I have 56 miles round trip but since I've got my HOV access I can't come even close to 100. Doing average 75-80 miles/h taking lots of charge...

Is that for real you have 1 mile left till charge? That would make me little bit nervous, just a little bit when I see that on my dash

 

[TEConnor]

First time poster...new eGolf-er.

I had a 102 mile run this past week (my second day in the car) with ~ 8 mi left on estimated charge. Day-time drive. Temps were mid-60s, low-70s, so no AC needed. Roughly 2/3rds freeway driving (~60 mph, drafting for much) and the rest city driving (medium traffic with significant hills). Played music and chatted some through bluetooth. In addition to the drafting (comfortable distance behind big-rigs), I attempted to utilize Drive unless deceleration was anticipated, then I downshifted through the regenerative modes progressively to a (near) stop when necessary. The last few miles were in Eco+ mode (by default), but thankfully that was my downhill stretch with ample coasting and regen opportunities. Charge got to ~ 6 mi left with a few miles still to go, but with nearly uninterrupted regen and coasting for final few miles the counter went back up to the 8 mile reading at the end. Unfortunately, I didn't think to snap a photo. Next time! Also, sorry I do not have charging data. I've got the Siemens Universal Level 2, but no way at the moment to measure true output kWh. However, my beginning charge level was 98% according to Car-Net. Nominally, that would be just about a 4.9 mi / kWh battery rate and a 4.3 rate including charging losses.

Cheers,
Tim

P.S. Thanks for the forum, which I read in great detail before deciding between the eGolf and Leaf a few weeks ago. Test drove both, like eGolf more. But I'm partial to VWs, as my first purchased car was a 1990 Wolfsburg Jetta...still my favorite car ever. Happy to be back in a VW, especially this one (leasing a blue Limited eGolf).

 

[cove3]

You don't have to change out of D. Using the brake will give you the same regen as B or D1-3

Ron

 

[NeilBlanchard]

Is that for real you have 1 mile left till charge? That would make me little bit nervous, just a little bit when I see that on my dash

It was 2 miles when I rolled in the driveway, and it only dropped to 1 as I sat there getting my phone out to take the picture. I knew I was fine, because I drove the same exact route an hour earlier; though I forgot to shut the !@#$%^&* HVAC off and lost a mile of range before I caught it, on the drive home.

Good job Tim, and welcome to the forum!

 

[tdkman2]

That's pretty cool.

I've been charging the car at work usually, but I'm going to have to see if I can also join the 100-Mile Club, and get a picture of that turtle in the display as well!

 

[NeilBlanchard]

I did exactly 100 miles yesterday:



The overall efficiency was not quite as good as the earlier 110 mile drive. It was 225Wh/mile vs 220Wh/m, and this is where we should probably compare how we are are doing.

I wish that this forum had an energy log aka garage, similar to what they have on EcoModder.com.

 

[TEConnor]

You don't have to change out of D. Using the brake will give you the same regen as B or D1-3

Ron

Ron,

Thanks for your input. I read in detail the thread and fair debate about whether or not there are differences between downshifting through the regen modes, riding in one mode continuously, or running through fully in D. I gathered that the jury is still out and there were cogent arguments from either camp. Thankfully, this site is very cordial and the discussions seemed like folks having a good debate over a few beers.

I'm still trying all of this out. I'm open minded. I will keep your advice in mind. However, I'm a tinkerer and a bit fidgety. I've always had manual transmissions as well, so I kind of have to do something to stay interested in driving. Hence, while I get that it seems possible to get equivalent regen through simple D driving, my mind wants to believe that I can shift my way and use 'anticipatory' driving to do better. Probably a habit I won't quit without someone screaming at me to stop from the passenger seat.

Cheers,
Tim

 

[miimura]

This is the good thing about the e-Golf. You have user selectable levels of regen when the accelerator is released. The easy changing of the levels, or "recuperation modes" on the shift lever is icing on the cake since you can change it as driving conditions change. Most EVs only have D and B, or you have to dig in the settings to change the regen level. The only way they could make the e-Golf better is to use shift paddles to change the regen levels. I understand there were prototypes with that feature.

It doesn't have to be a religious argument, with the e-Golf you can have it your way!

 

[preilly44]

I had 111 miles when I picked up the car from VW yesterday (new firmware being installed). 111 miles wasn't even in Eco+ mode!

 

[miimura]

I had 111 miles when I picked up the car from VW yesterday (new firmware being installed). 111 miles wasn't even in Eco+ mode!

The point of this thread is to show that the car can actually travel 100 miles, not that the car can be tricked into telling you the range is over 100 miles. There is a big difference.

 

[TEConnor]

Drove the eGolf Ltd up to 100 miles again on a single charge. This time, I snapped a photo:

The max charge was set to 98% (~ 23.72 kWh nominally, so ~ 20.6 kWh effective charge). Net efficiency of 5.1 mi/kWh (as seen in photo). Effective efficiency likely came out around 4.4 mi/kWh. Now that Car-Net is working (thanks to the 12V disconnect trick!), I've defaulted the max charge to 98% (having read multiple places that the last 2% charge can lessen battery life somewhat). Most of the driving was hilly, moderate to heavy traffic in the city (hence the 16 mph avg). Temps were generally warm, ranging from 70s to 90+ for highs. Ran light AC for ~ 1/3 the trip (set at 77 deg F/Auto, which feels cooler, imo). Listened to a lot BT audio and charged the phone pretty regularly. I'd guess that the AC and other battery use reduced the range by ~ 5 miles cumulatively.

Saw the turtle just as I turned up a very steep hill toward our house, then disappeared. Nothing special about the driving. Did a mix of D, regen downshifting, and a lot of coasting. Tires at 45 psi for most of trip.

Cheers,
Tim

 

[cove3]

I'm getting 5.0 m/kwh pretty regularly with careful driving. I'm thinking the egolf should be thought of as a 100 mile car. The i3 forum guys are complaining about the range they're getting, but I rarely see complaints on this board

Ron

 

[jack8trades]

I'm getting 5.0 m/kwh pretty regularly with careful driving. I'm thinking the egolf should be thought of as a 100 mile car. The i3 forum guys are complaining about the range they're getting, but I rarely see complaints on this board

Ron

I checked out the BMW forum, and the threads I saw related to driving range in the range section pretty much petered off after the weather began warming up. I suspect the i3 is a bit more susceptible to cold weather, and might also have a less reliable Guess-o-Meter (GoM -- their term )

 

[Unbeliever]

Guess-o-Meter (GoM -- their term )

It's a pretty universal term, applied to all cars. Including here.