Any e-golf owners in Arizona?

[rhmt]

case in point - charged overnight, started this morning with 117 miles estimated range
drove 54 miles (highway, mostly in eco mode)
car says my average economy is 3.9 miles/kwh
current range now shows only 44 miles! should be 63 right?

what gives?

thanks all.

 

[Spektre]

case in point - charged overnight, started this morning with 117 miles estimated range
drove 54 miles (highway, mostly in eco mode)
car says my average economy is 3.9 miles/kwh
current range now shows only 44 miles! should be 63 right?

what gives?

thanks all.

So the 117 miles was based on your last estimated avg economy - whatever it was right before charging. The new range is based on the avg economy you achieved during your 54 mile drive. My guess would be that you get slightly better avg economy on your way home than you do on your way to work?

 

[rhmt]

actually, average economy was about equal. 3.9 to 4.0 miles/kwh each way.

 

[JoulesThief]

actually, average economy was about equal. 3.9 to 4.0 miles/kwh each way.

You are driving too fast, and running the AC too hard. Set cruise at 55 MPH and set Air Temp at 77. Keep in mind, you live in PHX, humidity is attrocious right now, as are ambient temps.

IMHO, with the way people in PHX drive 80 MPH with the AC blasting, on any of the Freeways around PHX, an e-Golf is a terrible choice. Even on surface streets, people drive 60 -70 MPH. That's just too much for an e-Golf, IMHO. The miles are long, and every one drives fast in AZ.... I think a far better choice for you would have been a Golf, Jetta, or Passat TDI, if you wanted to stay in a VW or any model Toyota or Scion.

An e-Golf is an urban crawler, should be driven like a tortoise around town, on city streets, not freeways, if you want max miles per kWh. It's not a greyhoud or a cheetah, that you can run fast on county roads, freeways or interstates, the battery just doesn't store that much energy for any kind of range.

Sounds to me like you'll be piling on the miles on your e-Golf, 500-550 miles per week? Don't think it's going to last very long for you, you're running that battery hard all spring, summer and fall, along with the AC. Overnight recharge it and don't use the DCFC feature unless it's an absolute emergency. DCFC in the heat you have there will kill the battery quickly, spring, summer and fall.

 

[rhmt]

thanks - i hear all of your points jt.

but i can’t imagine vw would think we wouldn’t drive the car on highways. do others agree with this?

just wondering if maybe i should get my battery checked out - only had the car for a month.

thanks all!

 

[JoulesThief]

thanks - i hear all of your points jt.

but i can’t imagine vw would think we wouldn’t drive the car on highways. do others agree with this?

just wondering if maybe i should get my battery checked out - only had the car for a month.

thanks all!

They didn't offer it for sale in AZ... that might be one of your signs, or, NV or TX or MI or FL. They do offer it in the North East, and some West Coast states, but probably 70% or more of all e-Golfs are sold in CA.

One other typical sign... VW offers 7500 mile/yr and 10,000 mile yr leases on these, which is really what they want to put you in, a lease.

Last sign... Almost any German car will have a speedometer where when the needle is straight up pointing at 12 o'clock, that's where the optimum cruising speed is. It's 80 mph /130kmh on my Passat, and any other model that VW makes. It's 100 mph /160 kmh on my Touareg. It's 50 mph /80 kmh on my e-Golf. It's been this was with VDO gauges in VW's, Audi's and Porsches since my 1967 Beetle. You can run a VW all day long, up and down, with the speedo needle straight up. Go beyond that, and you are on your own.

Don't try to justify 80 mph as acceptable, when you are getting even less range per recharge than the window sticker says.

Good luck with your e-Golf, I really feel you're going to need it. You'll be dealing with a warranty void on that battery pack, is my guess.

 

[Spektre]

thanks - i hear all of your points jt.

but i can’t imagine vw would think we wouldn’t drive the car on highways. do others agree with this?

just wondering if maybe i should get my battery checked out - only had the car for a month.

thanks all!

They didn't offer it for sale in AZ... that might be one of your signs, or, NV or TX or MI or FL. They do offer it in the North East, and some West Coast states, but probably 70% or more of all e-Golfs are sold in CA.

One other typical sign... VW offers 7500 mile/yr and 10,000 mile yr leases on these, which is really what they want to put you in, a lease.

Last sign... Almost any German car will have a speedometer where when the needle is straight up pointing at 12 o'clock, that's where the optimum cruising speed is. It's 80 mph /130kmh on my Passat, and any other model that VW makes. It's 100 mph /160 kmh on my Touareg. It's 50 mph /80 kmh on my e-Golf. It's been this was with VDO gauges in VW's, Audi's and Porsches since my 1967 Beetle. You can run a VW all day long, up and down, with the speedo needle straight up. Go beyond that, and you are on your own.

Don't try to justify 80 mph as acceptable, when you are getting even less range per recharge than the window sticker says.

Good luck with your e-Golf, I really feel you're going to need it. You'll be dealing with a warranty void on that battery pack, is my guess.

Most of the time I try to ignore old JT, charming curmudgeon that he is, but sometimes, ya just gotta say something.

The eGolf is sold in CARB states. Period. AZ, FL, TX, NV are not CARB states. Parts of California are just as hot as AZ, and yet the car is still sold there.

VW offers leases with these annual miles on all their vehicles, so not sure what the point of this statement is.

The eGolf is sold in Germany. While the days of the unrestricted Autobahn have mostly gone away, I defy you to tell me that people aren't routinely driving the recommended speed in most places, which happens to be 130kmh(81mph).

So, rhmt, you can pretty much ignore JT like the rest of us do. He has his particular way of driving that works for him, he does achieve commendable efficiency with his eGolf, and I'm sure it will last him a long time. But I didn't buy my car to baby and pamper it, I bought it to DRIVE it, and I do nearly every day at 80mph with the AC on and the outside temp over 110F. It's fit for that purpose just fine. :lol:

 

[rhmt]

my thoughts exactly.
thanks!!!

 

[JoulesThief]

my thoughts exactly.
thanks!!!

Then don't bitch about the limited range on a charge! I consider your driving style on an e-Golf abusive. Buy a Tesla with active battery cooling instead.

You've been advised. You also need to understand that boards like this are for the most part proliferated with abusers of their cars, in the name of "sport" or "fun". Speed costs, how fast you want to go, how badly do you want warranty coverage. Know that VW is tracking your battery consumption rates, and if they can weasel out of any type of warranty work, they will. You will then find out the price of "German Engineering" when something breaks on your e-Golf. I promise you... you'll be crying with how expensive it is to fix. You'll also be crying with how long it takes to get parts from Germany for your e-Golf. And you'll be crying no one in AZ is properly trained to repair of fix it. VW is pretty fed up with America after CARB and dieselgate. Don't expect a lot of support, or support in a timely manner.

 

[rhmt]

wasn’t bitching. just asking others about their experiences.

 

[JoulesThief]

wasn’t bitching. just asking others about their experiences.

When you come to an enthusiasts BB, you can't expect to get the full gamut of answers. Why don't you ask VW engineers instead, or someone at VW that's at the R&D lab, for what intended use is of the e-Golf. Distances traveled in Europe are a LOT shorter than distances in the USA in the southwest. VW never designs their Golfs for the American market, certainly not the Southwest. They regularly TORTURE their cars in the summer time for testing in AZ and in Death Valley, CA. Those are TORTURE tests, not regular day in and day out driving in such extremes, several years on end. You should know that chemically, with the temps in AZ, TX and FL, it kills batteries, at an exceedingly fast rate. While VW isn't showing their details like Nissan did, Nissan Leafs in AZ roasted their battery life in the heat out there. If you have a way to defy battery chemistry, and the effects high heat has on the way chemical reactions occur, and how it shortens the life of them, great, lets hear it. I haven't heard of any chemistry breakthroughs on Li ion cells and whether their maximum storage temperatures have been increased, lately.

Most of the desert in CA is not heavily populated. VW sells 95 % + of their e-Golfs in CA in densely urban populated areas rather close to the coast and the ocean, where the temps are more moderated. People that live out in the sticks and with long distances to drive are hardly ever buying e-Golfs.

Learn more, educate yourself, next time, before you buy! http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/bu_808b_what_causes_li_ion_to_die


Current observations are that the FASTER you discharge the battery, the shorter it's longevity or life. Tesla has overcome this by going with much larger capacity batteries that now run at a C .25 discharge rate, or 4 hours of usage for a full discharge. If you are in theory doing 3.9 miles per kwh with 32 kW available, you are pretty close to a C . 68 discharge rate, about 2.5 x as fast as a Tesla discharge, with a battery that has passive cooling. All those factors add up.

 

[rhmt]

new mexico is a carb state. gets pretty hot there.

 

[srue]

Off-topic but relevant to this thread: here's a friendly tip for improving your experience here.

You can ignore a user by going to their profile and clicking "Add foe" under their name.

For example, if you were tired to JT's irascibility, you could click on this link to add him to your ignore list. (It gives you a chance to confirm/cancel.) While it is very unfortunate that such means are necessary, my personal experience has been greatly improved since I did so.

 

[JoulesThief]

Off-topic but relevant to this thread: here's a friendly tip for improving your experience here.

You can ignore a user by going to their profile and clicking "Add foe" under their name.

For example, if you were tired to JT's irascibility, you could click on this link to add him to your ignore list. (It gives you a chance to confirm/cancel.) While it is very unfortunate that such means are necessary, my personal experience has been greatly improved since I did so.

Indeed, Ignorance is Bliss. Should be noted the OP PM'd me asking my opinion, also. Because putting on blinders doesn't help you see the big picture, or be objective. Especially as a Newbie with 3 whole posts.

 

[JoulesThief]

wasn’t bitching. just asking others about their experiences.

You were asking for support of your position on your driving style being acceptable, in the climate you are in. There's no long term conclusive results in, other than on Nissan Leaf's, and AZ heat wipes out the batteries pretty quickly on those, Nissan has eaten a lot of warranties on Leafs owned, leased or operated in the AZ desert. Unless you can prove VW's batteries behave differently or otherwise, in those kind of temperatures, the only benchmark for passively cooled batteries is the results on the Nissan Leaf. That's it, for historical data.

Regarding NM, it was only recently added as a CARB state. It's not one of the original 10 when VW was selling 2015 or 2016 e-Golfs. Maybe you should have bought your e-Golf from NM, surely there's tons of them for sale there.

 

[rhmt]

here’s my original post *******. sound like i’m asking for support of my position? i think we’ve heard enough of your opinion here. i’m interested in others’.


just bought a 2017 egolf and love it (i live in phoenix). interested to hear if others here have noticed any significant loss of battery capacity as a result of the heat.

thanks!

 

[Image7801]

Hello everyone - Just procured a 2017 e-Golf SEL. The vehicle (as near as I can determine) was a VW corporate car (never actually titled), and has 5,500 miles on it. I’m very excited because I really wanted an SEL (Please spare me the “SEL is a waste of money” lecture ), but couldn’t find one locally (until last week). I live in the North Valley and will be using it to commute to downtown Phoenix. I am getting a Level 2 charger (Siemens) installed at home this week, so I can actually start driving it to work. I’m going to hold off on participating in any heat-related discussions until I can see for myself this Summer how things progress. I am a little curious about how the A/C will affect battery life, and whether the heat pump technology improves the A/C energy use or just the heat.

 

[user 1060]

Thanks for checking in Image7801. Looking forward to your summer update! I'd also like to hear your thoughts on the Siemens EVSE.

 

[RonDawg]

I’m very excited because I really wanted an SEL (Please spare me the “SEL is a waste of money” lecture

Actually, it's not. The SEL's biggest advantage over the SE, besides CCS Quick Charging and up to 7.2 kW L2 charging as standard equipment, is the heat pump heater. The SE, even with the QC package, has a more energy intensive heater. As Phoenix's winter lows are in the 40's, the heat pump is perfect for that area.

At least for the US market, if you want the heat pump, you have to go with the SEL. You also get nicer LED headlamps vs. the halogens of the SE. My Alltrack has the halogens and the light out of them isn't as nice as the LEDs of my eGolf SEL.

 

[Spektre]

Hello everyone - Just procured a 2017 e-Golf SEL. The vehicle (as near as I can determine) was a VW corporate car (never actually titled), and has 5,500 miles on it. I’m very excited because I really wanted an SEL (Please spare me the “SEL is a waste of money” lecture ), but couldn’t find one locally (until last week). I live in the North Valley and will be using it to commute to downtown Phoenix. I am getting a Level 2 charger (Siemens) installed at home this week, so I can actually start driving it to work. I’m going to hold off on participating in any heat-related discussions until I can see for myself this Summer how things progress. I am a little curious about how the A/C will affect battery life, and whether the heat pump technology improves the A/C energy use or just the heat.

Welcome to the club Image7801! I wouldn't have bought my 2015 if it hadn't been an SEL - I hate having that feeling of regret when settling for less than you wanted.

My experience has been that using the heat is much more of a drag on the battery than the AC. The last few mornings I've gone out and 'started' (LOL) the car, turned both seat heaters on full and the heat to high with the car still plugged in. It pulls ~7A @ 240V from the wall charger like that - seems like a lot of juice! The AC pulls only a fraction of that power.

When I was shopping for an EVSE, I looked at all the usual suspects and ended up with the 40A Deluxe OpenEVSE kit. I liked the style, the configurability, and the ability to repair/replace parts should anything ever fail in it.

See you on the roads!