Help with Battery/Range Degradation

[jonwitt]

Hi VW e-golf Community,

I’m Jon, a PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering specializing in electrochemistry at the University of Washington. I’m working with folks at a new company in Seattle, Recurrent, with a goal of helping electric vehicle (EV) buyers understand the battery health and range of used electric cars. We are developing machine learning algorithms to predict future battery life and range across all major EV models.

Here’s where I need your help. We’re assembling a group of current EV drivers/enthusiasts who are willing to share anonymous access to their battery range and state of charge data over time in a variety of weather and driving conditions. While we have plenty of Tesla, Chevy and Nissan data, we need more VW e-golf volunteers to share their vehicle data. To participate, you’ll need an active subscription to Volkswagen Car-Net (Safety + Security or VW Remote) and have a 2015 or later model. It’s automatic, no work on your end.

Here’s the signup link and FAQ. A nice added bonus: you’ll get a free monthly battery analytics report as we build up our comparative data.

So if you drive an EV and really want everyone else to drive an EV in the future, please consider volunteering your data. Let me know if I can answer any questions about the program or the company.

Jon Witt
Linked In

 

[2016golfse]

We are developing machine learning algorithms to predict future battery life and range across all major EV models.

Why would I ever want to use an algorithm to PREDICT future battery life, when it would be far more accurate to actually MEASURE the battery's state of health via Leaf Spy, OBDEleven, etc.?

 

[f1geek]

Sure, I understand you don’t need to predict when you can just measure, but if this researcher can not get access to every single EV and perform a measurement, an algorithm could serve a valuable need.

 

[pezzy669]

Registered - looking forward to help and for the battery reports.

 

[somethingcool]

Interesting business model. I'm curious if you're just pulling the car reported SOC or the actual charge/capacity data pulled from the CAN bus?
I'm thinking you're missing a lot of relevant data like temperature and number of fast charges, but I suppose that's what the machine learning is for. Good luck, I'll throw some data your way.

 

[jonwitt]

Thanks for the help y'all!

Regarding measuring with an OBD, I think f1geek articulated well how I see it.

 

[f1geek]

Out of curiosity, which VW e-Golf BMS parameter(s) will be used to track usable capacity?

thank you!

 

[jonwitt]

The data is VIN, current odometer, current state of charge, current charging status and current range estimate. Recurrent will typically make these data requests 1-3 times per day to build up a historical profile.

 

[f1geek]

Ok. So it sounds like you are not really getting detailed BMS data from this capture. Unfortunately, the GOM (range estimate) will vary based on local vs highway driving (efficient vs non-efficient driving, and HVAC usage also changes the GOM reading). Maybe you have some way of accounting for this? You should also probably pull average efficiency data so you can correct for efficiency. If you are used to using range estimates from a Tesla, you may not realize that the e-golf GOM is very variable based on consumption. I have been told the Tesla GOM can be insensitive to driving habits until much lower states of charge are reached as compared to the e-Golf GOM, which, for example can gain or lose ~20% range by merely turning on the A/C and changing driving mode from Normal or Eco (this morning when I turned on the car, it said 115 miles range based on yesterday's driving but when I put it into ECO mode and turned off the A/C, it said 140 miles of range).

Maybe you have already considered these factors?

 

[Spektre]

I got an invitation to sign up in my email, but unfortunately Car-Net is required for me to participate. Sorry, not paying for that stinking dumpster fire of an app.

Good luck to you guys!

 

[JoulesThief]

I got an invitation to sign up in my email, but unfortunately Car-Net is required for me to participate. Sorry, not paying for that stinking dumpster fire of an app.

Good luck to you guys!

Agreed, wholeheartedly on Car-Net. Stupid amount of money for nothing at all.

 

[jonwitt]

Hey VW Community,
Good news! We have had over 2500 volunteers join since the start of the study! We still have plenty more Tesla, Chevy, and Nissan Leafs than we do VW eGolfs, so there is still a great opportunity to join the study. I hope you will consider!

In mid-2021, we will start publishing aggregate learnings from the study and wil come back and share those in this forum.

Best,
Jon Witt