The Lie O Meter, new high?

[JoulesThief]

Today was one of the rare days that I fully recharged my battery. Range went from 53 miles to 130 miles in 2 hours and 20 minutes. Charge speed worked out to 32.5 miles added per hour, at a Whole Foods store, where I had some coffee, and got ICE'd by a handicapped old lady in a Eldorado Cadillac that parked so close to me that I could not get my door open to get in... forced to wait until she finished shopping and backed out safely. Put 17 miles on it coming back home, showing 113 miles for range now... not topped off is how I like to store it overnight.

Question, has anyone seen an estimated range of 130 miles showing? I am averaging 5.5 to 5.7 miles per kwh between recharges, but I've always seen 129 Mile on the Lie O meter as max.

 

[bizzle]

Ours is at 130 right now.

 

[JoulesThief]

OK, thanks Bizzle, you have a fresh off the boat 2016 SE with a fresh as a daisy battery, I'll take 130 miles as the gold standard then, unless of course, yours ever goes higher.

 

[miimura]

If you drive mostly downhill and then recharge the battery completely, you can get even higher numbers. It is completely a product of your recent driving history. JoulesThief is evidently quite the hyper-miler since he is getting 5.5mi/kWh and over. If you take the usable capacity of the battery, about 22kWh, and divide that into 130, you will see that it takes about 5.9mi/kWh driving efficiency for the car to display 130 mile range.

 

[bizzle]

Yep, 5.4mi/kwh is what I was averaging dropping into the valley from San Diego yesterday

Those mountains are relatively symmetrical with there only being about a 400 mile elevation change going back and forth. I wonder how well I'd do going back the other way. The real question is if I'd make it up the first leg. If I can do that I'd be fine. I never planned to take this back out of the valley but if I can shuttle back and forth between SD and IV that would be gravy.

 

[JoulesThief]

If you drive mostly downhill and then recharge the battery completely, you can get even higher numbers. It is completely a product of your recent driving history. JoulesThief is evidently quite the hyper-miler since he is getting 5.5mi/kWh and over. If you take the usable capacity of the battery, about 22kWh, and divide that into 130, you will see that it takes about 5.9mi/kWh driving efficiency for the car to display 130 mile range.

The best feature I have learned about on this car is that it is very easy to accelerate and glide, as well as if you have even the slightest slope going down hill, it pays to nail the throttle a bit, and coast down hill, as much as is possible. I try to stay in the right lane on the interstate and keep it at 60 MPH... the rest comes easily, so far, unless a frontage road gives me a traffic free 50 mph option.

To be fair, I am retired, I don't need very often to be anywhere at a specified time, well, except maybe doctors or dentist appts.

 

[phr00t]

The highest I've seen was 129 miles. I usually manage 4.7-5.5 mpkWh, depending on whether I'm going from or to work. I exclusively drive in "Eco" mode & "B" mode. I very rarely charge to a full battery, though... since I don't need a full charge & I like going easy on the battery.

 

[bizzle]

Do the Eco/Eco+ modes really benefit that much? Or are they simply the same as if you applied good technique?

One of my concerns when trying those modes was that in ICE terms, more HP/Torque often translates into better economy provided you keep your foot out of it. Now those things don't necessarily translate here, but if I keep the cabin controls off and really pay attention to what I'm doing, can I replicate those economy modes or are they actually doing other things under the hood so to speak?

 

[phr00t]

Do the Eco/Eco+ modes really benefit that much? Or are they simply the same as if you applied good technique?

One of my concerns when trying those modes was that in ICE terms, more HP/Torque often translates into better economy provided you keep your foot out of it. Now those things don't necessarily translate here, but if I keep the cabin controls off and really pay attention to what I'm doing, can I replicate those economy modes or are they actually doing other things under the hood so to speak?

I personally like the reduced sensitivity. It is easier to drive smoothly when the pedal isn't as touchy. The "Eco" mode does a bit more like reduce the A/C, and perhaps even the heat output. I suspect you'd be able to get roughly the same result from just being careful in "Normal" mode. "Eco+" is a whole other beast, though, and will really slow you down & turns off some features completely (like A/C).

 

[bizzle]

I manually turned off my climate control and feathered the throttle the entire trip. Was I simply in manual Eco+ mode? Or is there like a reduced voltage draw (other than lowering the top speed)?

The only thing I couldn't figure out was how to open the vents without activating climate control and my wife kept calling me to make more roll the windows down because she read that new car smell is cancerous :|

 

[phr00t]

I manually turned off my climate control and feathered the throttle the entire trip. Was I simply in manual Eco+ mode? Or is there like a reduced voltage draw (other than lowering the top speed)?

The only thing I couldn't figure out was how to open the vents without activating climate control and my wife kept calling me to make more roll the windows down because she read that new car smell is cancerous :|

I'm not sure on the details with selecting Eco+ mode, but I highly suspect it is doing more than just reducing throttle response. I recommend just putting it in "Eco" mode and driving normally.

The trick to turning on the vents without drawing a bunch of power: set the temperature to "LO" (so the heater isn't used), sync it (so both sides don't use heat), turn A/C off & set the fan speed to one or two bars. This basically just runs the fans & nothing else.

 

[JoulesThief]

I manually turned off my climate control and feathered the throttle the entire trip. Was I simply in manual Eco+ mode? Or is there like a reduced voltage draw (other than lowering the top speed)?

The only thing I couldn't figure out was how to open the vents without activating climate control and my wife kept calling me to make more roll the windows down because she read that new car smell is cancerous :|

I'm not sure on the details with selecting Eco+ mode, but I highly suspect it is doing more than just reducing throttle response. I recommend just putting it in "Eco" mode and driving normally.

The trick to turning on the vents without drawing a bunch of power: set the temperature to "LO" (so the heater isn't used), sync it (so both sides don't use heat), turn A/C off & set the fan speed to one or two bars. This basically just runs the fans & nothing else.

In warm weather, setting the fan on 1 or 2 lights showing, on a full battery, will cost you a total of 2 miles of consumption. Windows cost you nothing. I wish you could just leave the vent open, and it leaves the register open to circulate fresh air in through the vents, with just ram air, no fan necessary.

 

[phr00t]

I manually turned off my climate control and feathered the throttle the entire trip. Was I simply in manual Eco+ mode? Or is there like a reduced voltage draw (other than lowering the top speed)?

The only thing I couldn't figure out was how to open the vents without activating climate control and my wife kept calling me to make more roll the windows down because she read that new car smell is cancerous :|

I'm not sure on the details with selecting Eco+ mode, but I highly suspect it is doing more than just reducing throttle response. I recommend just putting it in "Eco" mode and driving normally.

The trick to turning on the vents without drawing a bunch of power: set the temperature to "LO" (so the heater isn't used), sync it (so both sides don't use heat), turn A/C off & set the fan speed to one or two bars. This basically just runs the fans & nothing else.

In warm weather, setting the fan on 1 or 2 lights showing, on a full battery, will cost you a total of 2 miles of consumption. Windows cost you nothing. I wish you could just leave the vent open, and it leaves the register open to circulate fresh air in through the vents, with just ram air, no fan necessary.

I suppose it depends on how hot it is, and how much the A/C will be used. However, I really haven't used the A/C at all since it hasn't been warm in my time of ownership yet. Windows down will cost you in additional drag, which the Guess-O-Meter won't pre-calculate.

 

[Slomove]

... Windows cost you nothing....

I have no data for this car but know that opening the windows wide generally screws up the carefully crafted aerodynamics, due to the vortices it generates. But I have no idea if that is more drag loss than the fan power would be using.

That said, I am not a hypermiler and leave A/C-heat set at 22 C or open the window as needed. Over the last 4 weeks I get always average 4.1 miles/kWh for a normal charge distance of 50-70 miles. Good enough for me...

 

[JoulesThief]

... Windows cost you nothing....

I have no data for this car but know that opening the windows wide generally screws up the carefully crafted aerodynamics, due to the vortices it generates. But I have no idea if that is more drag loss than the fan power would be using.

That said, I am not a hypermiler and leave A/C-heat set at 22 C or open the window as needed. Over the last 4 weeks I get always average 4.1 miles/kWh for a normal charge distance of 50-70 miles. Good enough for me...

This is my average for 700 + miles.