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Loss of battery range in cold weather

2144 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Thedeanetjes
Dear All,
I was wondering what sort of range are you getting in the current cold weather? My EQC has dropped from 239 miles in the summer to a mere 180 - 190 now that we have dropped below zero. I accept that I would lose some range, but this seems excessive. I use the pre-heating function prior to driving and even with the regeneration and bonus range the average m/KWh has dropped from 2.9m/KWh in the summer to 2.1m/KWh a loss of around 25 - 30% in range.

Any tips to improve this, (no, I don’t have a heated garage and I live in a rural location 1200 feet above sea level).

Cheers

JG
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Dear All,
I was wondering what sort of range are you getting in the current cold weather? My EQC has dropped from 239 miles in the summer to a mere 180 - 190 now that we have dropped below zero. I accept that I would lose some range, but this seems excessive. I use the pre-heating function prior to driving and even with the regeneration and bonus range the average m/KWh has dropped from 2.9m/KWh in the summer to 2.1m/KWh a loss of around 25 - 30% in range.

Any tips to improve this, (no, I don’t have a heated garage and I live in a rural location 1200 feet above sea level).

Cheers

JG
The colder it gets the worse the losses it seems I am up near 30kwh/100 for many of my journeys a mixture of prewarmed and not whereas in the summer I would be down to 21 or lower. I wonder if over a longer trip it might even out a bit more as the cabin is warm and the heating starts to use less energy not least because we heat it with our presence . So I am also looking at around 30% loss. Whether that is the lowest as the car performs the same at 0 or -2 as I have been driving in as at say -10 I do not know but the car sells well in Norway where the temps are a lot lower. I wonder if cold weather performance is like battery charging with a levelling off at either end of the curve so once it gets cold a point x its performance does not degrade at y or z but improves considerably if it is at point m or n. Sorry I am not scientifically trained so my explanation may lack finesse!
We did not have as a long a spell of cold weather here in north west France last year so I do not have other winter stats to compare it too. The other issue someone else posted on another thread is the effect of the tyre pressure reducing in the cold, I know as a cyclist low pressure really makes a difference and possibly in the electric car it may also have an influence. I set mine at the 280 a couple pf weeks back and was getting 290 on a run today just 280 so they will be starting lower. However we must not forget ICE are the same they too use more fuel in winter it was just people were not so focused on rage so specifically as we are with electric cars, and many do not really register how the mpg drops as they do not really monitor it. Certainly my c and e class gasoil mpg went up in winter.
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The colder it gets the worse the losses it seems I am up near 30kwh/100 for many of my journeys a mixture of prewarmed and not whereas in the summer I would be down to 21 or lower. I wonder if over a longer trip it might even out a bit more as the cabin is warm and the heating starts to use less energy not least because we heat it with our presence . So I am also looking at around 30% loss. Whether that is the lowest as the car performs the same at 0 or -2 as I have been driving in as at say -10 I do not know but the car sells well in Norway where the temps are a lot lower. I wonder if cold weather performance is like battery charging with a levelling off at either end of the curve so once it gets cold a point x its performance does not degrade at y or z but improves considerably if it is at point m or n. Sorry I am not scientifically trained so my explanation may lack finesse!
We did not have as a long a spell of cold weather here in north west France last year so I do not have other winter stats to compare it too. The other issue someone else posted on another thread is the effect of the tyre pressure reducing in the cold, I know as a cyclist low pressure really makes a difference and possibly in the electric car it may also have an influence. I set mine at the 280 a couple pf weeks back and was getting 290 on a run today just 280 so they will be starting lower. However we must not forget ICE are the same they too use more fuel in winter it was just people were not so focused on rage so specifically as we are with electric cars, and many do not really register how the mpg drops as they do not really monitor it. Certainly my c and e class gasoil mpg went up in winter.
Thanks for adding to this thread, at least I know I am not alone. I did a 180mile run last week and ended up with +69 mile bonus on the predicted mileage, so what you say makes sense about the performance. It seemed that once the car was up to temperature, the battery performed better. Today on a short run it said max range was 160, (hills and a microclimate which was still at -2), once I started to drive it came back up to 180. I am also running winter tyres which I suspect have a higher rolling resistance than my summer tyres.
I guess winter journeys mean a bit more planning with ZapMaps and preconditioning before I set off 😀
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Good words of wisdom written above! The only other thing I would add is headwind!
Drove back after Xmas from the Zeeland Islands against a 50 kph headwind down to Calais, and that had a significant detrimental effect on consumption. 130 mile trip and we started of with 100% battery, and we needed to stop to make sure we were comfortable. Ouch!
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Good words of wisdom written above! The only other thing I would add is headwind! Drove back after Xmas from the Zeeland Islands against a 50 kph headwind down to Calais, and that had a significant detrimental effect on consumption. 130 mile trip and we started of with 100% battery, and we needed to stop to make sure we were comfortable. Ouch!
Interesting conversation. My Eqs AMG shows 80% range at about 180 mi. 20-38 degree in garage. Drove 50 mi and used 90 mi of range. If I recall my Tesla model S did not loose nearly as much range in cold weather.
But what a difference warm weather makes... 16 degrees, motorway trip... Back up to 240 range.... Happy days
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