Reported range drop normal?

ether100 · Oct 25, 2014

I test drove a 2014 Ice Storm FFE yesterday evening in Northern California. I liked nearly everything about it, but the way the range dropped during the drive is a bit concerning:

-The car reported 86 miles range when first powered up. The outside temperature was about 60F.
-The salesman and I sat in the car for about 10 minutes with the climate control set to 73F. Within this time, the range had dropped to 81mi.
-We drove 5 miles of city streets (stop n go) and 8 miles of freeway at 70mph. (13 miles total). The climate control was still at 73F during this period.
-By the time we pulled into to the dealer lot, the reported range had dropped to 55 mi. So a total of 31mi range drop for 13 mi driving (including the initial idle time).

1) Is this normal?

2) This particular 2014 model has been sitting on the dealer's lot for 5-6 months. Since the car would have sat in the hot sun over the California summer, could there be any battery degradation?

3) Is there any way to evaluate battery health before buying the car?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

GladeStorm · Oct 25, 2014

1) Short answer: This is more or less normal. The 86 mile estimate was based on much more conservative driving than your test drive represented. Jamie has an excellent blog here: http://jamiegeek.myevblog.com/ ... in particular you should read up on the Guess-O-meter.

2) There have been a couple of battery failures reported, but no cases of significant degradation.

3) Battery condition can be inferred from a couple of parameters in the On-board-diagnostics. The only readily available test is to use the trip the meter to see how much energy is used when running the battery from 100% to zero. From what you described, I would say that the battery is just fine.

WattsUp · Oct 25, 2014

ether100 said:
1) Is this normal?

Yes.

The mileage estimate is "affectionately" referred to as the Guess-o-Meter (or "GOM"). The GOM vary widely with the latest average energy usage. Climate control usage (esp. heating the cabin) increases energy usage dramatically, or so the GOM will adjust accordingly.

When you own the car, and get used to what can affect the GOM, and also begin to drive more consistently (than, say, during a test drive trying everything out, putting the car through wild fluctuations) and the GOM will become your friend. It will generally be more stable, but you will also understand what is really happening when it varies.

The car also has a read-out of the actual state of charge (SOC) of the battery on the Energy screen on the main MFT display. This is a more "true" indicator of how much energy the car has.

ether100 · Oct 25, 2014

Thanks very much for your replies. From what you're saying, the battery behavior appears normal, and ambient heat induced degradation is not a problem on the FFE as it appears to be on the LEAF, correct? ( So I don't have to go looking for a recently built one. )

Rogerschro · Oct 25, 2014

I bought my FFE used. It had 5100+ miles on it. The GOM at full charge read 86 miles. It did pretty much the same thing, going down rather rapidly, but it seems to stabilize after that and read a much slower usage as I drove it. Most of my drives are surface streets, 35-40mph. I've done one short highway drive of 15 miles (approx.). My full charge GOM is now routinely at 106 MTE. So I would guess about 86+ to be the fair range if I went further than the usual 35+/- trips I do. I always seem to end up with 60 +/- MTE on the GOM. It really is all about driving style, terrain, temp. and speed. The variables seem much greater than an ICE because the total distances are much shorter per 'tankful'. If you watch your ICE's current MPG and distance to empty you would see it fluctuate quite a bit per condition and speed, temp. etc.