Winter range experiences

[dmen]

Weather turned particularly cold here in Chicago this week.
Today with temps starting at 20 and ending at 10, with a light snow fallng in the morning, my commute measured 20.9 miles round trip, during which my FFE used
8.3 kWh, with an efficiency of 397 wh/mi. It was in heavy morning traffic then moderate evening traffic, on highway and city surface roads, with average speed of 14 mph.
For comparison on this drive with same heavy traffic in pleasant weather I would use about 4 kWh and get about 200 wh/mi.
I had to use cabin heating, set to 64, for most of the drive (save the first 15 minutes, thanks to go-time preheating, and the last 10 minutes when I tried to tough it out). Especially when precipitation falls, the windows just fog up too quickly to be able to go without. And the kids in the back don't have seat warmers!
I noted the display read 53% of charge remaining at plug-in, estimating my freezing temp available battery capacity to be 17.7 kWh and a total range of 44 miles.

Anyway, feel free to add your numbers!

 

[jmueller065]

My coworker has a 50+ mile round trip for his commute here in SouthEastern Michigan. To solve the heating dilemma he purchased a 12V heated blanket (here:
http://www.smarthome.com/9209/Maxsa-Innovations-Comfy-Cruise-12V-Electric-Travel-Blanket-Navy-Blue/p.aspx
)
It draws less than 55w. So far this week he has stayed nice and comfy without using the heater at all (puts the HVAC on "Lo" to defrost the window), and has been able to make his total commute without having to charge up at work.

For myself: My total commute is about 32 miles, like you I can get away with not using heat on the trip in because of the precondition (still have to hit the defrost now and then but like above I just put it on "Lo", defrost, and low fan setting which doesn't use much). The trip home, on the other hand, can get quite chilly without using the heater (especially in these single digit days). I ran the heater all the way home yesterday just to see how much it would use--got home and the guess-o-meter read 20 miles or so to go. (Yeah all these #s are from memory...)

 

[dmen]

My coworker has a 50+ mile round trip for his commute here in SouthEastern Michigan. To solve the heating dilemma he purchased a 12V heated blanket (here:
http://www.smarthome.com/9209/Maxsa-Innovations-Comfy-Cruise-12V-Electric-Travel-Blanket-Navy-Blue/p.aspx
)
It draws less than 55w. So far this week he has stayed nice and comfy without using the heater at all (puts the HVAC on "Lo" to defrost the window), and has been able to make his total commute without having to charge up at work.

For myself: My total commute is about 32 miles, like you I can get away with not using heat on the trip in because of the precondition (still have to hit the defrost now and then but like above I just put it on "Lo", defrost, and low fan setting which doesn't use much). The trip home, on the other hand, can get quite chilly without using the heater (especially in these single digit days). I ran the heater all the way home yesterday just to see how much it would use--got home and the guess-o-meter read 20 miles or so to go. (Yeah all these #s are from memory...)

Yeah I've used the LO defrost thing in "light winter" but it doesn't cut it in temps under 20. It can deFOG, but can't truly deFROST.
- At freezing temps with precipitation, without heat my windshield ices up on the outside. Blowing cold air at its inside surface just makes the outer surface ice up faster.

- If it's dry outside and extremely cold, cycling LO defrost eventually freezes the inside condensation rather than blowing it away. I suppose leaving it on low speed the whole time rather than cycling would keep it clear in this situation but LO defrost is pretty uncomfortable on the fingers. Thick gloves/mittens aren't great for driving control.

- And finally, the rear passenger windows and rear part of my front passenger windows fog then frost up despite LO defrost; only bringing cabin air temp up helps clear them.

As ridiculous as it sounds to drive with a blanket on, it's a clever solution if for someone who needs to get as much winter range as possible from their FFE. I've seen similar solutions on the leaf forum. Someone here or there was looking into electric leg warmers last winter, if I recall correctly.

Your range being slightly better than mine in cold weather is interesting. I'm guessing your drive doesn't involve bumper to bumper traffic. In summer, heavy traffic is when I get my best range, with efficiency as high as 170 Wh/mi. In winter, heavy traffic just means more time that the cabin heater's running, and more time for the battery to cool and need heating itself. I'd bet a steady drive 30-50 mph is where FFE gets get max range with the heater running.

 

[jmueller065]

Good points: I have yet to drive in significant precipitation when the temps are below freezing.

I basically have two routes for my commute:

• A highway route that is about 60% highway and an extra mile or two in length
  A local road route along a pretty consistent 45 mph two lane road

The highway route can be as much as 10 minutes faster given traffic conditions but usually is about 5 minutes faster. The local road route is pretty much a due North/South route along a straight road. My work is approximately 300 ft higher in elevation than my home (looking at GPS data)--that difference in elevation does show up in my power consumption when comparing the route in vs the route home. The vast majority of my commuting is done on the local road route (as there is less traffic on it, its more efficient, and it gives me the opportunity to enjoy the FFE for that extra few minutes ).

All of the commuting #'s I've reported out have been on the local route.

 

[EVA]

Chicago area - so I saw the same weather you did Dmen. Roughly 30 mile round trip, almost all on highway at 60-65. Range estimate went way down from the summer - 58 miles is the reported range now. Wh/mi is now all over the map, from 350 to 460. Depends on the temperature mostly. During the summer, much more consistent Wh/mi, no matter if we were using the highway or city streets - more like 250. Range was always 90 miles or more.

I finally got to see the warning message when you hit the 10 miles range left. Nice big yellow warning and a chime.

The 58 miles range is pretty accurate - I ran some extra errands one day (it was 12 degrees that day) about 15 miles worth. I got home with 8 miles left (I was also playing with the heat a lot to see what would happen - so the 58 is not far off).

Have to admit, the range drop in the winter is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. The drop seems to be more from the interior heater than the batteries are cold and less efficient - but that's totally seat of the pants thinking.

 

[WattsUp]

but that's totally seat of the pants thinking.

Or, heat of the pants, if you have the seats turned on.

 

[unplugged]

My coworker has a 50+ mile round trip for his commute here in SouthEastern Michigan. To solve the heating dilemma he purchased a 12V heated blanket (here:
http://www.smarthome.com/9209/Maxsa-Innovations-Comfy-Cruise-12V-Electric-Travel-Blanket-Navy-Blue/p.aspx
)

Or, get that same blanket more than $10 cheaper at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009A2NYM?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&s=

 

[riskylogic]

50-60 is what I get in Maryland on a cold day. Beside needing to run the heat and maybe taking a battery hit, I think the headlights are a factor too. I generally do better on the daylight trip in than coming home in the dark. I have a 60 mile commute --good thing I can charge at work.

 

[jasonf]

My range has been horrible here in Colorado. It was around 5 degree's here and on a full charge only got 39 miles, that was with having the heater only turned on once and a while to clear the fogged up windows. So far very disappointed in this car. Today on a full charge I got only 60 miles total in 45 degree weather. That was mostly with the heater off once again. I am thinking I need to have ford look at mine to see if I my batteries are not charging 100%.

 

[TonySpice]

I've dropped to 53 in Central NJ region and no sign of abating.

I'm hoping the decline at least starts to slow down soon.

Once this hits low 40's I'm in deep you know what.

 

[jmueller065]

Even with the cold here (most frequently in the 20s F) I still see the Guess-O-Meter showing 70+ miles in the morning on a full charge. It never makes it that far, however, as when I'm done driving for the night my totals have been more like 40 miles used with 15 or so miles showing on the Guess-O-Meter (in other words ~50 mile usable range).

Note disappointed here as this was exactly what I was expecting for cold weather driving...

 

[jmueller065]

Wow! I just found out I can download my meter's data into an Excel spreadsheet from my electricity provider--any meter: 2 electric, and 1 gas. Very cool!

http://jamiegeek.myevblog.com/2013/12/19/electricity-consumption-for-november/

 

[az erik]

It's gotten all the way down to 52 degrees outside on more than one trip here. I was worried I might have to get a second coffee but I left the heater on, took the -20 mile hit and remembered to charge that night. As I live in PHX and it's still getting to 78+ here I'm not feeling the cold, but damn if I didn't go "Ahhhh!!" and turn off the heater on my fully charged car in fear of my 10 mile daily commute messing with my 245kWh avg! I have awards or something on MFM i can't lose dang it!

It's actually funny as the above is true. I did freak out in the name of EV. Then realized I'd pay about 10 to 20 cents more a day to drive the car sanely. My commute is small and that's 80% the reason why I bought the FFE and scrapped my Lexus.

When my heater kicks on 'full steam' @ 72 degrees the range takes a 20 mile hit. But the heater doesn't stay on full blast for the whole drive so it does get back or give up 8 miles or so in each direction. Most of the time I can understand a 12 mile hit for comfort. I doubt my FFE will see below 35 degree temps ever. I'm glad the A/c is better as it's 100+ here 2/3rds of the time.

 

[Cyclebert]

My FFE is more pleasant to drive than an ICE in really cold weather (even in not so cold weather). No need to warm up the engine and it heats up inside much quicker even without preheat. The range does suck if you want to stay warm and have frost free windows. Our lows have been -20 F and colder. At that temp the predicted range is less than 40 miles. Even at that short range, cost of "fuel" (electricity) is still 1/8 of my truck.

 

[EVA]

Oh so good to know -20 is not a problem. I was concerned range might go down a lot farther below 0.