Temperature and Season Dependence of Charge in 2018 Clarity PHEV

jazdean

jazdean

New Member
I noticed a significant drop in EV range over my first winter with my Clarity, as low as 35 miles at full charge. So, I decided to collect my own EV range data and am reporting here that data for the past 5 months. I charge it in the garage, and noticed two trends: 1) there is a strong temperature dependence of EV charge range, with colder being worse; and 2) there's usually a negative effect of complete discharge, in that the next few charges after a complete discharge to 0 EV miles are often lower in EV range.
The charts are self-explanatory, but in essence, the EV range goes from around 38 miles at 48 F, to around 50 miles at 70 F. I haven't gotten warm enough temperatures to report a peak (optimum) charging temperature. I'd be interested if others have similar data.
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Completely normal and expected behavior for any Li-ion battery application. Thanks for the hard data. I bow to your graphing skills.
 
For a counterexample to (2), after a single day of driving and going through all but 5-10 estimated miles, my fully-charged estimate went up by 5 miles the next day, while it had been gradually decreasing over time while I was driving mostly in HV mode.
 
Just curious, but are the numbers in these graphs actual miles driven in EV mode or what is being reported on the GOM after charging?
 
DucRider said:
Just curious, but are the numbers in these graphs actual miles driven in EV mode or what is being reported on the GOM after charging?
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In my case it is the GOM. But I also find that the GOM is pretty close to what I actually achieve in actual miles.
 
Just the EV range number shown in the dash after charging. I did not validate against actual miles driven.
 
I experienced similar results. Got even lower EV miles during the extreme cold of January (I live near Syracuse, NY) which got down to 25 miles of range. I just needed to use gas on those days if the EV range got to around 5 miles when driving. I never let it get to 0. My commute round trip is 24 miles with a few places for regen. I could squeeze out a gas free commute with a 28 to 33 range. This using heat and defrosters to keep warm. Now, I get 48 to 53 on a charge in 60 to 75 F temps not using A/C though I will use it if the fans don't keep me cool enough.
 
jazdean said:
Just the EV range number shown in the dash after charging. I did not validate against actual miles driven.
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That might partially explain the negative effect of full discharge -- I'm pretty sure the GOM is averaging the miles/kWh of some number/distance of the last few drives, with some sort of weighting factor. While it's possible there's some real memory effect (perhaps enforced by the battery management computer), I suspect that it's mostly just the GOM "remembering" the bad drives for a couple days and taking them into account.

In the colder temps, did you use any climate control heat (any temp other than Lo blasts me with heat in the morning), seat heat, or defroster? Those are big power drains and will reduce mi/kWh more than they do on an ICE car where the heat is "free".

Once I get my L2 charger installed, I have plans to keep track of temperature and speed effects and do some test drives. Today, I drove the freeway portion of my commute at 55 MPH (which feels REALLY SLOW), and charged when I got to work -- 5.73kWh to charge for 19 miles = 3.32 mi/kWh. Another day last week I drove a more normal ~75MPH and it took 6.21kWh = 3.06 mi/kWh. Right there that's the difference of about 5 miles range on a full charge. And the freeway portion is only 12 miles of my 19 mile trip -- when I get a chance I want to take constant speed drives at 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80 MPH to compare.
 
jazdean said:
Nice. Shows little effect of going hotter. Where were you getting the temperature data? Mine is the car dashboard readout in the morning after charging.
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I'm just reading the ambient temperature from our outdoor weather station. The car is in the garage so might vary and be warmer or cooler than our back yard but over time I think it averages errors out.
 
JCA said:
That might partially explain the negative effect of full discharge -- I'm pretty sure the GOM is averaging the miles/kWh of some number/distance of the last few drives, with some sort of weighting factor. While it's possible there's some real memory effect (perhaps enforced by the battery management computer), I suspect that it's mostly just the GOM "remembering" the bad drives for a couple days and taking them into account.

In the colder temps, did you use any climate control heat (any temp other than Lo blasts me with heat in the morning), seat heat, or defroster? Those are big power drains and will reduce mi/kWh more than they do on an ICE car where the heat is "free".

Once I get my L2 charger installed, I have plans to keep track of temperature and speed effects and do some test drives. Today, I drove the freeway portion of my commute at 55 MPH (which feels REALLY SLOW), and charged when I got to work -- 5.73kWh to charge for 19 miles = 3.32 mi/kWh. Another day last week I drove a more normal ~75MPH and it took 6.21kWh = 3.06 mi/kWh. Right there that's the difference of about 5 miles range on a full charge. And the freeway portion is only 12 miles of my 19 mile trip -- when I get a chance I want to take constant speed drives at 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80 MPH to compare.
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I have long suspected the car uses just the previous trip rather than multiple trips or days. I have no data but simply my observations.
 
jdonalds said:
I have long suspected the car uses just the previous trip rather than multiple trips or days. I have no data but simply my observations.
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No hard data either but when I had to disconnect my 12 v battery to install some accessories, the hard reset caused my EV range to go from low 60s to 41 miles. I assume I lost all my driving history (but not my settings). It then took 4 charging cycles (~20-25 miles each) to come back up to high 50s. It did not get back to low 60s until the 5th charge/drive cycle.

So perhaps it’s looking back more than one charge cycle, or on/off cycle, or maybe even # of miles driven. No way to know for sure.
 
jazdean said:
Nice. Shows little effect of going hotter. Where were you getting the temperature data? Mine is the car dashboard readout in the morning after charging.
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I wouldn't read too much into my data. My car has developed a problem which is why I'm keeping this data. I should be getting over 50 miles EV Range about this time.
 
KentuckyKen said:
No hard data either but when I had to disconnect my 12 v battery to install some accessories, the hard reset caused my EV range to go from low 60s to 41 miles. I assume I lost all my driving history (but not my settings). It then took 4 charging cycles (~20-25 miles each) to come back up to high 50s. It did not get back to low 60s until the 5th charge/drive cycle.

So perhaps it’s looking back more than one charge cycle, or on/off cycle, or maybe even # of miles driven. No way to know for sure.
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I'm my experience, it takes at least 3 charge cycles to get to normal range values.
 
I have never seen estimated EV miles under 45 since January 2019 till present.
Currently showing 60+miles.
Helps to live in warm sunny Southern Calif!
 
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