EV only Range after nearly 4 years... where you guys at?

The grade coming up my hill is pretty steep. I wouldn't describe it as hilly. It starts out gradual, then goes steep for about 1/4 mile then flat. I've quoted the 1600 ft before, but I'm really at 839'. The 1600 ft figure came from my water bill which is my pumping level (higher cost water) but the 839' is from GPS.
It's not that much of a hill honestly. Anyway, coming down the hill if I don't use paddles and use break, often the engine doesn't turn on. Also if I turn on either AC (when working) or heat, the engine doesn't turn on coming down. I do wish our Clarities had a hill mode, or a method to always charge to say 90% or some configurable level. I do know I can adjust charging time, but then its scheduled and more of a pain if I want to charge out and about.

[The AC comment is hopefully very transient. I take my Clarity in for AC repair tomorrow]

 

Driving in area with about 50 feet elevation change over many miles (so one way is downhill other way uphill) but since distance is many miles you cant tell there is elevation change. Now 4 years into it we get around 30 miles on full charge when outside temps are Night 50F, Day 70F, and around 45 miles per full charge when Nights are 70F and days are 85F. Overall its about the same as it was when car was new. We have 15k miles on it and drive it 99% on battery (get gas about once every year and usually only 3 gallons or so).

 

My Clarity was purchased late December 2017 so it's now nearly 5 1/2 years old. I'm 98% electric in town driving. I usually run in Hybrid mode once a year to burn out the 3 gallons of gas I put in each year. In the summer when I first got the car, I would quite often get 65 or 66 miles of range. This morning after a full charge, the car shows 62 and I almost still always get around 60. I didn't drive much during covid, so I only now have about 21,000 on the car.

 

Well, that’s an interesting development. Not at 1600’ elevation, let alone at the end of a 1600’ elevation gain.

We’re at 2000’ and most trips take us to 1200-1300’. The descent from the house is steep. Either 220’ or 200’ over 1/2 mile depending on which direction we go. After that there are some ups and downs, then a gradual descent until we’ve covered about 4 miles. We always charge fully and ICE has never triggered. The EV range estimate is typically 36-39 in winter and 44-47 in summer. That’s with a 700-800’ elevation gain, probably closer to 1000’ total with the ups and downs included. Since we rarely exhaust the battery, actually range is unknown.

 

My current total battery capacity is 48.38 amps on my 2019 Clarity.

yesterday I completed a 50 plus mile drive in ideal conditions. 70ish degrees, 50 miles per hour with some stop and go, no ac. This morning my guess-o-meter reads at 53.5 which I think is close to actual.

Winter in the NE gets me in the 30 range.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

I'm still getting close to what I got in 2019 when it was new. About 36 miles winter, and 45-48 miles summer.
I love this car and I'm a gear head, and I absolutely thrash it on the freeway. (88MPH seems a sweet spot!) But my commute is about 50/50 freeway, and pleasant winding back roads at 40mph. If my commute was all pleasant back roads, i believe I'd get 55-60 easy.

 

Just ran this experiment again over the last several days. Got 39.7 miles from full charge to 2 bars (0 EV miles). This is actual odometer miles, not GOM miles. Since it now summer time in South Texas, the AC was running full time. Fully recharged overnight at home using 13.29 kWh.

2018 Touring built in 11/2018. I purchased in March 2021 with 7400 miles. Now at about 34,000 miles.

Never had the battery capacity measured. However, I now think that the kWh used for a full recharge is a decent proxy for the battery capacity.

The original window sticker claimed 47 miles EV range and 31 kWh for 100 miles. That calculates out to 3.226 miles/kWh and 14.57 kWh. So the BMS only lets you use 86% of the battery, protecting the top and bottom end.

Question I have is does anyone know the test conditions/protocol to arrive at the values on the sticker (speed, accelerations, temperature, distance, etc.)?

Interesting tidbit about GOM behavior. A number of times I've had a mile or two on the GOM and stopped briefly at a convenience store and on restarting had 0 EV and the gas engine started up. Thus only odometer miles are worth quoting.

 

Yes. Search “EPA electric vehicle range” or something similar and you’ll find plenty of thrilling reading on the subject.

Your test results, which were a little shy of pertinent data, showed that the vehicle traveled ~3 miles/kWh, as opposed to the 3.226 that was calculated from the window sticker data. Why? Because your driving conditions were different from the EPA test conditions.

I agree that actual miles traveled in EV mode is the only way to determine how far the car will go in EV mode. That said, the EV range estimate is a reasonably accurate estimate of how far the vehicle will travel in EV mode, assuming that it is driven in a similar fashion to how it was driven on the previous handful of trips.

Additionally, it would not be meaningful to say that the vehicle has an EV range of 32 miles, because that is how far it travelled on a single trip at 80mph.

 

My vehicle is a 2019 model with just over 75,000 miles on it. My cars winter EV range is between 28-33 miles, and in the summer, it increases to 33-37miles. My usual freeway driving speed is 75-78mph, I didn't buy the car to hyper mile.

During the first two years, my car met or exceeded the advertised 47-mile electric range. My commute is about 35 miles each way, and I charge both at the office and at home, or nearly two full discharge cycles five days a week. I suspect this charging pattern might be catching up with my battery.

Additionally, the climate in my area is quite harsh for lithium-ion batteries. We face 20-30°F temperatures in winter, and it can get as hot as 115°F in the summer.

 

Did the car meet or exceed the 47 mile range for the first 2 years while driving at speeds of 75-78mph?

I did that a few times when the car was new and got about 40 miles.

 

What Android app for OBD-II Bluetooth adapters is "best"? Any that are just no good and should be avoided?

 

Go here to learn...
https://github.com/clarity-phev/Battery-Capacity-Read

 

I'm currently at 53 Miles. I keep mine on ECO mode but noticed that if I used the heater (I don't really need it where I live) the range would drop to something like 36-42! My driving never turns on the engine though it will randomly turn on due to a need built into the car. When the engine turns on, my EV only range will drop a few miles.

Do you charge directly to the outlet or do you have it on an extension cord? When I had it charging on an extension cord, the max EV charge was lower than if the charger was directly connected to the outlet.

 

50k miles on my Clarity, mostly EV, got a new EV battery from Honda 2 years ago. Can do 52-55 actual EV miles. Could do even better if I had put low rolling resistance tires on it. I'm satisfied with the EV range.

 

In the summer time I would get 47+ in the winter I would see 40. The roads here were not very crowed during COVID and the cops are yet to return to actually enforce any sort of moving violation so freeway speeds have gotten a little out of hand.

 

Let me rephrase the question. At what speed did you drive when the car went 47+ miles in EV mode?

 

I’ve had my 2018 Touring for about 10 weeks. Current mileage is 30,714; EV number on the Guess-O-Meter averages about 45.5; I’ve seen as low as 42 and a high of 50.4

 

Bought my 2018 Touring in November 2018. Have about 50K miles on it. Measured EV range is 30-35 Miles (not the GOM, actual range). I measured battery capacity with an OBDII reader at 44AH. Weather here in Central Texas is relatively benign this time of year and this is when I've historically gotten my best range. Most of my driving here is 70+MPH with A/C on, so I expect somewhat lower numbers, and I also recently replaced the tires with some Michelin all-weathers that cut range a bit. Given the 20% drop in battery capacity vs new, I would expect range ~ 37-38 miles, so I'm well below that. But I think that's probably due to the combination of the new tires and my driving style. Just hoping my battery degrades enough to get a replacement pack soon , but still love the car after almost 5 years!

 

My 2018 Clarity BEV has little battery degradation over the past 5 years @ 36,000 miles. I wonder if the battery packs on the PHEV are different than the BEV. I still get 88-90 miles displayed on a full charge in normal temperatures - so it's probably still in the 95% range.

I'm hanging onto the lease as long as they'll let me and was approved to keep it for a 6th year (thru July 2024).

 

Great to have a Clarity Electric driver on the forum! I believe the BEV's battery pack is the same, except for being half-again larger than the PHEV's battery pack. Of course, you have the range-extending heat pump, which makes a big difference in cold weather (but you probably don't see much cold weather).