About range information on the dashboard

It truly is a guess-o-meter from all reports that I've seen. It makes pessimistic assumptions based on the information present at the time and I have not seen much evidence that its 'guessing' gets any better with time... like anything, I think you will build a sense of what is reasonable with your style of driving and then rely less on staring at that number and wondering.

 

My experience is also that it hasn't improved with driving. I'm consistently getting far more range than the car thinks I can go. At full charge it never shows more than 110 miles, but I recently drove 100 miles (90% freeway, mid drive mode), and had 40 miles left according to the meter.

 

Based on a number of reports, this might be the SE's biggest weakness/failing.

OTOH, while other EVs have more responsive GOMs, I'm not sure that they are really any more accurate.

 

Fresh off the charger, before you start driving, I don't think it pays attention at all to your driving style, just does a temperature-based range estimate. When you start driving for a bit and it adjusts the range to your current consumption, then I've found it to be fairly accurate. But it gets very pessimistic when you turn on the temperature control or AC and then the GOM slowly creeps back up when it realizes that it was wrong. That behavior is pretty weird.

I find it a lot more useful to look at the battery % and real-time mi/kWh to get an idea of current range, at least when you're staying at a relatively constant speed.

 

This is exactly what I see experienced EV people on YouTube do. (Don't forget to calculate with the battery's available 28.9kWh, rather than the 32.6kWh gross capacity rating.)

 

One thing I find less than useful is the gauge on the right (showing battery percentage) seems to only show like 12.5% increments, so it may show you have 75% battery when it's really closer to 60%. The percentage in the lower right is much more useful.

I wonder if that's emulating the increments of the gasoline gauge of the ICE versions. It's unfortunate to be so coarse since it's a digital display.

 

I totally agree with you, @Puppethead.

I believe that coarse gauge is the new digital equivalent for how MINI represents fuel in their ICE cars, carried over to the SE. Using 8 sections for ICE cars makes sense, since fuel gauges have marks at each 1/4 or each 1/8. But with EVs, it seems more "natural" to want to go by percent (1/10)...especially when you want to do the math to estimate range because the GOM is unreliable.

 

You're 12.5%, er, 100% right! There should have been 10 segments in the battery gauge.

 

Equally useless is the power gauge on the left. There's no units and I'm pretty sure it's not measuring the actual % of max power being delivered, it seems to basically just show your throttle position. But it does look cool, and at least tells you if you're regen-ing.

 

It drives me crazy that modern gauge packs could show all kinds of accurate, digital data (like the OBD-fed Tourque app can and does), but manufacturers choose to water down the data for the unwashed masses without even offering the raw numbers.

 

The Power Gauge is useful to confirm when you're coasting. Based on my experience with the visible brake light I installed, I'm almost certain that the brake lights come on the instant the needle touches the first yellow regen bar.

I'm training myself to restrain my exuberant urge to accelerate beyond my chosen constant speed (eg. 5 mph over limit) so that I'm not lighting up the brake lights right after my post-green-light spurt of acceleration. Accelerate-coast-maintain, but avoid making it look like I just discovered I was speeding.