Hi, I have a long commute to work, about 50 miles each way. I have been driving the clarity HV mode for about 40 of those miles, and start the main roads in ECON mode, driving at 40-50mph. My overall gas consumption seems to be 38mpg, with the battery being fully charged each night. Only, once when my gas fuel tank was running low, did my vehicle preferentially use the battery power. But then, it depleted in less than 20 miles from a nearly full charge. It is winter, and about 25-40 degree temps out here, but that is actually pretty warm for this time of year. Anyone else live in the northern states and have any observances?? I have only had the car for a few weeks, and it has been 25-40 degrees here the whole time, and my guess is that the battery depletes in the cold. I was expecting better EV performance than this. Would love some helpful input.
You are correct in that cold weather is an EV range killer. It’s the dirty little secret of BEVs. Not only does the cold affect the battery’s ability to store and deliver power, but also the increased use of heat and defrost greatly reduces the power available for motive use. In EV mode we have no waste heat from an ICE and must rely on electrical resistance heating which is a surprisingly huge consumer of power. Some workarounds are to have a garage to protect the car from extreme cold and to precondition on EVSE power instead of battery power. Also using the more seat heater and less cabin heater will help. Or you can go full out stupid like I did for a while and wear coats and gloves in the car. Thankfully I got over that disorder. There must be a new phobia in the books about fear of winter range reduction. With temps only going down to 40 F, I’ve seen my range go from low 60s to mid 50s with worse to come I’m sure. About your HV range. I would expect the that at the low hwy speed you mentioned, you’d get better mpg. I got 48 mpg on a 500 mile round trip at speeds of 60 to 75 mph. How did you calculate that. The display is not that accurate. Did you arrive at it by odometer and gas pump? Also is that a one way trip? Altitude change and headwind will affect the milage, as will car loading and other factors. Give us some more details to puzzle on since most of us get at least the EPA rating when not driving like Mario Andretti.
Your experience is consistent with mine in Minnesota. The low temperatures have a much larger effect on EV range than I had expected.
Yup, consistent with experiences here in MI too. Our EV range at the winter solstice has dropped by half from the summer solstice. Our mpg on the gas engine dropped too, but it runs so infrequently I have no valid data. I’ll guess that your 38 mpg is about right for winter, depending mostly on how you use the skinny pedal.
There area a bunch of threads on this forum discussing cold weather performance. Here's one: Cold Weather Behaviour and Observations.
