"Cool" feature and EV range impact

[JimW]

I helped my daughter move furniture to a new apartment all morning, then hit the road for 4 hour drive home. I got really tired mid-afternoon, driving into the hot sun, so I stopped at a rest area to take a nap. I left the car "on", with the A/C blasting, while I took a power nap to recharge myself. I thought this was a really cool feature - to do this without burning gas or danger of CO fumes. And it blows lots of really cold air, which an idling ICE would not be able to do.

I got home and charged overnight. I panicked to see EV range of only 48 miles, when I've been getting high 50's all summer. Then I remembered my nap. So the car based its range calculation on the fact that my car moved zero miles while in EV mode for 30-40 minutes. After a couple days, my EV range has crept back up to the mid-50's.

 

[Rob_v1]

Yes, I've noticed that the EV range prediction varies according to my recent driving pattern and style. If I take a few consecutive long trips, it climbs. If I drive only around town for a few days, it drops back down. And if I punch it a lot, it drops.

 

[kcsunshine]

Jim, how much of a charge did you have? If you were driving for a while, I would expect the battery to be near empty unless you used the HV mode. If the battery is near empty, I suppose the ICE would kick in to support the AC. One thing I like is I don't need to shut off the car when I'm stopped for a while because the ICE is not idling.

I had a similar situation but slightly different from yours. I found a free charging station at a neighborhood store. I was able to charge and use the climate control from the Hondalink app to turn on the AC. I could sit in the car comfortably while charging and watch some videos on the phone. The climate control is supposed to shut off in 30 minutes but I guess you could always turn it back on. It also turns off if you open the door. Actually, I never tried this but is it possible to charge while the car is still on? In this case, I wouldn't need to use the Hondalink app.

 

[Steven B]

Only thing I don't like about being able to leave the vehicle "running" and walk away is that if I take the fob with me, it won't let me lock the doors via the fob or with the exterior button. I assume it will let me use the interior lock mechanism and the door will stay locked when shut but I have not tried that. I have simply turned off the car, exited and locked via the fob and then immediately initiated the pre-conditioning.

 

[neal adkins]

Only thing I don't like about being able to leave the vehicle "running" and walk away is that if I take the fob with me, it won't let me lock the doors via the fob or with the exterior button. I assume it will let me use the interior lock mechanism and the door will stay locked when shut but I have not tried that. I have simply turned off the car, exited and locked via the fob and then immediately initiated the pre-conditioning.

My toyota smart key reacts the same way. I think it is designed that way to prevent incidental leaving the car turned on and returnung to a drained battery. When i wanted to leave my power on to charge my phone i would just manually lock the door with the metal key with the fob locked in the car.

 

[weave]

I love this. I take a lot of cross country drives and never felt comfortable sleeping in a rest area with the windows down or the windows closed and the A/C running with my ICE cars.