Wendyhouse
New Member
Hi, Smart Fortwo EQ. Usually shows 99 mile ECO range when fully charged. Has suddenly changed to only 68 miles when fully charged. Any suggestions please.
Smart Fortwo EQ showing much shorter range than usual.
- Thread starter Wendyhouse
- Start date
- Replies 8
- Views 180
Wendyhouse
New Member
Not particularly. It has been colder without the shorter range. Maybe just have to wait for the next lovely sunny day!
What chemistry in the batteries?
My NCA, 2170 cell battery pack suffered a rapid range fall off which led to a $9k replacement. It had fallen from ~210 miles to 174 miles in a few months. I suspect a failed coolant valve "cooked" the cells leading to premature aging. My replacement is down to ~190 mile range but stable.
Sad to say but cell replacement is impractical and Tesla no longer makes 2170, NCA chemistry cells. Although some claim it is possible, a LiFePO4 replacement has too many risks for my soon seven year old car. I hope to keep it running another 2-3 years with careful attention to details.
Bob Wilson
My NCA, 2170 cell battery pack suffered a rapid range fall off which led to a $9k replacement. It had fallen from ~210 miles to 174 miles in a few months. I suspect a failed coolant valve "cooked" the cells leading to premature aging. My replacement is down to ~190 mile range but stable.
Sad to say but cell replacement is impractical and Tesla no longer makes 2170, NCA chemistry cells. Although some claim it is possible, a LiFePO4 replacement has too many risks for my soon seven year old car. I hope to keep it running another 2-3 years with careful attention to details.
Bob Wilson
Wendyhouse
New Member
Wendyhouse
New Member
Bob, thanks for the reply. Don’t know the details I’m afraid. You have my sympathy for the problems with your car. I’m worried I have a similar problem. Will hope for warmer weather and see if it really is a temperature thing or something more serious like yours.
To own a car means the owner will have problems to solve. I went into EV ownership knowing LiON battery chemistry had built-in limits:
- SEI layer growth - it grows by locking up formerly mobile lithium ions.
- Anode and cathode fractures - charge and discharge tends to make some small numbers of micro fracture the active layers leading to a loss of lithium ions.
Bob Wilson
andyG59
Well-Known Member
Hi! My wife and I had two Smart fortwo ED (a 2017 and a 2018 cabrio, both bought new as our first EV's) from 2018 to earlier this year. We drove them a total of about 30,000 miles. We loved those little cars, they were soooo much fun to drive. However our needs changed and it was time to let them go.
From experience I learned that the Smart range estimator is similar to other EV's and what some of us call a 'guess-o-meter' that attempts to predict remaining range based on the battery state of charge, and the electricity use compared to the distance driven. Different EV's we have owned have handled the guess-o-meter differently. In the case of the 2017 and 2018 Smart it seems to have been based on the last few hours of driving. Activating ECO mode added about 10 percent to the range guess. Turning climate control on will drop the range estimate because the heater and AC are also powered by electricity. If recent driving was at a higher speed than usual then the range estimate will also be lowered because EV's, and especially the Smart, drive more efficiently at lower speeds. Another thing I noticed with our Smarts is that tire pressure drops in cold temperatures and that the Continental tires (standard with our cars) seemed to need the air refilled more often than other EV tires we have owned.
I hope this helps and best of luck!