What kind of cold weather range to expect?

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egor.evseev

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So I took delivery on Saturday morning. Drove the car down to approx 12km on the EV range and left it to charge overnight. Sunday afternoon, I look at the app and I am 99% charge but only showing 52km (32miles) of EV range. I went about my day and eventually ran the battery down to 0EV Range. I left my phone to track my route and ended up only getting 44km (27mi) of pure EV range. This is a bit over half the advertised range. Is this in line with what other people have been experiencing? I was expecting a 15 maybe 25% drop in range. Should Honda not be advertising 76km in Canada? Fyi Temp was between -6C and -8C (18-22F).
 
egor.evseev said:
So I took delivery on Saturday morning. Drove the car down to approx 12km on the EV range and left it to charge overnight. Sunday afternoon, I look at the app and I am 99% charge but only showing 52km (32miles) of EV range. I went about my day and eventually ran the battery down to 0EV Range. I left my phone to track my route and ended up only getting 44km (27mi) of pure EV range. This is a bit over half the advertised range. Is this in line with what other people have been experiencing? I was expecting a 15 maybe 25% drop in range. Should Honda not be advertising 76km in Canada? Fyi Temp was between -6C and -8C (18-22F).
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I would guess around 20 miles at -17C to 35 miles around 0 C. Seems reasonable. It will depend a lot on how you use the heat. At temps less than -17C mine will mostly run in hybrid mode (battery too cold).

Also, you should have a battery heater in the Canadian model, so I would expect slightly better. What kind of charger do you have? I am asking if you can monitor charging activity to see if you see battery heating. Once my Clarity finishes charging it won't draw any power from the L2 charger unless I preheat. No battery heating.

You have to understand EPA range is not set by Honda, that is an EPA number that Honda has to legally report (Honda provides the data and the EPA can verify it, but the test doesn't account for weather). My Volt has EPA range of 35, I get between 15 and 50 miles.
 
I live in Duluth, Minnesota and in similar and warmer temps, I've never seen more than 28 miles of EV range.

Today, with temps in the low 20s, a 99% charge still showed a 26 mile EV range.
 
Extremes of cold and heat both affect EV range. This isn't unusual. You'll have to wait until spring (which unfortunately for those in Duluth might be April but probably May). I only know this because my dad grew up there (my grandparents were immigrants from Sweden - and by some quirk of fate quite a few of those immigrants ended up settling in Duluth - LOL) So I know quite a bit about a place I've only visited once (and that was mid-summer). It's nice then - but it can get hot, too! Your range will improve as the weather warms up, at least until it gets too hot. Then you'll see a reduction again.
 
I don't think it gets hot enough in Duluth to negatively affect range in the summer. It has to be Arizona extreme hot to do that.
 
EV range seems very temperature-sensitive. With temps in the 30s and 40s, I'm seeing a fully-charged EV range indication of 37 miles. Actual experience confirms this prediction, and on a 38.8-mile trip last night, the final 0.8 miles used the dinosaur engine. At first charge, the display showed 43 miles, and it declined with each charge until stabilizing at 37. Hoping for something better when temps climb into the 50s!
 
loomis2 said:
I don't think it gets hot enough in Duluth to negatively affect range in the summer. It has to be Arizona extreme hot to do that.
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As far as battery degradation goes, you're correct - it's the far extremes that can create real problems.

Our experiences with a Prius PHEV and the Tesla - an admittedly tiny sample - are that any time temps go over 85ºF, there's an effect on EV range. Now, that can be traced to increased use of AC and other temperature sensitive variables, road heat, etc. but even controlling for some of them, range decreases. So there is a sweet spot for EV range - and those in the colder climes will experience that when spring arrives. But we'll also see another decline in range when it starts heating up during the summer. That's been our experience anyway. There is probably gobs of data on that over on PriusChat and some of the Tesla boards.
 
I haven't noticed that in my Leaf, but I will pay more attention this summer since the car is mainly mine to drive now that the wife gets the Clarity.
 
A ton of data available at the INL site linked HERE (https://avt.inl.gov/). You can even download some data and analyze it yourself. Innumerable reports on every aspect of EV operation.

I found this driving presentation the Chevy Volt very interesting: https://avt.inl.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/presentations/VSATTOctober2015ColdWeatherEvaluation.pdf

Highlights:
- The Volt’s full-charge EV range dropped from 42.0 miles at 70°F to 19.7 miles at -15°F, a reduction of 53%
- EV range fell off fairly linearly in tests averaging 50 to 25°F at a rate of 0.6 miles per deg F
- Energy consumption during overnight charging ranged from 12.53 (in 60-70° weather) to 13.73 AC kWh (in 0° weather) - a 10% increase
- Energy consumption increased with decreasing temperature, but not at a consistent rate. Additional instrumentation is required to determine the cause of this variation

Love the graphic poster summarizing the data here (https://cedmcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/24-Yuksel.pdf). Includes links to source data.
 
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This is the kind of information that more potential buyers need to see before purchasing. That way, they'd at least be prepared for the seasonal changes in EV range. It's not something that I think detracts from a purchase, but it might help with expectations. And it'd certainly help owners understand that there's not something wrong with their new car.
 
loomis2 said:
I don't think it gets hot enough in Duluth to negatively affect range in the summer. It has to be Arizona extreme hot to do that.
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If you run the car's A/C, that will reduce the range. But it won't reduce the range as much as running the cabin heater. It certainly doesn't have to get Arizona hot to need to run the A/C. Here in Kansas, that's the usual case in late spring thru early fall.
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The description of the Volt's range vs. temperature is very much in line with my experience with my Volt.

This time of year (in Michigan) if I heat the cabin my range drops to the low 30's (of miles) or below.
In the middle of summer I'm good for 50 miles. This is a 1st gen Volt with an EPA range of 38 miles.
 
We are in NC and our first full charge after purchase showed an EV range of 32 miles as well. It was quite cold (for here anyway). We have just had a warm snap (mid 70's) and our latest charge gave an estimate of 41.8 (I took it off the charger just short of full). We are halfway through that charge and are on track for just over 48 miles (23.6 miles driving, 24.8 EV estimate). I hope that helps. I know I was a little worried about the initial 32 mile estimate myself.
 
I'm in NC also (Chapel Hill) and the last two days were warm. I had 51 EV miles with 5 bars still remaining (I believe only 3 are useable) when I plugged it in tonight.
 
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