Varying Displayed Miles at Full Charge

[jlpang105]

Just picked up a new 2015 BEV last Friday. At the dealer it was at full charge and the displayed mile range was 81. After driving it over the weekend and recharging a couple times back to full the range was at 80 and 82 miles at full charge. Last couple days it's been showing 72, 73, and 76 at full charge. Ambient temperature has been around 65-70°F. All charging was done on level 2 chargers (at work and home). Just wondering if this variability in full charge range display is normal, maybe the software is still learning the battery?

thanks!

 

[janner]

It's most likely your driving style which it is learning. The prediction of mileage is based on your past drives so style, terrain/hills, short or long trips, speed, etc., all come to play.

When fully charged you have four bars of charge and a battery of 18.8kWhrs. You'll learn over the coming weeks what sort of mileage you get for the kind of trip you're planning - could be anywhere between 3.5 to 5.5 miles/kWhr. If you look at your local community average on the smartphone app and times that by the battery capacity you'll have a good guide (e.g. 4miles/kWhr = 72 miles).

 

[TomMoloughney]

That's completely normal. It will continue to act as such. Remember the estimated range display is just that, an estimate. You can get many more or many less miles than displayed on any given day depending on how fast you drive, how well you use regenerative braking to your advantage, how much AC or heat you use, ambient temperature, etc.

The range estimated is a guide for you to use, but it is very far from exact. For example, a few days ago I started out with 78 miles displayed. I drove 62 miles and finished with 5 miles remaining. Many days it's spot on, but many days it's way off. The car can't predict exactly how you'll be driving in the future, it can only look at the efficiency of how you drove in the past and offer an estimate.

 

[psquare]

I can confirm the above statements from Janner and Tom.

Also, please take into account when using SatNav the remaining mileage is adjusted to the terrain of your route. For example, I might start the car with 78 miles at 100% SOC, but as soon as I program the SatNav with a route along the motorways, my remaining mileage goes immediately down to 65 miles, which is pretty accurate, actually.

 

[jlpang105]

Thanks a lot for the informative responses!

 

[barrychan]

I don't look at the guess-o-meter anymore, i look at the bar, each one full bar gets approx. 20 miles + at normal city driving condition with regen.