NAV reducing EV range?

[jelwell]

Question:

Does enabling NAV reduce your EV range?

 

Background:

I hadn't plugged in my NAV SD Card, because I didn't want NAV. Unfortunately the dealer only had models on the lot with NAV. I was thinking of selling the SD Card to try to recoup some of the cost of the NAV, but I checked ebay and found that the SD card is a mere fraction of the cost. Presumably the GPS and other(?) systems embedded in the vehicle are the bulk of the expense.

 

I've been driving for a week or so without the SD card plugged in, the same commute over and over. The other day I plugged in the NAV's SD card and I get the impression the number of miles listed as remaining in EV mode has been subtly affected.

 

Surely enabling the NAV has a drain on batteries. The touch screen is constantly showing the current street name on screen whether I've got a destination enabled or not. Those calculations/lookups are free.

 

Does anyone have any data on NAV? Should I just leave the SD Card unplugged if I want to optimize my EV Range?

My iPhone's Waze app has considerably better traffic and incident information and presumably better routing too - and I can charge that one at work for free. ;)

 

Thanks,

Joseph Elwell.

[Griff]

Question:

Does enabling NAV reduce your EV range?

 

Background:

I hadn't plugged in my NAV SD Card, because I didn't want NAV. Unfortunately the dealer only had models on the lot with NAV. I was thinking of selling the SD Card to try to recoup some of the cost of the NAV, but I checked ebay and found that the SD card is a mere fraction of the cost. Presumably the GPS and other(?) systems embedded in the vehicle are the bulk of the expense.

 

I've been driving for a week or so without the SD card plugged in, the same commute over and over. The other day I plugged in the NAV's SD card and I get the impression the number of miles listed as remaining in EV mode has been subtly affected.

 

Surely enabling the NAV has a drain on batteries. The touch screen is constantly showing the current street name on screen whether I've got a destination enabled or not. Those calculations/lookups are free.

 

Does anyone have any data on NAV? Should I just leave the SD Card unplugged if I want to optimize my EV Range?

My iPhone's Waze app has considerably better traffic and incident information and presumably better routing too - and I can charge that one at work for free. ;)

 

Thanks,

Joseph Elwell.

I don't know for sure, but consider this: The car has GPS that runs regardless of whether you have nav or not. That's how the vehicle can be located for the MFM app. Running GPS by far uses more energi ;) than an led/lcd screen. The power fro the computer to determine the location and display it is probably not that significant to all of the other things the car is doing (controlling all systems,  running Bluetooth, playing audio, etc.). The battery in the vehicle is measured in killowatthours (thousandwatthours). The battery in you phone may be anywhere from 5-9 watt hours. Your phone (depending on make) can run the GPS and cellular radio for several hours. So, theoretically your car, if it were only running a cellular radio and gps would last 10s of thousands of hours. In summary, I don't see how using the sd card to display the nav data that is already being collected could have any noticeable affect on your mileage.

[easyv]

I don't know for sure, but consider this: The car has GPS that runs regardless of whether you have nav or not. That's how the vehicle can be located for the MFM app. Running GPS by far uses more energi ;) than an led/lcd screen. The power fro the computer to determine the location and display it is probably not that significant to all of the other things the car is doing (controlling all systems,  running Bluetooth, playing audio, etc.). The battery in the vehicle is measured in killowatthours (thousandwatthours). The battery in you phone may be anywhere from 5-9 watt hours. Your phone (depending on make) can run the GPS and cellular radio for several hours. So, theoretically your car, if it were only running a cellular radio and gps would last 10s of thousands of hours. In summary, I don't see how using the sd card to display the nav data that is already being collected could have any noticeable affect on your mileage.

 

I doubt that the GPS uses much power (certainly not as much as the lcd ). I used to have an external Bluetooth GPS that ran for WEEKS off a cellphone battery. All a GPS is a fancy radio, that triangulates its location between satellites. Doesn't take much power or brains to do that.

[Griff]

I doubt that the GPS uses much power (certainly not as much as the lcd ). I used to have an external Bluetooth GPS that ran for WEEKS off a cellphone battery. All a GPS is a fancy radio, that triangulates its location between satellites. Doesn't take much power or brains to do that.

I should clarify. I meant the GPS and accompanying cpu processing power. If you ran a phone as a gps unit with the screen off, it'll last a few hours. If you ran the same phone with the screen on and no GPS, it would last longer. And considering the GPS, calculations, and screen are always on regardless of an SD card, I doubt I cost much more energy to convert that information to a graphic display and display that information on the screen.