alin84 Posted August 23, 2018 at 07:29 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 at 07:29 PM My 2014 FFE was working great and my 12V battery died on me about 2 weeks ago (unexpectedly, although to be fair, it did last 4.5 years). I had it replaced (for $260!), but now my driving range in EV mode has decreased by 10-20%. I used to be able to regularly go 20+ miles on electricity, but now can just get 16-18. I'm quite a conservative driver and haven't changed my driving pattern at all. The only things which changed are that my 12V died, and then I replaced it. Have any of you seen this or have any ideas as to what might have happened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphy Posted August 23, 2018 at 08:14 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 at 08:14 PM When the 12 volt battery dies some things get reset. The engine operating profile is one. The HVB characteristics may well be another. In the case of the engine it takes at least 25 miles of varying speed driving for the profile to be relearned. It is not a big deal, it had to do this when the car was new. There is no way to measure the charge in a Li-Ion battery. The computer monitors the incoming and outgoing current and estimates what the battery is capable of supporting. Use of heat or air conditioning will affect how far you can drive in electric mode. Heat is much worse than air conditioning. In the middle of winter I get around 10 miles. It's currently telling me I have 24 but I can't go more than 21 in the summer. Observe it for a while to see if it is trending back to what you expect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alin84 Posted August 23, 2018 at 09:26 PM Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 at 09:26 PM So, to be clear, I'm talking about the ACTUAL range which I get on the LIon battery and not what the car thinks it will get. I regularly (multiple times weekly) drive from my home to a particular location 9.5 miles away and could do it easily with my battery prior to the 12V battery dying (with some charge left over). Now I can't do it on a single charge at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSamkh Posted March 10, 2019 at 09:08 AM Report Share Posted March 10, 2019 at 09:08 AM So, to be clear, I'm talking about the ACTUAL range which I get on the LIon battery and not what the car thinks it will get. I regularly (multiple times weekly) drive from my home to a particular location 9.5 miles away and could do it easily with my battery prior to the 12V battery dying (with some charge left over). Now I can't do it on a single charge at all.Hello.I have a same problem. I only get 15 miles without a/c. With a/c I get even less, just 7 miles. Does anyone know what could be the problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsamp Posted March 11, 2019 at 02:27 AM Report Share Posted March 11, 2019 at 02:27 AM Hello.I have a same problem. I only get 15 miles without a/c. With a/c I get even less, just 7 miles. Does anyone know what could be the problem? Are you saying you replaced the battery and suddenly it is 15 miles, or that you are regularly getting 15 miles? I would assume it's pretty cold this time of year in the country of Georgia. That alone could explain 15 miles range as many here in the US do no better in the winter time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSamkh Posted March 11, 2019 at 06:24 AM Report Share Posted March 11, 2019 at 06:24 AM Are you saying you replaced the battery and suddenly it is 15 miles, or that you are regularly getting 15 miles? I would assume it's pretty cold this time of year in the country of Georgia. That alone could explain 15 miles range as many here in the US do no better in the winter time.Well, when I bought the car I had to replace 12V battery, so I do not really know how it was working before. And it's not very cold in my region right now, now it is 15°C, roughly 60°F, so I guess weather must not be a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphy Posted March 11, 2019 at 10:36 AM Report Share Posted March 11, 2019 at 10:36 AM 60 degrees F is definitely a problem. Anything below 70 degrees F reduces the efficiency of the battery. The colder it gets the worse the range will be. If the heater is turned on the range will drop dramatically. When it gets below freezing I get about 10 miles from the battery. The range will return when the temperature minimum for a day gets above 70 degrees F. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSamkh Posted March 11, 2019 at 02:02 PM Report Share Posted March 11, 2019 at 02:02 PM 60 degrees F is definitely a problem. Anything below 70 degrees F reduces the efficiency of the battery. The colder it gets the worse the range will be. If the heater is turned on the range will drop dramatically. When it gets below freezing I get about 10 miles from the battery. The range will return when the temperature minimum for a day gets above 70 degrees F.Well, that's good to hear. I was worried, because I did not expect the range to be at least more than 16 miles without a/c. Also, there is another thing that might have somehow affected the range. I imported my car in Georgia and we have only EU plug here and normal voltage is 220v. So I took the OEM charger to a technician and they modifies it. So now, it is connected straight in 220v and car seems to consider it as level 2 charger rather than level 1 (this is my theory because the car gets 100% charged in 2.5 hours). Any thought? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphy Posted March 11, 2019 at 03:01 PM Report Share Posted March 11, 2019 at 03:01 PM On 240 volts my car takes 2:05 to fully charge using a Leviton 240 volt 16 amp EVSE. My only worry is if there are any components in the supplied EVSE that aren't rated for the higher voltage. EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment). The charger is built into the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSamkh Posted March 11, 2019 at 03:14 PM Report Share Posted March 11, 2019 at 03:14 PM On 240 volts my car takes 2:05 to fully charge using a Leviton 240 volt 16 amp EVSE. My only worry is if there are any components in the supplied EVSE that aren't rated for the higher voltage. EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment). The charger is built into the car.Yes, mine also takes less than 2.5 hours, I just wrote an approximate time. The technician checked it and he sad that it could be modified so that it wold work on 240V. What I do not understand is that, when they do such thing (for example, I have seen people modify 120V Xbox charger to 220V here) although input voltage changes, but output should stay the same, because as long as I know, they only replace a resistor. So, with this resistor, the main board of the charger should get the same voltage as it would get before, when working with 120V. So the output must be the same and it concerns me that the car thinks that I am using level 2 charger. This is just my theory, I do not really know what they really did inside the charger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsamp Posted March 11, 2019 at 04:37 PM Report Share Posted March 11, 2019 at 04:37 PM (edited) Yes, mine also takes less than 2.5 hours, I just wrote an approximate time. The technician checked it and he sad that it could be modified so that it wold work on 240V. What I do not understand is that, when they do such thing (for example, I have seen people modify 120V Xbox charger to 220V here) although input voltage changes, but output should stay the same, because as long as I know, they only replace a resistor. So, with this resistor, the main board of the charger should get the same voltage as it would get before, when working with 120V. So the output must be the same and it concerns me that the car thinks that I am using level 2 charger. This is just my theory, I do not really know what they really did inside the charger. The charger in the car has 2 charge mode settings: L1 and L2. If it sees 120V, it defaults to 12A charging (L1). If it sees 240V (or anything close to that like 220V) it defaults to 16A charging (L2). Those are pre-set in the car and you can't change that. The car sees the higher voltage from the EVSE when on L2. Your temps are similar to mine. We're in the mid 50s to 60 deg F with lows around 40F. I'm down about 3 miles from my summer numbers. Those should pick back up as the temps rise. Edited March 11, 2019 at 04:39 PM by jsamp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSamkh Posted March 12, 2019 at 10:00 PM Report Share Posted March 12, 2019 at 10:00 PM The charger in the car has 2 charge mode settings: L1 and L2. If it sees 120V, it defaults to 12A charging (L1). If it sees 240V (or anything close to that like 220V) it defaults to 16A charging (L2). Those are pre-set in the car and you can't change that. The car sees the higher voltage from the EVSE when on L2. Your temps are similar to mine. We're in the mid 50s to 60 deg F with lows around 40F. I'm down about 3 miles from my summer numbers. Those should pick back up as the temps rise.Thanks. I understood. So, I checked another thing and found out that the car takes 3.7 kWh per full charge (after driving fully charged car, I drained it with one trip and the dash said so). The car has 75k miles on it. Is this normal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSamkh Posted March 12, 2019 at 10:02 PM Report Share Posted March 12, 2019 at 10:02 PM Also I wanted to add - weather got warmer and now my car shows that I have 39km (24 miles) of ev range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsamp Posted March 13, 2019 at 12:51 AM Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 at 12:51 AM Thanks. I understood. So, I checked another thing and found out that the car takes 3.7 kWh per full charge (after driving fully charged car, I drained it with one trip and the dash said so). The car has 75k miles on it. Is this normal? 3.7 kWh is not very good, but considering you've got 75k miles, that's somewhat understandable. Whoever had the car before you was pretty harsh on it. The guess-o-meter is saying 24 miles now, but is that what you are actually getting? That's almost 6.5mi/kWh which is outstanding if true. A new battery is 5.6 kWh for the plug-in portion (0-100%) so I look at it this way:5.0-5.6 pretty darn good4.5-4.9 decent shape4.0-4.4 not so good3.5-3.9 barely holding on<3.5 dying a slow death Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSamkh Posted March 13, 2019 at 06:15 AM Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 at 06:15 AM 3.7 kWh is not very good, but considering you've got 75k miles, that's somewhat understandable. Whoever had the car before you was pretty harsh on it. The guess-o-meter is saying 24 miles now, but is that what you are actually getting? That's almost 6.5mi/kWh which is outstanding if true. A new battery is 5.6 kWh for the plug-in portion (0-100%) so I look at it this way:5.0-5.6 pretty darn good4.5-4.9 decent shape4.0-4.4 not so good3.5-3.9 barely holding on<3.5 dying a slow deathIt depends on how and where I drive the car and I might really get very close to actual 24 miles. But, usually even though it said 26 miles, I have never gotten that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSamkh Posted March 13, 2019 at 06:15 AM Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 at 06:15 AM 3.7 kWh is not very good, but considering you've got 75k miles, that's somewhat understandable. Whoever had the car before you was pretty harsh on it. The guess-o-meter is saying 24 miles now, but is that what you are actually getting? That's almost 6.5mi/kWh which is outstanding if true. A new battery is 5.6 kWh for the plug-in portion (0-100%) so I look at it this way:5.0-5.6 pretty darn good4.5-4.9 decent shape4.0-4.4 not so good3.5-3.9 barely holding on<3.5 dying a slow deathIt depends on how and where I drive the car and I might really get very close to actual 24 miles. But, usually even though it said 26 miles, I have never gotten that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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