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Realistic daily range of an electric vehicle

blog.forret.com

21–30 of 259 posts

Re: Realistic daily range of an electric vehicle

#22
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fantastic way to crater your cars resale value.

Why do Americans care so much about resale instead of just using the stuff you bought? If I ever buy a house it'll be to actually live life in it, not to nickel-and-dime some poor college student.

> Why do Americans care so much about resale instead of just using the stuff you bought?

I expect that you throw your old car away whenever you get a new one?

Re: Realistic daily range of an electric vehicle

#23
post #7

Author first assumes that only 60% of the available battery capacity is used (80% > 20%) and then arrives at the conclusion that the range is lower than expected. Well, no shit. I personally do charge my Ioniq BEV to 100%, and I often drive it to, say, 6%. In summer, I get a range of 220km, and in winter 160-180km, depending on temperature and number of cold starts (cold starts seem to trigger a battery warm-up). SOH…

What do you do when you arrive at the charger with 6% battery left and the charger doesn’t work? Or if there’s a significant queue?

Not OP and drive a Tesla. Charging stations are pretty large at least where I live. 10–15 chargers minimum and the Tesla nav system tells you in advance how many are available to use.

Re: Realistic daily range of an electric vehicle

#24
post #7

Author first assumes that only 60% of the available battery capacity is used (80% > 20%) and then arrives at the conclusion that the range is lower than expected. Well, no shit. I personally do charge my Ioniq BEV to 100%, and I often drive it to, say, 6%. In summer, I get a range of 220km, and in winter 160-180km, depending on temperature and number of cold starts (cold starts seem to trigger a battery warm-up). SOH…

I see colleagues that have to choose a new EV and use the EPA rating as an actual distance ("Oh I can drive to Paris in 1 go"). They don't know that you normally don't start from 100%, and you don't go down to 0%. Your 94% range usage is impressive, but not the norm for daily usage. Most people follow their vendor's recommendations for battery longevity.

Re: Realistic daily range of an electric vehicle

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do when you arrive at the charger with 6% battery left and the charger doesn’t work? Or if there’s a significant queue?

Not OP and drive a Tesla. Charging stations are pretty large at least where I live. 10–15 chargers minimum and the Tesla nav system tells you in advance how many are available to use.

[flagged]

Re: Realistic daily range of an electric vehicle

#28
post #9

“In my case, I typically charge the car to 80%” My understanding is that the preservation of the battery is built into the charge controller and you shouldn’t have to worry about it. In other words when your car says it’s fully charged it’s only “really” charged to 80% or some other cutoff as determined by the charge controller. I don’t drive a Tesla so my only point of reference is my Fiat 500e which doesn’t have as…

The Tesla app asks you how high the battery should charge (where I choose 80% for daily use), and it will warn you no to take higher than 90% except for sporadic long-distance travelling.

Re: Realistic daily range of an electric vehicle

#29
post #9

“In my case, I typically charge the car to 80%” My understanding is that the preservation of the battery is built into the charge controller and you shouldn’t have to worry about it. In other words when your car says it’s fully charged it’s only “really” charged to 80% or some other cutoff as determined by the charge controller. I don’t drive a Tesla so my only point of reference is my Fiat 500e which doesn’t have as…

The Tesla notifies you that you will be shortening the life of the battery if you regularly charge to 100.

Many Teslas being produced today use lithium-iron phosphate batteries, which can be charged to 100% without degradation. If you have an LFP-based Tesla, you won't get the notification.

Re: Realistic daily range of an electric vehicle

#30
post #9

“In my case, I typically charge the car to 80%” My understanding is that the preservation of the battery is built into the charge controller and you shouldn’t have to worry about it. In other words when your car says it’s fully charged it’s only “really” charged to 80% or some other cutoff as determined by the charge controller. I don’t drive a Tesla so my only point of reference is my Fiat 500e which doesn’t have as…

The Tesla notifies you that you will be shortening the life of the battery if you regularly charge to 100.

The author assumes that all EVs behave like Teslas. Other car manufacturers are aiming for simpler UI, and the charging system itself is meant to deal with the oddities of deciding exactly how much to charge the car to. For instance the often don't show a charge percentage but an estimated range with bounds.

I apologize for not bringing a link but there is a beautiful story of real world range that shows that Teslas are systematically over reporting their range. It was posted recently. The author should probably read it before generalizing...

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