PHEV - MyT EV range

[ernieb]

Just an observation really and I guess to be expected. In the warmer weather when I charged the the car it would see a range estimate of 59+miles and 57+miles with AC.  In the coldest weather we’ve had so far these have dropped to 55+miles and 50+miles this was when it was around 2/3 oC. Today it’s 10oC and it’s 57+miles and 53+miles.

The app certainly does seem to track the temperature and expected use of the cabin heating, seats etc.  I’m impressed at how well its working.  
Might be useful for others who are getting the PHEV? Anyone else who owns one noticed the same effect?

[Lawnmowerman]

Up in the frozen North it gives me 49 & 47 miles respectively 😒

[ernieb]

That’s interesting I’d assumed it would work something like that but from what I can see it’s ‘clever’ at making the calculation. I’m assuming that it knows your location (as displayed in the MyT app) and temperature as it works out Battery charging and whether to heat or cool the Battery but it’s also possibly adding an element based on your EV score?

I’d really like to know how it does the calculations? It would be interesting to see what the range of full charge range numbers are for the various parts of the UK as we get into the colder weather.

[Lawnmowerman]

Out of interest Ernie, are your typical journeys on relatively flat terrain? I have a roller coaster of a journey when working or travelling to Inverness for shopping (less hilly if I visit my daughter but she is about 35 miles away so Battery exhausted before I get home).

🙂

 

[ernieb]

Most of my local trips are undulating rather than hills although I do live in the Chiltern hills area. When we are in Derbyshire, which is regularly, that’s another matter it’s all hills. I’ve just done a return trip from Matlock to Castleton and return, plenty of hills, ups and downs.  Car said 55 miles EV which was as it happens not far off but as I got nearly back to Matlock I switched into HEV to warm the engine and run for a couple of miles the switched back to EV, I had 2 miles EV on return. I just don’t want the ICE to kick in when I have a few hundred metres (yards) to get home. 

What I’ve found is that if a route is used as a go and return then I recover a relatively good percentage of the energy on the way down that I used on the way up. I’ve tried to adapt my braking to maximise the energy recovery it took a bit of practice to get a good braking effect without actually using the brakes. There are time when I wish I could have a steering wheel button to increase the recovery mode, maybe change the recoverers braking profile?

[spicyhotone]

My experience of driving EVs is to minimise the recovery - you will always lose energy on recovery as it can never be 100% efficient. The best driving style is to lift off the power as early as possible, and let the car slow down without any braking as far as possible. If you do need to use the brakes, then gently, so as to ensure you do use the regen braking rather than physical brakes (although it's an idea to give them a good workout now & then to keep them clean and effective!). Basically, it's all about anticipation, and minimising braking. Which of course is also more efficient in a normal ICE car too.

One thing I think I've noticed is that the 2nd half of the Battery seems to run down faster than the first half. I've not really made a "scientific" analysis of this, but it's certainly felt like this on some return journeys recently. Basically flat, less than half range used on outward leg, but had to use HV mode for the last few miles on the return journey.

[Yugguy1970]

2 hours ago, ernieb said:

. There are time when I wish I could have a steering wheel button to increase the recovery mode, maybe change the recoverers braking profile?

I've been wondering if using the artifical steps in the S mode give more recharging.  I think this uses the electric motor resistance to provide engine braking and as you go down the gears the effect is increased so presumably more electricity is being generated.  Wether this gets to the Battery I don't know, or if charging is capped.

[philip42h]

8 minutes ago, Yugguy1970 said:

I've been wondering if using the artifical steps in the S mode give more recharging.  I think this uses the electric motor resistance to provide engine braking and as you go down the gears the effect is increased so presumably more electricity is being generated.  Wether this gets to the battery I don't know, or if charging is capped.

I believe that is correct - S mode can be used to select a higher gear to increase engine braking (it says so in the book) and thereby also increase regenerative braking (I think). Any generated power will flow to the Battery in the normal way - provided that there is 'space' in the Battery to receive it.

Earlier hybrids had a B (battery) mode that effectively increased regenerative braking. We have S mode instead which is, I think, a more sophisticated (i.e. possibly harder to use) form of the same thing.

And, like others, I would like more engine braking available - particularly when going down hill. We get used to driving gently, anticipating hold-ups and 'coasting' to a stop rather than using the brakes unnecessarily. The one occasion where I find that 'unnecessary' use of the brakes is needed is when going down hill - the car will tend to pick up speed rather than descend at the speed I have chosen unless I apply the brakes. Gentle braking may well favour regeneration but I'd still like more by default - I can always press the accelerator if I want to go faster ...

[ernieb]

I’ve done some playing around using S-mode to increase the braking/regeneration and yes it does work to a limited degree.  I found it a bit of a pain selecting the S-mode unless the decent was pretty consistent if it was something that had flatter sections I’d either have to touch accelerator  or change back to normal mode. As Philip has said the normal lift and coast on flat roads is fine it’s the hill decent that needs a little extra. Be warned that if the Battery is full the ICE will kick in to add extra regeneration and of course it will run until it’s warmed up.  This has happened to me a number of times no matter how hard I’ve tried to manipulate the braking even when the Battery was partially depleted.

[Yugguy1970]

I remember way back in the day in our school bus the driver had an electromagnetic brake, controlled by a sliding lever rather than stepped, so it was possible to finely tune the amount of braking.  That would be cool.

[ernieb]

1 minute ago, Yugguy1970 said:

I remember way back in the day in our school bus the driver had an electromagnetic brake, controlled by a sliding lever rather than stepped, so it was possible to finely tune the amount of braking.  That would be cool.

and another lever to make the car very thin for getting between those tight gaps, aka Harry Potter.

[nlee]

Are you saying @ernieb that the EV range changes if you haven't used it dependent on the temperature? I haven't noticed that. With working from home some of the time at the moment there are days when I don't use the car but I can't say I've seen the range change despite the weather changing. I presumed it worked the same as the petrol range, i.e. it looks at the average over the last whatever distance or time period and used that to calculate the range. So if it was cold on my last journey and the EV consumption and A/C use reflected that, it would influence the range when fully charged. It would be interesting if it did something different and I'll keep a lookout.

Mine currently has a fully charged range of 50.8 miles or 48.7 with A/C and it's been like that since I last charged it on Monday morning.

[ernieb]

I think the estimate of range is based on the data it has when the charge is completed. The system obviously doesn’t know when you are going to drive but calculates the range based on when it was charged, it’s a pure guess on my part.
It’s my understanding that manufacturers don’t really want you to have the car charged and sitting on the drive, they rather you set the charge to leave time and then use the car.  The traction Battery works best in the 20 to 80% range and doesn’t like sitting fully discharged or fully charged. It’s the nature of the current Battery technology.