Range test shows really bad results

[dab1054]

Motion FWD, 600 miles

Just some notes on first experiences to add to information that others have reported.

Efficiency was a bit better than expected for local driving (5-25 miles, mostly minor roads) at 4.2 to 4.8 ml/kWh. Happy with that but it was when the temp was higher around 15C. A couple of longer trips around 180 miles each (Nottingham - Newcastle and return) mostly on dual carriageways gave 3.6 and 3.7 ml/kWh (with 2 in car). Outside temp was 8C and continuous rain. I was aiming for 60-65 mph but average speed was slower due to congestion. First trip I charged to 90% and got to destination (180 miles) with about 40 miles range left. Second trip 173 miles charged to 80% and got to destination with 20 miles left. Also saw the warning to add charge with around 25 miles remaining. There was 7% left in Battery on the last journey. So this suggests a readily achievable range of around 200 miles if charged to 100%, at least under the conditions I used. Hopefully will improve as outside temps increase in spring/summer next year.

The auto wipers and adaptive headlights made a potentially horrible journey much easier on busy roads in heavy rain and at night. The car is impressively quiet- normally I couldn't hold a conversation in my old Prius while driving at motorway speed but no problems at all in bZ4X.  CarPlay worked very nicely with Google maps but for ZapMap you have to pay extra for integration. Coming from a 2008 Prius these features seem truly space age to me. 

I've been charging at home (Zappi) and found it easy enough to set overnight charging (at cheap rate) either from the car or from the Zappi app. I can push in around 45kWh in the 7 hour cheap rate slot that I have - as expected from the 6.6kW on-board charger. On the road trips I used InstaVolt (£0.75/kWh- ouch!) and on the first charge I made the mistake of not switching off the car before trying to plug in. Next time it was fine- just switched off and used key to release the charging port. One of the InstaVolt chargers was 120kW and this charged the car from nearly empty (20 ml range) to 80% (222 ml range) in the time it took to have a burger and coffee- maybe 20 minutes.  Perfect.

A/C- I'm still trying to find the best settings for longer trips. Even though I was comfortable with just seat heating I found that the windows steamed up inside and then needed to add some A/C heat or front/rear demisters. The ECO setting was OK but seemed allow outside air to come in near the accelerator pedal giving me a cold right foot!

[egg]

18 minutes ago, dab1054 said:

Motion FWD, 600 miles

Just some notes on first experiences to add to information that others have reported.

Efficiency was a bit better than expected for local driving (5-25 miles, mostly minor roads) at 4.2 to 4.8 ml/kWh. Happy with that but it was when the temp was higher around 15C. A couple of longer trips around 180 miles each (Nottingham - Newcastle and return) mostly on dual carriageways gave 3.6 and 3.7 ml/kWh (with 2 in car). Outside temp was 8C and continuous rain. I was aiming for 60-65 mph but average speed was slower due to congestion. First trip I charged to 90% and got to destination (180 miles) with about 40 miles range left. Second trip 173 miles charged to 80% and got to destination with 20 miles left. Also saw the warning to add charge with around 25 miles remaining. There was 7% left in battery on the last journey. So this suggests a readily achievable range of around 200 miles if charged to 100%, at least under the conditions I used. Hopefully will improve as outside temps increase in spring/summer next year.

The auto wipers and adaptive headlights made a potentially horrible journey much easier on busy roads in heavy rain and at night. The car is impressively quiet- normally I couldn't hold a conversation in my old Prius while driving at motorway speed but no problems at all in bZ4X.  CarPlay worked very nicely with Google maps but for ZapMap you have to pay extra for integration. Coming from a 2008 Prius these features seem truly space age to me. 

I've been charging at home (Zappi) and found it easy enough to set overnight charging (at cheap rate) either from the car or from the Zappi app. I can push in around 45kWh in the 7 hour cheap rate slot that I have - as expected from the 6.6kW on-board charger. On the road trips I used InstaVolt (£0.75/kWh- ouch!) and on the first charge I made the mistake of not switching off the car before trying to plug in. Next time it was fine- just switched off and used key to release the charging port. One of the InstaVolt chargers was 120kW and this charged the car from nearly empty (20 ml range) to 80% (222 ml range) in the time it took to have a burger and coffee- maybe 20 minutes.  Perfect.

A/C- I'm still trying to find the best settings for longer trips. Even though I was comfortable with just seat heating I found that the windows steamed up inside and then needed to add some A/C heat or front/rear demisters. The ECO setting was OK but seemed allow outside air to come in near the accelerator pedal giving me a cold right foot!

Could I ask who your 7 hour cheap rate slot is with as I only get 4 hours on Octopus Go?

[Malop]

Question of measuring efficiency, I’m trying to collect the many different ways EV efficiency is reported. Could people share the ones they are aware of.

So far I have

• miles/KwH
• KwH/100 miles
• KM/KwH
• KwH/100 KM

 

[ernieb]

That’s a pain Craig and says Lillie about the potential reliability of the BG systems, hope it gets better with time. Maybe worth investing in a granny cable to bypass the BG charger if it fails again, at least you should be able to get some charge into the Battery. (I assume a granny cable will work?)

[dab1054]

35 minutes ago, egg said:

Could I ask who your 7 hour cheap rate slot is with as I only get 4 hours on Octopus Go?

I'm on what used to be called 'Economy 7' with Octopus Energy. This gives night rate currently at 15p/kWh from 00:30 to 07:30. Day rate is much higher at 41p/kWh. I think Octopus Go is cheaper night rate but unless you have a fast car charger not enough time to put in a big charge to bring car to 100%.

[swoop5511]

1 hour ago, dab1054 said:

I've been charging at home (Zappi) and found it easy enough to set overnight charging (at cheap rate) either from the car or from the Zappi app. I can push in around 45kWh in the 7 hour cheap rate slot that I have - as expected from the 6.6kW on-board charger. On the road trips I used InstaVolt (£0.75/kWh- ouch!) and on the first charge I made the mistake of not switching off the car before trying to plug in. Next time it was fine- just switched off and used key to release the charging port. One of the InstaVolt chargers was 120kW and this charged the car from nearly empty (20 ml range) to 80% (222 ml range) in the time it took to have a burger and coffee- maybe 20 minutes.  Perfect.

Congrats on your car!  A question re charging, have you been able to set a charging limit in either case? I.e. charge to 80%

The feature / function is listed in the manual, but I cant seem to access it or make it work

[egg]

1 hour ago, ernieb said:

That’s a pain Craig and says Lillie about the potential reliability of the BG systems, hope it gets better with time. Maybe worth investing in a granny cable to bypass the BG charger if it fails again, at least you should be able to get some charge into the battery. (I assume a granny cable will work?)

Yes, the car comes complete with granny charger, might have to invest in external 3 pin socket though. I could've charged at a rapid public charger yesterday if I'd been desperate, but the Yorkshire man in me doesn't want to pay the prices if i can help it 😁. I'm also lucky that if I'm having issues charging at home, i can always charge whilst at work for only 15p per KWh too, plenty of time to get a full charge during my 12hr shift

[dab1054]

1 hour ago, swoop5511 said:

Congrats on your car!  A question re charging, have you been able to set a charging limit in either case? I.e. charge to 80%

The feature / function is listed in the manual, but I cant seem to access it or make it work

From the main display go to Settings/Vehicle customise/Charging/Charging limit and then can select % limit. I think it can be done from the Zappi app as well but not found out how yet. 

[swoop5511]

28 minutes ago, dab1054 said:

From the main display go to Settings/Vehicle customise/Charging/Charging limit and then can select % limit. I think it can be done from the Zappi app as well but not found out how yet. 

I can only set a charging schedule in terms of time limit, not charge. Ill try again. thanks!

[dab1054]

7 minutes ago, swoop5511 said:

I can only set a charging schedule in terms of time limit, not charge. Ill try again. thanks!

The charging schedule is in a different area on the Main Menu (not sure why...). Find the 'Vehicle Customise' section and you will find the charging limit in there with various other items. 

[lightboxcar]

7 hours ago, dab1054 said:

achievable range of around 200 miles

Great write up, thanks very much.

4.2mi/Kw to 4.8mi/Kw seems pretty decent !

The 200 mile range on the longer drive is still a bit disapointing.  Understand it was colder etc. and high speed roads, but we would still have hoped for a bit more.

Has been fair bit of discussion over the 'hidden' charge buffer in the Battery, consensus seems to be perphaps up to 25 miles, very dependent on conditions.

There has also been mention of Battery learning over time, and also speculation on whether Toyoyta will do a software update to improve the range

Would be great to hear further updates as you use the car over time

[swoop5511]

15 hours ago, dab1054 said:

The charging schedule is in a different area on the Main Menu (not sure why...). Find the 'Vehicle Customise' section and you will find the charging limit in there with various other items. 

Found it. thank you!

[ernieb]

12 hours ago, lightboxcar said:

Great write up, thanks very much.

4.2mi/Kw to 4.8mi/Kw seems pretty decent !

The 200 mile range on the longer drive is still a bit disapointing.  Understand it was colder etc. and high speed roads, but we would still have hoped for a bit more.

Has been fair bit of discussion over the 'hidden' charge buffer in the battery, consensus seems to be perphaps up to 25 miles, very dependent on conditions.

There has also been mention of battery learning over time, and also speculation on whether Toyoyta will do a software update to improve the range

Would be great to hear further updates as you use the car over time

I believe that all traction batteries go through a conditioning phase which limits the full charge and discharge as well as the car learning your driving style, acceleration, braking etc.

My PHEV got better after the first 1k miles, better estimated range.

[dab1054]

13 hours ago, lightboxcar said:

The 200 mile range on the longer drive is still a bit disapointing.  Understand it was colder etc. and high speed roads, but we would still have hoped for a bit more.

It could be pushed a bit further than 200 miles for sure, maybe to 220-240 miles. But then the range would be at zero and you would be relying on the 'reserve' which seems to be about 20-30 miles. For me 200 miles is 100% achievable in the bZ4X so I'm planning on using that as a guide for winter journeys. 

[dab1054]

21 hours ago, Malop said:

Question of measuring efficiency, I’m trying to collect the many different ways EV efficiency is reported. Could people share the ones they are aware of.

So far I have

• miles/KwH
• KwH/100 miles
• KM/KwH
• KwH/100 KM

 

Wh/mile and Wh/km are used on EV database and seem to be the standard for comparing efficiencies across EVs. For reference,  I calculate 200-250 Wh/mile for the first 600 miles in my bZ4X. These number are equivalent to 4-4.6 miles/kWh.

[Mister Mike]

I’ve yet to pick up my BZ4X, but I installed the My T app on my phone. I can see in the app that it’s charged to 99% and has a range of 275.2 miles (220.2 with A/C). I suspect that something missing from the display is an icon of a big pinch of salt!

[swoop5511]

8 hours ago, Mister Mike said:

I’ve yet to pick up my BZ4X, but I installed the My T app on my phone. I can see in the app that it’s charged to 99% and has a range of 275.2 miles (220.2 with A/C). I suspect that something missing from the display is an icon of a big pinch of salt!

when I picked up mine it was at 95% and 264m range. So your displayed range is not unreasonable. Especially if the car is inside a dealer show room or work area where its ambient temps. 

[dab1054]

2 hours ago, swoop5511 said:

when I picked up mine it was at 95% and 264m range. So your displayed range is not unreasonable. Especially if the car is inside a dealer show room or work area where its ambient temps. 

My Motion FWD at 100% charge has shown 280, 279 and 278 miles range so far. So what you see is almost certainly correct. But, of course that is just an estimate by the software and when temperatures are low, you switch A/C on and drive at motorway speeds that estimated range will go down. I think this applies to all EVs.

Maybe in summer we will hit that 270-280 miles range in the real world!

[ernieb]

32 minutes ago, dab1054 said:

My Motion FWD at 100% charge has shown 280, 279 and 278 miles range so far. So what you see is almost certainly correct. But, of course that is just an estimate by the software and when temperatures are low, you switch A/C on and drive at motorway speeds that estimated range will go down. I think this applies to all EVs.

Maybe in summer we will hit that 270-280 miles range in the real world!

You’ll then have the A/C running so there will still be a drop but the higher ambient will definitely give you a better range.

Not obviously a direct comparison but my PHEV does give around the declared 46miles on EV over the year. Can be mid to high 50’s in summer and high 30’s to low 40’s in the winter. But so dependant on how it’s driven, temperature, topography and wind speed. I’m getting 3.5/kWh averaged over the last 15 months. (That’s of course lugging a 2.5ltr ICE and associated accessories around)

[FROSTYBALLS]

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