help improve my consumption!

[coolshades]

MME AWD ER owner since 10th Sept. done 1182.5 miles thus far.

80% of that is highway driving - these are almost all work related.
highway driving is at least 100 miles a day
local trips are when I do home stuff - groceries, gym, family taxi service, socialising, etc
local trips are 3 - 8 miles a day


my habits:

• climate set to 22c continually.
• often stop in lay-bys/parking lots to do stuff. car is on at these times. in fact even as I write, I am parked, with car on, climate on, outside temp of 8C
• drive in whisper mode
• switched to OPD about a week ago
• on motorways, I typically average 70 mph (national speed limit)
• on short trips I average 55-60 mph
• I don't set departure times or precondition the car
• I charge from 2am to 6 am since that's when the home electricity is cheapest.
• I start using the car from about 8.30 am during week days and 6 am-ish on weekends.

my observations:

• trip 1/2 reported 3.1 mls/kwh until yesterday. that has slipped to 3 mls/kwh today
• on my short trips, I get anywhere from 2.4-2.8 mls/kwh.
• on my highway trips I have got 2.7-3.3 mls/kwh, with the latter very rarely.
• since I start my trips cold, I notice climate use is as high as 40-60% until the car gets warmed up. I am sure this affects my consumption.

what can I do to improve my consumption figures?

setting departure time and preheat comes to mind but I am not sure how much of a difference that makes.

but, ideally, I want to set departure and conditioning during 2-6 am when electricity is cheapest. that will mean that car could go cold during week days since first use is usually 830 am.

will welcome any and all views.

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[JamieGeek]

Yup preconditioning the car will go a long way to lowering your power consumption.

However, an outside temp around 8C is your killer here. Drive in warmer weather and your efficiency will go up.

Preconditioning it at 8:30am for at least 15 minutes and taking the price hit would help.

If you really want to stretch it in cold weather:

• Precondition with the HVAC set as hot as possible
• Turn off e-heat when driving (or even turn off HVAC completely)
• Crack a window (yup) to minimize the front window fogging (it will if HVAC is off)
• Turn off the car when you're stopped doing stuff

I used to do all of the above in my Focus Electric (only 70 miles/112km range): Would preheat the car to 80F/22C while plugged in, turned off HVAC for my commute, cracked a window to keep the windshield from fogging up.

Oh and wear warm clothes LOL.

 

[JoeDimwit]

Personally, I only use whisper mode when I’m not expecting to need to accelerate/decelerate frequently. So, when I get on a limited access road I flip to whisper. On surface streets, I tend to use engage. The other thing that could help with consumption is that it seems like my efficiency falls off a cliff around 68-70 mph. Try setting up at 65 on your commute and see if that makes a difference for you.

Edit to add: Use cruise control as much as possible on your commute. Constantly speeding up and slowing down (even with regen) wastes a lot of energy.

 

[PeeKay]

What changed my miles/kwh was tire pressure. I hadn't noticed that my tire pressure had dropped to 37psi. Pumped it up to 40 (recommended is 39), and my m/kwh went from below 3 to 3.5

 

[macchiaz-o]

The battery is a huge mass and takes quite a bit of electricity to heat itself up to optimal driving temps. So I'd try @JamieGeek's advice to use preconditioning. Maybe even try some experiments where you precondition for a 6:00 AM departure, so that it is within your utility's lowest rates? Even though you don't leave until 8:30, maybe that will let the pack start off your journey with a little more heat still in it?

Sorry this is a bit off topic, but I dig your username as it can be read with multiple meanings. Could you step out of hell for a few minutes to also cool Phoenix?

Also, time to replace that Jaguar XF in your profile, right?

 

[phil]

The battery is a huge mass and takes quite a bit of electricity to heat itself up to optimal driving temps. So I'd try @JamieGeek's advice to use preconditioning.

Does preconditioning reduce electricity consumed, or does it just consume earlier the electricity needed to heat the battery?

 

[macchiaz-o]

Does preconditioning reduce electricity consumed, or does it just consume earlier the electricity needed to heat the battery?

Preconditioning could in many cases increase electricity consumed. It depends. It's more about optimizing comfort and driving range.

Preconditioning can make both you and the electric powertrain more comfortable upon starting the vehicle and driving away. You and the battery both operate more efficiently while closer to 72F or 22C, than frigid cold. I think this is its main purpose.

The second part is that the battery has less resistance to flowing energy while it is warm than cold. Resistance while cold leads to a lower distance to empty, and less power to the wheels. The vehicle heats up the pack to a comfortable temp, but this too uses up some stored energy and therefore range. So preconditioning eliminates the range loss by pulling the energy needed for heating from the electrical grid instead of the vehicle's battery.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

You can precondition not just by setting a departure time. You can also just remote start 5-10 minutes before you leave. That will get your cabin up to temperature while you’re still plugged in to the outlet. But mostly you’d need to drive in warmer weather and drive slower. Long stints at 70 MPH is not what the cars were rated at.

 

[coolshades]

Personally, I only use whisper mode when I’m not expecting to need to accelerate/decelerate frequently. So, when I get on a limited access road I flip to whisper. On surface streets, I tend to use engage. The other thing that could help with consumption is that it seems like my efficiency falls off a cliff around 68-70 mph. Try setting up at 65 on your commute and see if that makes a difference for you.

Edit to add: Use cruise control as much as possible on your commute. Constantly speeding up and slowing down (even with regen) wastes a lot of energy.

where i leave has a lot of roundabouts, so a lot of slowing, restarting for local trips ... .i am guessing this consumes energy faster?

for sure, those routes gave me poor mileage when driving ICE and i am assuming it's the same with BEV

 

[Maquis]

Point of reference: AWD-ER US EPA range of 270 miles comes out to approximately 3.1 M/kWh, so you're not terribly off of that. I don't know if the US EPA range is accurate for cars built for the UK??

 

[coolshades]

The battery is a huge mass and takes quite a bit of electricity to heat itself up to optimal driving temps. So I'd try @JamieGeek's advice to use preconditioning. Maybe even try some experiments where you precondition for a 6:00 AM departure, so that it is within your utility's lowest rates? Even though you don't leave until 8:30, maybe that will let the pack start off your journey with a little more heat still in it?

Sorry this is a bit off topic, but I dig your username as it can be read with multiple meanings. Could you step out of hell for a few minutes to also cool Phoenix?

Also, time to replace that Jaguar XF in your profile, right?

i don't mind taking the electricity hit. i should play around with start times, departures, etc and see what happens.

re profile pic, your wish is my command, sir.

 

[murphy62]

Another way to reduce consumption in cold weather is to leave the cabin heat off, wear a warm coat, and turn the seat heater on.

Air drag increases with the square of the velocity. You have to decide if getting there 5 minutes earlier is worth the cost.

 

[Maquis]

Air drag increases with the square of the velocity. You have to decide if getting there 5 minutes earlier is worth the cost.

Drag does increase by the square, thus the power required increases by the cube!

 

[JoeDimwit]

where i leave has a lot of roundabouts, so a lot of slowing, restarting for local trips ... .i am guessing this consumes energy faster?

for sure, those routes gave me poor mileage when driving ICE and i am assuming it's the same with BEV

BEV’s are the polar opposite of ICE vehicles where efficiency is concerned. Cruising at a stable speed in an ICE vehicle will give you the best average consumption, while in a BEV, low speed, stop and go is the most efficient.

 

[Petter]

You can also just remote start 5-10 minutes before you leave.

But will that ALSO precondition the battery? And what happens if you apply Remote start without being plugged in?

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