lifebythemile

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I've been using another app for years that allows for full expense tracking, reporting, etc. I've logged the milage and costs of my past 3 vehicles and know exactly what each one has cost me down to the cent. With having the EV I've been wanting to get more metrics, track more things, dive deeper into the data. None of the big commercial apps did what I wanted, even the more niche ones still lacked everything I wanted. So I decided to spend some time and get reacquainted with my old computer geek self.

This is the result, my own efficiency tracking app that tracks not only all costs, but also ambient temperatures. This enables much more granular reporting since EV's are affected by temperature much more than ICE vehicles are. Since it was fairly easy to add in ICE vehicle tracking, I'm also using it to track my motorcycle and given it a name of Amps & Octane.

It uses the ambient temp at the time of charge completion, it's not 100% accurate but will give a good indication of seasons. For individual charges where its not to 100% it uses previous charge end SoC and current charge start SoC, and the vehicles battery size to calculate how many kWh was used then the two ODO readings to give the efficiency of that charge period. I added this in since all the major apps do not calculate efficiency info if it's a "partial" charge or fill, I understand for gas engines since there is no precise metric of how much fuel was used and the only "precise" way is full-to-full. With EV's you've got the rather precise SoC % you can use to know exactly how much 'fuel'/electricity was used between charges. So now it doesn't matter if you drive 200mi and only add 10kWh while stopping at your parents home for dinner, you'll be able to know the efficiency of that mountain pass drive to your mom's house.

Right now it's running as a PWA (Progressive Web App - a containerized web page installed via Chrome or Safari) on my S25 Ultra as I am somewhat familiar with PHP and MySQL so it's not something I can "monetize", it's just a fun side project. I am rather envious of the TeslaFi system and would love to create something that gives similar per trip/per charge metrics, records each charge curve, factors in ascents/descents/wind into trip and overall efficiency metrics. That will require an in-vehicle "server" connected to the OBDII reader, so for now the next step is to create an Android Auto based mini-app that will allow me to log charges and expenses from the vehicle screen rather than having to pull out my phone.

Ford Mustang Mach-E So I'm A Bit Of A Data Geek.... coded my own efficiency, expenses, temperature tracking app Screenshot_20251020_095423_Chrom
Ford Mustang Mach-E So I'm A Bit Of A Data Geek.... coded my own efficiency, expenses, temperature tracking app Screenshot_20251020_095359_Chrom
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TEVOT

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This is a wonderful idea. I have been working on an Excel tracking log for over six months now. Between working eight to sixteen hours a day and sleeping, I don't really have much time to spend on it like I should. However, looking at this, it is far more user friendly and eye pleasing.
 

ralyon

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Love it! Looking forward to seeing how this turns out and hopefully getting to try it!
 


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lifebythemile

lifebythemile

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Nice graphics. How are you getting this data? A web API?
It's my own data hosted in MariaDB on the same server as the PHP code. I exported the charge and expense history from my previous app, and built a import tool that maps the old apps data to the new database tables. That way I can have all 14 months of history along side the 2 months I've been inputing data to this app.
 

mkhuffman

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Ambient temperature is one factor. Battery temperature is even more important. If you only focus on ambient temperature you will have misleading data.
 

Audi_Guy

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Now this is interesting, watching for a possible release!
 
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lifebythemile

lifebythemile

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Based on replies here and other places I'm working on turning this into an app. Starting with Android, it might take me a couple of weeks to get a beta APK functional but I'll post updates as I go.

Edit: correcting autocorrect
 
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Sikkun

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If 32-50 are listed under cold what adjectives are planned for winter?
 
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lifebythemile

lifebythemile

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Ambient temperature is one factor. Battery temperature is even more important. If you only focus on ambient temperature you will have misleading data.
To a certain degree... My initial goal is really to track trends by seasons and see the difference between summer and winter costs and efficiency. So it would stand to reason that the colder it is the more energy has to go into heating the pack so the mileage would go down in colder temps.

I fully admit, and have said so, that it's not the 100% accurate way of tracking it, but it's a simple implementation to get the project going. If I were to iron everything out to 100% accuracy before seeing if it's something viable for my own use, the project would never leave the idea board.

Once I learn more about the specific app languages and integrations then I can start feeding every trip from the OBDII reader, which will then be able to get battery temps. I also want to record battery temp vs charge kW and plot that over a charging curve. But that's further down the road.
 
 







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