Extended Range

[CHags]

Are people's ranges extended just by the fact the weather is now warmer?

I have been able to make a couple of journeys during late morning & early afternoon recently and noticed that I can comfortably get 4.8+ miles/kWh, on one trip yesterday where the first 3 miles were slow I was seeing an average of up to 6.3 miles/kWh, ending up with 4.8 miles/kWh over a 25.4 mile trip with approx half of that at 65-70mph on a dual carriageway?

Therefore as I usually see around 1 mile per percent of charge (i.e. 100 miles range @ 100 SoC) with an average efficiency around 3.4m/kWh, then surely if I'm easily getting 4.8+m/kWh then my range at 100 SoC will be 140+ miles.

I've got the 17inch wheels and based in the UK.

I think the big difference was that we had quite a quick jump from fairly low temps <5 up to >15.

When temp is <5 I barely get 1% per mile.

I have noticed that range has improved particularly if temp above 5 and again even more so above 15 degrees. However nothing close to 140 mile range. Probably 120.

However it's also about driving style/speed/roundabouts too. If I go much above 55mph it really begins to hit the efficiency and above 65 just forget it!

My average over the weekend was 3.8m/kWh.

How are you getting 4.5+? Must be fairly flat, steady speed<50mph without roundabouts/traffic lights?

I did check for software updates in the car when I read this thread but there was nothing. My last service was last autumn.

[londiniumperson]

…
However it's also about driving style/speed/roundabouts too. If I go much above 55mph it really begins to hit the efficiency and above 65 just forget it!

My average over the weekend was 3.8m/kWh.

How are you getting 4.5+? Must be fairly flat, steady speed<50mph without roundabouts/traffic lights?

I did check for software updates in the car when I read this thread but there was nothing. My last service was last autumn.

If you read my post you’d be aware that I wasn’t driving at a steady speed<50mph that you’ve assumed (also there’s a roundabout on the A3 at Liss), but for approx half of a 25+ mile trip that at 65-70mph on a dual carriageway. Also I was regularly in the outside lane simply because I can’t stand cruising at 55mph behind someone.

There are no software updates.

There were 3 reasons for that trips efficiently which was not a round trip (the outbound was different so cannot be used for comparison).
1) The start point (Godalming) was higher than the end point (foot of the North side of South Down), so definitely not flat as anyone knows the A3 will know that it’s quite a climb up to the Hindhead tunnel.
2) The air temperature was high in comparison to when I usually drive (early morning or early/late evening) so no cabin heating required as well as improved battery efficiency.
3) The first few miles were in slow traffic which helps bring up the average efficiency.

If you look back at my previous posts you’ll see that I’m regularly saying that my efficiency is around 1 mile per percentage of battery so this was very usual for me. On short runs I regularly only get 1.6 -2 miles/kWh.

The main take away from this is that I do drive efficiently at all speeds, it’s the external factors that are big influence on the low miles/kWh that I usually experience.
A lot of those that get 5+ miles/kWh drive on slow roads which is easily achievable especially if it’s a warm day because as I stated I got well over 6 miles/kWh over the first 3 miles which was in slow commuter traffic.

[turntoport]

Londiumpwerson: yeah , i think you've got this well covered. Maybe there are ambient temperature thresholds which drive a step-change in the g-o-m 'battery energy quantity available' function, perhaps at 0 deg C, 5 deg C etc. Esme's range seems to have dropped-off a fair bit since the early am temperatures have fallen back recently.

My other part's recent plummet in efficiency, it seems, was somewhat exacerbated by having the air con on for most of the journey. The open window didn't help, of course, but was necessary to make-up for the uncomfortable driver temperature - those heat-the-seats buttons are tooo easy to activate with an inadvertant knee...
atb - ttp

[EEEE]

Don't forget that the battery is a huge mass, and not exposed to the sun whilst underneath the vehicle. Just because the air temperature goes up, does not mean that the battery mass is at that temperature instantly.

In the same way a water tank in your garden with 300 litres of water in it does not magically attain the ambient temperature, nor does your battery pack just because it was a bit sunny.

It will take many days of continued high ambient temperature for the pack to actually be warm through and require less heating. Yes it will keep some temperature after use, but its cooler at night so it is soon lost. If you can park in a place where there is shelter, you stand a good chance of retaining some of the heat energy.

Also if you are not checking your tyre pressure, you've probably gone up a 0.1 bar or more without realising just from the ambient and the sun. I find even a slight drop to just below 2.4 quite detrimental, whereas 2.55bar gives me very favourable mileage.

I try not to obsess over it - all I know is the car doesn't go far enough Wife is using the car now for her 3.5 mile commute so the efficiency is way down but not a concern. Im back in the 10th gen Civic which is feel terrible in comparison.

[Accord]

My dealer says there are rumors regarding a system update to increase range, but they’ve still not come out with anything yet.

Im guessing it’s similar do E-Tron - an update to release more of the buffer because stats shows that degradation is low enough to not need it.

[Verone]

My dealer says there are rumors regarding a system update to increase range, but they’ve still not come out with anything yet.

Im guessing it’s similar do E-Tron - an update to release more of the buffer because stats shows that degradation is low enough to not need it.

It wouldn't surprise me if this was just a system update to the JDM battery management firmware, that lets us all use somewhere around 34 kWh of the battery, rather than the 28.6kWh that's available in the EUDM cars.

The car is advertised as having somewhere around a 270-300km range for the Japanese market.

[hondaeboy]

It wouldn't surprise me if this was just a system update to the JDM battery management firmware, that lets us all use somewhere around 34 kWh of the battery, rather than the 28.6kWh that's available in the EUDM cars.

The car is advertised as having somewhere around a 270-300km range for the Japanese market.

Nah, I feel like that range is the full range, so including the range you get after the car says you're at 0%. The WLPT is 220 km, plus about 39 km of extra range beyond "empty". This is exactly the advertised WLTC of 259 km on www.honda.co.jp. The other range that is listed is 270 km, using the Japanese cycle (JP08). But I feel like that cycle is very unrealistic or old or both, as it uses a cycle that is extremely slow (25 km/u on average) with unusually large periods or idleness.

[hondaeboy]

My dealer says there are rumors regarding a system update to increase range, but they’ve still not come out with anything yet.

I just asked my dealer about any system updates regarding the battery, and he printed out all the updates that were made available to them. There was a minor battery software update (listed as "will take 0.2 hours"), and it was from July 2022.