Does bmw display economy in mi/kWh when you’re in electric mode?
Yes, it does!
PJ
The follow up question here then becomes is the 330e in question showing poor economy (lower than expected mi/kWh), suggesting either uneconomical driving or a drivetrain fault or is the economy on par, suggesting a bad battery cell that isn’t holding a charge.
1 Like
For BEV or PHEV charging to be cheaper than gas in California you have to switch to a time-of-use electric rate plan and then make sure you only charge during off-peak times. Of course then you also have to shift all of your other electric usage to off-peak as well.
Interestingly, my initial range sometimes displays 12-14 miles but I can end up putting 24 miles on that charge. As I drive, the range goes up. Not crazy about the algorithm used, the F30 was a lot less variable
1 Like
My car is scheduled for service on Monday. Will let you all know what they find !
1 Like
Battery efficiency changes drastically as the battery comes up to temperature. Doesn’t surprise me at all that you’d see a big range increase as you drive if they’re doing a somewhat real time range calculation without a lot of weighted averaging.
What is your efficiency?
How would I check that?
But this is before I even drive the car. I am assuming that its 17 mile range with ideal efficiency.
After a spirited drive hitting 86 mph in electric only mode, full charge can read 12 miles. I’ll end up putting 24-27 miles on that charge and in fact as soon as i start driving, the range goes way up on the display. So the numbers lie sometimes.
1 Like
In most EVs, the fuel efficiency computer factors in two things
- How you drive
- Temperature
On extreme weather days that involve heat/AC, it’s normal to see range drop.
Additionally, the car remembers how you drove the last time you drove it, and uses your driving habits to estimate how much range you have left, even when you’re at 100% before you drive it.
If you drove the car aggressively, it’s going to shoot low when it quotes the number so you don’t get yourself stuck.
If you drive efficiently for an entire tank of gas, the numbers will climb back up. Start mashing that gas pedal and they’ll fall down again.
Tl~dr: Avoid “spirited driving” for an entire tank of gas, your range will go right back up.
Unless you have one of those fancy EVs that only shows a percentage of the EPA rated range and doesn’t factor in any of that
1 Like
Which model is that? I’m most familiar with Hyundai’s EV lineup.
Hyundai has a pretty advanced Battery Management System (BMS) that is constantly adjusting its estimated range. In my car, if you start really depressing the gas pedal, the estimated miles remaining drop in real-time to give you the instantaneous feedback that you’re draining the battery faster than expected.
All the teslas
In my car, if you turn the thermostat knob, the amount of miles you have adjust as you turn the temperature to extremes. The car is just being honest with you. Tesla doesn’t tell you how many you have left based on your instantaneous/current usage? If you slam the gas in a Tesla, it doesn’t tell you how many miles you have left?
If you dive into the energy app in the UI, you can get the eventually get to it, but the range meter in the dash will only display either percentage of charge or range as expressed by the percentage of charge multiplied by the EPA range estimate (which they tend to never get anywhere near) without any reductions for temp, driving style, hvac use, etc.
So you’re telling me that at 100%, it says 24-27 miles on your 530e??
I’m not even talking about it adjusting after you start driving. I understand that turning on AC or going above 70 will drain the batteries.
Here’s my day today:
Fully charged this morning:
This after unplugging and moving out of the parking spot:
Then after heading out midday:
Still on the road:
At destination:
Now heading home:
And… home
The more I drove (mostly highway speeds today), the better my (apparent) range.
Some days, it will start off with 24-27 but today was another one of those weird ones where for some reason it thought my range after full charge would be low (17).
That half tank of gas by the way is the same one I left the dealer with in March.
2 Likes
So every day the start number changes based on how you drive? Over the weekend I went to a public charger and got either 19 or 20 miles. I drove it slowly and the miles went down but not fast. It definitely didn’t go up. I don’t know how you’re doing that. I even cut ac to try and max it.
By the way total charge time for 20 miles was really long…close to 3 hours. It’s really silly that it takes that long compared to the etron etc. And if I’m being an idiot and not charging it the right way, please let me know.