larryh

Well actually, the 120 V charger seems to be significantly less efficient in the winter making matters even worse. It took 4.28 kWh to recharge the battery for 2.6 kWh of extracted energy. The efficiency is then only 61%. I assume similar reduced efficiency for the 240 V charger. Hopefully, most of that 39% wasted energy is in the form of heat that warms the battery and eventually the trunk and passenger cabin.

Has anyone had any experience driving in snow with the Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires that come with the car. They are supposed to be all-season tires, but I have my doubts about how they perform in snow. It has not snowed here yet. Any recommendations on which snow tires to get for this car? Is it safe to unmount the current tires and remount snow tires each year? I did that on a previous car, eventually one of the tires failed to remain inflated after a few years. I wonder if a set of four tires will fit in the car (in the back seat) if I have the current ones removed.

This morning the temperature was 11 degrees. I started the car and left it plugged into the 120 V charger. I set the climate control temperature to 72 degrees. The console showed that the heater was taking 5+ kW of power for about half an hour before power usage dropped to about 2.5 kW. The console showed the car had consumed 2.6 kWh of energy from the battery and the HVB was now 55% charged. The climate control was set to Auto and the fan reduced speed at this time. So I assume that the car had decided it was about done warming the cabin to 72 degrees. However, my thermometer showed the temperature to be in the mid 50's. But of course, the temperature varies depending on location in the cabin. It felt relatively warm inside. There is no way that the 120 V charger could provide enough power to warm up the cabin to 72 degrees for preconditioning via GO Times. In one hour, it could provide 1.34 * 0.72 = 0.96 kWh of energy to the battery. The 120 V charger supplies 1.34 kW of power, of which 72% is actually stored in and extracted from the battery (the rest is lost since charging/discharging a battery is not 100% efficient). It will take about 2.6 kWh / 0.96 kWh = 2.7 hours to recharge the battery. By that time, the car will be cold again. For a 240 V charger, the charger supplies about 3.4 kW of power and is 82% efficient. So in less than one hour, it could restore the battery to full charge.

Preconditioning does not work very well for me with a 120 V charger when it is cold. When it was 8 degrees last week, preconditioning started 1 hour before the GO Time. The car consumed about 1.3 kWh of energy from the charger, but the cabin was cold as if no preconditioning occurred at all. I don't think the 120 V charger can provide enough power to the car to heat the car in cold weather. Even with a 240 V charger, the car does not warm up to the selected GO time temperature. It is usually around 50 degrees after preconditioning, even though the GO time temperature is set to 72. At least the HVB is fully charged with either the 120 V or 240 V charger at the GO time following preconditioning. But the car cannot seem to both fully precondition the vehicle in cold weather and keep the HVB fully charged.

The first picture shows the MPG since the last time it was reset (which could have been months ago). The second one is the MPG for your previous trip.

I believe the car wakes up periodically to determine when to initiate preconditioning for GO times. I have observed preconditioning to start up to 1 hour before the GO time when it is cold. If it is warmer, it begins about 15 minutes before the GO time. When it wakes up, it draws about 60 watts of power from the charger to power on the board electronics for the battery control module as well as charging the 12 V battery. If it decides that there is nothing to do at the moment (it is not cold enough to start preconditioning yet), it probably just goes back to sleep and tries again later. Apparently, the car has decided that it does not need to do anything at the moment to precondition the car for some reason?

I tried setting the GO time temperature to 65 degrees this morning. The main difference that I noticed was that preconditioning started 10 minutes later than when it was set at 72 degrees. There was not much difference in cabin temperature.

Others have also reported that the ICE does not turn on when the mode is set to EV Now under most conditions, except perhaps when the defroster is enabled.

This morning I was able to drive to work entirely in EV mode by setting the mode to EV Now with the temperature set to 65 degrees. It was 10 degrees this morning. I didn't have enough charge left in the battery to make it back home entirely in EV mode. Once you switch the mode out of EV now, the ICE will immediately start and will not turn off for a few minutes.

The heater warms the car much better using remote start than it does with GO times. It doesn't seem to blow as hot air with GO times as it does with remote start. In addition, with remote start, the air from the heater stays quite warm. With GO times, the heat gradually fades. The heater is blowing only slightly warm air by the time the GO times arrives. The car seems to be rather stingy with consuming power for GO times.

On the way home today, it was about 22 degrees. I set the climate control temperature settings to 63 degrees. I had the mode set to EV Auto. After a minute, the ICE came on and stayed on. Both the ICE and electric motor were contributing about equal power to move the car. Only when I switched to EV Now, did the ICE turn off. There may be a difference between EV Auto and EV Now when it is cold. Normally, the ICE never turns on in EV Auto mode when it is warmer during my commutes to work so I always left it set in that mode.

I have a meter that monitors the power consumed by the charger. The power measurements are transmitted to a web-based server which I can access to observe the power being consumed. So I know how much power is being used every minute. When preconditioning begins, power consumed jumps to about 3.4 kW.

The heater has to heat up a lot more than the 100 cu feet of air in the cabin. It heats the coolant which is in contact with the cold engine which will take quite a bit of energy to warm. Maybe they should have had the heater heat the air directly rather than via the coolant.

It was 30 degrees this morning. I set the temperature to 72. Preconditioning started 40 minutes before the GO time. Initially the temperature from the vents was quite warm, but it cooled off for the later part of preconditioning. The cabin temperature made it to 57 degrees. Even with the 240 V charger, I don't think the car can accept enough power to heat the cabin when it is very cold and keep the HVB fully charged.

Which charger are you using? I have found that a Level 1 charger does not provide adequate power to warm up the car when it is cold. You can always look the console to verify that the heater is working via the energy consumption gauge.

It was about 8 degrees this morning. This time I tried to remote start the car with it plugged into the 120 V charger. The ICE started right away and ran for a few minutes and then turned off. Later, it turned back on again. After 10 minutes, the passenger cabin was at least warm and the HVB was fully charged. Remote starting warms up the cabin in cold weather, whereas GO times do not when using the 120 V charger. The 120 V charger does not work to precondition the vehicle in cold weather.

This morning it was 6 degrees. I tried using GO times with the car connected to the 120 V charger and the temperature set to 72 degrees. It started preconditioning one hour prior to the GO time and consumed 1.33 kWh of electricity. When I entered the car at the GO time after preconditioning had completed, the car's interior was very cold as if preconditioning did nothing. Preconditioning doesn't seem to work at all with the 120 V charger when it is cold. At least the HVB was 100% charged after one hour. You need a 240 V charger for preconditioning to work in really cold weather.

The car interior is quite warm after remote starting or using GO times. It must be in the 70's. I set the temperature to 72. If the outside temperature is in the 40's and 50's, then using Remote Start should not start the ICE. I would still set the temperature to 72. When it is cold, the car cools down very quickly, so the warmer the better.

It is about 15 degrees this morning. I remote started the car with it plugged into the charger. The ICE started and ran for a few minutes. So even if the car is plugged, in there is no guarantee that the ICE won't start even if the car is plugged into the charger.

I have had the ICE turn on with the car was plugged into the charger. If you remote start the car, you should not leave the garage door closed. GO times should not start the ICE.

GO times are not working the way I would expect to precondition the car when it is cold. Normally, when it is warmer, preconditioning starts 15 minutes before the GO time. However, when it is cold, it seems to start much earlier. Today, it was about 22 degrees. Preconditioning started 40 minutes before the GO time. The car consumed about 1.8 kWh of electricity to precondition the car. That seems rather excessive. Starting 15 minutes before the GO time should warm up the car more than adequately. GO times are wasting a lot of energy. I think they could use some improvement. If I used the 120 V charger, preconditioning for 40 minutes would significantly deplete the battery.

So during the day, the solar panels generate more energy than you consume. At night, you reclaim the extra energy that you supplied during the day. Hopefully, the rates are the same for the power you generate versus the power you consume so the net cost is zero. I let the power company invest their money in renewable energy resources (wind turbines) and pay a small fee to use them. Buying a wind turbine would be very expensive.

My allocation of energy comes 100% from wind turbines. They can't control the actual electrons that arrive at my house. The power generated from coal and all other sources is mixed together with that generated from wind by the time it arrives at my home. I get dirty electrons as well as clean ones. If I use 500 kWh of energy for the month, then the electric company will have generated 500 more kWh of energy from the wind and 500 kWh less from other sources.

The composition of sources used to generate electricity by state can be found in the following article: http://assets.climatecentral.org/pdfs/ClimateFriendlyCarsReport_Final.pdf More than 60% of California's power is generated from natural gas. 80% of North Dakota's electricity is generated from Coal. My power in MN is 100% generated by wind turbines. The power company offers an option to have your power generated by window turbines for an extra $0.004 / kWh. The normal rate is $0.1014 / kWh. The discounted EVSE off peak rate is $0.0585.

This morning the temperature was 12 degrees. I set the GO time temperature to 72 degrees. The car starting preconditioning at 5:08 am. I left at 5:42 am--the GO time is set for 5:40 am. So it preconditioned the car for 34 minutes. During that time, it consumed about 1.88 kWh of electricity. That is more energy than is required for the commute to work during the summer. After the windows starting fogging up half way to work, I turned on the climate control to 60 degrees. The ICE ran for a couple of minutes. Next time, I will try setting the temperature to Lo and see if that starts the ICE. I plugged in the engine block heater for a short while to verify it works. It consumes about 440 watts of electricity. I'm not sure what this will do for me. I will have to experiment.