[GJO]

That is brilliant - most impressed by the 11.0kWh - could it be that you have one of the rare MY14 cars?
My MY13 Amp rarely displays more than 10.3kWh before the ICE takes over . . .

 

[RichardA]

So, having owned the Ampera since June 2019, it took until August 2020 to finally get an unadulterated 40 Mile Club journey (and another few months to get round to posting it here!)

That's not to say I haven't managed 40+ miles on other occasions, but they all involved some hold/mountain mode and, while I'm sure they'd still have been 40+ without the mode shenanigans, I always wanted a "clean" one to post here. The petrol usage in the photo was all after the battery miles.

(It's also maybe a fitting end to my Ampera ownership to finally join the club. Ampy will sadly be on the market shortly now that we've moved on to a full EV)

 

[smokie]

Well done, I'm glad to see your post as, as I documented elsewhere here I think, I took even longer (2 years or thereabouts) to break the 40.

 

[DomJ]

That is brilliant - most impressed by the 11.0kWh - could it be that you have one of the rare MY14 cars?
My MY13 Amp rarely displays more than 10.3kWh before the ICE takes over . . .

Its definitely a MY13 car according to the VIN. Interestingly now having had the car for about a month I regularly get 10.7 - 11kWh from electric only (no use of MM and if my journey requires ICE I check the EV usage as soon as the ICE starts)
I once saw it hit 11.1kWh, maybe I drive down a lot of hills?

 

[h8ten]

I know on my Ampera whenever I was on long downhills and doing quite a bit of continuous regen then the kW used would reduce before climbing again. Others have reported that their display would show more power used. Could there be different software versions for the cars?

 

[HandyAndy]

I believe the MY12 & MY13 differ a bit in how they account for regen, in terms of does it add it to the apparent battery capacity, or simply subtract it from the energy used so far. But I may be wrong.

 

[DomJ]

I believe the MY12 & MY13 differ a bit in how they account for regen, in terms of does it add it to the apparent battery capacity, or simply subtract it from the energy used so far. But I may be wrong.

Next time I'm doing a long decsent, there are quite a few long hills around where I live, I will keep an eye and see if the energy used goes up or down

 

[HandyAndy]

On my 2012, the total energy used goes down as I descend a long hill. It gets added back into the battery capacity, so I'll see my range going up, and kWh used so far going down. So I'm always seeing about 10.4 kWh used when battery empty. Of course this is on trips where no petrol gets used, that just screws up all the calcs.

But maybe on the 2013s they keep the total used always the same/or increasing? Maybe they realised that on the 2012s the total kWh used was always going to be 10.4 or near-as, so why not give the driver a feel-good increase to reward them for making use of regen rather than simply hammering as fast as poss? The regen power has to go back into the battery, so we're still going to see the predicted range increase going down hills, but maybe they simply stop subtracting this regen from the total-used-so-far. That way, at the end of the trip, whatever excess over 10.4 is shown represents the total regenned power that got "re-used", so gives you some feel for what you're saving, and the bigger you can get this, the more efficiently you're driving?

 

[RichardA]

My MY12 never goes above 10.6, usually 10.4, which is consistent with what others say about the MY12 calculations.

Personally I prefer that. As it makes efficiency calculations more accurate. In an MY12, dividing electric miles by electrcity used gives you efficiency based on what you PUT IN the car, much like MPG in an ICE.

Given that a good chunk of an EV's relative efficiency is down to regen braking, I think that's the right way to calculate it.

In an MY13 that gets skewed by the fact that your electricity used ends up being more than the electricity you put in. Dividing miles by used doesn't give you the correct efficiency figure, from a "traditional" perspective, imho.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[DomJ]

maybe on the 2013s they keep the total used always the same/or increasing?

Seems to be the former, did my usual hilly trip home, coasting down long hills at 60mph with about -7kW on power meter going back into the battery. The kWh used didn't change (which was at 10.6kWh at this point), so MY13+ cars essentially show the energy reused from regen as 'new' energy. So if you regen 0.2kWh over a journey you'll finish the trip with 0.2kWh used more than you actually charged from the wall, so in my case today my final kWh used figure was 10.8kWh

 

[Spindrift]

On my 2012, the total energy used goes down as I descend a long hill. It gets added back into the battery capacity, so I'll see my range going up, and kWh used so far going down. So I'm always seeing about 10.4 kWh used when battery empty. Of course this is on trips where no petrol gets used, that just screws up all the calcs.

But maybe on the 2013s they keep the total used always the same/or increasing? Maybe they realised that on the 2012s the total kWh used was always going to be 10.4 or near-as, so why not give the driver a feel-good increase to reward them for making use of regen rather than simply hammering as fast as poss? The regen power has to go back into the battery, so we're still going to see the predicted range increase going down hills, but maybe they simply stop subtracting this regen from the total-used-so-far. That way, at the end of the trip, whatever excess over 10.4 is shown represents the total regenned power that got "re-used", so gives you some feel for what you're saving, and the bigger you can get this, the more efficiently you're driving?

So mine is apparently MY 13 [Vin=1G0R86E40D......... and rear armrest] sold in March but built in May - work that one out!) and it also subtracts from the Kwh used when regenerating. My battery has now done 7.5 years/105k miles which I guess is going to be about 2.5k charge cycles - about half the battery design life and the highest I have ever seen before ICE kicked in is 10.7, usually 10.4/5 worst was 9.9 after a dodgy top-up from a Tesco Podpoint which resulted in the battery disconnecting itself and it going all 'fossil fuel' for a heart-stopping few minutes as I drove round to the other side of the Podpoint. But as usual, Zen prevailed and no repetition. Bit off-topic I know, but I have to say that all the problems I've ever had with charging have been linked to unattended and uncared for public charging points - doesn't bode particularly well for the future vision of an EV Britain.

 

[Chris O’Neill]

I’m in ,even in winter 😂

 

[h8ten]

And with heating?

 

[Chris O’Neill]

And with heating?

Not today.
Just the seats on full,to be honest it wasn’t that cold.
unlike this morning.
I do like my heat .
32 mik

 

[Spindrift]

Just the seats on full,to be honest it wasn’t that cold.
unlike this morning.
I do like my heat .

I just fitted a heated steering wheel cover - best £20 I ever spent. Have now ordered a couple of seat heating pads to experiment with underfloor heating ... Good job there are plenty of 12v sockets around.

 

[GJO]

That sounds like a good plan . . .