[andyswarbs]

In my Kona bluelink can get the weather, including wind direction. Wouldn't it be an incredible feature if this live information could be plugged into satnav.

 

[mikegs]

Good for boats, or a 10kWh (actual) Leaf.
On a 64kWh Kona ... meh!

 

[mikeselectricstuff]

Would be useful if it could factor the effect of wind and temperature on range

 

[andyswarbs]

Good for boats, or a 10kWh (actual) Leaf.
On a 64kWh Kona ... meh!

I reckon if weather could be plugged in then GOM could become incredibly accurate. Already kona tends to be a max of 10% out, but to increase that accuracy to say 1% for long journeys would set it apart from even tesla.

 

[mikegs]

The weather in this country is not easy to predict accurately. I go out on the water quite often and check a couple of forecasters and its rare for them to fully agree even just an hour or two ahead. Which forecaster is the car going to use?
On a journey long enough to make a big GoM difference the weather (forecast) could, often does, change significantly. Your GoM range could still be off.

There was actually a long thread about this 6 months or more back, though I think it started with an idea to have an airspeed system on the car to help GoM accuracy.

It may happen - it's the sort of toy that can provide a USP for a car - but I'm not sure how useful it will really be in the real world because once there are enough charging points you'd just pull in to a convenient station when you got below 50 miles or so range - as you do with petrol now.

 

[andyswarbs]

The only way we would know how much help is if we tested it with and without wind/temperature assistance. It would obviously work best if there were prevailing winds in a given direction. Temperature I guess is more predictable, and so it's affect on GOM as well as charging rates should also be more predictable.

 

[mikegs]

It may already take temperature into account, though I think that is covered by the drop in range when you turn the climate control on.
Once you start travelling the wind will be accounted for by the real time updating with actual miles/kWh numbers.
Weather is probably more useful with a planning app than in car I think.
You're really just perpetuating the range anxiety suffered with small batteries and few charging stations.

Also the weather won't generally have a big effect unless it's getting fairly extreme - high winds, heavy rain. In those conditions I'd never run to a low SoC deliberately anyway because the risk of being stuck in a jam for hours or forced to divert miles round a tree/accident/flood is greatly increased.