At the moment, none of the MEB platform cars will pre-heat the battery using mains power whilst plugged in, which would help alleviate the ‘range loss’ that you experienced on todays short cold journey.

You can pre-heat the cabin, which will benefit from a de-icing point of view and save a bit of power you’d otherwise use to heat the cabin to the set temperature.

The range figure is an educated guess by the car, indeed if you kept driving in those temps whilst the car was diverting quite a few kW to get the battery heated and up to temp, then it would be catastrophic for range.

The aggressive battery heating is supposedly being addressed for all MEB platform cars in updates later this year, but what you’d find if you continued your journey is that once the battery heating was complete that the ‘missing range’ would come back as power requirements settle down.

I use my own MEB car (ID.3) for weekly long journeys, and in this weather the initial range hit is noticeable. A strategy I use to mitigate that though is to charge the last 20% of the battery to 100% just before departure. The act of charging also warms the battery, and it will require less energy from itself to complete that process once you depart.

It’s down to the cold, in the summer, battery heating doesn’t really happen as the battery is usually already warm enough.

I tend to leave the cars charged at 80% to cover any unexpected trips, and then charge to 100% before departure if it’s a long trip, which also helps with battery heating this time of year. Otherwise I just charge them to do whatever it is I need to do.

I arrived at the end of my long journey (ID.3) last night in -3c with 0% and 0 miles remaining! Not recommended, but at least I know what happens at the end of the battery. I got down to ‘maneuvering only possible’ but I was still doing 40 miles an hour as I reached my destination (with guaranteed charging). The guessometer seems pretty accurate on the ID.3, I expect the Enyaq is similar.

It’s a 58kWh ID.3, and covered the 180 miles at 3.1 miles per kWh, and I was regulating my speed to arrive on a pretty low charge, just not as low as I’d planned. It was sub zero all the way though, over the Pennines and a head wind for a lot of it.

I would have liked to have been in a 77kWh model last night, or should have taken the Tesla.

 

I've an VW ID.4, had it about 9 months - which is effectively the same as your Enyaq. The "mileage range" your seeing is very similar and normal, and I'd agree with what Tooks has explained.

My ID.4 - 77kw battery - quoted by VW as having a maximum range of 310miles. In the height of the summer (when it's warm, and all the planets are aligned, and you're driving gently, and there's no need for any A/C, heating etc) I can achieve even better than the quoted 310miles. But even in good weather, as soon as you start putting on the heating - A/C etc, or driving it "more like normal" the range drops to a more realistic 260+miles ish. In the winter this drops even further, and even worse on shorter trips, or the need for pre-heating.

Just remember the battery gauge on the VW/Skoda is a "guess-o-meter" it makes it's calculation on how your generally drive the car (like learning your driving pattern/style) and what it currently see's as drawing power. So drive it hard, with everything on in cold weather, it will predict less range. But using "B" mode, and letting the car slow naturally (almost like one pedal driving), and turning on/off the A/C will help improve this significantly.

As Tooks mentioned - future updates and pre-heat should help "improve" range.

 

In terms of charging percentage, 100% is absolutely fine if you are intending to then use it. The key take away piece of advice is that it is generally not considered to be good practise to charge to 100% and leave it sitting for extended periods of time at 100% as this is not great for the long term health of the battery and could slightly accelerate long term degradation of the SOH.

But don't panic about it, by extended periods of time, we are not talking hours. It is fine to charge overnight to 100% and use it some time that day. But personally, I wouldn't leave it for days at 100%

 

My approach is generally keep my car to 80% charging (charged overnight on cheep Kw's) - so it's ready to go if required. And then only go to 100% when I specifically need it next day for a long work journey. With the ID 3 & 4 the scheduled charging is poor (numerous complaints on the forums here - not easy to use, forgets settings etc), so I use my Ohme to just use the low/overnight rate. Not sure if Skoda is any better with scheduled charging.

You'll find your home charger is more "gentle" anyway, when charging to maximum. Most car manufacturers warn you that repeated charging to 100% on rapids isn't good ! but as Tooks/DSL says, best not to always leave it topped up to 100% unless you need it - like careful driving for maximum battery range, good charging process will help the longevity of any EV battery.

 

My approach is generally keep my car to 80% charging (charged overnight on cheep Kw's) - so it's ready to go if required. And then only go to 100% when I specifically need it next day for a long work journey. With the ID 3 & 4 the scheduled charging is poor (numerous complaints on the forums here - not easy to use, forgets settings etc), so I use my Ohme to just use the low/overnight rate. Not sure if Skoda is any better with scheduled charging.

You'll find your home charger is more "gentle" anyway, when charging to maximum. Most car manufacturers warn you that repeated charging to 100% on rapids isn't good ! but as Tooks/DSL says, best not to always leave it topped up to 100% unless you need it - like careful driving for maximum battery range, good charging process will help the longevity of any EV battery.

It's a minor issue. But whether the charging is "gentle" (low current) or not is managed by the BMS. I might get 22kW on AC or 22kW on DC chargers, but the battery only ever sees DC. So the type of charger isn't that important. The very high, or very low absolute states of charge are what degrade the battery. The only way to avoid degradation is to stick to middle states of charge around 50%. Of course if you're on a lease it shouldn't bother you.

AIUI the 80% figure arose from very early Nissan Leafs, with a mode that stopped charge at 80%.

See "Plug Life Television" on YouTube for some very wise words on battery management.

 

But the other thing to add to that is that it IS good practise to charge it to 100% periodically to allow the battery management system to balance the cells. I am not OCD about it but try to top it about once a month

 

Not on the VW MEB platform. The battery management balances the cells without needing to do that.

 

Like others have said, the "range" is predicted based on recent energy use, assuming you'll be doing the same for the rest of the time. Getting into a cold car, you put the heating on full, you drive off. The car thinks it's always going to be like this and predicts a low range. Turn the heating off, and it goes back up. Yes, heating takes a lot of electricity, but you only heat at full blast until the window is clear and the air/seats are warm. It will ease off after a few miles. But if you only do 2.5 miles, then it's not got to that point yet. Mrs DazAutomatic was very concerned about this too, but when we do longer trips, we find the car has more time to work out the average energy use, and the prediction is more stable, much more reliable and generally more favourable.

 

Charge it up and use it, and stop worrying. The manufacturers provide headroom so you can't ever charge to 100%, and you can't ever discharge to zero.

I'm still waiting for my Enyaq, but when I get it, it will be treated the same as the Leaf is - plugged in and charged overnight, then driven during the day. If I return without having used much from the battery then I won't bother plugging it in. Otherwise it gets plugged in and charged to 100%.

I'm off on my holds from next week, so I'll make sure that I don't leave it at 100% whilst I'm away.

 

Thanks to everyone for the great responses. Very informative. See my update above.