[ChargingUp]

I don't ever seem to be able to get above 2.6 or so efficiency. I'm mainly doing short drives of around 3 miles each way with heating on (air, steering wheel, and seat!). I get that the cold weather affects efficiency but are shorter journeys worse too? I find it creeps up on the return trip (perhaps because the car has warmed up slightly) but this morning i had 1.1 to 1.5 on the first leg! There are some hills but only around 20-30mph and I'm on auto regen level 3.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

What vehicle do you have?

On my 2020 EV I can turn on the heat without the air... and I have a heat pump apparently.

Greg

 

[RichardA]

The eNiro's HVAC is efficient, but it can't work miracles. You're turning everything on which will put a fair drain on the battery. On such short journeys no amount of efficient driving will offset that.

Take a look at the consumption info screen (EV button > tap the percentage > tap the top row) and you'll see a significant percentage of your consumption is going on Climate and Electronics.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[RichardA]

Just to be clear, it's not that a short journey is inherently less efficient (battery heat might have a slight impact but it's not significant in this case) it's that the energy you're using to heat the cabin isn't "spread out" over more miles.

Try wrapping up super warm one day and trying the journey with Climate off and no heated seat/wheel - you should see significant improvement in the miles/kWh.

That's not to say you need to drive around freezing - by all means keep comfortable - but hopefully that experiment will highlight that it's your heating requirements that are impacting your consumption

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Greg Elmassian]

The steering wheel is just a brute force heater, not big, but inefficient.

My Fiat 500 had a heater that was just a hot wire, not efficient either, and it wrecked my range when I ran it.

So I agree with Richard above.

Greg

 

[ChargingUp]

I've got a 4+. Thanks for the tips I'll try that out and see how it goes. I don't necessarily want to sacrifice the comfort but was a bit concerned that the efficiency was so low!

 

[charleschas]

What's the external temperature?
My soul, which has the same electrics as the niro is currently giving between 3 and 4.5 corresponding to external temps between 3-12c.

This is on school runs of about 5ml round trip. The morning run is usually lower than the evening, even at the same temperature. I ascribe that to the overnight temperatures chilling the battery mass.

I find that triggering the screen defrost ~5 mins before leaving the house means i only need seat heating to be comfortable.

I dont have enough evidence yet but i've also noticed that soc between 40 and 50% seems to give better efficiency than higher levels of charge!

 

[ChargingUp]

Temperature is between 3 and 8 I'd say, I do have the car preheat before I go out, but leave the heating on when I get in.

 

[Todor]

This morning, 3degC outside, heating on and seat on. Drove 4miles to work with 3mpkWh...

All, I can say it is cold

 

[Marksla]

On the plus side at least the car warms up instantly whereas a fossil engine would barely be warm after 3 miles

 

[idiotzoo]

I’d say the figures you’re getting for short runs in low temps, using heating, are probably fine. If you have the time, take a longer drive and see what you get.

The Niro (and presumably the current soul) has a battery heater that operates below 12 degrees (I think). I’ve noticed a big difference in power consumption figures between ambient temps of 8 and lower and around 11. The first few miles are much higher consumption. Some longish low speed runs at the weekend (country roads so sub 60mph) returned about 4mi/kWh overall with relatively little heating and careful driving. It took probably about 10 miles before the watt-o-meter showed better than 3mi/kWh. That was about 5-7 degrees outside

yesterday it was much warmer, mix of A road and town driving for 35 miles, used heating throughout back up to 4.5mi/kWh.

 

[DragonQ]

It's cold and on short journeys your heating system is probably at full whack for most or all of the journey. I've had short trips (~2 miles) that got >6 mi/kWh and others that were <1.5 mi/kWh because of the different inclines, road conditions, and temperatures.

 

[TJEV]

Remember that the loss is more noticeable in EVs because the total amount of energy available is much lower. If you lose 1kWh of petrol (100ml or so?) you don’t notice, but in an EV that’s 2-3% of the total stored energy.

 

[DSLRed]

I posted on the Soul EV board the other day that I am starting to see efficiency drop now the temps are getting lower. Struggling now to get above 3.5 even on a decent length local run (above 10 miles), with HVAC only occasionally on but with heated seat and steering wheel on to compensate. On short runs, like the 2 miles to my mothers, it can return around 2m/kwh, but the more you drive the more it returns to an acceptable level because of the spreading out of the heating losses. A long motorway run at the weekend returned 3.2m/kwh. I am resigned though to it not returning to an average closer to 4 until the weather improves next spring.

 

[DragonQ]

Indeed, on a long run I think it would be tough to get below 3 mi/kWh even in winter unless you're purposefully trying to. That means you're still going to get nearly 200 miles out of a charge. See the handy table I've committed to memory:

mi/kWh	mi/charge
3	192
3.5	224
4	256
4.5	288

Realistically, most e-Niro drivers in the UK will get the low-200s during winter and high-200s in summer.

 

[Todor]

This morning, 3degC outside, heating on and seat on. Drove 4miles to work with 3mpkWh...

All, I can say it is cold

Just came back from work. 9degC outside, no heating or seats. Still 4miles trip, but different route.

Efficiency: 5.1mpkWh!

The way I would look at that is total 8miles, with average 4mpkwh. I'm fine with that.

 

[DSLRed]

Just came back from work. 9degC outside, no heating or seats. Still 4miles trip, but different route.

Efficiency: 5.1mpkWh!

The way I would look at that is total 8miles, with average 4mpkwh. I'm fine with that.

Wow. Haven't got anywhere near that for weeks! Pleased to know it is possible. Look forward to the day

 

[Todor]

Wow. Haven't got anywhere near that for weeks! Pleased to know it is possible. Look forward to the day

TBH, the return trip was strange. After stationary 4-5hr, the car was still warm inside (or maybe the sun was shining just right ). I decided I did not need the heating, so switched it off.

 

[ChargingUp]

Thanks all, I tried without the heating and efficiency jumped up, taking the average from 2.5 to 3.2 on the return journey so I think everyone was right, it is the heating!

 

[DragonQ]

Thanks all, I tried without the heating and efficiency jumped up, taking the average from 2.5 to 3.2 on the return journey so I think everyone was right, it is the heating!

Just got back from Tesco, an under 3 mile round trip, and recorded 2.2 mi/kWh. Had the heated seat and steering wheel on for a minute or so on the outward journey, otherwise just set to 21 °C auto driver only. It was about 4 °C outside.

Short journeys in the cold are definitely not very efficient, which is true of ICE cars too of course.