ciaranob
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2021
- Threads
- 83
- Messages
- 3,513
- Reaction score
- 2,572
- Location
- Houston, TX
- Vehicles
- CT4S 2022 Mini Cooper S 2024 Electric in 2025/6
- Thread starter
- #1
There are separate threads with these data posted but I thought after reading some member's comments and concerns about 'calculated' ranges vs actual consumptive ranges, that it might be useful to share the data I have on my car to date, essentially one year of recorded data.
How you use your car will have a huge impact on any calculated range estimation. In particular (as in my case) if the majority of your trips are dominantly short (<20 miles) throughout the year then you will see high kWh/mi use numbers. My overall mileage also low due to being out of country for third of the year! Less efficient kWh/mi may be compounded by your car's metrics (wheel size, tires, load etc) and ambient conditions (weather/season, terrain/elevation, average speed, road surfaces etc). Clearly for example, those living in mountainous regions with severely cold winters, running 21" wheels and typically carrying a full load are going to experience the worst kWh/mi performance. Many of these same metrics effect ICE car range but of course the time differential to recharge always the main concern with EVs.
But this is not necessarily relevant to when you drive longer trips - the car will adjust and the kWh/mi will improve dramatically. This has certainly being my experience to date.
All the data below I am plotting for my car is available for your car via the MyPorsche app or the physical web site. The only data I separately collected was the PCM's prediction of range in Normal and Range mode with the AC off in both cases after every AC charging session. I simply took a Phone pic of these two metrics every time I charged at home. I also recorded the number of times I have used DC fast charging which is only 13 in over a year to date.
I guess the key learning here might be to not obsess over what appear to be lousy range estimations when your trip lengths are dominantly very short and or combine with an, eh-hem, 'non-passive driving style' and other physical / environmental variables as described above. In my examples below, despite some terrible kWh/mi numbers on any day to day basis my car is smart enough to calculate very respectable range estimations with simply the AC off presumably using past long trip data to better bracket it's predictions. If I actually made the effort to drive for longer periods in Range mode, more sensible speeds, did far more long distance/duration trips etc., I am fairly certain my current PCM predictions could increase another 15-20%.
Bottomline - stop worrying about range and just enjoy the car
!
This chart uses reported kWh/100mi or energy used (Eu) in blue to calculate a predicted 100% battery charge (from actaul 83.7 kWh) range (Rk) in green i.e. of course this assumes constant level of efficient/inefficient energy draw from the battery:
So Rk = (83.7/Eu) x 100
e.g. 37.7kWh (my latest Eu number) would give a calculated range of 222 mile range. This is 23.6 kWh per 100 km.
A 60 kWh draw would give a range of 139 miles or in metric 37.5 kWh per 100 km.
This method of calculating the range is of course impacted by my very inefficient short trip data (based both on driving style and on my trip length-duration data). The predicted range data (green) calculated from the recorded per trip consumptive kWh’s used (blue) go from as low as 70 to a high of 250 miles with the bulk of the data between 160-220 miles. The longer range predictions here (esp. from 230-250 miles) are clearly tied to the 10 or so longer (over 75 miles), more efficient trips and the chart just re-emphasizes that trip length and driving style have a fundamental control on any ‘predicted’ ranges whether based on the PCM post-charging calculation or, as in this case, derived from consumed kWh per trip data and remaining capacity of the available 83.7 kWh battery.
The bulk of the ‘predicted’ ranges here are very low but these data must again be regarded as a more pessimistic use scenario i.e. they are based on scenarios which assume I would continue to drive very short distance/duration trips at low average speeds in Normal Mode with full AC for a full 83.7 kWh usage. The key point here being that you should not imo consider short trip derived range predictions as any useful metric of your car’s ability to do far better mileages during long range driving.
I can fairly confidently state that in my usage case that the combination of trip length and driving style are the principle variables controlling my range predictions vs say impact of weather, terrain, load etc., as I have driven the car near 100% of the time with these other parameters essentially fixed - they being:
AC on full,
21” wheels with summer performance tires
Texas low relief terrain (minimal elevation gains)
40:60 time between 1 vs 2 person load
Full seasonal cycle data
etc.
Overall my driving stlye can be described as ‘inefficient’ as I drive very ‘purposefully’ (not slow!), 90% in Normal/10% in Sport mode never using Range mode, always quick from a standstill, always with AC on, trip history dominated by short trips etc.
The next few charts will be updated to present date but currently showing data to Oct 2022. Whilst I have not focused on speed it of course plays a huge role on range prediction, esp. once you go consistently above 70 mph.
Here is a chart showing the charging history of my car and the PCM's calculated 100% range (83.7 kWh) in both Normal and Range Modes with AC off in both cases (and this despite my typical short trip lengths through the year).
Thought I'd add this in too but a bit off topic - does potentially highlight hot weather climate impact on Soh (being more negative) - from a separate thread here:
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/baseline-for-hv-battery-soh-on-delivery.12815/
How you use your car will have a huge impact on any calculated range estimation. In particular (as in my case) if the majority of your trips are dominantly short (<20 miles) throughout the year then you will see high kWh/mi use numbers. My overall mileage also low due to being out of country for third of the year! Less efficient kWh/mi may be compounded by your car's metrics (wheel size, tires, load etc) and ambient conditions (weather/season, terrain/elevation, average speed, road surfaces etc). Clearly for example, those living in mountainous regions with severely cold winters, running 21" wheels and typically carrying a full load are going to experience the worst kWh/mi performance. Many of these same metrics effect ICE car range but of course the time differential to recharge always the main concern with EVs.
But this is not necessarily relevant to when you drive longer trips - the car will adjust and the kWh/mi will improve dramatically. This has certainly being my experience to date.
All the data below I am plotting for my car is available for your car via the MyPorsche app or the physical web site. The only data I separately collected was the PCM's prediction of range in Normal and Range mode with the AC off in both cases after every AC charging session. I simply took a Phone pic of these two metrics every time I charged at home. I also recorded the number of times I have used DC fast charging which is only 13 in over a year to date.
I guess the key learning here might be to not obsess over what appear to be lousy range estimations when your trip lengths are dominantly very short and or combine with an, eh-hem, 'non-passive driving style' and other physical / environmental variables as described above. In my examples below, despite some terrible kWh/mi numbers on any day to day basis my car is smart enough to calculate very respectable range estimations with simply the AC off presumably using past long trip data to better bracket it's predictions. If I actually made the effort to drive for longer periods in Range mode, more sensible speeds, did far more long distance/duration trips etc., I am fairly certain my current PCM predictions could increase another 15-20%.
Bottomline - stop worrying about range and just enjoy the car
!
This chart uses reported kWh/100mi or energy used (Eu) in blue to calculate a predicted 100% battery charge (from actaul 83.7 kWh) range (Rk) in green i.e. of course this assumes constant level of efficient/inefficient energy draw from the battery:
So Rk = (83.7/Eu) x 100
e.g. 37.7kWh (my latest Eu number) would give a calculated range of 222 mile range. This is 23.6 kWh per 100 km.
A 60 kWh draw would give a range of 139 miles or in metric 37.5 kWh per 100 km.
This method of calculating the range is of course impacted by my very inefficient short trip data (based both on driving style and on my trip length-duration data). The predicted range data (green) calculated from the recorded per trip consumptive kWh’s used (blue) go from as low as 70 to a high of 250 miles with the bulk of the data between 160-220 miles. The longer range predictions here (esp. from 230-250 miles) are clearly tied to the 10 or so longer (over 75 miles), more efficient trips and the chart just re-emphasizes that trip length and driving style have a fundamental control on any ‘predicted’ ranges whether based on the PCM post-charging calculation or, as in this case, derived from consumed kWh per trip data and remaining capacity of the available 83.7 kWh battery.
The bulk of the ‘predicted’ ranges here are very low but these data must again be regarded as a more pessimistic use scenario i.e. they are based on scenarios which assume I would continue to drive very short distance/duration trips at low average speeds in Normal Mode with full AC for a full 83.7 kWh usage. The key point here being that you should not imo consider short trip derived range predictions as any useful metric of your car’s ability to do far better mileages during long range driving.
I can fairly confidently state that in my usage case that the combination of trip length and driving style are the principle variables controlling my range predictions vs say impact of weather, terrain, load etc., as I have driven the car near 100% of the time with these other parameters essentially fixed - they being:
AC on full,
21” wheels with summer performance tires
Texas low relief terrain (minimal elevation gains)
40:60 time between 1 vs 2 person load
Full seasonal cycle data
etc.
Overall my driving stlye can be described as ‘inefficient’ as I drive very ‘purposefully’ (not slow!), 90% in Normal/10% in Sport mode never using Range mode, always quick from a standstill, always with AC on, trip history dominated by short trips etc.
The next few charts will be updated to present date but currently showing data to Oct 2022. Whilst I have not focused on speed it of course plays a huge role on range prediction, esp. once you go consistently above 70 mph.
Here is a chart showing the charging history of my car and the PCM's calculated 100% range (83.7 kWh) in both Normal and Range Modes with AC off in both cases (and this despite my typical short trip lengths through the year).
Thought I'd add this in too but a bit off topic - does potentially highlight hot weather climate impact on Soh (being more negative) - from a separate thread here:
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/baseline-for-hv-battery-soh-on-delivery.12815/
Last edited:
