Erratic Range

[curtalva]

Today I set out on a road test with 95% charge on battery and GOM=81. At 42 miles my batterys was at 24% and 16 miles on GOM. This was mostly with cruise control at 62 mph however about 7 miles was slow city driving.

Instead of trying to make it home (16 miles away) I stopped to charge at a Leve 2 station. Letf with 42% and 36 miles. Drove 8 miles to where I knew a Level 3 fast charger was. Arrived with 42% and GOM still at 36 miles!!!! This was at a steady 40-45 mph road.

Charged on Level 3 fast charger from 42% to 62% in about 5 minutes. Then continued to charge to 73 percent which took another 15-20 minutes. Left level 3 charger with 73% and GOM=81 miles. The trip home would be 19 miles

Arrived home with 47%. Not sure exactly what the GOM read. This was cruise control at 62 mph.

And just last week I let home with 100% and somehow made it to work and back (some 62 mph and some stop and go rush hour traffic and I used the AC ever so sparringly as I knew it would be close) which is a round-trip total of 75 miles. But I limped home with 2 or 3% remaining. And the last 20% disappeared on me in about the last 5-8 minutes of the trip.

My reported kwh is averaging 4.1 to 4.7 on all these trips.

Please help me make sense of this. Am I missing something? Does it somehow make sense in some way I don't yet understand.

I bouth my 2015 Kia Soul EV about 9 days ago. It has 11K miles. It's been sitting on a lot the last year or more.

Thanks,
Curt

 

[SoulEV2016]

You don't charge at regulary STABLE current ... and you don't drive at regulary STABLE speed.
So, the GOM is a theorical instrument.

Use Torque Pro instead ... that why we have build this android OBD2 "dashboard"

Example :

This panel is build for driver like me that we MUST have a real time remaining kilometer (security = 5%) because we adapt the SPEED with the range (and not reverse).

 

[SoulEV2016]

Notice that the % is not directly linked to the BMS SOC at the begin ... but at end of the battery = YES !!!

 

[JejuSoul]

... Please help me make sense of this. Am I missing something? Does it somehow make sense in some way I don't yet understand. ... I bought my 2015 Kia Soul EV about 9 days ago. It has 11K miles. It's been sitting on a lot the last year or more.

I replied to you in your previous thread. - Full Charge in 2h 35min (level 2)

I think the battery in your car may be severely degraded. Or perhaps there is a fault in the BMS.
The actual range you are getting is the definitive proof of how much battery you have left.
In your car the GOM seems to assume the battery is not degraded, and still has the capability to go much further than it actually can.

My paranoid suspicion is that an unscrupulous dealer has reset the BMS to show zero degradation on a car that actually has a bad battery...

I now think it is very unlikely that your car had a BMS reset.
Another possible reason the GOM might be so out of sync on your car is that the battery degraded substantially during the time the car was left parked on the lot. Without being turned on or driven the BMS would continue to report a non-degraded battery. It will take a few weeks for the BMS to adjust to the actual reality.

Something that will help is to do a range test. Charge to 100%, drive to nearly empty, then charge back up to 100%. Let us know what happens.

 

[curtalva]

Drove it to the light rail station 30 miles from home this morning. Left the house with 100% and 91 miles GOM. Drove 55-60 mph most of the way. Arrived with 61% and now show 45 miles on GOM. I am not confident I can make it home (30 miles) without a stop to charge. The last 16 miles have no charging options.
Curt

 

[curtalva]

Well I made it home (another 30 miles to home) with 21% and 19 miles on GOM. I don't believe for one second that I would actually get 19 more miles however. On the way home I tried to take a more city driving route that was stop & go and only up to 45 mph maximum for the first 15 miles and then it was pretty much cruise control at 62 mph the other 15 miles. I reset the kwh meter and according to that I averaged 4.8 kwh on the 30 mile trip home. So for the day I went 60 miles and used 79%. Is this good? Bad?

Again, this is very confusing to me given my experiences so far.

Curt

 

[curtalva]

Started off to work after an overnight charge to 100% (again takes only 2hours, 35 minutes using Level 2.... what's up with that?). And again my charger indicates it provided only 13.9kwh. The kwh just never get anywhere near 27kwh. I am now using 18kwh as my baseline for "useable kwh". GOM reads 99 miles. My round-trip commute to work and back today is going to be about 76-78 miles.

Went 25 miles (cruising at 62mph) and stopped at an EVgo fast charger (level 3) and started charging. Started at 73%. This CHADEMO charger seemed to be charging at about 30kwh. Anyway the charging stopped at 83% with the message "Charging is stopped by the car. The plug is unlocked." Is that normal? Is that right?

So I received 4.23 kwh there at the Level 3 charger and I depart for the remaining 18 miles to work with 83%. GOM = 91miles.

I found a route to work that is more in the 35-40 mph (through Phoenix) instead of the mad-max (65-85mph required on I-10 around Phoenix). I averaged over 6kwh driving the remaining 20 miles to work and am now sitting at 75%, 71miles.

Here's the figures I'm working with now. I'm starting with my now established baseline of 18kwh 'useable' and I'm basing my mileage on my observed average driving of 4kwh.

Start of day:
100% , GOM=99mi , 18kwh ("useable")
traveled 25 miles -6kwh (now at 12kwh)
charged at Level3 +4kwh (now at 16kwh)
83% , GOM=91mi , 16kwh
traveled 20 miles , -3kwh (now at 13kwh)
75% , GOM=71mi

I still need to travel about 38 miles to get home. I will use the city route through Phoenix for the first 20 miles and then it will be cruising at 62mph the remaining 18 miles.

I'm thinking I'm good to make it home at this point.

Why did the Level 3 charger stop at 83%? Why does my level 2 charger at home charge to 100% in 2 hours and 35 minutes? Why am I having to use a baseline of 18kwh as my 'useable' battery capacity?

Any thoughts, advise are welcome.

Curt

 

[curtalva]

Started off to work after an overnight charge to 100% (again takes only 2hours, 35 minutes using Level 2.... what's up with that?). And again my charger indicates it provided only 13.9kwh. The kwh just never get anywhere near 27kwh. I am now using 18kwh as my baseline for "useable kwh". GOM reads 99 miles. My round-trip commute to work and back today is going to be about 76-78 miles.

Went 25 miles (cruising at 62mph) and stopped at an EVgo fast charger (level 3) and started charging. Started at 73%. This CHADEMO charger seemed to be charging at about 30kwh. Anyway the charging stopped at 83% with the message "Charging is stopped by the car. The plug is unlocked." Is that normal? Is that right?

So I received 4.23 kwh there at the Level 3 charger and I depart for the remaining 18 miles to work with 83%. GOM = 91miles.

I found a route to work that is more in the 35-40 mph (through Phoenix) instead of the mad-max (65-85mph required on I-10 around Phoenix). I averaged over 6kwh driving the remaining 20 miles to work and am now sitting at 75%, 71miles.

Here's the figures I'm working with now. I'm starting with my now established baseline of 18kwh 'useable' and I'm basing my mileage on my observed average driving of 4kwh.

Start of day:
100% , GOM=99mi , 18kwh ("useable")
traveled 25 miles -6kwh (now at 12kwh)
charged at Level3 +4kwh (now at 16kwh)
83% , GOM=91mi , 16kwh
traveled 20 miles , -3kwh (now at 13kwh)
75% , GOM=71mi

I still need to travel about 38 miles to get home. I will use the city route through Phoenix for the first 20 miles and then it will be cruising at 62mph the remaining 18 miles.

I'm thinking I'm good to make it home at this point.

Why did the Level 3 charger stop at 83%? Why does my level 2 charger at home charge to 100% in 2 hours and 35 minutes? Why am I having to use a baseline of 18kwh as my 'useable' battery capacity? Do my figures look right (based on my assumptions)?

Any thoughts, advise are welcome.

Curt

 

[SoulEV2016]

Why did the Level 3 charger stop at 83%?

http://www.mykiasoulev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=685

 

[curtalva]

Thanks. Learning about the fast chargers (level 3) and how most vehicles have a built-in cut-off around 80-90%.