Range from 100% Charge Dropping

[notfred]

For example in November it ranged from 18.4kWHr/100km to 20kWHr/100km.

This is your problem, not the battery. I reset my efficiency meter last night and charged to 100%. Drove 10km in to work this morning at -4C with winter tyres on steel rims and when I shut down the meter read 18.1kWh/100km. I had preheated but still had the climate control running at 21.5C with driver seat heat on as well. There's no way someone in Vancouver should be doing so much worse than me here in Ottawa.

My thoughts on possible causes:
1) Drive in B mode. If you are driving in D all the time then it doesn't regen brake enough. The only time I use D is on the highway with cruise control on so that when I cancel cruise it doesn't go in to full regen and cause a pileup.

2) Do you have a rubbing brake or similar? You may hear it squeak at low speeds but really needs to be checked by a mechanic?

3) Are you being a complete hooligan with the electric torque away from the lights each and every time?

 

[PhilinYVR]

For example in November it ranged from 18.4kWHr/100km to 20kWHr/100km.

This is your problem, not the battery. I reset my efficiency meter last night and charged to 100%. Drove 10km in to work this morning at -4C with winter tyres on steel rims and when I shut down the meter read 18.1kWh/100km. I had preheated but still had the climate control running at 21.5C with driver seat heat on as well. There's no way someone in Vancouver should be doing so much worse than me here in Ottawa.

Notfred, thanks for the comments. You have us beat on cold in Ottawa, but we have hills here so that may balance it out (for now, until you get into the real winter over there). We live at an altitude of about 220m, so the car goes down that hill in 'B' and then gets primarily driven in 'D' after that (except in heavy traffic, and on some other notable downhills). The car is always driven in D on the highway. Climbing that big hill on the way home surely sucks the battery. However, my friend with the same car that I mentioned already lives on a neighbouring and slightly bigger hill than I do, and based on a description we have similar driving patterns. His efficiency numbers are higher, which I'm trying to understand, and his max range has also not degraded all summer long. More experimentation required. Now pre-heating car while plugged in, turning off ECO due to mixed reviews, etc.

A rubbing brake had not crossed my mind because of the lack of sound and it coasts 'normal'. But I'll check.

As for hooligan behaviour, only next to teslas. haha. No, we don't hammer the accelerator very often. Daily driving is generally pretty conservative.

OurMuskokaLife, thanks for your stats. A lot of our travel is highway, so those stats for the highway aren't radically different than what we're seeing.

Leafer, thanks for the note about the autonomy range test. I'll look into that.

 

[DerbyEV]

I'm sure every EV owner has subj. effect on their vehicle. The matter is only how deep and fast progressing the dropping is.

Have you seen this page from kia.com? There is Kia officially named Soul EV capable to drive up to 212km on fully charged battery.
www. kia. com/eu/campaigns-and-redirects/soul-ev/
(remove the spaces in the link above)

In all the messages of the topic I never seen 212km capable Soul EVs. Most of the vehicles started with 180-170km from dealership. The ending is vary depends on use and date of purchase. From the topic messages I've collected 100% range degrade to 120-140km after 6-7 month of use with 14000 to 17000 km on odometer.

It's interesting is everybody have the same experience or somebody has better/worse one?

 

[JejuSoul]

The thread for people posting drives greater than 212km on a single charge is here - What's your Real world actual range? The range on the GOM is always less than the actual distance you are able to drive.

 

[DerbyEV]

The thread for people posting drives greater than 212km on a single charge is here - What's your Real world actual range? The range on the GOM is always less than the actual distance you are able to drive.

You have missed my point.

I'm trying to understand how deep the "Range from 100% charge dropping", how common the problem is, and what we can expect in the future.
212 km was just a reference.

 

[JeroenE]

I'm trying to understand how deep the "Range from 100% charge dropping", how common the problem is, and what we can expect in the future.
212 km was just a reference.

I'm not really sure I understand your question. My experience is that the estimates range will drop quicker than it will go up. E.g. it takes a few (one?) really inefficient drive for the range to go down. But it'll take quite some more efficient drives to get it back to the starting point again.

Because everybody drives differently (or has different road and weather conditions) I don't think you can easily compare estimated ranges of the cars, let alone the time it took for it to get stable. My range isn't stable at all unless the weather is more or less the same for a week and I only have to drive the same trips over and over. Even then my trip from A to B is (almost) always more efficient than from B to A and thus I still have differences depending if I take a look at point A or point B.

 

[DerbyEV]

I'm trying to understand how deep the "Range from 100% charge dropping", how common the problem is, and what we can expect in the future.
212 km was just a reference.

I'm not really sure I understand your question. My experience is that the estimates range will drop quicker than it will go up. E.g. it takes a few (one?) really inefficient drive for the range to go down. But it'll take quite some more efficient drives to get it back to the starting point again.

Because everybody drives differently (or has different road and weather conditions) I don't think you can easily compare estimated ranges of the cars, let alone the time it took for it to get stable. My range isn't stable at all unless the weather is more or less the same for a week and I only have to drive the same trips over and over. Even then my trip from A to B is (almost) always more efficient than from B to A and thus I still have differences depending if I take a look at point A or point B.

For better understanding look at your trips like going from point A to point A. In other words most of the drivers are returning home every day. In my case it's the same route on business days and it can be different on weekends. For sure the weather conditions are season depending, however Vancouver can be named as the one of ideal place for EV owners - it's never cold, never hot here. And after all I have range degradation problem on my Soul EV in rather significant extent.
I'm sure the owners who have the similar experience find it worth to discuss in the topic.

 

[JeroenE]

For better understanding look at your trips like going from point A to point A. In other words most of the drivers are returning home every day. In my case it's the same route on business days and it can be different on weekends. For sure the weather conditions are season depending, however Vancouver can be named as the one of ideal place for EV owners - it's never cold, never hot here. And after all I have range degradation problem on my Soul EV in rather significant extent.
I'm sure the owners who have the similar experience find it worth to discuss in the topic.

You can do that, but my commute can't be done without charging at home and charging at work. So I always have route A-B en route B-A separately. I like to keep this separate too, but you can do manual resetting of the averages.

Vancouver has more or less the same climate as The Netherlands according to Wikipedia. So there is still a temperature difference of about 20 degrees Celsius between the summer and winter. That is still enough to make a huge difference between the summer and winter. I'm not sure why you think it does not matter? if you look at ICE cars they will have the same problem. In winter they get less mileage than in summer. That's just how things work with the weather changes.

If you still have 120-140 in the winter time that is really good., in my opinion My meter said 108 at it's lowest while it said 148 in the summer at it's highest. Or course, it depends on your driving and I do mine mostly on the highway with speeds around 100 km/h. If I would take smaller roads and drive only 70 km/h my range would increase, but so would my commute time. Also because they have lots of traffic lights on those roads, not only the speed difference.

 

[notfred]

So there is still a temperature difference of about 20 degrees Celsius between the summer and winter. That is still enough to make a huge difference between the summer and winter. I'm not sure why you think it does not matter?

He's in Canada and comparing it with other places in the country like here in Ottawa. On a cold winter's night we can see -40C and on a hot summer's day +40C, so a swing of 20C is nothing compared with the swing of 80C that we can get here. But yes, 20C will still affect the range.

 

[JeroenE]

He's in Canada and comparing it with other places in the country like here in Ottawa. On a cold winter's night we can see -40C and on a hot summer's day +40C, so a swing of 20C is nothing compared with the swing of 80C that we can get here. But yes, 20C will still affect the range.

For sure there are places where the difference is much bigger. But even such a "small" difference still will show in the range.

What is your typical range in a -40 and a +40 week? Is there a much bigger difference?

 

[JejuSoul]

If you still have 120-140 in the winter time that is really good., in my opinion My meter said 108 at it's lowest while it said 148 in the summer at it's highest.

Two weeks ago my meter also said 108; it's lowest ever. Yesterday after finishing a 100% charge it said 139. I turned off the car, unplugged the car from the charger but left the cord connected to the car. I turned on the car and the meter said 149. Turned off the car, disconnected the cord, started again and the reading was 139. There is a good reason why this meter is called the Guess-o-meter.

 

[notfred]

I only got my SoulEV in September and we haven't had any really cold spells this winter with a major El Nino effect here. Worst I've seen in the morning on a full charge is 103km on the GOM. I did talk to one other owner who had his last winter and he said on the worst day his range was 80km. As well as the temperature I run winter tyres on steel rims so will be using more power there - it was noticeably worse fuel efficiency in my old car as well. In September I think I was getting around 140km on the GOM on full charge.

 

[JeroenE]

There is a good reason why this meter is called the Guess-o-meter.

Sure, I usually check the state of charge instead of the range display.

 

[DerbyEV]

Let me share my experience about range changes from 100% charge.

In the end of January I've got 119km with 100% charge and it's became a critical point for my daily commuting. Official dealer told me that nothing wrong with my car and this is normal operation of the vehicle.

Ok. I'm driving about 15% of my distance in a city and 85% on highway. I thought what I can do to make the car running longer distance. First of all I've start driving on in "B" mode. Yes, in the city and on a highway. The second I'm accelerating ve-e-ery sloooow, my car is slowest on the road. Sometimes drivers glad to bypass me, sometimes they horn on me. Whatever, I don't care, speed limits are my friends.

And finally I've limited my speed on the highway with 87km/h only (max is 100km/h). Semis are bypassing me, sometimes give a horn, it's nothing after driving in the city.
What is my benefit? In the end of February I have 161km with 100% charge and it's continue growing (but slowly). Energy consumption is vary from 12.2kWh/100km to 13.9kWh/100km.

 

[jstack6]

We average 5.1 mile per kWh. We drive like we care and have a good 100-120 mile range even with the air cond on and at highway speeds of 55-60. We live in the HOT Phoenix, AZ area.

Adjust the loose nut behind the wheel and you get great range all the time.

 

[kmnblue]

I have a 2015 Kia Soul EV. I drive the freeway at around 65mph (or higher Im in LA area! :shock: ) and use the highway regularly for my commute.

w/ battery at 100% my car started with 105 Miles

after owning the car for 3 years...

Down to 100% charge giving me 70 Miles (w/ AC Off)

Dropped by approx 10 miles each year.

Always drive my car in ECO mode, but rarely use B. I think the generative breaking is always in play?

At 70 Miles I'm pretty burned out w/ Range Anxiety.

 

[JejuSoul]

I have a 2015 Kia Soul EV. I drive the freeway at around 65mph (or higher Im in LA area! :shock: ) and use the highway regularly for my commute. ... Down to 100% charge giving me 70 Miles (w/ AC Off).

That's rapid degradation of the battery. Sounds like you will soon qualify for a battery replacement.

How long is your commute? From other threads on this forum it seems that the Soul EV battery does not do well with long commutes at high speed.

 

[biffidum]

People should do more research before they buy a car. The Kia EV is a perfect car for around town. I'm tired of hearing people complain that they can no longer complete their 70mile commute.... people!! You bought the wrong car! If a highway commute makes up the majority of your driving stick with an ICE or get a Tesla. Your battery WILL deteriorate.

Just look at the car... they didn't even try to make it a highway car. It's a frickin' box..... I think it is a cool box that serves my needs perfectly...and will for years to come.

Don't blame the tool. Blame the operator.

 

[mtndrew1]

I have a 2015 Kia Soul EV. I drive the freeway at around 65mph (or higher Im in LA area! :shock: ) and use the highway regularly for my commute.

w/ battery at 100% my car started with 105 Miles

after owning the car for 3 years...

Down to 100% charge giving me 70 Miles (w/ AC Off)

Dropped by approx 10 miles each year.

Always drive my car in ECO mode, but rarely use B. I think the generative breaking is always in play?

At 70 Miles I'm pretty burned out w/ Range Anxiety.

Is this the predicted range (guess-o-meter) on a full charge or the actual amount of miles you're able to physically drive on a charge?

My GOM has generally drifted downward over time but I am still able to drive roughly 1 mile per 1% state of charge at ~4mi/kWh just like when I picked up the car three years ago.

 

[Montanvs]

Interesting read. I wonder if there is a way to actually check how much charge you have at 100%. Ie. how much has you capacity decreased from the original (if at all).

I must say though that it is frustrating to have a swing in the range guess-o-meter from 150+ to 110 (in winter). That is a large difference.