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BMW Active E
- Thread starter dpeilow
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- Electric Vehicles
tommolog
Member
woof: You can definitely make the 65 mile journey even in the cold with the ActiveE, especially if you use the preconditioning and Eco Pro mode. A friend of mine bought a LEAF here in NJ very recently and last week when it was in the low 20's he was having difficulty getting 55mpc (his daily commute) and had to drive 55mph on route 80 where even the slowest car does 65-70. He loves the car and doesn't think it will be a problem because on really cold days he can use his other vehicle, but just wanted to give you a comparison. There haven't been any LEAF's here on the Northeast until just recently so it's going to be interesting to see how the range does in the cold and snowy days. I'm seeing about 20 miles less per charge on my ActiveE than the people driving them in California are reporting but don't have any difficulty getting well into the 70's even on the coldest days so far. The ActiveE's EPA range was 94 and the LEAF's was 73 so that should give you a good indication of what difference you could expect.
Great to hear. Your blog posts are the only real information we have at the moment, so keep it up!
Which fits nicely into my simulations. It's interesting to see what a 8 kWh difference can make in the real world--that's 2+ hours of heat at full blast, or 24 miles at highway speeds. And if the thermal management in the ActiveE allows the battery to maintain more capacity in the cold than does the LEAF, that's even better.
That sounds about right - if he's using a lot of heat. People are finding that using Eco mode which limits HVAC power draw (unless defrosting) and pre-heating sufficiently are key to maximizing range in cold weather. Gotta use the seat/steering wheel warmers which are way more efficient! At 55 mph he should be able to do a bit better than 55 miles per charge using those techniques, though I imagine that coming home without using much heat is difficult without being significantly bundled up.
Of course, having an extra 8 kWh of battery capacity sure minimizes the need to worry about range - I sure wish Nissan had managed to squeeze even 4 kWh into the battery on occasion (not that often, though!).
tommolog
Member
drees: This guy is a customer of mine and is about 65-68 years old. I applaud him for jumping on the EV train, but I don't expect him to drive home without heat(and he really shouldn't have to) I didn't mind doing it once in a while with the MINI-E, but he say's hell just drive his gas car on really cold days and in this instance I really can't fault him. He loves the LEAF and will probably be able to drive it 90% of the time and he's fine with that. I'd hate to see him run out of juice in 18 degree weather one day after working all day on his drive home.
Oh, I don't blame him for anything, either. Just presenting ideas that LEAF owners have found useful for maximizing range in cold weather (that apply to all EVs). Too bad he can't charge at work - even 120V charging would eliminate range issues - he could probably get away with 80% charging then!
Which brings up a good question: Does the Active E have a "long life" and "range" charge mode setting like the Tesla Roadster and Nissan LEAF?
Which brings up a good question: Does the Active E have a "long life" and "range" charge mode setting like the Tesla Roadster and Nissan LEAF?
The best quote that we have from a Toyota official is that it will be "better than 150 miles"
Note: the other reason I bailed on the Active e is that the closest dealer to service it is 170 miles away and was warned that I would have to take it in for regular visits and updates. That's just too far on a 100 mile range, and would take two full days for each service! If a local dealership was able to service it I would have likely gone for it anyway.
tommolog
Member
No the ActiveE doesn't have a "long life" charge mode. It simply wants to charge as much as the supply will offer. This isn't necessary though because the batteries won't have a long life. The cars will be taken out of service in two years. It's possibly they may use them for an additional year, but certainly not longer than that. The i brand will have launched the i3 & i8 by then, and they will have probably already announced the i4 & i5 as concepts. The ActiveE's life will not be long enough to care about pampering the packs.
These BMW guys must have been reading TMC! I'm parked up, with an hour to kill at Rutgers U. I'm plugged into the free charging and on this cold and chilly winters night the ActiveE allows me to fire up the heat and the seats - toasty, toasty, toasty.
Without dragging the thread OT, that's the third time I've heard ~55 miles for the LEAF in the cold. Ouch.
EVNow
Well-Known Member
More info would be useful. When he says "difficulty getting 55 miles" - did he run out of charge, did he hit low battery / very low battery / turtle ? Is he just going by the estimated range ? Was he using the heater all the time ?
With judicious use of heater (and pre-heating) - you can easily get 60 mpc in that kind of weather driving faster. Ofcourse, you can easily get less as well if you aren't careful.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
Since the impact of a heater varies with time (rather than speed) there is probably an optimal balance between going faster (and losing range by drag) or going slower (and losing range from the heater). I don't know if Leaf's range estimator takes that into account.
I can usually manage about 65 miles with the heater on and 75-80 miles with the heater off, in ~20 F temperatures.
tommolog
Member
"More info would be useful. When he says "difficulty getting 55 miles" - did he run out of charge, did he hit low battery / very low battery / turtle ? Is he just going by the estimated range ? Was he using the heater all the time ?
With judicious use of heater (and pre-heating) - you can easily get 60 mpc in that kind of weather driving faster. Ofcourse, you can easily get less as well if you aren't careful."
He's an older gentleman and he's a regular at my restaurant. He and I have been talking electric cars for a few years now and he's been anxiously awaiting his LEAF delivery for over a year - they just became available in NJ. A couple weeks ago we had a cold stretch where the temps where in the teens and low 20's and I noticed he pulled into the parking lot with his gas car. When I asked him about the LEAF he told me he loves it, but when it gets this cold it can't make his commute. It's 55 miles, he can't plug in at work and it's virtually all highway. He said he had "just made it" a couple times(sorry I didn't ask him to clarify) but then he ran out - on his block about 500 feet from his house and needed to plug in to a neighbors house for a bit to get home and now his wife doesn't want to drive in it! He laughed and said "we'll then she'll have to walk to the store when I take the other car to work"
It didn't discourage him though, he loves it. He'll just take his other car to work when the temperatures get under 30. I didn't want to press him about all the conditions, just told him to try to limit the use of the heater and drive slower to extend his range. Since he cannot plug in at work, the car sits outside all day in a mall parking lot and he can't precondition. He said he's preconditioning in the morning before he leaves though.
With judicious use of heater (and pre-heating) - you can easily get 60 mpc in that kind of weather driving faster. Ofcourse, you can easily get less as well if you aren't careful."
He's an older gentleman and he's a regular at my restaurant. He and I have been talking electric cars for a few years now and he's been anxiously awaiting his LEAF delivery for over a year - they just became available in NJ. A couple weeks ago we had a cold stretch where the temps where in the teens and low 20's and I noticed he pulled into the parking lot with his gas car. When I asked him about the LEAF he told me he loves it, but when it gets this cold it can't make his commute. It's 55 miles, he can't plug in at work and it's virtually all highway. He said he had "just made it" a couple times(sorry I didn't ask him to clarify) but then he ran out - on his block about 500 feet from his house and needed to plug in to a neighbors house for a bit to get home and now his wife doesn't want to drive in it! He laughed and said "we'll then she'll have to walk to the store when I take the other car to work"
It didn't discourage him though, he loves it. He'll just take his other car to work when the temperatures get under 30. I didn't want to press him about all the conditions, just told him to try to limit the use of the heater and drive slower to extend his range. Since he cannot plug in at work, the car sits outside all day in a mall parking lot and he can't precondition. He said he's preconditioning in the morning before he leaves though.
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EVNow
Well-Known Member
Lot of people don't realize heat eats up more than the speed sometimes. Anyway, you can probably refer him to MNL when he comes over next time. He might find it useful.
There is a report of someone doing 100+ miles at about 38 degrees (and city roads).
My Nissan Leaf Forum View topic - Wanted: Extreme Cold Range Data (earn free t-shirt!)
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