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Did my Nokian WRG4 Tire Really Decrease my Efficiency That Much?

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A few months ago I installed a set of Nokian WRG4 all weather tires. During that time it was around 50-60 degrees F and I didn’t notice any real change in efficiency. But now that we are into the cold of winter, my Wh/mi has gone up significantly from last winter (from ~280 Wh/mi to upwards around 340 Wh/mi for the same trip in the same weather- 120 miles round trip 80% highway speeds).

But I’m also constantly seeing the blue snowflake on the screen (for 50 of the 60 miles on the return trip) and limited battery heating when preconditioning the cabin.

*I never saw the blue snowflake last winter and it heated the battery very well. I know this because I could hear the rear motor whining while heating the battery. In fact, I remember last year when a software update actually increased battery heating, the rear motor whine was significantly louder. Now it’s the opposite.

And to add, it’s not the cabin heater as I’ve turned that off for 10-20 miles and the efficiency change is minimal (I only keep my cabin around 65 degrees).

I just can’t seem to figure out what’s going on. I can’t imagine these tires impacting efficiency so drastically.

I really only noticed this when the temps got down to the 20’s which happened to coincide with the V11 software update.

In summary, this car’s cold weather performance is completely different from last winter and I can’t figure out why.

Thoughts?
 
I think you are comparing two different winter seasons. Last winter was fairly mild, temperature wise. It's been colder recently (at least where I am) compared to last year. There's NO WAY your winter usage was 280Wh/mi last year. 340Wh/mile looks to be a more reasonable number.
 
I think you are comparing two different winter seasons. Last winter was fairly mild, temperature wise. It's been colder recently (at least where I am) compared to last year. There's NO WAY your winter usage was 280Wh/mi last year. 340Wh/mile looks to be a more reasonable number.

Actually, it was (or close to it, but NOT 340) unless it was very windy or snowy. I remember trips into work on the Turnpike doing 75 MPH in sunny, 10 degree weather, leaving with 260 miles indicated on the guessometer and getting home with 90 indicated. Now I'm getting home with mayby 50 or 60 miles indicated. And like I said before, never had the blue snowflake and now I do. All the time.

I also remember discussing this with my freind who has a LR Dual Motor last year and how impressed I was with my winter efficiency.

Something is different, at least it is for me.
 
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From your post;

"A few months ago I installed a set of Nokian WRG4 all weather tires. During that time it was around 50-60 degrees F and I didn’t notice any real change in efficiency."

So, you did not notice a change in efficiency from the tires when the weather was warm but now that it is cold you do? How do you explain that?

I think you may be seeing a combination of colder weather this season affecting range and possibly a little less flexibility in the tires when cold. I highly doubt that the tires alone are causing the extra consumption.
 
The blue snowflake shows up when the battery is cold soaked. It has nothing to do with tires. 340wh/mi dosn’t seem all that bad to me cruising at 75mph on the highway. Even in The summer I don’t think I would get <300 Wh/mi at those speeds.

What you are experiencing is a colder winter. When I switch from my summer MxM4 to studded Nokian Hakka 9 I notice no difference in Wh/mi given similar weather. Tires make almost no difference.

What do you set your heat to? I set mine to 63F And find it is a good balance of efffency. My wife will crank it to 72F and the Wh/mi goes way up.
 
Interior temp right around 66 or 67. And I never got the snowflake before, that's what's confusing me. Maybe it's a combination of things making me crazy lol.

Unless they changed all the temperature set-points for the snowflake and battery heating indicators...

There is actually one other change that I made from last year- I used to start charging as soon as I got home and then let it sit at 90% until I left for work the next morning. Now I've been using off-peak hours so it doesn't start charging immediately. I'll go back and see if that does anything.

Thanks for the inputs!
 
The snowflake has nothing to do with heating the battery. The snowflake just means that the battery has reached a temp to where it is too cold to use its full capability. As the battery warms up from driving (or charging) you get the lost capacity back. It is just an indicator to the driver that until the battery warms up you have lost some acceleration and battery %.

You could set it to stop charging right before you leave, that way you start with a warm battery.
 
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The snowflake has nothing to do with heating the battery.

Yes, I know this, but why isn't the car heating (or only minimally heating) the battery anymore? Like I said before, I never had a cold soaked battery last winter as the car ALWAYS heated the battery when I turned on the cabin heat. Now I have it on every drive. It just seems really odd to me.

Maybe they figured that heating it uses as much "range" as you would lose with just leaving it cold and said screw it lol.
 
Yes, I know this, but why isn't the car heating (or only minimally heating) the battery anymore? Like I said before, I never had a cold soaked battery last winter as the car ALWAYS heated the battery when I turned on the cabin heat. Now I have it on every drive. It just seems really odd to me.

Maybe they figured that heating it uses as much "range" as you would lose with just leaving it cold and said screw it lol.
I don’t know where you are but my experience with ~7-8 months a year of winter in AK. A few degrees can make a big difference. From ~20F and up I rarely see the snowflake. Low teens (and below I see it all the time. So the difference between ~12D and ~17F could make a large difference in a cold soaked battery.


There are times even when my car sits at -20F for 11 hours unplugged when im at work that the snowflake is gone in 3-5 miles and times with the same conditions that it is there my entire 10 miles home. I find it highly variable but I’ll also add the snowflake has nothing to do with efficiency (Wh/mi) only battery performance.

Speed is a much larger factor in increasing wh/mi then temperature. From everything you have put in here I think colder temps or driving at higher speeds are the most likely culprits in increases wh/mi.
 
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I don’t know where you are but my experience with ~7-8 months a year of winter in AK. A few degrees can make a big difference. From ~20F and up I rarely see the snowflake. Low teens (and below I see it all the time. So the difference between ~12D and ~17F could make a large difference in a cold soaked battery.


There are times even when my car sits at -20F for 11 hours unplugged when im at work that the snowflake is gone in 3-5 miles and times with the same conditions that it is there my entire 10 miles home. I find it highly variable but I’ll also add the snowflake has nothing to do with efficiency (Wh/mi) only battery performance.

Speed is a much larger factor in increasing wh/mi then temperature. From everything you have put in here I think colder temps or driving at higher speeds are the most likely culprits in increases wh/mi.

Good stuff, thanks for this.

And yes, this season has been colder and windier.
 
Good stuff, thanks for this.

And yes, this season has been colder and windier.
Headwind makes a huge difference as well. With EVs they are very efficient as most of the energy used goes to moving the vehicle vs ICEs where a lot of the energy is wasted in heat. So when you get an additional ~100 Wh/mi above the ~250wh/mi baseline in usage due to speed/wind/ rain you really notice it, it’s a ~40% increase. With an ICE that gets 20mpg you are using ~1700 wh/mi, so that same 100wh/mi increase is only a ~6% increase.
 
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