Battery Range

[accordman]

Hi All,
I got mine about 2 weeks ago... Noticed that in the beginning when I fully charge using the 120V adapter, I used to get 15.1-15.3 mile range... Couple of times using the 240V charger, I got 16.1 range on a full battery.... lately, using either of those, I am only seeing a 14.0-14.1 mile range on a fully charged battery.... Anyone seeing this as well... what kind of ranges are you seeing on full charges either 120V or 240V.

Thanx

 

[bill1721]

I've had mine for 4.5 months now and using a 240v charger. Ideal temperature I understand is at 72 degrees and I've seen the charges from 12.3 to 15.6 at 40 to 86 degrees. This morning at 82 degrees, it charged to 14.3.

 

[Cobra]

Is that the range it tells you it has after the charge completes? That's pretty interesting that it varies. Can you tell if driving it after that matches those ranges in some way?

 

[bill1721]

Yes, it's the range after charge is complete. I haven't check it, but it appears pretty accurate. Another factor with dirving mileage variance is how you accelerate and if your going uphill; both of which drains the battery significantly more.

 

[rwsimon]

I suspect that the range readout after charging is a function of the driving history. In other words, if the way you have driven most recently resulted in a large electric range, then the estimate for the new full charge will be higher. I would think that the actual amount of energy at full charge does not really vary. So what does change is the internal computer's estimate of how many miles you will get from that amount of charge. I have seen numbers between about 13.5 and 15.5 miles on my car.

 

[RedwoodGeorge]

I've been driving mine for just under a month now and still using the 120V charger (because Bosch is taking their sweet time delivering the L2 charger that I ordered back in June)

The first few charges the system was estimating 11-ish miles per charge which was very disappointing considering other driver's experiences. That number has been creeping upwards to where the past few charges have been reporting 15+ miles per charge. Driving experience has pretty closely matched the range estimate (I'm using the 'B' trip odometer to measure charge range)

Driving style hasn't changed in that time (I'm a long time hybrid driver so I've got a soft accelerator foot) and the usage is pretty uniform. I'd been wondering if there was any type of battery conditioning going on or if perhaps the power management software was learning my driving habits and allowing the battery to run down further before switching into hybrid mode. Don't know why but happy to see the 15 miles/charge

 

[rwsimon]

Out of curiosity, why get an L2 charger? Charging on 120 takes about 3 hours. How often is it useful to charge at home more quickly than that? On the road, I really appreciate using public chargers that do the job in 25 minutes, since I am not likely to be sticking around for hours, but at home, it doesn't seem very valuable. What are people's thoughts about this?

 

[bill1721]

I find the L2 charger very useful because it re-charges mine in 25 minutes and on the weekend when I have several tasks and returning to my home, I can manage to go total EV on the weekend too. I only live four miles from all my shopping and work.

 

[Javel]

Another advantage of an L2 charger is being able to precondition the cabin temperature (including heating some engine coolant if you're heating the cabin) without taking energy from the battery.

 

[RedwoodGeorge]

Out of curiosity, why get an L2 charger? Charging on 120 takes about 3 hours. How often is it useful to charge at home more quickly than that?

I'm a bit more distrusting of the human race... I park and charge in my driveway about 15 feet from the sidewalk. The L2 charger is bolted to the wall while any tweaked-out thief in my neighborhood can unplug the $600 L1 charger and just walk away. I currently make it a point not to charge later in the evening (when the rates are lower) because I don't want to leave the L1 charger unattended overnight.

I also suspect this won't be my last chargeable vehicle and the current 30% federal tax credit won't last forever.

(That and it's nice to be able to re-charge in under an hour.)

 

[Cobra]

That's interesting, the preconditioning of cabin temperature only works on the L2 charger? I hadn't read that.

What about if you are not plugged in? Can you condition the interior with the remote app if the car is sitting disconnected from power?

 

[Javel]

Yes, preconditioning works with any form of being plugged in, or not plugged in. The question was whether battery energy would be used if preconditioning with an L1 charger. I thought I'd read in a footnote on ev.owners.honda.com or a help screen in the iPhone app (or something in the shop manual to which I'm not going to resubscribe right now) that it might.

Now I can't find that. Perhaps they've programmed around it. Based on how fast the state of charge goes down with heavy heater usage, though, I can believe that the electric coolant heater pulls more than the 1.5kW the L1 cord can supply. I could also believe that cooling the cabin doesn't exceed what the L1 charger supplies.

I could experiment next winter....

 

[Cobra]

Nice. Ok, that makes more sense. So you could precondition on L1 and maybe use battery, but still charge while the heating/cooling cycles on and off.

Where did you subscribe to the shop manuals? Is that expensive to do?

 

[accordman]

Just an update to all since starting this topic... I charge using the 120V charger every night. It still gives me 14ish range on display when I leave every morning... My work is about 15 miles one way so by the time I get to work and with the street driving (some recharging going on due to soft pedal, breaking etc), I make it there... Then before I leave work, I charge it on a 240V charging station and still reads 14ish ... I am just curious howcome I was seeing 15s and even 16.1 initially when I bot the car.....

Thanx to all for your inputs, It is a great learning experience here

 

[Javel]

The shop manual is at techinfo.honda.com, which says:

ServiceExpress is American Honda and Honda Canada's service repair information website for independent repair shops and vehicle owners. This information covers all Honda and Acura vehicles from 1990 to current.

Subscriptions:
1 Day - $10.00 USD
30 Days - $50.00 USD
365 Days - $350.00 USD

 

[Cobra]

Thanks for the info. A little pricey, but considering the helms manuals aren't in print yet, it's the only option. They also have diagnostic tools on that site. I didn't realize Honda made them available publicly. That's pretty cool.

 

[GreenRide]

I drove my new PHEV from the Bay Area to LA and back. I was only able to charge twice when in LA and gassed up 1x on our way back to home. I plugged the car when I got home and to my surprise...I had 22 electric miles when I drove it the next day to work. I charged it again at work for my ride home and was able to get another 21 electric miles! I was only able to duplicate this the following day but after that its back to the normal 14 or 15 electric miles. What happened?

 

[accordman]

Update again - Now I am barely getting a charge of 9 miles per charge (120 or 240)... Anyone experiencing this degrading capacity issue? I don't live in a state that has "certified" PHEV Honda techs... and I do not know who to contact at Honda... I am concerned I have a bad battery....

Any help would be much appreciated

 

[Cobra]

Well, I think what we're seeing is an estimate, based on the performance from the last time you drove, prior to the charge. It's probably based on a measure of electric efficiency, but we don't see that anywhere on the iMid. It only shows us 'EV range'. It's even harder to tell what's going on, since the MPG numbers are gas only...