Declining EV every day after full charge??

I live in a pretty hilly area and frequently have to climb a very steep hill.

when I climb this hill I can watch my EV Range drop by 1/10 of a mile every 100 feet or so.

My EV Range maxes at about 11.8. I would be guilty of having a bit of a strong foot, but I had been using hills etc. to try to gain charge to extend the EV range.

I regularly have trips that I get 999 with, with the AC running.

 

Ah, some more details, excellent! It's definetly odd you never see the 999 (apologies to Herman Cain), hopefully the experts here can begin to pinpoint the problem!

 

I too have the EV declining syndrone. Started at 13.1 on 4/7, now I'm at 9.9 after a full charge. Typically I drive 90 miles round trip to work, recharging during the day. Mostly flat freeway driving in the HOV lane. I use ECO mode on freeway except for on ramps. I do not like this trend. Ready to take into the dealer.

 

Okay so I've seen a lot of people saying that leaving the battery SOC at 100% for too long can deteriorate the life of the battery. This caused so much panic in me to run out and drive the car if I charged it in expectations of us going out some evening, but ended up staying home.

The discussions about deterioration of battery performance on the two Leaf's in Arizona were cars that were left at 100% SOC sitting in the sun for a month.

So, if you charge your battery and don't use it that evening, the car is fine. Don't worry.

As for you guys that worry that your EV range has gone down: start learning to step on the gas pedal like you are stepping on an egg that you don't want to break. (I learned this trick with my Honda Civic Hybrid).

Also inflate your tires!

Tips to improve your gas mileage - The Problem Solver

 

Also...drive as if your car has no brakes.

 

Got the Climate Control on? try turning it off. drive with climate control off

 

Slow is your trouble.

Just like with the regular Prius, new owners assume preventing the engine from starting is more efficient. Though counter-intuitive, you are much better off taking advantage of letting the engine join in.

With plug-in supplied electricity, the engine will run at a remarkably low RPM, allowing it to supply power by only using a small amount of gas. The electric motor will handle the brunt of the power demand.

It always makes me wonder how long it takes each newbie struggling with MPG to discover they've been fighting the system. Making the assumption that not using the engine is better is very easy. That's why we promote the "Just Drive It" motto.

 

Of course, 76 MPG is insanely high gas mileage, you know that, right?

Get in your freshly-charged car and reset the trip odometer. (Tap the Trip button on the steering wheel until Trip A or B appears, then press and hold the Trip button until the odometer resets). The car will start up in EV mode and the MPG will read 999 until the engine starts. As soon as the engine starts, MPG will fall like a rock, like 50% immediately.

One more thing -- Yesterday morning, I woke up early and took a drive at ultra-low speed just to see how high I could get my mileage. You can see my display reported an average speed of just 15 MPH.

 

The PiP will NOT charge to 100%.. what you see as a full charge is 85-86% of charge, well within the safe region for lithium. (It also cannot go to 0% at the other end, just 22 when the Ice will normally start).

The confusion comes about because with Leaf, Nissian decided to allow users to charge to the actual 100%, which can rapidly degrade a battery. But they wanted to all 100% so when you needed the extra range you could get it. Since PHEVs have an ICE for extra range, they take the safter route and protect the battery from such abuse.


To rebound: 76 is only "insanely high" by yesterday's standards.. The OP was expecting to be gas free in which case 76 is a very bad day. I dread any day where I burn any, and 76 is a very bad day. (130+ mile trip) Funny how quickly that changed.

 

I see in your signature your cost per mile. Does that include the electricity you have to purchase to charge it?

 

suzie, it seems to me your car is fine and you are confused. rebound has it right in post 53. you will not see 999mpg unless you reset either trip A or B. instead of trying to do all this on your commute, you need to find time to charge your battery and go for a leisurely drive on the flattest route you can find. reset your trip, notice it says 999, keep your windows up and stereo off. when you hear the engine start, the 999 will drop and the ev mode display will go out. now see how many miles you drove without gas.

 

Yes, that includes all costs for fuel (premium gas) and for electricity it includes kWh, and cost allocation of the house's grid access charges, taxes and green(wind) power added charges. I have time of day Use rate charging. Off-peak rate is now $.05kWr, with everything added in its almost .06/kWh. Put that in more context, my net increase for my last electric bill was $20 over the same billing period last year, which was over 800 miles.

I'll also that I'm also more efficient than many drivers. In spring/summer weather I'm getting 48-52 miles per charge. Last month, measured from the wall, I was under 25.7kwh/100miles (EPA is 36/100miles), so I'm close to 28% more efficient a driver than the EPA estimates. If measured from battery to wheels (as in the PiP display's) that would be about 218 Wh/mile or about 4.57 miles per kWh. So when on electricity now I'm actual closer to $0.013 per mile, but I do use gas for long trips and brings the cost up a bit.

The .024 is a long term average over 4119 miles and 5 mostly winter months. The cold weather also uses more battery -- I was only getting 35-38 miles in Jan.

 

EV range might just be an entirely different issue. My car pool'er has occasional fits of anger (gets cut off ... someone won't signal, etc), then he floors it. He doesn't even know he's doing that. I'm not saying the OP is doing that ... but just that it might be some type of a correctable issue of driving style. Best thing to determine whether that's a possibility, just have an experienced PiP driver do the EV drive, in the vehicle in question.

 

As I've posted before, I also have a declining EV range readout from a full charge (down to the single digits). While that concerns me, I also have driven 550 miles since I took delivery of my PiP, and the gas gauge just hit half-empty.
Both results may be consequences of the kind of driving I do: mainly short trips with many lights and four-way stops. I will mention it to the dealer, just the same, when I go in for service. But my overall mpg situation is outstanding (of course, I am still waiting for my first electric bill).
Does anyone have any recommendation on how best to handle trips well beyond your EV range to places where you can't recharge: do you try to "split up" the EV range you have between the drive out and the drive back...or is it better to make one trip using most of the EV range and rely on HV on the return?
Thanks!

 

I drive around Los Angeles a lot. I've notice the PiP will use the EV batteries up during HV driving if you are a pro at pulse & glide. MPG averages in the 75-80 mpg range when it does this.

I use HV on the freeways (65 mph) and upon exit of the freeway go full EV for the last few miles.