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Questions about the ID.4 battery capacity and cold weather

23301 Views 49 Replies 19 Participants Last post by crabnebula, Mar 2, 2022

brifi

Discussion Starter · Oct 25, 2021

So I'm a new EV owner, having purchased the ID4 Pro S in July. I love driving the car and everything about it except for the lack of range and the shortage of fast chargers in my region. There's only one EA charging station in the entire state. Hopefully more are on the way. I digress...

During warmer weather I could charge the battery to 80% and the range indicator said that the range was about 230-240. Now the weather is changing in the Upper Midwest and I took a short road trip to a location where I left the car out overnight for 4 nights without driving it and the temperatures dropped into the mid-to-low 30s. On my return trip, a charge to 80%, which took about the same amount of time as it did during the summer months, only got the range indicator to 160-175. I got it home to my garage where the car is charging in a partially enclosed area (warmer than outside, say around 60 degrees) and it doesn't seem to have improved. Does anyone know how long does it take for the effects of being outside to normalize once I return it to the garage? Is this dramatic change something I can expect for the entire winter (and for it to potentially get worse), or am I doing something wrong?

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JimmyVW

· #12 · Oct 25, 2021

Another thing to consider is that in colder weather (below 8 Celsius I believe) the car will warm up the battery during driving. For me at 3 degrees Celsius, This takes about 20 minutes and during that 20 minutes it might take 5KW or so for battery heating. After that the usage numbers return pretty much to normal. So if you need to make a long trip, don’t use estimates based on short trips, where battery heating wasn’t done yet.

If you want to maximize range, keep the car sheltered the night before, while on a charger, and preheat the cabin before leaving, so it doesn’t need to waste battery on that as well.
That being said, around freezing and on winter tires my range at 80% is still a not too bad 360 KM.

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JimmyVW

· #14 · Oct 25, 2021

Always welcome. Sorry you’ll need to do the conversion to miles and other freedom units yourself. Numbers are for 60/40 ish mixed 110km/h freeway and city driving. Mind you that I’m on 19” moderate winter tires not meant for heavy snow. E.g. similar to Pirelli scorpion winters. And I drive the winters on 0.2-0.3 bar more than the summers (so 2.7 front, 2.8 rear) As soon as you need viking contacts, etc for heavy snow, you’ll be using a lot more energy I’d assume

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JimmyVW

· #21 · Oct 31, 2021

VW TECHNICIAN said:
Example.....battery is at 30°F and left without being plugged to L1 or L2....when you start and go driving it will take 20 or more minutes depending on how much waisted heat ( 50+ MPH will lead to minimum use of coolant heater) to bring it up to 49°F......energy usage for battery coolant heater could be observed with appropriate scanner.
Preheating cabin while plugged will lower energy needs to maintain heat once you start driving and BMS will switch to keep battery at 49°F . So you have minimum impact on energy use for HV Battery.
Front radiator also have on the back side stepper motor that will restrict air flow across the radiator to keep coolant above 49°F if necessary....so irrelevant on the outside temperature....besides one mentioned there are 2 more thermostats that will use best scenario to keep HV Battery temp within calibration parameters.
Only drawback is cabin heater and how owner is using it.
Battery management will have very little effect on energy used.
Using Eco mode and A/C off recirculation on ( considering you are not fighting with humidity)
will use between 1.2-3.0 Kwh ( more occupants more energy will be asked) with outside temperature 20°F .
This is not scenario for short-term drive 5-10 minutes
So let's round up to 4 Kwh on average.....driving for 2 hours is 8 +/- kW. And this is what you should account extra besides trip average when start charging.
1% is equall to 0.77 +/- Kw
Learn to use SOC in % .
So 8 Kwh with 2.7 miles per kWh Example in the winter is 21.6 lost for having good comfort at 74°F.
You can play with any other values but even if you loose 30+ miles on 2 hours drive to the next charging it is well worth it.
2 hours at 65 MPH is good enough for next break and finding next fast DC charger.
Speed warriors will have to be more careful in the winter and less than 2 miles per kW.

What i see is that it keeps using significantly more power until the battery is above 12 degrees c. So until the pack reads 12.5 degrees. And typically it stays there on cold days.
Any chance they changed the 10 degrees to 12 for the ID.4?

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