Battery Capacity

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barranak

New member
Joined
Feb 15, 2016
Messages
3
Location
Lincolnshire, UK
Hi everyone,

I have just purchased my first Citroen C Zero, it really is a great car. Its 2012 model with 30,000 miles on the clock we have been running it for a few days on short mileage and I have noticed that the range and battery bars do not seem to correlate to each other.
Right now it has 1 bar under half and says 23 miles left, we are driving very sensibly and not using the on-board heaters am I right in saying that the range is worked out from previous mileage and if so how would I go about recalibrating the range gauge?
Should I keep driving until I get the battery bars down to the last one or two?
any advice would be great.


Regards Andy
 
Welcome to the forum, and congrats on your purchase.

There are 16 bars total, the half mark showing 8 bars. So, having 7 bars (1 under half) and 23 miles left sounds about normal for cold weather, even more so if you have the 14.5 kWh battery.

Although not usually necessary, you can do a soft calibration by running the pack down to 2 bars or less, then doing a full recharge (leaving the car plugged in until the charge light goes out). You don't have to worry about overcharging as the car will stop charging automatically, but for best battery longevity, we've found that it is best to not leave the car sitting at a full charge for an extended period of time, usually more than a day. Instead, folks like myself tend to leave the car unplugged until the night before we need to use the car, then charge it. As you become more experienced with the car, you'll be able to gauge how long the car takes to charge. Usually, 120 volts at 12 amps (level 1 charging) replenishes roughly 1 bar per hour, and 240 volts at 13 amps replenishes roughly 3 bars per hour (level 2). DC quick charge will give you an 80% charge in 30 minutes or less, depending on battery temperature. A full charge on Level 2 takes 5 to 5 1/2 hours.
 
Andy, congratulations on your new purchase! You might update your profile to show us where you are in the world.

The Range Remaining display is based on how the last 15 miles (24km) were driven. As a rule of thumb, if you are driving 'normally' (i.e., neither hypermiling nor leadfooting) and consistently, halfway on the fuel gauge correlates to about RR=32 miles (~50km), but can be dramatically altered by speed, jackrabbit starts, hills, headwinds, ambient temperature and, of course, running the heater.

One of the beauties of the electric car is that we can opportunity charge while doing other things. The gasoline station model is totally inappropriate to BEVs, as is the antiquated NiCd battery concept of full depletion before recharging. It is far better to keep the car charged rather than deplete the battery pack, the 'ideal' being half-charge and trying to keep the car close to this level. By all means, plug the car in when you can but, especially in summer, disconnect it before it gets completely 'full' except when you're just about to take a longer trip.
 
Thanks for both of your quick replies, I am sure it will take a while to feel comfortable with the RR gauge, charging and planning usage.

The car is for my wife and she will use it tomorrow which I think will get it to around 2 bars then we can charge and make use of the recalibration to see if this alters the RR.

The car is really fab to use, my wife has been on about getting on for a while now, just a shame that it took her so long to persuade me to go for it.

I live in South Lincolnshire in the UK which if your not familiar with the area is reclaimed farm land from the sea so perfectly flat, maybe ideal area for an EV.

Andy
 
i would go ahead and charge up tonight--don't be sending her out to drive the first time with a low 'tank' . Those last 23 miles can go away fairly quickly when you first get an EV and cause needless anxiety. She may need some heat or defrost to clear the windshield, etc.

You can do the range calibration on a weekend when it's not so critical.
 
kiev said:
i would go ahead and charge up tonight--don't be sending her out to drive the first time with a low 'tank' . Those last 23 miles can go away fairly quickly when you first get an EV and cause needless anxiety. She may need some heat or defrost to clear the windshield, etc.
You can do the range calibration on a weekend when it's not so critical.
+1 :!:
 
I went out this morning to the -4 temp so plug the car in as per your advice.

Will look at calibration over this weekend.

She only has a 8 mile round trip today but will mean she can use heaters with out worry.

Andy
 
barranak said:
I live in South Lincolnshire in the UK which if your not familiar with the area is reclaimed farm land from the sea so perfectly flat, maybe ideal area for an EV.

Andy

Sounds like good terrain for an EV.
I live in Cornwall, which is a lot hillier than Lincoln, and I have been seeing a range remaining figure of 68-71 miles after a full charge over this winter (but it's maybe a little warmer down here than in Lincolnshire - freezing temperatures are rare).
 
We are pretty flat around here outside of Boston MA.
I don't see those RR amounts for me though...... may be I should stop driving like a bat out of hell
:twisted:
 
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