Range Remaining; Energy Gauge; Trip Meter. What do you use?

[tonymil]

It seems that not every MiEV owner relies (solely) on the Range Remaining meter to tell them how far they can travel before needing to recharge. See this thread here:

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=428&p=3649#p3649

What information do you rely on to plan your trips?

 

[BillThompsonMIEV]

Most critical is RR; second most critical is "bars remaining"; at trip conclusion I look at trip meter. I do quick math in my head to determine the projected number of bars needed for next trip. To state another way how many miles can I get on a bar. I am still new to this car, but the RR is most critical, and does react very quickly to changes in current driving, such as going downhill the RR increases, and A/C on/off changes RR immediately. Bill.

 

[jennrod12]

+1 what Bill said.

Jenn

 

[MLucas]

another +1 for Bill. I use both the Power and RR Meters to get an idea of how far I can travel as I drive. The Power Meter is the absolute, that is what I have in the tank. The RR tells me if I keep up what I have been doing, I might not make it so I'll need to cool my jets until I get home.

 

[Don]

+3? ..... or maybe not

I use the RR meter in conjunction with the trip meter for everything. Wish the darned gauge would display them both at the same time!!

Other than an occasional occasional glance, I don't use the 'fuel gauge' for much of anything except for when I'm charging, so I can tell when to pull the plug

Don

 

[JoeS]

I reset Trip A whenever I fully fully charge the car (rarely). I use this when tallying the mileage data (I keep track of every single kWhr consumed); otherwise, the right display is always set to RR, and scrupulously monitored.

The 'fuel' gauge of course is monitored. Wish it was a number (%SOC) instead of sixteen bars. It provides a nice sanity check if some unusual driving had taken place which would cause the RR to develop a temporary offset (e.g., following a ten-mile high-speed steep climb, or a ten-mile downhill coast).

I've added an inexpensive older Garmin nuvi 265W GPS (Edit 6/30/13 Correction: Garmin nuvi 255W GPS) and mounted it on top of the dashboard to the left of the steering wheel using Velcro. This GPS has an "instrument" screen which shows trip mileage, distance-to-go (if a destination is programmed), speedometer, compass heading, trip average speed, trip moving average speed, maximum speed, trip moving time, trip time stopped, and trip 'fuel cost' based on pre-programmed mpg at different speeds and $/gallon… nice to know how much money I'm NOT spending. I reset this GPS trip meter every morning. I keep adding EVSE locations to this GPS, and on longer trips I keep track of the distance-to-go to the next EVSE vs. Range Remaining.

A fun daily game is to note RR when starting off and then watch the sum of trip mileage + RR during the day - trying to come back with a number larger than when starting (tough to do when starting off the day with RR>85).

The only time I use the iMiEV Trip B is when I'm taking a long trip - in case I want to reset the GPS trip meter for some reason.

Yes, I would definitely like to have the RR be a stand-alone display and would also like to have the trip meters always be visible. Mitsubishi, you need to do away with that button on the instrument panel!

The power gauge (really, a damped ammeter) provides nice feedback. I personally think that the upper end of this gauge should be yellow then red (like a tachometer), with an audible warning as the needle gets close to the top (perhaps only in Eco mode).

 

[BillThompsonMIEV]

I agree with Don. RR gauge is important. Plus you get instant feedback when regen kicks in via an increase in RR.

 

[RobertC]

You're mentally calculating about the same thing that the RR meter does . . . . except that it does it using real numbers for electrical consumption based on how you're driving the car at the time, so it's gotta be more accurate.
Don

The RR meter knows where I've been but not where I'm going. If I just drove the last 15 miles on the highway at 70 mph, the RR meter lets me know how many more miles I can go on the highway at 70 mph, but not how many miles I can go off the highway at 35 mph.

As I stated, I just use these numbers as a conservative estimate. I also know that I can get 5 miles per bar if I keep the power needle in the Eco range, stay off the highway, and limit heating and cooling. My wife also drives the car and I don't know how she has driven for the last 15 miles. Like me, she thinks the car is fun to drive because of its quick acceleration, so we both use it frequently.

I never use the RR meter because I do not feel that it has any value since it only tells me about the past and I am only interested in the future.

 

[misterbleepy]

I never use the RR meter because I do not feel that it has any value since it only tells me about the past and I am only interested in the future.

I agree - I just have the odometer displayed, and pay attention to the "fuel gauge".

 

[acensor]

I never use the RR meter because I do not feel that it has any value since it only tells me about the past and I am only interested in the future.

Well put. I'll point that out to my wife as she, understandably, take it at face value.

That said, it DOES tell me "if you keep driving the way you are now on similar terrain and speed with the same climate control settings this is darn close to how far you can get before you're almost dead in the water."

It also reminds/warns me if I've accidentally or deliberately turned on the heat or AC that I've just knocked down my range and about how much range it will cost me if I keep it on... and conversely , how much further I can get if I'm willing to shiver or sweat.

Finally, bet there are many MiEV drivers (the types that will never show up in this forum) for whom the RR meter is far better than eyeballing the state-of-charge guage which they'll never quite get the hang of interpreting.

Too bad the RR meter isn't a tad more intelligent in that it might make assessments of how consumption and speed is changing, and, for example, if it sees 65mph for the last 14 miles a decelleration to 45mph then a near-full-stop, then 30mph for the next 3 minutes, tenetively conclude you just got off the interstate and adust RR accordingly.
Well within computational arts' reach.
I imagine at some point in the future we'll see the RR meter or the built in or after market GPS looking at exactly what road you just turned onto and incorporating that into a range estimate.
(My $600 GPS on the small aircraft I share does something like that in the plane.
Drop the speed a notch and it immeadiatly adjusts my ETA and esimated fuel.
Same thing if you get a side wind and have to crab into the wind.)

Alex

 

[misterbleepy]

I imagine at some point in the future we'll see the RR meter or the built in or after market GPS looking at exactly what road you just turned onto and incorporating that into a range estimate.
(My $600 GPS on the small aircraft I share does something like that in the plane.
Drop the speed a notch and it immeadiatly adjusts my ETA and esimated fuel.
Same thing if you get a side wind and have to crab into the wind.)

Alex

I found the map/routing thing here quite interesting:

http://www.jurassictest.ch/GR/

as I think it attempts to allow for hills etc in working out your range/charging requirements for a journey.

 

[acensor]

I found the map/routing thing here quite interesting:

http://www.jurassictest.ch/GR/

as I think it attempts to allow for hills etc in working out your range/charging requirements for a journey.

Hey, that seems to be some sort of on-line game/simulation where you run your car and see how economical/green your run is. But I couldn't see how to get it to actually run/play. Did you?

Alex

 

[Barbagris]

I found the map/routing thing here quite interesting:

http://www.jurassictest.ch/GR/

as I think it attempts to allow for hills etc in working out your range/charging requirements for a journey.

Hey, that seems to be some sort of on-line game/simulation where you run your car and see how economical/green your run is. But I couldn't see how to get it to actually run/play. Did you?

Alex

Is very intuitive. Select a route, select vehicles and speed /style of drive, and go!

 

[misterbleepy]

and it gives an overview of elevation changes over your route:

plus it looks like you can fine-tune some of the parameters it uses for the car

 

[Don]

I never use the RR meter because I do not feel that it has any value since it only tells me about the past and I am only interested in the future.

Call me dense, but I don't understand your logic at all - What 'past information' are you getting from the RR meter? All it displays is a computed number concerning future mileage and it does a lot better job of it than your manual calculations

If you get in the car at mid-charge after your wife has driven it and you have no idea *how* she was driving it, you get some number on the RR meter which continues to update accuracy-wise every mile as you drive. After you've gone 10 or 12 miles, what your wife has done previously has very little to do with the current number, which by then is pretty darned accurate, IMO

I tend to agree with Mitsu that it is "Perhaps the most consistently useful gauge" in the car - It sure tells me more than the 'fuel gauge' which is why I seldom look at it . . . . I might be getting 4 miles to the bar, or 5, so multiplying anything it tells me is truly a wild guess, while the RR gauge is at least an 'educated guess'. If I know I still have 20 miles to go before I get home and the RR gauge is telling me 15, I know I'd better start seriously conserving, so I do. On the other hand, if the RR gauge says 30 and it's hot as heck out, I know I can turn up the A/C and get comfortable without worrying about making it home. Your manual calculations aren't helping you at all in either case

Don

 

[Barbagris]

Yesterday I saw 18 km remaining.

1 km later (and carefully driving), the display show 10 km. Yes, it was a hard climb.

Can I do 18 km with a couple of hills like it? No way. 15? 12? No.

If you live in a flat country, you can get conclusions with a look at the RR meter. In a hilly country, you better see at the bars... and the hills!

 

[misterbleepy]

If you live in a flat country, you can get conclusions with a look at the RR meter. In a hilly country, you better see at the bars... and the hills!

I agree - if you drive in a very hilly area (like where I live) then the RR meter readouts fluctuate too much to be useful. I would imagine in a much flatter area then it would give much more consistent readouts, and be more useful.

 

[Llecentaur]

Hills can be "economical" if you are not obliged to go too fast up and can free wheel without going over speed limit. Clearly flat city driving is the best for range.

Question,

Has anyone ever seem the bars rise during regen on a very long descent ? This has never happened yet with 3 km very sharp downhills.

 

[Barbagris]

Question,

Has anyone ever seem the bars rise during regen on a very long descent ? This has never happened yet with 3 km very sharp downhills.

Sure.

Today. Only one bar. Descent about 300 mts (1,000 ft)

But you need to spent a bar shortly before the top ...

 

[RobertC]

Call me dense, but I don't understand your logic at all - What 'past information' are you getting from the RR meter?
Don

So I get in the fully charged car this morning after plugging the car in last night and just for kicks I check the RR meter. 50 miles.
Last night I had to go to Atlantic City. It's 40 miles round trip, almost all highway. I drove about 70 miles an hour and had the AC on for part of the trip.

Now this morning I have a fully charged battery. What is my range? If I repeat the same trip as last night, driving the same speed with the AC on, it's about 50 miles.
But I had no intention of driving on the highway at 70 mph today. Today I had to drive on local roads.
What is my range? Not 50 miles.
If I drive conservatively and don't use much AC, my range is more like 60 or 70 or 80 miles.

To determine how far you can go on your remaining charge you need to know two things.

• 1. How much remaining charge you have left (from the fuel gauge).
  2. At what level will you drain the battery based on where you are going and how you will drive to get there.
  If you can drive efficiently with the power needle in the Eco range on local roads and not at highway speed without much heat or AC your range will be much greater than if your needle is pegged on Power and you have the heat or AC on max.

I can make my RR meter say anything I want.
I could drive on the highway at 70 mph plus with heat on max and probably get it to say 32 miles.
Should I not go on a 50 mile round trip today?
I could hypermile or drive efficiently at lower speeds with a feather foot on the accelerator with no heat or AC and get it to say 92 miles.
Should I drive an 80 mile round trip on the highway today?
What is my range remaining with a fully charged battery? Is it 32 miles or 92 miles?
If when I get in the car I'm going to drive exactly like I did the last 15 miles (past information) then the RR meter gives a good estimate.
If I'm not going to drive exactly the same as I did the last 15 miles, then the RR meter is of little use to me.