gmarcucio said:
Hey Tony it was nice meeting you at our EV Plug In day in Latham. I'm trying to get an idea and since you are in my location what did your range dip down to last winter? When I fully charge now my estimated range indicator says approx 65 - 70 miles. What can I expect to see for this range in the winter months? How is your new battery working out? Were you able to still drive the vehicle while Mitsubishi was building your new battery pack?
Glenn
Hi Glenn, it was a pleasure meeting you too. I'm also interested in seeing how my MiEv does this winter. Last winter I had wrapped the heater in insulation but I was told they had to remove most of that to install the new battery. I'm too lazy to go through all that work again so I'll live with what I have. During the summer my range meter would generally be in the high 70's/low to mid 80's on a full charge. I almost never use the air conditioner but I do lot's of driving over 40 mph. During last winter I saw my range remaining on a full charge drop to the mid 50's when I had the heater running full blast (temp on hot, fan on high, but no "max"). But I should give you an explanation of how I drove the car and used the heater so that my experience can be put in context.
First, I charged the car every night with an L2 charger and always preheated the car on cold days. Preheating is great. I would then get in my car, lower the heat setting to a little above neutral and lower the fan to a little above off. I also bought a heated vest and used that most days as well. With the vest, the seat heater on, the car preheated and the heat kept on but very low, I was comfortable even on our coldest mornings here in Albany. I should add that I hate being cold so I probably kept myself warmer than most people would find necessary. I should also add that I commute alone so I had no need to worry about passenger comfort.
Unfortunately I did not keep track of how many bars I lost on my drive to work. It was more than I lost in summer but I don't think it was much more. As for the evening commute, I have no place to plug in at work so i could not recharge or preheat the car at work. I would wear my heated vest from my office to my parking lot so that by the time I got in my car the vest was nice and toasty. I would put the heater on high (but not max) and would put the fan on high and put the car heater on. After a very short time the temp would get comfortable and I'd lower the temp and fan as I did on my drive in.
My commute is only 15 miles round trip and I run errands almost every day so I was probably traveling 25 miles a day without any problem in the winter. But I also avoided using the car for any long trips. I did notice that things like slippery roads, running the radio, using headlights and wipers all impacted range and with the heater dropping range quickly it seemed those things had more impact than in summer.
The other issue is fogged up windows. My method of defogging the windows was to set the control on defrost, set the heater temp on high, put the fan on high and turn on the a/c. The combination of warm air and the de-humidifier from the a/c defogged the windows quickly. It also made the range drop down dramatically while this was all running. But as soon as possible I would put all the setting back to where they were before. After a while the range would come back up. If you do this, make sure the heater has already warmed up first, otherwise you're sending cold air to the windows which is a much slower process. I also keep a car polishing rag in my car and would sometimes use that rather than the heat-a/c to clear the windows.
Sounds like a lot of work and for anyone who thinks an electric car should behave like a gas car, it is a lot of work. But I knew going in that I would have to make sacrifices in the winter. I even bought a portable catalytic propane heater just in case but never felt compelled to use it. As for traction in snow, no problems. I didn't buy snow tires and just used the tires that came with the car. The MiEv did fine. I think it's small size and it's very good weight distribution help keep the car from getting stuck or losing grip.
Stay in touch Glenn and let me know how you make out.
Tony
