Very efficient car

[Mgkev]

Just returned from a 20 mile each way journey with mixed driving and A/C on. Did this at 4.1 miles per Kilowatt. This car is so efficient at local driving conditions.

 

[kompkar]

I did a 170mile trip (mostly on A-Roads and Motorways) from near Leeds to Chelmsford and got 3.6 m/kw at mostly around 60mph few days back.
But I was sort of trying the 'hypermile' thing with AirCon turned off+Eco Mode+KERS Level 3 and following trucks whenever possible.

I noted AirCon/Heating has a massive impact on Range.
What settings did you have in your drive ? and what was your average speed ?

 

[Mgkev]

@kompkar It was at an average, I guess, between 30-50 mph. A/c on, fan on lowest setting and heating on blob one. I believe that heating may use more energy than cooling as A/c is a kind of heat pump.

 

[shikoku14]

I did a 170mile trip (mostly on A-Roads and Motorways) from near Leeds to Chelmsford and got 3.6 m/kw at mostly around 60mph few days back.
But I was sort of trying the 'hypermile' thing with AirCon turned off+Eco Mode+KERS Level 3 and following trucks whenever possible.

I noted AirCon/Heating has a massive impact on Range.
What settings did you have in your drive ? and what was your average speed ?

You may find that when you are on faster A roads and the motorway you'll get more from Kers being set at 1 and coasting more than you can get back from regen (If not using MG Pilot/ACC)

 

[kompkar]

Ah...that is a good point @shikoku14
I had seen Bjorn Nyland's video where he complained about ACC using brakes instead of Regen but had not made that jump to set KERS to 1 when I was on highway - lesson learned, will remember it for next time. Thanks.

 

[ARealHuman]

Well, I got 4.8KWh yesterday on a journey, first time ever and thought I'd try driving economically. I was surprised, best I've seen before that was around 3.5KWh. I was in eco mode, KERS 3, no aircon/heater and had the sunrook tilted up and driver's window croacked open a tad. Was a mixture of town driving and faster A roads.

Interesting point about KERS 1, will try that....

 

[ClawzSkunk]

Makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong... I'm getting 2.7kWh

 

[Jake]

Well, I got 4.8KWh yesterday on a journey, first time ever and thought I'd try driving economically. I was surprised, best I've seen before that was around 3.5KWh. I was in eco mode, KERS 3, no aircon/heater and had the sunrook tilted up and driver's window croacked open a tad. Was a mixture of town driving and faster A roads.

Interesting point about KERS 1, will try that....

I got 4.2 miles/kW on a 120 mile trip yesterday outside temperature was a steady 12 degrees. Mixture of A and B roads plus some light town centre driving at 20-60 mph overall. Normal mode with region at 3 is where I leave it all the time. My accrued mileage about 1500 shows average of 3.9 miles/kW. Interesting to see how the different levels of regen might affect the efficiency although my driving style is to 'feather' the throttle to reduce speed as necessary which may not produce the full regen of that setting? I think this needs some experimenting maybe.

 

[Mark Holmes]

Makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong... I'm getting 2.7kWh

Just give it time and you’ll slowly improve, but it’s cold and that will make a difference as well as if your area is hilly of flat.

 

[Alan5]

Found this YouTube video quite interesting from carwow , driving 6 electric cars till their drive battery runs out completely , unfortunately the MG ZS ev is not one of them. hope the link works

 

[Mgkev]

I’ve just found that driving with a rear window slightly open can allow you not to have the a/c on to remove misting. Plus my insulated roof material ( see other thread) helps reduce heating load.

 

[Alan5]

Sorry my video link should have gone in the GOM accuracy thread

 

[garytc7888]

Just give it time and you’ll slowly improve, but it’s cold and that will make a difference as well as if your area is hilly of flat.

Mark not just you mate I'm 3 years in to ev ownership and this car is so inefficient even when you're trying ....65 mph on the motorway with heating on low and in eco will struggle to get 2.6 whereas in the 40kw zoe before it would easily do 3.5.
I honestly think that for a car with 42.5kw battery it should be able to do at least 140 miles at 65mph.

 

[Mark Holmes]

Mark not just you mate I'm 3 years in to ev ownership and this car is so inefficient even when you're trying ....65 mph on the motorway with heating on low and in eco will struggle to get 2.6 whereas in the 40kw zoe before it would easily do 3.5.
I honestly think that for a car with 42.5kw battery it should be able to do at least 140 miles at 65mph.

My average over 12500 miles even with the cold is 4.1 KWh, it was 4.3 before the winter weather.

 

[MAS]

Since taking the delivery on 29/12, I have done 42 miles all loca, l 2.2KWH. I am surprised, thought with REG at 3, mostly economy, I should have got more KHW. What do you think guys?

 

[Mark Holmes]

I think you’ll see a big difference in the warmer months Mas at the moment the weather as you know is not good for any EV’s and mine has dropped off a lot in this weather.

 

[garytc7888]

My average over 12500 miles even with the cold is 4.1 KWh, it was 4.3 before the winter weather.

The problem I have with this car is that you cannot drive it like a normal ev in that if you want to get 3kwh or more you have to crawl up to your desired speed.... If you're getting over 4 kwh and you're driving it without thinking ie crawling up to say 30 mph then there's something wrong with a lot of these cars because not many people are getting above 3 kwh.... The zoe it replaced you could drive like a normal car and smash 4.5 kwh

 

[jamesie]

Had my car 6 weeks, done 700 miles, driven it no differently to any of my previous ICE cars and am currently averaging 3.0miles/KWh. Fully expect for that to improve to 4 miles/KWh in spring/summer.

 

[Gomev]

4.... what is this 4 I hear speak of. I can only dream of a 4.

 

[shikoku14]

I'd concur with Gary, having had 4 EVs, two with heat pumps (HP) and now the last two without I think I can give a fair judgement on what is and isn't an efficient drivetrain in the summer and winter. Here were my averages I've seen for all 4 cars, this was mainly driving a 78 mile roudtrip commute with 60 miles of that at motorway speeds (65-70) and the rest 30mph and under as I crawled in and out of Manchester, the elevation of the M62 from Brighouse into Greater Manchester and the M60 is the highest in England, so its pretty inefficient:

I've given the as new usable capacities (in truth the Leaf was 8-10% lower capacity due to battery deg, if I took the Leaf to work, I needed to make sure I got charged before coming home). Also to note my averages for the MG are on more slower roads, thanks to not having been to the office since March and only aving had the car since September (so those summer number could eek up, as they are more warm Autumn numbers) and less motorway driving, so i'd maybe take another 10-15% off for efficiency if I was to compare apples to apples on my previous EV commuting.

My take-away's are that tyre size and heat pumps make a big difference, the MG loses out due to having large wheels, no heat pump and poor aero, the smaller battery cars eat into its on paper larger battery advantage (size of the car should also be taken into account, but the unladen weight of the e-Golf and Kia are more than the MG, the Soul like the MG is a brick flying through the air).

I also refuse to sacrifice comfort for more range in Winter, you won't find me wearing a blanket and thermals to eek out 10 miles more range!

Car	Summer Range	Winter Range	Weight (unladen)
Kia Soul 30kWh (HP, 16" tyres)	4.5-5kWh = 135-150 miles	3.5-4kWh = 105-120 miles (heating set at auto 20C)	1580 kg
Nissan Leaf Tekna 21.3kWh (HP, 17" tyres)	3.5-4kWh = 75-85 miles	3-3.5kWh = 64-75 miles (same as above for heating)	1505 kg
e-Golf 32kWH (no heatpump, but heated seats, 16" tyres)	4.5-5kWh = 144-160 miles	3.2-3.7kWh = 102-118 miles (heating set auto 19C + heated seats)	1615 kg
MG 42.5kWH	3.2-3.7kWh = 136-157 miles	2.4-2.9kWh = 102-124 miles (heating set to three red blobs, fan on 3 + heated seats)	1566 kg