I'm a bit worried about the range

[Deleted User 192]

I'm pretty disappointed in the range so far. I only managed to get 90 miles of range from 75% of battery usage. This is in town driving on short 10 / 30 mins trips each time.

This is in 5-10c temps and with heating set to 21c so I'm expecting some range drop but 90 miles is really shocking when its listed as getting 250 miles.

Lots of stop/start?

Pre-heating the cabin while it's on charge or just getting in and letting the cabin heat up?

(These 2 things have a massive influence on the batteries, for all EVs)

[Jel]

I'm pretty disappointed in the range so far. I only managed to get 90 miles of range from 75% of battery usage. This is in town driving on short 10 / 30 mins trips each time.

This is in 5-10c temps and with heating set to 21c so I'm expecting some range drop but 90 miles is really shocking when its listed as getting 250 miles.

Lots of stop/start?

Pre-heating the cabin while it's on charge or just getting in and letting the cabin heat up?

(These 2 things have a massive influence on the batteries, for all EVs)

Yes its a lot of short trips during the week. around 2/5 miles on average. There has been some manual pre heating (3/5 mins before getting in once a day) and I was expecting some extra battery usage but I'm surprised at how much range is lost.

[DanLondon]

I’ve similarly had very disappointing ranges - only managed 85 miles before I got down to about 20 percent on the most recent 80 percent charge. On one occasion I did heat the car in advance for about ten min, I’m blaming that (together with the cold temps)!

[pdk42]

Short journeys in the cold will have a big impact on range. On a longer run, it's pretty efficient. This is a 322 mile trip today - 17.1 kWh/100km (3.6 miles/kWh). Lots of heavy rain, temps between 0 and 6 deg C. Charged at an E-On rapid - 150kW charger. 40p/kWh and worked faultlessly first time with a contactless debit card payment. I'm pretty happy with that.

[HeidiFlowerpt Driver]

Before I received my car, I worked out that 'fuelling' my electric car would cost me 1/10 of what fuelling my diesel car cost. I got that wrong.

I have a fairly light right foot and my Passat Estate used to do 50MPG on a run, or 40MPG around town. At £1.20/litre, that worked out at between 11p/mile and 13.5p/mile. I worked out that if I charged my car overnight using the Octopus Go tariff of 5p/kWh, and the car did 5M/kWh, that would be 1p/mile. However I'm on Octopus Agile and sometimes the overnight rate is 9p/kWh, and my car does just over 3M/kWh so that's 3p/mile. And if I charge at a public charge point at 40p/kWh, that's 13.3p/mile - and that's as much as my old Passat. Disappointing. The lesson learned is to charge using the £500 credit on my We Charge card, and when that's used up charge at home. And on long journeys console myself with the knowledge that it's not actually more expensive than a diesel car...

[pdk42]

Before I received my car, I worked out that 'fuelling' my electric car would cost me 1/10 of what fuelling my diesel car cost. I got that wrong.

I have a fairly light right foot and my Passat Estate used to do 50MPG on a run, or 40MPG around town. At £1.20/litre, that worked out at between 11p/mile and 13.5p/mile. I worked out that if I charged my car overnight using the Octopus Go tariff of 5p/kWh, and the car did 5M/kWh, that would be 1p/mile. However I'm on Octopus Agile and sometimes the overnight rate is 9p/kWh, and my car does just over 3M/kWh so that's 3p/mile. And if I charge at a public charge point at 40p/kWh, that's 13.3p/mile - and that's as much as my old Passat. Disappointing. The lesson learned is to charge using the £500 credit on my We Charge card, and when that's used up charge at home. And on long journeys console myself with the knowledge that it's not actually more expensive than a diesel car...

And in fact, at Ionity's outrageous 69p/kWh, it's even more expensive than an ICE per mile. When you consider that about 60% of the price of petrol/diesel is tax it's even more scandalous.

[Deleted User 192]

Before I received my car, I worked out that 'fuelling' my electric car would cost me 1/10 of what fuelling my diesel car cost. I got that wrong.

I have a fairly light right foot and my Passat Estate used to do 50MPG on a run, or 40MPG around town. At £1.20/litre, that worked out at between 11p/mile and 13.5p/mile. I worked out that if I charged my car overnight using the Octopus Go tariff of 5p/kWh, and the car did 5M/kWh, that would be 1p/mile. However I'm on Octopus Agile and sometimes the overnight rate is 9p/kWh, and my car does just over 3M/kWh so that's 3p/mile. And if I charge at a public charge point at 40p/kWh, that's 13.3p/mile - and that's as much as my old Passat. Disappointing. The lesson learned is to charge using the £500 credit on my We Charge card, and when that's used up charge at home. And on long journeys console myself with the knowledge that it's not actually more expensive than a diesel car...

My Mercedes C350 CDi used to average about 35mpg, I estimated that home charging my ID.3 would cost about 1/3 - as you say though it's a different story when public charging...

[Sindidziwa]

Before I received my car, I worked out that 'fuelling' my electric car would cost me 1/10 of what fuelling my diesel car cost. I got that wrong.

I have a fairly light right foot and my Passat Estate used to do 50MPG on a run, or 40MPG around town. At £1.20/litre, that worked out at between 11p/mile and 13.5p/mile. I worked out that if I charged my car overnight using the Octopus Go tariff of 5p/kWh, and the car did 5M/kWh, that would be 1p/mile. However I'm on Octopus Agile and sometimes the overnight rate is 9p/kWh, and my car does just over 3M/kWh so that's 3p/mile. And if I charge at a public charge point at 40p/kWh, that's 13.3p/mile - and that's as much as my old Passat. Disappointing. The lesson learned is to charge using the £500 credit on my We Charge card, and when that's used up charge at home. And on long journeys console myself with the knowledge that it's not actually more expensive than a diesel car...

I had a Passat estate that was doing 55 mpg on long runs in summer (700 miles on 60 litres) but tootling around in Winter was much less than that. I'm on Agile as well using a Granny lead - on cold, foggy calm days the lowest rates are about 9p as you say but when the wind gets up it's cheaper (6p tonight). I didn't go for Go as I have air source heating so my daily usage (including charging id.3 can be up to 85 kWh) averaging 12 - 14 p/kWh. Roll on summer when we may get paid to charge! I think our efficiency may increase from 3 to 4 miles/kWh as well!

[Nick Jan]

I've also noticed a massive drop in range once cruising at 70 mph. I'd thought driving from Shoreham-by-sea to Norwich would be well in range of ID3; later thought maybe only in summer, now I wonder if its in range at all using M23, M25, M11 for most of trip!?

[simonrg]

I've also noticed a massive drop in range once cruising at 70 mph. I'd thought driving from Shoreham-by-sea to Norwich would be well in range of ID3; later thought maybe only in summer, now I wonder if its in range at all using M23, M25, M11 for most of trip!?

From my limited experience, even in winter cruising at 60mph it should be within range, but not in winter cruising at 70mph, however if the battery was pre-heated or temperature above about 8C, driven in Eco/D for cruising parts then may make it.
However some others seem to be getting more even in winter at 70mph than I do.
I really hope / believe in summer should be no problem, otherwise we have been seriously mis-sold the vehicle.

[Jel]

I haven't driven in a while due to lockdown but I did notice that my usual journey used around 3 times more battery power when the ambient temperature was around zero compared to 10c

This wasn't because of the AC/Heating as I had it off to give it an accurate test.

[stu-evs]

That will be the battery heating. I think the threshold is something like 8 degrees or below then it will automatically activate. It uses a fairly huge amount of power too (I think it’s circa 9KWh) - this is why people who do lots of short journeys in cold temperatures are reporting greater battery consumption/shorter range.

This is no different to any other EV mind - they all operate in a similar fashion. I do wonder if VW have been a bit more cautious than most though re their battery guidance and management - I wouldn’t be surprised to see the duration of battery heating and/or temperature threshold being reduced over time as more data comes in on how the batteries health is maintained.

On the cost to run vs. petrol/diesel - I would say 1/3 is far more accurate than 1/10 across most EVs - I have another EV that I’ve been using for longer than the ID.3 and think I average 25-30% of the cost of ICE. Add the fact there’s no car tax either then it’s still a significant reduction. And once most people get their head around the fact the intention is not to use public charging unless you HAVE to, then I think much of this noise will go away. In almost 2 years of EV driving I’ve used public ‘en-route’ chargers 4 times! And pre Covid was a pretty high mileage driver (150 mile daily commute + friends all over the country) - nearly all charging at home or at destination.

[Daveion]

I have had mine since the 30th Dec. I have posted some figures on other chat topics and I find owners experiences are very similar. The thing is you cant make any real assessment one car to another because so much depends on your driving stye, cabin temperature, length of journey etc. All things you and I have heard before but you carry on analysing as I have for the past 4 weeks.
This is my first EV and the bottom line for me is now to look at the battery level primarily and dont give too much attention to the range. Unless you are doing 100 mile each way journeys it doesnt seem that relevant. The range goes up and down as you make adjustments for comfort on your trip.
For me it has been a complete change in how I run my car. I would let my ICE car go down to 20 miles of range and then put £30 or £40 of fuel in knowing Im surrounded by petrol stations. No anxiety.
Making regular top ups at home to 80% and now just observing the battery level has stopped my concerns on range.
My long term average consumption is 3 miles/kwh.
Although that is not wonderful my journies are frequent but short and I think I pay a price here for warming batteries up each time. That equates to a projected range of about 180 miles. I know on longer runs the average rises close to 4 miles/kwh.
Nearer 240 miles.
The battery symbol though is my fuel gauge, not the range. Hope that helps.

[stu-evs]

I have had mine since the 30th Dec. I have posted some figures on other chat topics and I find owners experiences are very similar. The thing is you cant make any real assessment one car to another because so much depends on your driving stye, cabin temperature, length of journey etc. All things you and I have heard before but you carry on analysing as I have for the past 4 weeks.
This is my first EV and the bottom line for me is now to look at the battery level primarily and dont give too much attention to the range. Unless you are doing 100 mile each way journeys it doesnt seem that relevant. The range goes up and down as you make adjustments for comfort on your trip.
For me it has been a complete change in how I run my car. I would let my ICE car go down to 20 miles of range and then put £30 or £40 of fuel in knowing Im surrounded by petrol stations. No anxiety.
Making regular top ups at home to 80% and now just observing the battery level has stopped my concerns on range.
My long term average consumption is 3 miles/kwh.
Although that is not wonderful my journies are frequent but short and I think I pay a price here for warming batteries up each time. That equates to a projected range of about 180 miles. I know on longer runs the average rises close to 4 miles/kwh.
Nearer 240 miles.
The battery symbol though is my fuel gauge, not the range. Hope that helps.

Good comments here! I've regularly said to people over the past 2 years of EV driving, who have asked me about converting from petrol/diesel to electric, that you just need to stop thinking about it as like you would have done your previous car - and think about it more like your mobile phone....i.e. just plug it in overnight everynight - you'll wake up with a full charge - and you never need to worry about it in the average day-to-day. Just occasionally you might have a mammoth demand on it one day and need to charge part-way through the day - but not most of the time! Seems to help people get their heads around it!

On my other EV the manufacturer gives no such guidance re. 80% max charge etc. - their view is that there is sufficient headroom capacity built into the BMS - so the user shouldn't worry at all - and just use the full capacity available. In fact, in the first lockdown they sent out an e-mail stating that they recommended charging to 100% and leaving the charger cable plugged in throughout the lockdown in order to keep the car in the best health!

[OllyExeterID3]

Agree with all the above comments. Something extra to add - we had an EV for two years without a driveway so to start with I was pretty anxious about ensuring we always had enough range - but then I started to become quite relaxed about it as I realised that I could always eke more out of it than I thought - and as long as we planned our journey with contingency chargers, we were always fine and never got stranded. Luckily we had a free podpoint charger in a car park about a mile from us so, when the car park was free (after 6pm), we would just leave it plugged in for 3.5hrs and then go and grab it again!

Despite a 100 mile range, we regularly did trips from Devon to Cambridge to see family and only once did we have a close call with range (three chargers out of order). It is never range anxiety, it is charger anxiety. Imagine if a high proportion of petrol stations were 'out of order' - then ICE cars would also get range anxiety eventually!

Some of this is a learning curve, some is just getting used to a new technology. I have an old brick phone that has a 15 day battery life and a smart phone that has a 12 hour battery life - it is surprising how quickly I got used to the latter just by knowing I could charge it at work, home or if I was out and about.

Range will probably double in cars over the next 5 years - but - I think we have already reached a good balance. You will find you will start to relax as you do more journeys. The concept of filling a car up with flammable dead dinosaurs will feel like a distant memory!

[Deleted User 192]

Great post OllyExeterID3

[Daveion]

2nd reply
The ambient here in the South has been higher this past week so I have had the opportunity to apply most of the best practices I have read to get the best out of the batteries.
I did this not as a range test but to understand where the capacity goes under driving conditions.
Im now at 55% capacity showing a remaining range of 143 miles. I project that to be a range of 260 miles as driven on this charge.

Mode ECO, short journies, no pre conditioning of the cabin, crack the drivers window a tad rather than using screen demist, no seat or wheel heating, lots of wiper use, no night driving, no AC or cabin heating.

That all sounds a bit draconian in a £30k car but it illustrates its possible. I really believe at ambients above 12C I will get around 4 miles/kwh.

I dont have a heat pump and conclude that the cabin heater, even on 16C, takes me from 3 miles/kw down to 2'sh miles/kw. When the weather was colder, Zero to 5C, there was an added load of battery heating at the start of a journey so several short journeys made a big impact. I dont know at what ambient the battery heater kicks in but would guess its somewhere around temps lower than 6 - 8C.

In an ICE car heat from the engine is a by-product of the combustion process. It costs nothing on a cold day and doesn't affect the fuel consumption.
If you want to be toasty warm in an EV without a coat you have to accept it will foreshorten your range considerably. Heat pumps will be much better as they can extract heat from the ambient air even below Zero C.

As said. Not a range test but understanding my first EV.

[simonrg]

I'm pretty disappointed in the range so far. I only managed to get 90 miles of range from 75% of battery usage. This is in town driving on short 10 / 30 mins trips each time.

This is in 5-10c temps and with heating set to 21c so I'm expecting some range drop but 90 miles is really shocking when its listed as getting 250 miles.

It is understandable you are feeling disappointed, as EV were hyped as the perfect town vehicle and they still are, but 90 miles on 75% looks a lot less than 260miles on 100%. But as Scotty on Star Trek says ".. you can't change the laws of physics ..".
Basically lithium batteries don't work well in cold temperatures, so for each of your journeys your car will have been spending a lot of energy heating the batteries to make sure they aren't damaged and you can access all the power. If you are only doing lots of short journeys then your batteries get heated every time, probably for the whole of a 10 minute journey.
If you look at the blue and green lines on the driver display, you will see when you first get in, they are a lot shorter than when the batteries are warm. you can tell when the batteries are warm enough when these two lines are back to full length. The car is restricting acceleration hence blue line shorter and regen hence green line is shorter, as the battery would be damaged if power was drained or replenished at full rate until warm.
So if you went on a longer journey you should get more range and in summer you will get more range even on short journeys.
You'll find discussion of this on here, on other forums and about other cars via a search engine.

[Jel]

I'll now make sure to check the Power Meter when I get into the car to see where the levels are. There's no documentation in the ID3 manual specifically stating that when the meters are lower this will initiate the battery heating system, it only refers to restricted power and regen. Not sure if the manual has been updated to include this information.

Not sure why this isn't made clearer to the driver. I'm sure most drivers would like to know when the battery heating system is in use.

[hwhbev]

Not sure why this isn't made clearer to the driver. I'm sure most drivers would like to know when the battery heating system is in use.