Question about max charge capacity.

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Morgdan

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Joined
Oct 10, 2017
Messages
2
I recently bought a 2017 eGolf in Northern California. They gave me the car with a complete charge and I was surprised to see that I had more that 160 miles of range. That was good since I had about 120 miles to get home and I was worried about the 125 mile rating. Since I’ve been home, however, I’ve only been able to get a stated 125 miles on the range at full charge (if I switch to eco mode I get a little more, but nowhere near 160). That’s fine, since that’s what I signed up for, but how did I get 160+ miles from the dealer’s charge? Do they have a special ability to “top it off?”
 
The range you see is a guess based on how you previously drove the car. It's called a GOM (Guess-O-Meter). If you drive at highway speeds you should get the EPA range, which is why you are seeing 125 miles. If you drive the car locally at ~25 mph average speed, the GOM will creep up the longer you continue driving very efficiently. It probably started at 160 miles because the dealer only drove the car at low speed.
 
If you drive it in the city, it's intended use, on Blvds, surface streets and such, and don't use the tremendous torque available being a red light racer, and drive it more conservatively, your range will be up to 45 or 50 % greater. As an example, I drive around in Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley, quite a bit, on surface streets. Speed limits on Blvds are mostly 40, maybe 45 mph. I do pretty good hitting mostly green lights, then the last 6 miles out of 13, I hit 13 or 14 stop signs on streets with speed limits of 25 in residential to 35 MPH. From May through Sept, I was getting 6.0 to 6.6 or 6.7 miles per kwh. My GOM would show 121 to 124 miles of range. I was getting regularly 105 to 110 miles traveled, with 15 to 10 miles of range left, respectively. This is a relatively small incline up and down driving over to Dads place. So, although my car new was showing 129 miles range, it now shows 121, sometimes 122 miles of range, yet it's rated for 83 miles of range. I rarely run accessories, which is how you increase the miles range on a recharge. About 13 200 miles on it now, I think. I've owned it 2 years now since Oct 6th. Great car, if you are realistic in your expectations. If you drive it like a tool or appliance and beat the shit out of it, don't expect it to last. If you drive it like a fine instrument, and use it in the proper manner the germans envisioned, as an Urban Cruiser, not suburban commuter, you'll be much happier. Play the car to it's strengths, not what your needs are, and can an electric car do it. There's a reason VW encourages 7500 mile a year leases, a very good reason, because that's what the car does well with in terms of miles traveled per year.
 
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