Any experience with mountainous driving and cold weather?

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Sep 3, 2018
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Hey! Looking at purchasing a e-Golf. This would be my everyday commuter car. I live in Park City, UT. My daily commute is 28.5 miles (each direction) down canyon in the morning (about 2500’ descent). I can charge at work. My commute home is the same but uphill. About 12 miles of that drive is the climb up the canyon, known as Parleys canyon. Currently looking st acquiring a low mileage lease return 2015 SEL from California. These vehicles don’t exist in Utah.

My questions:

- Experience with winter loss in range?
- Experience with range loss climbing a steep grade for about 12 Miles at 65mph?

Really intrigued by this vehicle. Need to make sure it can make the winter commute.

Thanks!
 
My guess would be it's too close for comfort for anything less than a 2017 model, which has the larger battery. Reason being is that sub-freezing temps will lose 20-25% battery capacity, and that's before any use of heat. Then you have a climb on the way back with a 30 mile drive.
 
I agree with the above. For that situation I wouldn't consider any pure EV with less than the 2017 eGolf's range, simply due to the cold and elevation differences.
 
I agree the 32 kWh usable battery of the 2017 is better than the 21 kWh usable of the 2015 and 2016. If you charge to 90% at the top of the 2500' hill, you will gain energy dropping down in elevation to probably about 95% SOC. You can pre-heat the car on a cold morning so you'll save battery charge for heat. Yes, the battery will temporarily lose capacity due to the cold. If you lose 25% battery capacity, that leaves about 16 kWh usable. EV Trip planner (from Park city to South Salt Lake) says you will use 5 kWh downhill (Leaf Beta) if the external temp is 15 F. Going the other way, you'll use 12 kWh, but because this is an estimate for a Leaf, maybe you'll only use 10 or 11 kWh. So going downhill will be a piece of cake. You better charge at work, though. If you charge to 100% at work, you'll be getting home with about 4-6 kWh left - you'll may trigger the automated Eco+ mode every day when you get within a few miles of home. It's up to you, but it seems to me this will beat up the battery a bit as you are going to be really pushing the SOC limits on your trip home in the winter. If you can drive a bit more slowly up hill, that will help a lot. Sounds like a fun challenge. Good luck!
 
Thanks for all the feedback. I to ran the route, uphill, with the Leaf on EV trip planner. With a payload of 400lb, unlikely I’d have a passenger. With a temp of 20* F. A fairly average temp for us. It resulted in 11.2 KWH. Is that not taking into account range loss for the cold?
 
blakusremikus said:
Thanks for all the feedback. I to ran the route, uphill, with the Leaf on EV trip planner. With a payload of 400lb, unlikely I’d have a passenger. With a temp of 20* F. A fairly average temp for us. It resulted in 11.2 KWH. Is that not taking into account range loss for the cold?

That's the estimated usage. Even a fully charged 2015/2016 would only have ~14 kWh usable at that temperature. As previously stated, too close for comfort in my opinion.
 
EV Trip planner takes into account the heater usage in a cold ambient temperature. Lithium ion batteries lose capacity when the ambient temperature is cold - this loss has no impact on trip energy consumption - so the pack holds less energy in the cold and you effectively have a smaller "fuel tank" in cold weather. Once the temperature warms up, your capacity returns to normal AND not needing to run the heat uses less energy for the same trip.
 
THanks for the frank and honest feedback. I’ll be looking at the BMW i3 and Chevy Volt for the time being hen. Once the lease returns for 2017 start coming back I can circle back to the e-Gold.
 
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