How can dash show more than 83 mi range remaining?

I understand how one could get more than 83mi from a single charge. Essentially as a result of the battery recharging during braking and going downhill. (Of course, reversing that course would result in a far less than 83 mi. range due to a lot of uphill driving)

What I don't understand is, how can the car show more than a 83 mi range remaining? Given that the car is stated as having an 83 mi range on a full charge, how can the car itself forecast anything more than that? My car has shown as much as 102mi remaining, but that makes no sense to me.

Range shown is dynamic. It changes based on driving style and conditions. Published range of 83 miles is an average. Drive slowly and/or use less A.C. and range is greater.

Is there any actual documentation that states that range is based on driving style and conditions - or is this something that the group has concluded? Also, what are "conditions"? Wind? Slope?

Frank3 said:

Is there any actual documentation that states that range is based on driving style and conditions - or is this something that the group has concluded? Also, what are "conditions"? Wind? Slope?

Click to expand...

In the US, 'range' (on all makes) shown on the winder sticker is based on the EPA driving test. You will not necessarily get this exact range unless you drive the exact EPA driving test protocol:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fe_test_schedules.shtml

You can easily get much less or more range depending on your driving style, conditions, route, climate settings, etc. The 'range' value given by the car at any given time is just a rough estimate.

There's a whole section in the owners manual on environmental and driving factors that affect your range and the range calculation that the vehicle displays

Ron

It shows a range based on how the car was driven on the previous charge. If you drive it well, then you see a higher range. If you have a lead foot and run the HVAC at full blast, then you will see a lower range.

As others have mentioned, the range is not a fixed number- but the size of the battery pack is (disregarding, for argument's sake, the eventual degeneration of cells over time).

The battery size is 24 kWh. VW estimates that you'll average 3.5 miles per kWh, giving you an effective range of (24*3.5) = 85 miles.

In reality, your miles per kWh will vary quite a bit (just like the miles per gallon of a gas car will), depending on your driving style, road/traffic conditions, use of accessories (AC, etc.). The eGolf does a pretty nice job of telling you, via the Driving Data display, of what your instantaneous and average miles per kWh is, so that you can easily see as you drive what to expect from the battery.

For reference, my eGolf usually displays a range of ~115 miles on a full charge, which seems to make sense given that it also says I average about 4.9 miles per kWh on my normal commute (115 / 4.9 = pretty close to 24, the size of the battery pack).

FWIW...

-JM