105 Mile Commute

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Jimmydean

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Joined
Jul 31, 2020
Messages
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I have a round-trip 105 mile commute in the Houston area. I do have to use heat some and definitely AC. Except for overpasses, the route is flat. Assume no plug at destination. Is this a realistic scenario for a 2019?
 
BTW, would consider the Mini as well, but it is not clear to me if it has adaptive cruise. Is the Golf adaptive cruise “full stop”?
 
If you are driving 75 with the heat on, no, I dont think you can make it.

If you keep it to 65 and just use seat warmers, yes, i think it will work fine. But you don't have much margin for error, you'd have to charge to at least 90 if not 100% daily and couldnt go too far off your commute. If you have DC charging options along the freeway I would go for it. Its a great car if you can get it for $8k+ off MSRP.

The adaptive cruve is great, and will come to a full stop.
 
i think a good rule of thumb is to have an EPA range that is at least 1.5x your commute. You need a car with at least 150 miles of range. The e-Golf won't cut it. If you want a liquid cooled battery pack, I read there are good deals on Bolt EVs right now. I would not buy a Leaf as I don't trust Nissan's battery chemistry, even the 40 kWh pack. Best of luck!
 
Great advice everyone. The Bolt and I3 (something else I entertained) are out for me. Too ugly. I refuse to look like a clown on the road. Thankful for Tesla forcing makers to produce designs for non-eccentrics in the future. I also refuse to do two powertrains (hybrid). Looks like a high efficiency ICE is for me.
 
Don't forget Kona, Ioniq, Mustang Mach E (coming soon), etc. I wouldn't shy away from hybrids - both Honda and Toyota have the technology well sorted and hybrids will beat pure ICE cars for fuel economy.
 
Perhaps I'm optimistic but I think the range would be adequate. The worse case range scenarios for a 2019 tend to be about 110 miles on a cold day for an SE, while the SELs will come in around 120 thanks to heat pump. I've noticed on the e-Golf, a/c doesn't kill the battery quite as bad as other EVs.

The problem is, at the last 5% battery, the e-Golf automatically goes in to a low power mode and limit speeds to 55 mph. Not a huge problem if you're on surface streets but can be really annoying and a potential safety issue if on the highway.

If you have the budget, a 2019 BMW i3 w/ range extender would be a great option since you can be electric 99% of the time but still have the peace of mind for a gas backup.

We'd planned to replace the 2016 e-Golf SE with a Kona or Nero; ended up hating both and just got the 2019 SEL because the price was right and its 130ish mile range is more than adequate for getting around the bay area.
 
Having just made a long trip (145 miles down a mountain), I saw when the A/C compressor kicked off (but fan stayed on) and it was at about 7 or 8% , not 5% SoC, as when I arrived to the DCFC within a mile , the station said the car was at 7%. Also, before this happened, the power needle slowly began its march from "max" into the "normal" range and was about 75% of the way toward the red zone.

If you are driving a lot of those 105 miles at 70 or 75 mph, there is very good chance you will not make the 105 miles, regardless of needing heat or A/C. The reason why I think 1.5x the commute range is a minimum because thinking about slowing down, losing heat or A/C, or just being worried every single day about how your driving consumes too much range would certainly not be fun for me. On the way up the mountain, I got a bit too aggressive (passed a GTI driver who was dawdling) and then realized I needed to really conserve energy to make my destination (it turns out I made it just fine with about 15 miles of range left ~10% SoC). If only the e-Golf had about another 10 kWh! Driving is stressful enough, in my opinion, and you shouldn't have the added stress of consuming the entire battery pack energy energy day.
 
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