Winter Range of e-golf

I'm pretty close to getting a 2015 E-Golf SEL to replace my Fit EV which has been a great vehicle, but with terrible winter range. What's the range people have noticed in a typical New England winter, especially a brutal one like last year. I need atleast a 60 mile range with a 50 mile roundtrip. My Fit Ev would go as low as 20-30 miles which meant I had to garage it during peak winter.

I seem to recall someone posting up that with a heated garage in the NE, they would get a range of 60 miles. They bundled up with clothing, and didn't use the heat, or much any of the electrical features, it cut into range considerably when cold. Maybe try a google search?

It's just the nature of battery chemistry and being affected by temperatures as they drop, so to does the chemical efficiency of any battery.

edit: spelling

There are a couple New England owners on the Facebook group who had an e-Golf throughout the Winter. They would be good sources. Also, many European owners there too. Folks from Norway that have had the car through the Winter would also be a good source.

My take, as a Californian, is that if you do pre-conditioning while plugged in at home, you should have no problem going 60 miles to a destination and charging there. The problem is if you need to go 30 miles, have the car sit all day in the cold without a plug, then drive home. That could be a real nail biter.

Of course, get an SEL with the heat pump if you live in a place that has real winter.

We got ours last February, so we drove it in cold and snow storms. The worst range was ~70 miles, if my memory serves? Using the heated seats and the direct heating windshield defroster barely decreases range at all. Running the heat pump is quite noticeable, so do it as little as possible.

We also have a Leaf S and that doesn't have the direct heating defroster, and it has a resistance heater instead of a heat pump, so the lowest range was about 60 miles.

We are in Eastern Massachusetts.

That's great to know, definitely looks like I should get atleast 60 miles during the coldest days. I'll be preheating in the morning, but will have to use the heat pump in the evening since there is no charger at work. Workplace charging options in Massachusetts are abysmal.

no2gas said:

That's great to know, definitely looks like I should get atleast 60 miles during the coldest days. I'll be preheating in the morning, but will have to use the heat pump in the evening since there is no charger at work. Workplace charging options in Massachusetts are abysmal.

Click to expand...

Sounds about right. Here was a test at 40 F in regular driving mode and it went close to 70 miles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oWXvJ_B8uk

Something to consider though - for those last 5 miles, the heat is going to shut off.

I've only used the car once in 32F weather so far but my observation was that the battery seems less affected by the cold than my Volt's was. The heat pump seems pretty efficient too, at least at those temps. I imagine it goes south quickly as temp drops.

Of course, I'm extrapolating from the guess-o-meter so the range I'm seeing might be an illusion.

can someone define "Cold"?

at what temp can we expect a reduction in range?

So far I've only experienced temps in the upper 30s and lower 40s, but I've been impressed with how efficient the heat pump is. My Leaf was more efficient over 30, but I didn't have a heat pump so using the heater in those temperatures still dropped my efficiency down to around 3 miles/kWh. Meanwhile, I've been getting well over 4 miles/kWh in the e-Golf. My leaf's range plummeted when temps dipped under 30 degrees, though, so I'm curious what I'll see in the worst of the winter with the e-Golf.

I got mine last December, so I used it through the worst Boston winter ever... The trouble is, my commute is very short so I can't really say what range I got. I know the estimated range went down into the mid 60s and I've seen it as high as 110 in the summer but my driving requirements mean I rarely test the absolute range limits.
I will say that the heat pump was a welcome improvement over the waste-heat heating in my previous ICE car. That would just about be starting to blow warm air when I got to work! :roll:
I didn't put snow tires on it last year as the salesperson warned it would affect range. By this winter I might have a slightly longer commute so I may take the range hit and have the improved grip of snow tires, but it was mostly OK last year.