keep the forum going!

[freshlysteezed]

I understand the 2020 e-Golf is discontinued but I just got on this forum!
hopefully this community keeps to learn from each other
excited to own my first eGolf!!

 

[astromouse]

It is a great car! Perhaps my favourite of all the cars I have owned (about 10).

 

[freshlysteezed]

10 E-golfs?? really

do you have the 2019 one?

 

[f1geek]

I am planning to keep my e-Golf for 10 to 15 years, as I suspect are other e-Golf drivers, so I think the forum will have a use for quite some time.

 

[rt1970]

Yay! We've just purchased a 2019 e-Golf. Happy to find this forum!

 

[MichaelG]

I have a 2016 and I love it. I bought it used and have had for two years. I would love to keep it for fifteen years, but I am concerned about the battery. It is not a problem yet. I have 30k miles on it and I am very careful with the battery. I try to keep it in the 30-80% charge range. Never use the DC fast charge. That being said it is likely to start being a problem around 80-100K miles. I keep hoping that an industry appears that replaces batteries in older e-cars. Electric motors are so simple relative to Internal Combustion. There is no reason that this vehicle couldn't get to 300K miles. Fingers crossed. I'll keep trolling the web.

MIke G.
Seattle
2016 e-golf

 

[f1geek]

If you continue to treat the battery pack as you do now, I'm not sure you need to worry. I have 32,000 miles on the pack and since 22,000 miles when I started to keep close track of the pack energy content, the usable capacity (based on driving at least 100 miles and using the car's efficiency data) has stayed between 29-31 kWh (there is variability in the data due to rounding errors). So, I've seen no obvious change in usable capacity for the last 12,000 miles, and if you look at my data, the curve has a slight positive slope. I typically go from ~25% to 90% per charge cycle and I DCFC when needed (about once or twice a month). Of course, my 2017 has the "big" pack and it is more than adequate for almost all of my driving.

 

[RecoverE]

I have a 2015 eGolf with 51K miles and all level 2 charging at home. Normally I do not charge to 100%; but, this morning I noticed that I did so overnight. The dash readout at start-up was 4.8m/kwh and a range of 85 miles. This reading was with a garage temperature of roughly 50degF. These two figures give me a usable battery capacity of 17.7 Kwh. I read this data to mean that I am roughly 15% down from the new capacity of the battery. Any comments? Still like the vehicle; a higher replacement battery would be great.

 

[f1geek]

Hard to be sure. I don't calculate usable capacity based on the GOM at startup - I wouldn't trust the GOM for estimating pack capacity. I drive the miles and then use the measured efficiency to calculate pack capacity. If the car suits your needs, then why not wait until deg is more significant before having thoughts of changing things?

 

[RecoverE]

You are right about not changing things. The car and its range are very adequate for my local needs. Its realistic stress free range is between 60 and 80 miles year-round. I typically keep vehicles for 10 years or more. Will do so with my eGolf.

Cheers,

 

[SunnySoCal]

Glad to hear of all the high-mileage owners who plan on keeping the car for a long time.

I wanna keep mine as long as possible, too. So I’m keeping SOC between 30-80%

How often would you recommend charging to 100%?

Is there a benefit for battery health to charge to full on every month/quarter/etc?

Thanks in advance!

 

[f1geek]

I believe charging to 100% will balance the cell voltages. Once a month or two months makes sense.

 

[MichaelG]

It is good to see owners that have a bit more mileage than the 32K that I have on my 2016. I have been monitoring the battery very closely. I arrive at capacity values two ways. I determine how much capacity the car needed to go from plugin (17%) to full charge (typically 80%). lets say 63%. I then determine how many kWh were needed on the last trip. 39 miles traveled at 3.5mi per kWh 39/3.5=11.14kWh. 11.14 / .63 = 17.69 kWh capacity. I am using Juicebox at home and they maintain fairly comprehensive website that tracks power consumption. For the same trip the Juicebox tells me that 13.144kWh passed thru the device. 13.144 / .63 = 20.863kWh. The difference can be attributed to efficiency loss during the charge cycle. I was a bit flummoxed by this initially, but a Google search tells me that 10-15% energy loss is typical. Not everything goes into the battery. Some is converted heat. The 17.7 capacity has been holding firm for about 16 months. It was at about 19.3 when I first acquired the car, but it dropped to 17.7 in about the first six months of ownership. Like I stated before. I hope that an industry pops up that installs fresh batteries into older cars. There is no reason that this car shouldn't last 300K miles if I am able to replace/renew the battery.

MichaelG
2016 e-golf

 

[f1geek]

Good first technique for pack usable capacity calculation, though you will get a more accurate value if you charge to full (top balance cells) and then drain to ~15% or less (if you feel comfortable). I do not think data from EVSE is reliable, considering unknown charging losses.

We’ll see if e-Golf pack refurbishment becomes a widespread business. I think there are already some shops that replace Leaf packs.

My car has 36,000 miles now and is holding steady around 28 to 30 kWh usable (varies a bit due to rounding errors in data I can get from car) in warm weather.