If you drive without the heater on, you might eek out a few more miles, but the car still needs the heater to warm the battery. I'm surprised you're asking this question since you've been on this forum for years. You can also affect it negatively by driving like Jeff Gordon and positively by driving it like a grandpa. Or switch from your regular commute to a long trip soemwhere, and the numbers will change, then return back to normal when you change back.
Is the EV range display just a guess based on temperature?
What determines the EV range that is displayed? Is it just a guess based on the temperature or is it somehow constantly adjusting based on driving habits, temperature, etc.?
When I got my car in October the EV range went as high as 57 miles while it was in the 60s and 70s outside. Yesterday I ran the car to 0 EV range and drove on the ICE so the battery got a full recharge last night. Today it's about 52 degrees outside and the car is only showing 40 miles EV range.
I'm wondering if this is just the car guessing based on the most recent conditions and after I drive it and recharge it today the range will actually increase... or is this the actual max range I will get right now? Is the car just assuming that I will use the heater, heated seats, drive a certain way, etc. and combining that with the air temperature to say 40 miles, so if I were to drive without the heater on I would get more?
When I got my car in October the EV range went as high as 57 miles while it was in the 60s and 70s outside. Yesterday I ran the car to 0 EV range and drove on the ICE so the battery got a full recharge last night. Today it's about 52 degrees outside and the car is only showing 40 miles EV range.
I'm wondering if this is just the car guessing based on the most recent conditions and after I drive it and recharge it today the range will actually increase... or is this the actual max range I will get right now? Is the car just assuming that I will use the heater, heated seats, drive a certain way, etc. and combining that with the air temperature to say 40 miles, so if I were to drive without the heater on I would get more?
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My point was that even if you turn the heater off, the car will still heat itself to keep the battery warm. I didn't get into the specifics about the different heaters and loops. Personally, I'd rather be warm and blow my EV mileage than be one of those crazy people who don a snowmobile outfit and disable ERDTT to gain a few miles or avoid a fuel burn. Especially when I am known to take on any and all pony cars at stoplights. With all this abuse, I'm still achieving 70 mpg lifetime, way better than any Prius - except now maybe the Prius prime is getting close to achieving gen1 numbers.I've seen you and others say that the cabin heater heats the HV battery. AFAIK this is not so. There is a separate heating/cooling circuit for this battery and there is a separate element and module for heating this circuit. Here are two citations:
http://gm-volt.com/2010/12/09/the-chevrolet-volt-coolingheating-systems-explained/
http://gm-volt.com/2010/12/09/the-chevrolet-volt-coolingheating-systems-explained/
1 - 2 of 16 Posts
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