[MBossK4891]

Upon starting up the Clarity this morning after an overnight charge, I got this impressive EV range estimate. Lately I've been using little HVAC (not yet really hot outside but no longer cold) and have been mostly puttering around town, except for short bursts on the highway (2-3 miles) to my son's daycare.

Has anyone seen estimates higher than this, perhaps cracking 70?

 

[ClarityDave]

Upon starting up the Clarity this morning after an overnight charge, I got this impressive EV range estimate. Lately I've been using little HVAC (not yet really hot outside but no longer cold) and have been mostly puttering around town, except for short bursts on the highway (2-3 miles) to my son's daycare.

Has anyone seen estimates higher than this, perhaps cracking 70?

Yep. Last spring I saw a 78 mile range. So far this year the highest I’ve seen is 70. My wife is driving the car more now and she doesn’t have the patience/understanding to drive it in a highly efficient way so maybe my days of seeing 70+ range are over. But I can tell you that if you drive judiciously you can get over 60 miles on a charge if you’re driving around town and not using AC.

 

[bpascalis]

Interesting topic. I recently have been monitoring the range display pictured and have found that if you fully charge the car to the max you are best off to not use HV / the engine until you get down to about 4 bars which on my car is about 42 miles for maximum efficiency. And if you try to charge the battery with the engine it will not work until about half of the bars are gone which was about 31 miles EV range and will charge back to about 37 miles. So if I have a full charge I use it until about 4 or 5 bars are gone then when on freeway or hwy turn on HV to maintain the battery since the car likes to have some battery rather than depleting it completely. Anyone else have this same experience?

 

[EV Nerd]

Interesting topic. I recently have been monitoring the range display pictured and have found that if you fully charge the car to the max you are best off to not use HV / the engine until you get down to about 4 bars which on my car is about 42 miles for maximum efficiency. And if you try to charge the battery with the engine it will not work until about half of the bars are gone which was about 31 miles EV range and will charge back to about 37 miles. So if I have a full charge I use it until about 4 or 5 bars are gone then when on freeway or hwy turn on HV to maintain the battery since the car likes to have some battery rather than depleting it completely. Anyone else have this same experience?

According to the owners manual (Pg. 17 in the 2021 manual), HV+ will charge the battery to about 60% of its maximum capacity (12 bars), and then drop back to HV. It's designed to work that way. Don't depend on the GOM to give you very consistent results on remaining charge in the battery. The SOC bars are a much better indication of battery SOC.

There's a good reason it's called a "Guess-o-Meter".

 

[bpascalis]

Agreed on the HV+ charging. When I charge my car to maximum EV, I don't use the motor/HV mode until I am down to about 60%/12 bars. I use HV mostly on freeways when I hit the 60% and EV around town so the ICE keeps the battery up to the 60% on the freeway for the most part. I believe this is the most efficient way to run this car since the battery will run down to about 60% even though the ICE is running.

 

[dwheat17]

78 is impressive. I think I hit 60 once on the guess-o-meter. My question is does that really correspond to better mileage on that charge or is it just a guess based on past driving habits.

 

[ClarityDave]

78 is impressive. I think I hit 60 once on the guess-o-meter. My question is does that really correspond to better mileage on that charge or is it just a guess based on past driving habits.

The answers is yes, it does really correspond to better mileage and yes, it is just a guess based upon past driving habits. But I can tell you that it’s pretty accurate if I continue to drive with the same habits that I always do and if other conditions remain the same.

So because of wind resistance I don’t suppose you could ever get 70 miles of range out of it on the freeway. And the guess-o-meter predicted correctly because I hadn’t been driving on the freeway. It also predicts a lower number after my wife is driving the car because she doesn’t drive it the same way that I do. Every time I charge it up after I have been driving it exclusively, the range goes up and every time I charge it up after she’s been driving it exclusively, the range goes down 😁.

 

[ChClarity13]

Upon starting up the Clarity this morning after an overnight charge, I got this impressive EV range estimate. Lately I've been using little HVAC (not yet really hot outside but no longer cold) and have been mostly puttering around town, except for short bursts on the highway (2-3 miles) to my son's daycare.

Has anyone seen estimates higher than this, perhaps cracking 70?

That's amazing! I have a 2018 and at most I've gotten 43. How'd you manage that? I wonder if it has something to do with my level 2 charger. I use a AeroVironment TurboCord 240 Volt Plug-in EV Charger .

 

[EV Nerd]

That's amazing! I have a 2018 and at most I've gotten 43. How'd you manage that? I wonder if it has something to do with my level 2 charger. I use a AeroVironment TurboCord 240 Volt Plug-in EV Charger .

It has nothing to do with your EVSE, and everything to do with how you've recently driven.

The Guess-O-Meter is notoriously unreliable as a data point on electric vehicle range capabilities. This has been a challenge in every EV I've driven, since 1997.

 

[ClarityDave]

This is my best so far this year. My wife hasn’t driven it for awhile so I’ve had the opportunity to ‘hypermile’ it a bit.

 

[ClarityDave]

I just beat last year’s high of 78 miles this morning.