5 ms·

OP should have gone by percentage of battery left, and just left the car plugged in. Not plugging in when arriving and letting the battery freeze (cold soak) o

OP should have gone by percentage of battery left, and just left the car plugged in. Not plugging in when arriving and letting the battery freeze (cold soak) overnight, unplugging after 30 minutes of 1.5kW level 1 charging and basing his entire decisions on what the car's guess-o-meter says for remaining milage is pretty crazy IMO. Seems like OP chose to do the worst thing possible at each juncture to ensure a bad charging experience. It is normal for cars to use 2 or 3 kilowatts (an hour or two of charging) heating the battery up to temperature in freezing conditions, but once the pack is up to temperature it charges close to normal speed.

nradov 4y ago
It's hardly crazy to expect that the car should display an accurate range estimate based on the current temperature.
- jtc331 4y ago
  Gas car range predictions are also regularly nonsensical. I thought this was well understood.
  - simfree 4y ago
    People have extremely high expectations of range estimates. These displays are known as Guess-O-Meters for good reason, they only account for past weather, driving conditions and style.
  - nradov 4y ago
    Perhaps that used to be a problem. The range estimates for gasoline cars that I've owned and rented in the past few years have been accurate to within a few percent, even in cold weather.
    - jtc331 4y ago
      I expect that’s true over a full tank of gas but not when e.g. only 20 miles are left.
  - eric_h 4y ago
    On my car (2013 mini) the range prediction is actually a more accurate indicator of how much fuel is in the tank than the (separate) fuel tank meter. Not sure why, you’d think they’d use the same input data for both, but it’s true.
    - simfree 4y ago
      By giving you a less precise fuel tank indicator (eg: 8 segment fuel display) versus xxx Miles of Range, your cajoled into trusting the estimator, and the range being so high on gas cars usually allows the estimator to end up closer to accurate thanks to bad and good economy driving and conditions averaging out.
vanous 4y ago
I am all for EV, but if besides needing to take care that I plug my phone and my watch every night I must also not forget to plug in the car and if I forget, I must apologize at work for not coming in, or my kids cannot go to school... just because it easily can get to -15°C here... then it feels like a technology issue and not like me doing the worse thing possible...
- saturn_vk 4y ago
  But that's a thing you learn. Just like you learn to check your oil level before starting in a conventional vehicle. Everything has its own set of things you have to know
  - rapind 4y ago
    > Just like you learn to check your oil level before starting in a conventional vehicle. Yeah, I (and everyone else) totally do that…
    - hn_go_brrrrr 4y ago
      Not even once.
  - fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago
    I’d estimate I have driven cars 10,000 times and I have never done that. Just take it to a mechanic every 5k miles. And nothing that touches the oil has ever gone wrong.
- simfree 4y ago
  If you plug in every night and miss a night you can almost certainly make it to work the next day, unless your a supercommuter with an older EV that had a small 24kWh pack.
- marvin 4y ago
  Regular EV user here - plugging it in is something you do every time you park, the way you lock your doors. It takes five seconds. Press the «open charge port» button on the charging cable and stick it in the charging socket. Done.
PhasmaFelis 4y ago
If the "guess-o-meter" is so bad that it leads reasonable people to wildly wrong conclusions, I'm hesitant to blame that on the user. If all the factors you described are understood by humans, why aren't they factored into the display algorithm? If the car is going to drain battery for an hour getting warm before it can start to charge, then say that on the display.
- simfree 4y ago
  The car can't predict the severity of weather, whether or not your going to preheat the car or your driving style. All of these factors combine to make the range estimator a guesstimate on both gas and electric cars.
  - PhasmaFelis 4y ago
    But it could make a better guess than it does, or even leave the numerical guess untouched but give the driver other useful information. Specifically, the information you gave in your first comment. Teslas have great big dashboard screens. There was no need to leave OP thinking that the car was unchargable unless it was brought into a warm place.
lelanthran 4y ago
> and basing his entire decisions on what the car's guess-o-meter says for remaining milage is pretty crazy IMO. What are you supposed to base it on? Does your EV come with a working crrystal ball? Should I read the car's horoscope? I mean, really, I've read stupid statements, but blaming the user for trusting the displayed battery capacity on a device really takes the cake.
- simfree 4y ago
  The guess-o-meter doesn't reflect the actual state of the battery, but rather what it has seen in the recent past, hence OP should toggle to battery percentage and trust that instead of a known inaccurate estimator.

nradov 4y ago

It's hardly crazy to expect that the car should display an accurate range estimate based on the current temperature.

jtc331 4y ago
Gas car range predictions are also regularly nonsensical. I thought this was well understood.
- simfree 4y ago
  People have extremely high expectations of range estimates. These displays are known as Guess-O-Meters for good reason, they only account for past weather, driving conditions and style.
- nradov 4y ago
  Perhaps that used to be a problem. The range estimates for gasoline cars that I've owned and rented in the past few years have been accurate to within a few percent, even in cold weather.
  - jtc331 4y ago
    I expect that’s true over a full tank of gas but not when e.g. only 20 miles are left.
- eric_h 4y ago
  On my car (2013 mini) the range prediction is actually a more accurate indicator of how much fuel is in the tank than the (separate) fuel tank meter. Not sure why, you’d think they’d use the same input data for both, but it’s true.
  - simfree 4y ago
    By giving you a less precise fuel tank indicator (eg: 8 segment fuel display) versus xxx Miles of Range, your cajoled into trusting the estimator, and the range being so high on gas cars usually allows the estimator to end up closer to accurate thanks to bad and good economy driving and conditions averaging out.

vanous 4y ago

I am all for EV, but if besides needing to take care that I plug my phone and my watch every night I must also not forget to plug in the car and if I forget, I must apologize at work for not coming in, or my kids cannot go to school... just because it easily can get to -15°C here... then it feels like a technology issue and not like me doing the worse thing possible...

saturn_vk 4y ago
But that's a thing you learn. Just like you learn to check your oil level before starting in a conventional vehicle. Everything has its own set of things you have to know
- rapind 4y ago
  > Just like you learn to check your oil level before starting in a conventional vehicle. Yeah, I (and everyone else) totally do that…
  - hn_go_brrrrr 4y ago
    Not even once.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago
  I’d estimate I have driven cars 10,000 times and I have never done that. Just take it to a mechanic every 5k miles. And nothing that touches the oil has ever gone wrong.
simfree 4y ago
If you plug in every night and miss a night you can almost certainly make it to work the next day, unless your a supercommuter with an older EV that had a small 24kWh pack.
marvin 4y ago
Regular EV user here - plugging it in is something you do every time you park, the way you lock your doors. It takes five seconds. Press the «open charge port» button on the charging cable and stick it in the charging socket. Done.

PhasmaFelis 4y ago

If the "guess-o-meter" is so bad that it leads reasonable people to wildly wrong conclusions, I'm hesitant to blame that on the user. If all the factors you described are understood by humans, why aren't they factored into the display algorithm? If the car is going to drain battery for an hour getting warm before it can start to charge, then say that on the display.

simfree 4y ago
The car can't predict the severity of weather, whether or not your going to preheat the car or your driving style. All of these factors combine to make the range estimator a guesstimate on both gas and electric cars.
- PhasmaFelis 4y ago
  But it could make a better guess than it does, or even leave the numerical guess untouched but give the driver other useful information. Specifically, the information you gave in your first comment. Teslas have great big dashboard screens. There was no need to leave OP thinking that the car was unchargable unless it was brought into a warm place.

lelanthran 4y ago

> and basing his entire decisions on what the car's guess-o-meter says for remaining milage is pretty crazy IMO. What are you supposed to base it on? Does your EV come with a working crrystal ball? Should I read the car's horoscope? I mean, really, I've read stupid statements, but blaming the user for trusting the displayed battery capacity on a device really takes the cake.

simfree 4y ago
The guess-o-meter doesn't reflect the actual state of the battery, but rather what it has seen in the recent past, hence OP should toggle to battery percentage and trust that instead of a known inaccurate estimator.