Rough Start. Bought car in St. Louis. Driving it home to Kansas City. Should have had an extra 25 miles. Halfway realized consumption is higher than expected and we'll be short now! No HVAC ran throughout. Pulled over half way and charged for 3 hours to get 160 miles for a 127 mile trip (the remainder). We're now on the side of the highway waiting for a tow. 160 mile charge only got us roughly 90 miles there. This is approx. 30 hours after getting the car.
Rough beginning
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Uh oh!
The nominal "ideal conditions/non-highway" driving range is only 222 miles. KC is about 240 miles from STL, depending on the start and end locations. Add in cold weather (maybe wind too) plus highway speed driving and you're not going to get 222. Maybe 160-180 on a full charge.
Had you not planned to do a fast-charge somewhere along 70?
The nominal "ideal conditions/non-highway" driving range is only 222 miles. KC is about 240 miles from STL, depending on the start and end locations. Add in cold weather (maybe wind too) plus highway speed driving and you're not going to get 222. Maybe 160-180 on a full charge.
Had you not planned to do a fast-charge somewhere along 70?
We hedged and planned to charge in Columbia, MO just in case since this is our first EV. Which we did. Temperature was around 48 degree near the end. Is this drop in charge/change in miles normal for an EV? The 160 miles only giving us 90 in fact was shocking to us.
It takes a while for a new car to calibrate itself to provide more accurate range estimates. I know too, when I first got the car and did my first charge, I was surprised how high the GOM was. No where near reality. But it has steadily been dropping with each charge although still a bit optimistic. After a couple of ski trips, I now know what my real range is, and plan my charges accordingly.
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How close to full was it when saying 160 miles? For highway driving in "winter" that would need to be pretty close to 100%, I'd think. Did you drive it until 0 miles left or until the car actually stopped moving?
The GOM on the Solterra/bZ4X still needs some "fine-tuning" (understatement). It's a work in progress.
The GOM on the Solterra/bZ4X still needs some "fine-tuning" (understatement). It's a work in progress.
It was approx. 50% when we charged to 160 miles. We charged from 65 miles. We initially stopped at 5 miles to get a tow but based on no tow in sight for the hours we waited, we found a forum indicating it has 20 to 30 mile reserve and relied on that (and lots of stress) to get us the 7 ish miles to the closest charging stations. Thank goodness for the user community!
Hey, you survived!. I am sure you knew beforehand the Solterra is not the best trip car. There have been many discussions about this last year on the forum, long before deliveries were underway. And there is room for improvement in the L3 fast DC charging which we believe will be improved by Toyota with software updates later this year.
Hopefully, you will be happy with the other Solterra attributes that put it ahead of most other EVs, like high clearance and off-road capabilities similar to other Subarus.
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Speed has a lot to do with how much power you use. The faster you travel the more resistance there is from the air. The car is quite aerodynamic but still, 10 mph less will give you more range.
Any EV will benefit from just taking it easy, and suffer from lead foot drivers. I have experimented a bit and maintaining a reasonable speed, say 60 mph, will give you quite a bit more range than doing 70 over the same distance. I have no numbers, but I have noticed this on trips to visit my daughter.
Any EV will benefit from just taking it easy, and suffer from lead foot drivers. I have experimented a bit and maintaining a reasonable speed, say 60 mph, will give you quite a bit more range than doing 70 over the same distance. I have no numbers, but I have noticed this on trips to visit my daughter.
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Glad you made it OK, in the end. Yeah, at just 50% SOC, "160 miles" is just a fantasy.
In time you'll learn to drive by "miles per percent", but that can't happen until the display is updated to actually show the SOC as a %.
I'm sorry to hear about experience. I'm glad that you are ok.
I have similar experience with the GOM. This has to be updated in my opinion.
I feel like the GOM has the same logic/programming as Toyota's gas car. ie. The first half a tank/50% will in reality will give you the 2/3 of the range, and the remaining half will only get you 1/3 of the total range. While in a gas car, it's less of an issue due to abundance of gas stations, it is certainly an issue with EV, esp the Solterra where you have to time it just right, and you can't just top up at 50%SOC (I mean you can but your charging speed is just bad compared to 0-20% SOC)
If my consumption meter is accurate, and assuming that the usable battery size is ~64kwh. with ~110km/h (65mph) in -5C (23F) and climate set to Eco, my best guess is that the car will have a range of 250km (155 miles). 50% will probably get you half of that.
I have similar experience with the GOM. This has to be updated in my opinion.
I feel like the GOM has the same logic/programming as Toyota's gas car. ie. The first half a tank/50% will in reality will give you the 2/3 of the range, and the remaining half will only get you 1/3 of the total range. While in a gas car, it's less of an issue due to abundance of gas stations, it is certainly an issue with EV, esp the Solterra where you have to time it just right, and you can't just top up at 50%SOC (I mean you can but your charging speed is just bad compared to 0-20% SOC)
If my consumption meter is accurate, and assuming that the usable battery size is ~64kwh. with ~110km/h (65mph) in -5C (23F) and climate set to Eco, my best guess is that the car will have a range of 250km (155 miles). 50% will probably get you half of that.
I was just wondering about this today. We did a successful road trip for the long weekend about 210 miles each way. Used a public level 2 to charge for about 8 hours over two sessions (chargers were $1 for first 3 hours then $3/hr).
Anyway, leaving today, about 79% GOM was about 220. After getting home we had about 45 miles left. So 'lost' about 60 miles. Probably about 65mph average.
Just did a 14 mile trip for dinner. Driving at 50mph or less, the GOM went from 52 to 37 - much closer.
The other thing I was wondering, I have 3.0 mi/KWh total. Can we see the average for trips or any other way?
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From the controls on the left side of the steering wheel you can choose trip by trip mi/kwh or ongoing until reset (I just changed mine from trip by trip to ongoing).
If you can't find in the manual (or by trial/error) the steps to do it, I can walk you through it with screenshots - later.
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When you turn off the motor, the miles/kWh for your current drive will be on the heads up display. (Since last startup.)
My first week was filled with recharge anxiety, and I stayed close to home for all drives. I’ve put 2,500 miles on my Touring in a little over a month, and it is now nearly accurate for average miles available on the charge.
I usually reset TripA for each maintenance, so the average over the accumulated miles is currently 2.8/kWh. This is for driving in winter (freezing temperatures), ice/snow, rain, mountains, always on HVAC Eco (brrrr it is cold out there), Freeways (in excess of 70 mph, sorry folks), and city driving—all in all a good sampling of conditions.
Headed down the mountains to work in the dark cold mornings with regen I can get up to 3.9 miles/kWh. Uphill during daylight I can get as high as 2.7. Freeway is usually around 2.5 (yes, I could go slower) and City is closer to 3.9.
I am hoping for better performance in the summer, but I planned for the significant loss on long drives during the winter. The AWD and extended range battery was a necessity for me.
I’m sure that city dwellers can use the standard battery, but they can also consider 2WD (maybe the Toyota version).
There is a great comparison on the Car and Driver website that lists the average MPGe for most EVs on the market.
It’s still Love.
My first week was filled with recharge anxiety, and I stayed close to home for all drives. I’ve put 2,500 miles on my Touring in a little over a month, and it is now nearly accurate for average miles available on the charge.
I usually reset TripA for each maintenance, so the average over the accumulated miles is currently 2.8/kWh. This is for driving in winter (freezing temperatures), ice/snow, rain, mountains, always on HVAC Eco (brrrr it is cold out there), Freeways (in excess of 70 mph, sorry folks), and city driving—all in all a good sampling of conditions.
Headed down the mountains to work in the dark cold mornings with regen I can get up to 3.9 miles/kWh. Uphill during daylight I can get as high as 2.7. Freeway is usually around 2.5 (yes, I could go slower) and City is closer to 3.9.
I am hoping for better performance in the summer, but I planned for the significant loss on long drives during the winter. The AWD and extended range battery was a necessity for me.
I’m sure that city dwellers can use the standard battery, but they can also consider 2WD (maybe the Toyota version).
There is a great comparison on the Car and Driver website that lists the average MPGe for most EVs on the market.
It’s still Love.
Thanks, I also noticed that (too) briefly, when turning power off, it shows a trip summary. Would be nice if that could be displayed on demand, and if a trip history was available.
us as well. It’s clearly a manufacturing flaw.
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