What's your Real world actual range?

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Ever

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
59
Hey Soul EV owners, forget about the EPA or the GOM, what's the best range you've actually done so far on a full charge? Anyone getting over 120 miles/200kms to a charge?
 
I live in an area with rolling hills, I do a lot of high-speed highway driving, and my driving style is assertive. Despite that, I still find it pretty easy to get about 100 miles (160 km) of range, but I'm too impatient to hypermile. I'd love to hear from drivers who have really pushed the envelope of what these cars can do!
 
The most I've actually driven the car on one charge before plugging in is 105 miles, but I've tracked a 115 mile charge several times on days I've done all urban driving with minimal HVAC.

If one can keep speeds below 50 MPH the Soul gets rather astounding range.
 
mtndrew1 said:
Soul gets rather astounding range.
That is one big word. Maybe as compared to iMiev or 2011 Leaf with 3 bars down.

I get 91-97 range as calculated by miles remaining (GOM) and miles covered. Car has over 19,000 miles. My GOM starting range shows nowadays 91 miles, but it's upper 60s at night. Once winter comes, it's gonna be probably 86 this year. Originally I started with over 100 on GOM. That's long gone.

I drive 62 mph mostly, few miles at up to 65 mph if I'm doing good on range, hills, with average of 48-50 miles showing on display after the 40 mile trip (x2). My efficiency is 4.2-4.6 m/kWh day and 3.5-3.8 at night on the average.
 
Keep it off the freeway with minimal HVAC and 5.2+ Mi/kWh is pretty common in my experience. That's well over 125 miles from full to empty.

For a Leaf/Focus/eGolf/500e competitor that is, to me, astounding at this price point.
 
iletric said:
Ha-ha! Off the freeway in Ca. Try that!

True for Atlanta too - more than 30 miles (50 km) of my daily commute is on the highway. The posted speed limit for much of that distance is 65 mph (105 kph) and traffic often moves faster than that. Not good for range, but I'm happy to trade range for a quicker commute.
 
tractioninc said:
I'm happy to trade range for a quicker commute.
Can't do that with my commute of 82.4 miles. I pull in with 8-13 miles remaining. Gotta keep that speed in check.
 
SF Bay area. I cross 3 freeways on my commute.

Emergency only once: the demonstrating freaks closed my 580 West to 80 East on-ramp and I was rerouted toward SF. Had to turn around from that right away, drive 45 in slow lane going away instead of toward home (at night!), and finally figure out to switch direction again toward home, and find my way through Berkeley streets to get back on my 80 East.

That was a real pissoff. Black lives matter, sure, BUT... Came home with 4 miles or so.

It's all calculable. I make sure I zero out my trip meters, and keep watch at my cumulative miles. Of course now I know my route so well, I know at pretty much any point of my journey home where my miles remaining should be, and adjust speed upward if I have miles to spare.

One thing I do know. It won't be so rosy once winter comes. I'll be at least 5 miles lower overall and we're not even talking heat, defrosting, wipers and wet pavement all of which steal miles.

Chevy Bolt, where are you?
 
Bought? Not a chance! I've learned my lesson well with the Leaf. Lost about 20 grand on that. Sold my 2011 for 11,500 -- and I consider myself very lucky.

I see lease as a washout with buy, except you're not stuck with built-in obsolescence car to sell later. Ultimately, I made a decision to put my money where my mouth is -- I said this already in this forum. It hurts to pay a combined 600 bucks a month for Spark and Soul and 15,000 miles limit. My 92 Accord is much much cheaper, right? We all get that. No, this is about doing something about CO2. Not just talking about it and waiting for someone else to make a move... And paying extra penny per kWh for deep green juice on top of it. No solar yet.

I advise everyone not buy these things, lease 'em. At least until we have 4-600 mile cars. Now with Tesla 3 that may be a game changer for me, and I actually may buy it, b/c Tesla ACTUALLY MAY accommodate Model 3 owners with bigger battery down the road. I am basing it on their attitude toward the Roadster owners. They accommodated them with a 400 -mile battery (I believe). Now, that's a car company! This is where Nissan failed miserably.
 
If you're on the standard 36 month / 36,000 mile lease, you've used more than half your miles. Do you plan to turn your car in early or do you anticipate paying per mile above 36K?
 
tractioninc said:
If you're on the standard 36 month / 36,000 mile lease, you've used more than half your miles. Do you plan to turn your car in early or do you anticipate paying per mile above 36K?

My lease is 15k/year and I'm going to exceed it by about 1,500 a year, it looks like.

I think the canary in the coal mine will be ilectric's car as it'll rack up miles very quickly. I'd be interested to see a Tony Williams-style range test (62MPH, 72 degrees, no HVAC, same start and end elevation, full to empty) every 20k on his Soul to see how battery degradation affects our cars.

I plan to repeat the Williams range test at one year, which will be in October. I'll have about 16,000 miles.
 
Ever said:
Hey Soul EV owners, forget about the EPA or the GOM, what's the best range you've actually done so far on a full charge? Anyone getting over 120 miles/200kms to a charge?
I did 222km (138miles) in real traffic this summer. NEDC is 212km for the Soul EV :)
 
Elmil said:
I did 222km (138miles) in real traffic this summer. NEDC is 212km for the Soul EV :)
Impressive! What was your actual speed (approx)?

So far my furthest drive was 155 km (with 20 km remaining). That was mostly 90 km/h on the highway (and about 25 km at 120 km/h) and a lot of traffic jams when I started (slow driving. stop and go).

Mainly when I start the car it says I can drive around 130-140 km. I mostly drive on the highway at 100 km/h up to 120 km/h.
 
JeroenE said:
Impressive! What was your actual speed (approx)?

So far my furthest drive was 155 km (with 20 km remaining). That was mostly 90 km/h on the highway (and about 25 km at 120 km/h) and a lot of traffic jams when I started (slow driving. stop and go).

Mainly when I start the car it says I can drive around 130-140 km. I mostly drive on the highway at 100 km/h up to 120 km/h.
This was actually a two day trip, beginning with my ordinary 100km commute to/from work. That road has many ups and downs, but traffic is light and speed limit 80 km/h. Next day I had a couple of trips to the nearby city and when getting home after 180km and lots of juice left, I decided to go for the NEDC on the local 40 km/h roads close to my home.
Average speed 45 km/h, Energy consumption 11.6 kWh/100km, turtle and 4% SOC remaining.

Highways is a totally different matter. Speed really kills ..range ;) But your 155 km (+20 at least) at those speeds is very good too. Best car I've ever owned!
 
Elmil said:
Best car I've ever owned!
Elmil: Do you own the car not lease? Is that the norm in Sweden?
You posted some OBD data on the Soul Spy thread that suggested your car has a battery deterioration of over 8%.
Do you notice any deterioration or reduction in range while driving?
This is the highest rate of deterioration for any of the cars 6 tested so far.
But there seems no obvious reason why. Did you buy the car new?
Was there an extraordinary heat wave in Sweden this summer?
Do you mind testing your car again and posting the data so we can see if that first reading was anomalous.
If it is just an unlucky case of a bad battery pack then I guess you are actually lucky because you will get a new pack well before the warranty ends.
 
JejuSoul said:
Elmil: Do you own the car not lease? Is that the norm in Sweden?
You posted some OBD data on the Soul Spy thread that suggested your car has a battery deterioration of over 8%.
Do you notice any deterioration or reduction in range while driving?
This is the highest rate of deterioration for any of the cars 6 tested so far.
But there seems no obvious reason why. Did you buy the car new?
Was there an extraordinary heat wave in Sweden this summer?
Do you mind testing your car again and posting the data so we can see if that first reading was anomalous.
If it is just an unlucky case of a bad battery pack then I guess you are actually lucky because you will get a new pack well before the warranty ends.
There was no lease offer available at the time I bought the car (Still not, and only 30 registered this year so far.. :? ). A Lea f would have been the only alternative but I decided to go all in, and the Soul suited me much better and here's why:
* I commute 100km each day and total 30000+ km/year. (now averaging 100+ km/day => 36000/year)
* Range, warranties and a nice look!
* I have the same monthly cost now as I had with the old diesel.
* After 4 years I am off the bank and if lycky will have a great, cheap car. If not lucky I still have saved tons of CO2 at the same cost.
* I'm too old to wait for anything better.

I will go in detail about the possible deterioration in the Soul Spy thread.
 
Took a trip around the island today. 215km driven. Still had 20km range or 13% SOC.
Weather was perfect 20C, no rain, no wind.
Drove on the coast road - all driving at just above sea level.
Average speed was 36km/h. Average efficiency 9.4 km / kWh = 10.6 kWh/100km
Got the battery warning light at 190km - you lose acceleration, but can carry on regardless.
Did not turtle.
 
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