27,000 miles 86-mile range; my Soul EV commute is over

[iletric]

Jeez! 90 mph. Slow down! You'll get there 5 min earlier, that's all. Not worth it.

 

[wrickcook]

Yeah, 90mph is the top speed. Running it in the red can't be good for it.

 

[SoulEV2016]

Jeez! 90 mph. Slow down! You'll get there 5 min earlier, that's all. Not worth it.

:mrgreen: the problem is that i drive since 15 years at 210-240km/h ... (143mph).
But, hey ... it's the beginning of the age of electric car after all.

 

[SoulEV2016]

Yeah, 90mph is the top speed. Running it in the red can't be good for it.

Why ?
cooling circuit have not problem at this speed, motor is very happy too ...
Current/power at this speed is the half of 100% accelerator (45kW).
Like the temp of the motor at this speed, the half of mountain hard driving (65°C vs. 117°C).

Electric car is not like ICE car.
When you drive at high speed, you can not do this with ICE car ... (fire at exhaust from high grass).

 

[iletric]

Looks like Hungary...

 

[JejuSoul]

There is now a confirmed case of rapid battery deterioration. Re: Just Joined - Here's My EV Story
The car in this thread is no longer a sole outlier. The commonalities between the two. A long commute, fast driving, warm climate, charging to 100%

 

[iletric]

Currently at 33,000+ miles. Usual 100% charge did not go above 89-90 miles during the summer. I expect it to drop as winter is approaching, the upper 30s, mid 40s at night.

Will post how low we drop. I feel sorry for the Minnesota Soul owners' ranges.

Oh, yeah. Getting Chevy Bolt in about 10 days or so.

 

[iletric]

Update: cold charge at around 40F brings 100% charge down to 80 miles range, as I expected.
Current mileage is 36,000 plus.

Can't wait another week to get my hands on that Bolt. Put down $500 deposit and considering buiyng it outright (with 2.9% GM loan). The reason being: the $750 fed tax rebate will expire in about 2 years as Mod 3 and Leaf 2 come online, with no chance being renewed under Trump.

In 3 years, if I choose to sell the Bolt it will fetch at least $5,000 more than with rebate in place. Economics 101. So, with rebate gone, a used fully loaded 2017 Bolt will be worth not 25,000 but hopefully 30,000. 25,000 price is based on 60% value retention as per recently GM proffered lease numbers.

Bolt is no 2011 Leaf. I estimate in 3 years it will have a range of 205 miles during winter and about 220 in summer. That will maintain its solid resale value. At the same time I will be free to put miles on it. And who knows, maybe I'll keep it and swap battery in 5-8 years for 6 grand.

 

[JejuSoul]

iletric I wish you luck with your new Bolt. Please report back with first impressions. I think the Bolt with a 60 kWh pack is much more suitable for you given the length of your commute. This is discussed here - http://seekingalpha.com/article/4002421-teslas-larger-battery-packs-feature-waste

The lower loss levels by the Tesla could be partially due to better battery chemistry, but it is mainly because Tesla's tend to have smaller depth of discharge cycles, due to their "extravagantly wasteful" battery pack sizes. While a Leaf customer with a 70-mile daily commute will have a daily depth of discharge of close to 75%, the Tesla would be a much more reasonable 35%.

Also am curious - after two years you have put 36,000 miles on your Soul EV. I assume you have a 3 year lease with a 36,000 mile limit. Do you intend to keep driving and pay the penalty for going over the limit? Or just cease driving the Soul now? Was your original intention to drive this car way over the limit, if it hadn't lost range. At 20,000 miles a year you would have paid a fortune for those extra miles.

 

[iletric]

Our lease was 15,000 miles per year pre-paid miles that are 5c cheaper than after the fact. I plan to stay within the 45,000-mile limit. With the arrival of Bolt we should be able (among 4 adults sharing 4 cars) to keep it there.

This is why I'm considering buying Bolt so we can go unlimited miles there and manage/tweak Soul mileage. I will post first Bolt impressions, the deal details, an so on, once it happens.

As an aside to this 15,000-mile lease--I wouldn't do it again. I did the same thing with Spark, and we brought it up to only 42,000, so I lost money there to a tune of about $800. It's better to go 12,000 miles and pay the extra 5 cents a mile instead prepay 20 cents a mile and having it go to waste.

In other words, If you don't prepay, you will end up paying 50 bucks per 1000 miles over the lease limit ($250 instead of $200 in prepaid miles). Those miles are not free one way or the other.

 

[ricardar]

Interesting discussion here. My daily commute was ~84 miles round trip and although I could charge both at work and at home, I was lazy and charged only at work. Typically would arrive with ~18% SOC and 20-25 miles remaining on GOM. 100% charge every day on L2. This was first 26k miles or so. Changed jobs and got a volt (as my commute is now 150 miles round trip, but only 2-3 times a week - man I suck at location) and wife now drives the Soul around. Her commute is ~15 miles round trip (hence why we live where we live) and she has been complaining that the GOM now never reads higher than around 90-93. Initially I thought she was just harder on the car, but now I am beginning to wonder. Once the OBC thing gets sorted out I'll have to take it with me to work (satellite office 50 miles away that does have charging available but commute takes same amount of time as the main office 75 miles away. Gotta love bay area traffic) and I'll report back if it is GOM being pessimistic or if I've lost range.

 

[wrickcook]

Yesterday, the battery was at 100% and the SOC read 71 miles. I had a 70 mile trip.
Got home with 11 left on the SOC.

 

[JejuSoul]

.
Here are a few fun quotes from the Bolt EV forum that I thought were relevant to this thread. -- Owners manual says little about battery care

Chevy appears to want this to be a mass market car, not an EV enthusiasts' car. They don't want people obsessing over the battery, trying to eek out the last percent of life out of it. I'm not about to change my lifestyle to fit the car other than plugging it in when I get home, and unplugging it when I leave.

This is the same attitude I saw on the Focus Electric board three years ago when I was advising people to treat the battery with care. I got angry responses including...

The Focus has a liquid cooled battery, it will last forever
Ford did such a great job engineering the car that the battery will last forever
The reason I bought a Focus rather than a Leaf is so I wouldn't need to worry about these things
I don't care, the battery has a warranty. They will replace it
The manual says to keep it plugged in
I've driven it 10,000 miles already and the battery is strong as ever
etc

Well let me tell you, the battery DID fade after enough time and miles. The battery is the most expensive part of the car, and it should be given good care

And

Chevy appears to want this to be a mass market car, not an EV enthusiasts' car. They don't want people obsessing over the battery, trying to eek out the last percent of life out of it. I'm not about to change my lifestyle to fit the car other than plugging it in when I get home, and unplugging it when I leave.

I'm guilty of fussing with my car. I keep track of things like temperature vs range and overall efficiency. I'm "that guy" that wants to know exactly how much energy that the battery warming system uses in 0F - and if installing a diesel hydronic parking heater into the coolant line would return most of my summer range. I just came in from outside from sweeping the snow off one of my my solar panel arrays because I was "losing" about 1kW that could be going into my battery. Basically, I have OCD. Somehow that makes me feel better by admitting it, and with the help of meds and support from my family and weekly EV's Anonymous group meetings, I'm sure I'll get through this.

 

[JejuSoul]

A year later I think it is useful to go back and look at some of the early anecdotes of battery deterioration.
Here's a mistaken comment I made on this thread on Sat Aug 13, 2016 5:12 am

The evidence keeps piling up that most Soul EVs are not suffering major battery deterioration after 2 years.
The most recent example RJ Hadley in Georgia has travelled 46,000 miles and hit 101 on the GOM this morning.

I was wrong about this car in Georgia. It was suffering from rapid battery degradation and has now had its battery replaced.
But I still think that most Soul EVs are not suffering major battery deterioration after 3 years.

Evie '15 is now over 65,000 miles. Other than 2 OBCs, we've done well, BUT her battery did not bounce back this summer. Last summer, GOM got back to 99 from winter 60s and we rode. This summer, barely got over 70. Took a highway trip. 55 miles to get there. GOM says 72 at 100%, ok whatever, piece of cake right? Hardly doing 60mph. Evie zeroed out at 53 miles, 2 miles from the charger. Tow of shame to the charger. Back to 100% for the return trip and still barely made it back home.

Details here - Evie zeroed out at 53 miles and UPDATE!! Evie's battery replacement complete!

 

[johntox]

When I brought it in to Kia again with print out proving significant degradation in range, they fixed a few things that fixed the problems:
1. PSEV BMS logic improvement
2. OBC Update, inspection, and replace

That fixed the problem. Now I'm getting 105 miles