1 bar blinking, no turtle, safe to drive for 10 miles ?

I left the house with 3 bars. I drive the 8 miles to work and as I am just about there I notice that I have 1 bar and it (plus the gas tank picture) are blinking. :0

CaniOn says 13% battery, volts are all around 3.655 - 3.665. And the cock pit says 2 bars, 3km remaining.

I plan on going out to connect CaniOn again to just make sure as I think it didn't read everything as I shut off the car.

But my big question is ............ Would it be ok to drive home the 8 miles or should I plug into wall socket here at work for 5 hrs and then go home to top off over night ?

I got permission to plug in here for today, but this is not going to be a regular thing.

I admit I am a little panicky and just want to do what is correct for the battery.

BTW, it is only 50's this morning and a high of 65 today

Ok I am going to run out to the car to get readings right now.

I went out and CaniOn said still 2 bars and 3km
BUT, car said 0 bars - so I went and plugged it in. will get 7 hrs on 120v/8 amp charge.

In my personal experience, a 'newish' car will go at least 6 miles after the RR gauge reaches zero - I personally did 6 miles at 45 mph one time and the car never slowed, so I'm pretty sure you're safe driving it home as it is

But . . . . why did you leave on this trip with a questionable charge on the pack in the first place??

Don

tigger19687 said:

I got permission to plug in here for today, but this is not going to be a regular thing.

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Last year I asked my employer to give me a place to charge. I really didn't expect them to oblige. It took about 6 months, but to my amazement they designated two(2) parking spaces as "Electric car parking" and installed a 120v plug for each spot. No EVSE's but I'm the only employee out of a workforce of 400+ that has a plug-in car (Actually I have two). So I use my own EVSE and it's a slow charge at 120volts, but who cares, it's free and a nice perk for one employee.

BTW: The other parking spot is used by an employee that has a Hybrid Camry. I guess he thinks his car qualifies as an electric car. I don't have the heart to tell him the spot is for a "PLUG-IN" electric car!

Don said:

IBut . . . . why did you leave on this trip with a questionable charge on the pack in the first place??

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I think it's perfectly normal for a new owner to test the limits of their EV so they know what to expect in all conditions. I've had my wife's i-miev down to zero bars and 1 mile remaining as I pulled into the garage!

Tigger19687,

It's normal for the SOC meter to flash when it gets down to 2 bars. When it reaches 1 bar it has a different flashing pattern. As Don pointed out the i-miev has a little bit of back-up range even when it gets to zero bars (Never tested, but so I've read). Best to drive slow and easy when you get that low!

Don, I got the car last week.
I am trying to figure out how far I can go in a week.
My work trips are 16 miles a day total. And I work 5 days a week.
I was thinking that I could get away with charging Sunday night and Thursday night.

I don't want to plug her in every night, as you all say that is not the best practice.
I thought that 3 bars would be fine, going 35-40 for 8 miles to work and back.

I guess I have not figured out how fast the bars disappear on a trip.

I usually just go to and from work. Weekends I go to Grocery, but will take the truck if I go to Home Depot/Lowes etc.

This week I worked an extra shift in the ER (same miles, I work at the Hospital ER occasionally on W/E and 8-5 for Trauma Surgeon during the week).

I had full charge Sunday am, and I did drive an extra 5 miles total this week. OPPS I just remembered I did go grocery Monday, so that adds as extra 36 miles.

I need to put a notebook in the car and write down every mile I do to get a better understanding on this car

iwatson said:

tigger19687 said:

I got permission to plug in here for today, but this is not going to be a regular thing.

Click to expand...

BTW: The other parking spot is used by an employee that has a Hybrid Camry. I guess he thinks his car qualifies as an electric car. I don't have the heart to tell him the spot is for a "PLUG-IN" electric car!

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But is he plugged in ? If so then I guess he qualifies. but if he doesn't need to be plugged in all day because he has only 8kw battery, maybe he should be told to move.

I am on the fence about the Hybrids. I wouldn't charge at work if I had a 1/2 tank, but would if I was under 1/4.
If I had a hybrid I wouldn't charge anywhere but at home as I have gas back up and am NOT stuck somewhere.

A Hybrid Camry doesn't plug-in. No plug!

I plug in my Chevrolet Volt, which some believe is a Hybrid, or when I drive my wife's i-miev to work, I plug it in.

Before the debate starts on this thread about my Volt. The Volt has the ability to function as an EV, Or as a serial Hybrid, Or as a parallel Hybrid.

Since my commute is 11 miles each way, it spends most of it's life operating as an EV!

The thing to remember too, is that the last two bars seem to disappear faster than the others on most cars. I would try not to go below 3 bars on a regular basis. For 1 bar to go 10 miles, I think I would plug in. I can't even stretch the top bar 10 miles, and it contains more energy than any other bar. The best I've done was 7 miles. I'd definitely plug in this time, and make sure to leave the house with at least 5 bars in the future.

For the Camry Hybrid, that is a regular, non plug-in hybrid. He really shouldn't be parked there. It's sole propulsion energy source is gasoline. No arguments about the Volt here from me. If it has a plug and at least 20 miles of EV only range, it's good in my book.

tigger19687 said:

I need to put a notebook in the car and write down every mile I do to get a better understanding on this car

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From my experience with lithium batteries of multiple flavors. The absolute worst thing you can do is to run them (especially at high discharge rates (translation EV)) when they are at a low SOC. Looking at the regular driving distance you do. I would forget about the notebook and follow one simple guideline. If it has less than 7-8 bars when you pull into the garage at the end of the day, charge it. The batteries are internally warm when you stop driving so best to use a delay of 2 to 4 hours, if you can, to start charging. But running it down to the bone to reduce time fully charged is a bad practice and will do more harm than charging it more often.

The manual for the car has alot of information about what not to do for preserving battery integrity. Almost all of it fits my own experience quite well. These are the guys who are on the hook for whatever it costs to replace your battery should it come up short under warranty. A vested interest shall we say? I would mostly follow what the manual recommends unless you have personal long term experience with similar battery chemistries that inspires you to adjust it slightly.

I use the trip A ODO on the dash and reset it after every charge. That way it is easy to check and see how far I have traveled since I last plugged in.

Aerowhatt

tigger19687 said:

I don't want to plug her in every night, as you all say that is not the best practice.

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I don't recall anyone saying it is not good to plug in every night. What some of us have been saying is that it is not desirable to fully charge the car (unless you're going to use it right away), and best to stop at around 12-13 bars, which you can do with a simple mechanical timer if you don't have a Remote. BTW, I charge both of our i-MiEVs every night.

For myself, I've never yet had the car down to turtle, after about 45K miles combined. With the ability to plug the car in for a few hours, I would jump at the chance rather than risk driving in turtle. If you do drive in turtle, I would really featherfoot it. Even though Mitsu has a lot of protections built in, I would not want to risk stressing my battery.

As best we can tell, the i-MiEV takes away range at the bottom as the battery gradually loses capacity; thus, the distance you can travel in turtle will diminish as the battery ages.

tigger19687, you might consider EVSEUpgrade.com so your Mitsu/Panasonic EVSE can put out up to 12A at 120vac.

Edit: just read what Aerowhatt wrote, and agree with him!

I don't PLAN on running it down to turtle. Like I said it had 3 bars-SOC @ 13% and I didn't know that they would all disappear in 8 miles. That is my learning curve. And that is why I posted here after trying a search.

I plan on getting the 12amp plug, but for now I am ok with the 8amp for the 12 hrs I would plug in over night.

I am sorry I misunderstood the plug every night thing. I just know you said not to have it at full all the time.
I do not have a remote so I can not set to start/stop at a certain time unless I get an adapter for the wall plug....which is outside and would not be water proof if I did that (no garage here).

hey tigger,

i just use 4 miles for each bar as my range estimator and always try to stay above 2 bars except for doing the calibration charge procedure.

+1 on the advice. If you want to do fewer charges and not top it off all the time, just fill it up to 15 bars on sunday and drive until its down to half (8), then charge again to 15, rinse and repeat. They are so much fun to drive--don't you just love it!

tigger19687 said:

Would it be ok to drive home the 8 miles or should I plug into wall socket here at work for 5 hrs and then go home to top off over night ?

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I'd use the opportunity to establish a precedent for plugging in at work, but yes, unless you've got an uphill or high speed return commute I think you'd get home just fine. I've gone farther than 8 miles on the turtle.

It sounds like your usage pattern isn't putting on very many miles. So then yes, no need to charge daily, but it'll be a long time until any battery capacity issues arising from your charging routine would be noticeable, if ever. I think that we'll still be debating the cumulative effect of different charging routines when the high-milers hit 100,000. Since I do most of a discharge most days, I plug in for a full recharge every night.

"CaniOn says 13% battery, volts are all around 3.655 - 3.665" - voltages are more useful in this situation then the SoC. With that voltages, I think you could do about ten miles, with SoC going to 0,0%. At low speed. I did it myself many times, and at present time I can do it if I want. I agree that driving the car with cell voltages arround 3.0 Volts maybe not a good thing to do. But driving with voltages above 3,6 V I think it's safe to the battery (don´t matter if the car is saying 5% or 10% or 15% SoC). At 0,0% SoC, whatever voltages are in the cells the car will stop. I did it some times.

With four years and one month, close to 80.000 Km, usually, only at very low SoC I see more then 20 mV difference between cells. Happy with that, no cell shows sign of weakness, when they are above of 3,6 V (and that will happen not above 15/20% SoC). But I fill and have results that shows that range is now more then 15% less then when it was new. Two years ago I could reach 175 km of maximum RR. Now that will be impossible, maybe 140 km.

I forgot to add that I did 76 miles for that battery usage. I am happy with that.

Malm said:

Two years ago I could reach 175 km of maximum RR. Now that will be impossible, maybe 140 km.

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If open, I'd like to join the club!

Zelenec said:

Malm said:

Two years ago I could reach 175 km of maximum RR. Now that will be impossible, maybe 140 km.

Click to expand...

If open, I'd like to join the club!

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Best to take a photograph of RR and post it on the Maximum Range Remaining thread. Current record is 109 miles (175km). In this way you don't stress the battery bank by actually driving that far.

tigger19687 said:

I plan on getting the 12amp plug, but for now I am ok with the 8amp for the 12 hrs I would plug in over night.

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It doesn't matter if you're charging L1 at 8 or 12 amps or if you're using L2 at the maximum. The way you're using the car, when you get below 6 or 7 bars plug it in and then unplug it when it gets up to 13 or 14. With an 8 amp EVSE, you can probably plug it in every other night after the last use and unplug it before you go to bed and it won't reach a full charge on any given day. You'll get used to how fast it recharges and you'll know about what to expect when it's time to unplug

Daily recharges from 6 or 7 bars to 11, 12 or 13 bars and your battery should last a very long time - That's the ideal way to use a lithium battery pack. That said, every 6 weeks or so, let it fully recharge overnight to equalize the batteries and recalibrate the RR meter

Don