Driving in Snow

Hi Lief

I'm from Quebec in ski country & 5 winters familiar with the Miev in winter driving conditions in hilly terrain.
in my 3 rd winter with the diesel heater.

You Have to preheat while plugged in ( 30 minutes 220V) and must have winter tires NOT 4 season tires.

The diesel heater will not only keep your wind shield clear, you & your passengers warm, it will give you up to an additional 40 km of range ,
It completely changes the Miev winter driving experience.

I can squeeze out as much as 85- 90 km if I'm very careful and stay warm while I do it.
Even If you drive an ICE, you still need real Snow tires in these conditions.
In Quebec Snow tires are Mandatory

Lief said:

Got stuck 3 times in like 2-3 inches of snow.

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I also got stuck during our first large snowfall and completely forgot that the car has a traction control disable switch which I feel would have made it possible to extricate the car without a push.

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3671

I am curious if you had tried using the traction control disable switch?

This morning's drive was uneventful. We got 4-5 inches overnight, and with some drifting, it was deeper than that on my road. It was actually deep enough I could hear the underbelly shields hitting the snow, but I never spun or slid once, at least not enough for the ASC to kick in (and we all know how little tolerance it has :lol: ).

I got concerned when trying to leave that it wouldn't start (I'd hear one contactor click and the ASC lights would come on, but no READY. Then, I realized it was still plugged in :lol: . My charge port and storage box were both frozen, but the doors opened right up.

I get the really fun part in about an hour, trying to climb my driveway :roll: . We've gotten another inch or two throughout the day today, just for it go back into the 50's and rain over the weekend. It's not icy underneath the snow, so I might be alright.

PV1 said:

...We got 4-5 inches overnight, and with some drifting, it was deeper than that on my road. ...

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Reading this Down Under, in the middle of summer... :shock:

I'd say I'm jealous, but I don't mind the winter unless it gets below 10 F (which up to now has been rather rare).

This came out of nowhere, it was 45 F yesterday with dry ground.

Lief said:

Hello from Winnipeg,
I have the same background as Dave...this is my first winter with the iMiEV....Winnipeg just broke a 100 yr record for snowfall. My car has Dunlop Enasave that was installed in June and now has 11,000kms. I got stuck in about 7-8inches of snow with 3 adults inside, but it didn't help that the pavement under was as slick as ice(new suburbs). The car is easy to push with 2-3 people. My range went from 100-130kms to around 40-50kms in Nov it was -3C avg...right now its been -22C for 3 weeks now and prob won't let up till April. For one week it warmed into the single digits and the snow turned into a sand like slipperyness...Got stuck 3 times in like 2-3 inches of snow. So disappointed and embarrassed. Maybe if I put a few sandbags in the trunk and install snow tires,,,but it still sucks when it doesn't even heat up at all during a 20min commute drive in -15 to -25 weather. I don't have access to a heated garage.
I have researched a lot about installing a diesel heater but seems like too much trouble/expensive. I will prob buy an ICE car to use for 5 winter months and store the iMiEV. Vice versa in the 7 months of 10-20C summer mths. My 2012 iMiEV wouldn't rust up, if only used in summer

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Hello Lief, I'm on my second Montreal winter with our 2016 imiev.

I've never gotten stuck, but then again the car has good quality winter tires which makes all the difference.

I must get an average of 90km of range at -20c with the heater on, but then again I'm not driving at 100kph in a straight line for an hour.

My daily commute probably mimics exactly what the car was design for(preheat for 20 Minutes before leaving home) 15 -20km at 100kph, 10km in traffic at 5-10 kph for 40 minutes then I'm in town and park. Total average commute 35km, total travel time 1 hour. My little Imiev will use 4-5 bars of electricity. Repeat same thing going home. No preheating on return trip , and the imiev will use 6-7 bars on the return trip. We have 16 charger at work, but I never use them ( I leave the charger for the Volts and Leafs who seem to desperately need them :lol: ).

The imiev will never ever be as warm as an ice car, but you'll never get the same kind of savings.

I'll never install a diesel heater, but i do have heated boots, and a very warm Kanuk winter coat which make my daily commute very comfortable.

FYI: I have two thermometers in the car (one on the floor, and one at chest level, and the average temp after 30 munites of heating (not preheating at -15c) is about -1c at the floor, and +5-10c at head level.

Brian

Hey brian,

Im curious what are your heater setting that use on your commute ? If you can get 90 km of winter range at -20 deg C you must not be spending much energy on heat.

Thanks

Don....

Hello Don, it really depends on the traffic condition, but If the traffic is light and I'll be zipping my way to work (35km) I'll set it to 1 click on the heat and 1 click on the fan (air flow to the windscreen).

If traffict is going to heavy from the start I'll set it to 1, 1, and once I'm in the "bumper to bumper traffic" I'll set it to 4, 4.

Return trip alway set to 3, 3.

I just want to be clear for everyone here. When the car is on but without heat the guess-o-meter will show 115km, but when the heat is switch on it will show 78km :shock: but I don't pay attention to this because I know that the car will consume 4-5 bars max going in (5.5kw), and 6-7 bars going home. I only pay attention to the guess-o-meter when I'm down to 3-4 bars.

What I love about the imiev is all the little tricks you can do to stretch the battery pack.

Example: if it's cold -20 but without precipitation (a dry cold :roll: ) I might cut the heater 7km out before arriving at work, or drive a bit slower, etc.

You can easily coaxs 90km from this car on the coldest days.

I find that it's the drive motor and speed that consumes all the battery pack energy.

Another point ... the imiev is not a warm winter car by any stretch of the imagination (regardless of heater setting , except max setting) but I find that you can keep the windscreen clear using very little energy.

Brian

FrostyCanada said:

...When the car is on but without heat the guess-o-meter will show 115km, but when the heat is switch on it will show 78km :shock: ...

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Unlike the Nissan Leaf's seemingly-erratic GOM (Guess-O-Meter), the i-MiEV's Range Remaining (RR) display is very predictable. For example, in my relatively-mild climate the RR display takes about a 20% hit when simply turning on the heater - which is why I was surprised to see your 32% number (1-78/115). Perhaps the RR algorithm includes ambient temperature?

Hello JoeS, you're probable right the 20% hit vs. my 32%.

I was using general numbers ( I never look a the RR when leaving home).

Also, I want to make it clear to anyone reading this that i wasn't getting 90km on the RR at -20c with the heater on, but in real world conditions and driving carefully you definitely can get more distance as compared to what the guess-o-meter is telling you.

Love my little imiev.

Brian

Anyone have a number/percentage for additional consumption resulting from switching in DEFROST (bottom knob turned fully clockwise which kicks in A/C)? If I recall, that added another 5% on top of the heater's 20%

Sorta back on topic, can anyone contrast the range hit due to driving on snow vs. driving in the rain?

I'm a new owner, so I have not driven the car in snow yet, but the nature of the car reminds me of my old 72 VW Beatle. it was great in the snow with its skinny tires and engine over the rear drive wheels. Seems to me the I-miev will have some similar qualities being rear wheel drive and all.

I drove an old VW on snow quite a bit too. The iMiev is even better on snow and ice IMO. The traction control give you a quasi positraction for the drive wheels. So no more spinning one rear wheel while the other has a better grip.

My wife complained about the system when she drove to work on glair ice once this past winter. She said she had almost no acceleration a couple of times no matter what she did with the accelerator pedal. I told her it was keeping her from spinning out. Basically the car gave her as much acceleration as the tires had grip for I asked her how the other cars were doing - - "well there were a number of them that couldn't seem to get going at all and several had slid off the road and were stuck". I didn't add anything but, sounds like she was in good hands. She made it to work with nary a slip or slide!

Aerowhatt

JoeS said:

Sorta back on topic, can anyone contrast the range hit due to driving on snow vs. driving in the rain?

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That would be a hard one to quantify! I think that if you are driving correctly for snow and ice conditions (really, really slowly). Then definitely driving in rain would yield less range. One exception perhaps would be deep new snow with no tire tracks to follow. Due to the slow nature of snow driving and not yet being the first one to blaze the trail. I definitely have had higher RR after a full recharge following driving in snow than driving in rain (both cold and running heat). Far from definitive but but something I did take note of.

Aerowhatt

Even a damp road takes a hit (one would think that the slight drop in traction would help. I guess the tires suction to the road with a layer of water).

The only trouble I have with winter weather (at least regarding traction and road-going) remains my uphill, concrete driveway. Driving on snow and snow-covered ice just doesn't have much effect on the i-MiEV. You'll get the occasional reminder from the ASC that the roads are crap, but even if there's just a thread of grip, the i-MiEV behaves like you're on dry road, at least when driven sensibly. I heard the Tesla Roadster is the same way.

Black ice, on the other hand, there's not much you can do about that. I've been sideways on that without the car noticing :? .