Battery Capacity Available?

[danpatgal]

Sorry if we have a number somewhere, but I was curious what percentage of our 16kw battery is actually used if we fully charge and drive to zero bars and zero miles RR? There is a little discussion about the upper end buffer in this thread:

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1597

But I didn't find any estimates on the lower end buffer. Obviously we have something since we can turtle for about 8 miles (I've personally only done 5, but only once and very conservatively). So, if there's a 10% buffer on the top and roughly the same on the bottom, we're using about 80% of the 16kwh battery, or 12.8kwh, to travel our average 62 miles calculated by the EPA.

I got thinking of this because Aaron posted about our iMiev in comparison to the Volt, here:

http://insideevs.com/chevy-volt-lessee-says-bmw-i3-has-lots-of-flaws-but-hes-still-buying-one-to-replace-volt/

Any other/better estimates to shed light on that?

 

[Don]

I think there might be a little more than 10% held in reserve at the bottom end, though I've never found any documentation to back that up. One time I went 7 miles after the gauge said "--" and did it all at about 50 mph with no sign of the car beginning to slow down

Still, whatever the number is, it's WAAAAY better than the Volt's number. I like the concept of the Volt and it's not that bad looking, but I wouldn't buy one

Why? I don't like the fact that it won't let you over-ride or custom tailor the 'one size fits all' battery management. You drive it down to about 40 or 45% SOC remaining and the engine comes on, period. So what you really have is about 1/2 EV and 1/2 ICE the way I see it. You can go about 40 or 45 miles and then you're burning gas no matter what because the car saves the last chunk of battery power to supplement the output of the alternator when needed while the engine is running. If I had a 60 mile trip to do and it was going to end at a charging station, I would want the ability to do the whole trip on battery power alone . . . . and there's plenty of it there, so why 'reserve' some of it if your trip could be done all on battery power??

Don

 

[PV1]

I've heard somewhere the reserve is there in the Volt so if you pull a long hill, you can maintain a decent speed. The gas engine in the Volt isn't strong enough to go up a long, steep hill at 60 mph. If you manage to run the pack empty in the Volt, you'll slow down until you match the output of the ICE minus losses.

Maybe it's also a strategy down the road to "magically" increase the Volt's EV range up to 55 miles without jacking up the price of production. :|