ALL POSTS - GOM - Range Meter - Distance To Empty meter

[4EVEREV]

A different perspective, but my favorite thing about the car is that it is so incredibly efficient, that even if I boot it all the time, it's still insanely efficient next to any of my other vehicles.

Yeah, I can optimize its inherent efficiency further by hyper-milling. But what's the fun in that. I can over accelerate and it will re-capture the extra momentum unlike any other car I have that just turns all that potential energy into waste heat.

I'm lucky this is my wife's car as I count on her to be my personal carbon offset. Important when the two ICE cars I drive are a 13 mpg full size pig of an SUV, and a 16mpg 4wd ballistic missile of a sports car.

The RAV is a very inefficient EV comparatively, you can't compare it to a ICE pig that gets 13 MPG. As far as EVs go it's by no means efficient.

 

[michael]

I joined some friends in picking up their new RAV EV yesterday. At the dealer, after an extended charge, the GOM showed

118 miles with the Air conditioner on, and
154 miles withe the air conditioner off

I tried playing with the temperature setting, but it made no difference.

I'm assuming the actual effect of the A/C is considerably less than is suggested by the above, and is also related to how hard the A/C is working. Various other posts here have suggested that the heater has a big effect on the range and that the A/C has significantly less effect.

One post also noted that huge differences between climate on and off readings might be suggestive of a climate system problem.

Can anyone comment? Is the above a matter of concern? Or is it normal? And what is the true impact of heavy air conditioning and heating?

Thanks! Looking forward to lots of happy miles.

 

[miimura]

The variation in GOM numbers based on A/C settings Auto/EcoLo/EcoHi/Off are just more GOM mumbo-jumbo. Yes, the A/C uses energy. However, the variation in driving style, driving speed and terrain have much more impact on range. The heater on the other hand can have a real impact on range, especially for a series of short trips. Getting the battery and cabin up to operating temperature from a freezing temperature cold soak takes a lot of energy, but I don't have real numbers to put on it. Search for some posts from the user in Colorado - he had some real world experience that he described.

 

[michael]

OK, thanks. So just to be sure....

back in April, Cossie1600 said:

Just a heads up, cars with a bad inverter/heater will have some funky readings on the gom. You can tell as the spread between ac on and off are huge


I take it that the difference between 118 and 154 that I noticed is NOT indicative of this problem, it's just the normal GOM characteristic?

 

[kiwiguy]

I observed something something similar when I picked up my new RAV4 a few weeks ago - a large GOM difference between AC on and off.

Now after a couple of weeks the difference is only a couple of miles.

I guess there is a default 20% programed in for climate on, that gets more accurate with some real world driving. i.e. not short test drives in Sport mode with the AC cranked by the dealer to get the car to a suitable temperature for the customer.

 

[michael]

Thank you. That's what I thought and hoped.

 

[SanFranZiggy]

I LEASED my new RAV4EV in April, 2013.
Retired. Do mostly short-trip driving in S.F.
Only longer ride is down to Stanford for sports events.
It's about 80 miles, RT.
So I have used Extended Range charge mode quite a bit.
Most I've ever gotten it bumped up to...is a 112-mile range.
But most often it quits charge on its own...at 82 to 94 miles.
That's plenty of comfort for the trip.

Bt recently...last 4 times I've tried to use Extended Charge mode,
it only gets up to 74 or 76 mile range.
Suddenly....I can't do Extended Charge!!!
Bummer.
Anyone else had this experience???

 

[fooljoe]

The miles shown on the dash (the guess-o-meter aka GOM) give no indication whatsoever of whether your car actually did an extended charge or not. More likely, you see a smaller value there than you're used to because your recent driving was at a fairly low efficiency. Check the start and stop times from your Entune emails and combine that with the power delivered by your EVSE to determine how much energy was actually pumped into your battery, and/or do an actual range test where you reset your trip odometer and efficiency meter after a full charge to see how much energy you use while driving. If you sign up for RavCharge, I can also assist you with logging your charges and determining whether your battery has degraded substantially.

 

[Incredulocious]

We'll all agree with what fooljoe said, your range estimate is just calculated based on your recent driving, and short, stop and go trips are inefficient. It does not tell you how much charge you received. In other words, you most certainly can do extended charge!

That said, I suggest you can easily do those 80 highway miles round trip on a standard charge (with 20-ish miles leftover, depending on your speed), no extended charge required. (I drive my RAV4 EV in the bay area also.)

Look at how many bars of charge you have left next time! Also, as fooljoe mentioned, reset your trip odometer after charging and observe how far you can go and how many bars you consume or have left over. You'll both get a better feel for how far you can go and you'll see how the range estimate will adjust itself over the course of your longer trips.

 

[cossie1600]

Here is a simple test, crank the heat to 90 degree and see if you actually get heat or just regular air. There is no way you can get 50 miles more driving with the AC off vs. on. That's too much. Even if your heater isn't bad, something else is going on. At most you should get is 10-20 miles.

 

[SanFranZiggy]

I thought I posted this, but I have not seen it in New Posts.
So, again...
I'm retired, and drive my leased RAV4 EV mostly in S.F.
Occasionally a trip to East Bay or down to Stanford for sports events.
So I often choose Extended Charge mode.
When I do...after a few hours of 240v juice, my range shows as 96 miles or so.
Once or twice I cracked 100. Max was 112 miles.
I was happy because I need about 90 miles for a r/t to Stanford.

But the last few attempts at Extended Charge,
have only netted me about 75 or 76 miles!
Bummer. New Range Anxiety.
With only 6k miles on my odometer, has my Tesla battery lost its ability for Extended Charge?
Anyone else had this problem?
Advice?

 

[evbuddy]

I think there is something wrong with the battery pack. With extended charge, in summer, 100+ miles is given. I get ~120M with normal charge in summer.

Take it to the dealer.

 

[Dsinned]

What is your average miles per kWh reading? Just to see if you "electronics" is working properly, after you complete your next extended charge, try disconnecting your (12V) battery terminals for a few minutes, then reconnect. This resets the GoM and applies a default of something like 3.4 miles per kWh, which should result in a range display of ~142 miles.

 

[miimura]

Your issue has nothing to do with the ability to do an extended charge or the state of the battery itself. The range reading is a reflection of the efficiency of your recent driving.

For that reason, your post was moved to the thread All Posts about the Distance To Empty "GOM" Range Meter

 

[Tee2]

An odd thing has been happening over the past several days. Normally when I leave for work after doing an overnight standard charge, the car tells me I've got around 96 or so miles available. Lately this number has been increasing a little more each day, until this morning the car showed 110 miles on a standard charge. I'm sure I'm not adding more than the standard charge amount so I'm wondering if maybe the battery is "breaking in" or something since I've only had the vehicle for about 6 weeks and I can't figure out how else the range is slowly creeping up.

Anyone else seen this?

 

[kiwiguy]

The GOM (Guess-O-Meter) is essentially a random number generator!
You can't rely on it for much. Mine ranges from 82 to 110.

In theory though, you are either driving more efficiently, or the weather is cooling down which increases battery range.
Check your miles/kwh on the Entune dashboard and see if it is increasing.

 

[jimbo69ny]

The range displayed has been coined as our "GOM" ie Guess O Meter.

Do not put much faith in this number. The change could be that you are driving more efficiently but it could also be the ambient temperature change. Either way, dont rely on it. Based on the info that I have received (still a new owner myself) you want to reset your trip odometer and track your mileage in between charges. You will grow accustomed to how far you can go in your daily commute.

A better way may be to use the chart that TonyWilliams created

It helped me out on my first road trip and I plan on referring to it many more times. Its a great resource to use on longer trips.

 

[TonyWilliams]

... the weather is cooling down which increases battery range.
Check your miles/kwh on the Entune dashboard and see if it is increasing.

The weather cooling the battery does NOT increase range. The battery will have less capacity when cold (the same for ANY battery) plus there will be increased consumption when the battery heater comes on.

 

[Tee2]

An odd thing has been happening over the past several days. Normally when I leave for work after doing an overnight standard charge, the car tells me I've got around 96 or so miles available. Lately this number has been increasing a little more each day, until this morning the car showed 110 miles on a standard charge. I'm sure I'm not adding more than the standard charge amount so I'm wondering if maybe the battery is "breaking in" or something since I've only had the vehicle for about 6 weeks and I can't figure out how else the range is slowly creeping up.

Anyone else seen this?

 

[Kohler Controller]

You are becoming a better driver and the car is predicting a better range accordingly. That or the temperature has been gradually warming over the same period.