COMMUTING

[Terry R]

I am considering buying a Honda e. It's primary role will be for my daily commute. This is a 50 mile round trip. Non motorway.

I have no experience of EV cars and would plan to charge every day over night.

I have read some of the posts regarding cold temperature and the effect on the car performance.

Assuming an outside temp of below 0 degrees C and using the car heater could I expect a reduction of range in the region of 50%.

I only ask this as this could cause me to consider an EV with longer range.

That would be a shame as I think the Honda e looks a fun car to drive and make the daily grind more enjoyable.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

[MattHero]

Terry, that sort of non motorway roundtrip will be effortless even in the depths of a UK (?) Winter without even needing a daily charge.

[londiniumperson]

There are a coupe of us with a similar distance commute, mine is 50 round trip most motorway and driving in the range of 65- 70mph (GPS, not speedo) I never got worse than 2.7m/kWh (100% down to about 40% of battery charge), so easily 70 miles on a full charge and that would with the heater at 21.5C, seats & steering wheel on and also a 2x20 min pre-heat whilst on battery, not whilst charging.
Though on short drives of about 3 miles round trip I would often only get 1.2m/kWh, not surprising with the pre-heat, heater, seats & steering wheel on, so nice and toasty.

[Mirco29]

There are a coupe of us with a similar distance commute, mine is 50 round trip most motorway and driving in the range of 65- 70mph (GPS, not speedo) I never got worse than 2.7m/kWh (100% down to about 40% of battery charge), so easily 70 miles on a full charge and that would with the heater at 21.5C, seats & steering wheel on and also a 2x20 min pre-heat whilst on battery, not whilst charging.
Though on short drives of about 3 miles round trip I would often only get 1.2m/kWh, not surprising with the pre-heat, heater, seats & steering wheel on, so nice and toasty.

How do you get pre-heat to work? I just got the car, tried setting it to start at 7.50 for 10 minutes, but when I get in the car at 8 it doesn't seem to have worked. Do I need to keep the AC on when I turn off the car at night so it's ready for pre-heat?

[ZoeDave]

There are a coupe of us with a similar distance commute, mine is 50 round trip most motorway and driving in the range of 65- 70mph (GPS, not speedo) I never got worse than 2.7m/kWh (100% down to about 40% of battery charge), so easily 70 miles on a full charge and that would with the heater at 21.5C, seats & steering wheel on and also a 2x20 min pre-heat whilst on battery, not whilst charging.
Though on short drives of about 3 miles round trip I would often only get 1.2m/kWh, not surprising with the pre-heat, heater, seats & steering wheel on, so nice and toasty.

How do you get pre-heat to work? I just got the car, tried setting it to start at 7.50 for 10 minutes, but when I get in the car at 8 it doesn't seem to have worked. Do I need to keep the AC on when I turn off the car at night so it's ready for pre-heat?

This is the one thing I use the app for - it takes about 30s, but does the job. You can also use the fob, but I think you have to press the lock button first before holding down the climate button for a few seconds (others might correct me on the exact button dance required)

[Mirco29]

This is the one thing I use the app for - it takes about 30s, but does the job. You can also use the fob, but I think you have to press the lock button first before holding down the climate button for a few seconds (others might correct me on the exact button dance required)

Fair enough, as I'm the 2nd owner I'd have to pay for those functions in the App so I was trying to understand how to set it up in the car before eventually buying the remote control thing...
How do you set it on the phone? Set a time and that's it?

[milligoon]

When plugged in using the pre heat option, I set it to Warmer usually does the trick for me may as well set it for the full 30 minutes if it's hovering around zero. I use it from the pre heat menu option in the app at whatever time I require to leave for the shift I am on. If at work without it being plugged in I set it for 20 minutes, I have a 40 mile round trip each day.

[londiniumperson]

It was 'ZoeDave', not me that posted this:

How do you get pre-heat to work? I just got the car, tried setting it to start at 7.50 for 10 minutes, but when I get in the car at 8 it doesn't seem to have worked. Do I need to keep the AC on when I turn off the car at night so it's ready for pre-heat?

This is the one thing I use the app for - it takes about 30s, but does the job. You can also use the fob, but I think you have to press the lock button first before holding down the climate button for a few seconds (others might correct me on the exact button dance required)

Anyway I can confirm that you'll need to press the lock button, then the climate button within 5 seconds:

Fair enough, as I'm the 2nd owner I'd have to pay for those functions in the App so I was trying to understand how to set it up in the car before eventually buying the remote control thing...
How do you set it on the phone? Set a time and that's it?

You should already have two of the 'remote control thing' when you got the car, how do you unlock the car without a key fob?

[Mirco29]

It was 'ZoeDave', not me that posted this:

How do you get pre-heat to work? I just got the car, tried setting it to start at 7.50 for 10 minutes, but when I get in the car at 8 it doesn't seem to have worked. Do I need to keep the AC on when I turn off the car at night so it's ready for pre-heat?

This is the one thing I use the app for - it takes about 30s, but does the job. You can also use the fob, but I think you have to press the lock button first before holding down the climate button for a few seconds (others might correct me on the exact button dance required)

Anyway I can confirm that you'll need to press the lock button, then the climate button within 5 seconds:
Remote Climate Pre-Conditioning.png

Fair enough, as I'm the 2nd owner I'd have to pay for those functions in the App so I was trying to understand how to set it up in the car before eventually buying the remote control thing...
How do you set it on the phone? Set a time and that's it?

You should already have two of the 'remote control thing' when you got the car, how do you unlock the car without a key fob?

I was talking about the App, if I wanna use pre-heating via the app I have to pay because 2nd owner doesn't get it for free.
I read the lock/climate button but I think that's to turn the AC on at any time?
It wouldn't make much sense if I'm not close to the car and I still want the pre-heating to work

[advance2020]

I am considering buying a Honda e. It's primary role will be for my daily commute. This is a 50 mile round trip. Non motorway.

I have no experience of EV cars and would plan to charge every day over night.

I have read some of the posts regarding cold temperature and the effect on the car performance.

Assuming an outside temp of below 0 degrees C and using the car heater could I expect a reduction of range in the region of 50%.

I only ask this as this could cause me to consider an EV with longer range.

That would be a shame as I think the Honda e looks a fun car to drive and make the daily grind more enjoyable.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Of course we don’t often get very cold temps in UK, but my advice would be to pre-heat your car, while it is still plugged in charging*, just so you don’t use battery to heat your car. Once warm, heated steering wheel and heated seats don’t use a lot of power and will help you keep warm, especially until your battery warms up - ie while driving.
I don’t rely on App, I use Climate Schedule in EV menu.

as others have said, do this, and range will not be an issue. A reduction in range of 50% is overly pessimistic. Perhaps a 20% loss unless you are driving in only a t-shirt!

*if you normally recharge overnight, in the early hours, at a reduced cost tariff, then just set your charger schedule for 30-40mins as an addition top up around the time you need to warm the car warmed up. This what I do if I need to warm up the car.