[Darrow]

Heating the cabin uses lots. Steering wheel and seat heaters, immeasurably low compared with normal driving.

Thanks, when you say lots is it like 10 miles, 20 miles etc? I can charge for free at work but I dont want to get home with 40 miles of range and then find I lose 20 heating the cabin when I need 30 to get to work!

 

[Darrow]

It’s not as much as you might expect, as all P4s use heat pumps for cabin heating which are very efficient compared to resistive heaters. However, if there’s only one occupant, heating the air in the cabin is not the best way to operate, instead seat and steering wheel heaters have almost no losses as they’re heating the touchpoints. If you don‘t want to go all extreme and use only heated seats & steering wheeel, then you can turn off all the air vents except for the driver.

Thanks. I was thinking more about heating the interior to de-ice the windows before I get in each morning rather than for ambient temp

 

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Exactly… if you leave it plugged in at night, set a departure timer for the days you drive to work and the battery will still be at target and the cabin will be warm when you depart.

Thanks. I was asking as I want to avoid charging at home if I can help it as its free at work. I just didn't want to cut it fine leaving the car with a moderate number of miles of charge only to wake up to find the heating had dipped me under the number of miles I need to get to work. I'll check it myself when I get it and then I'll know.

 

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This will change throughout the year, and there are too many variables. It will depend on the outside temperature, how long that car has been sat since the previous drive and so on.

I'd suggest leaving things so tight that using the heating will leave you without enough range to get to work is not a smart move! I mean, what if there's a road closure or something?

I'd wait until you get it and do your own testing.

Exactly, hence my question! I don't want to have to wait around for it to charge in the morning on a 7kWh home charger. I'm obviously not going to set off blindly with my fingers crossed. I was just asking what experiences people had. I can appreciate it will depend somewhat on the ambient temperature etc but its not going to swing wildly so I was wondering what people had seen from leaving it overnight as per my original post. No one seems to be able to answer the actual question though so I will wait and see and post the answer to my own question when I get my car

 

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I'm not being difficult - I honestly don't think anyone can answer this in a meaningful way.

I've had a look at my data (I log everything via Home Assistant) and I can see that my last three pre-conditioning cycles cost me 3%, 4% and 3% of battery charge if that helps.

Thats a great help, thanks for taking the time to check.

 

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Thanks, so 10% is likely a safe enough margin for mid-winter so I will assume I could lose 20 miles as I am assuming 200 mile range worse-case for my LRDM Performance with 22" wheels. My journey to work is 30 miles to if I leave 60 miles I should be safe. I'll see what it does in practice though of course. Thanks

 

[Darrow]

I'd be amazed if your range is anything close to as low as 200 miles. I get 300 out of mine (albeit on the standard wheels).

I agree, I am expecting 250-260 ish, I was just erring on the safe side

 

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Make sure it’s full charged before leaving work everyday. At 60 miles round trip, you have plenty of range for running around after work, and warming cabin. Warming is same as cooling since it’s using a heat pump, very efficient.

Some question that make a difference. Typical winter temp?, parked inside or out? Per kWh charge for home use (should you need to)?

Overall, think you’ll find no range anxiety with a 30 mile one way work trip, ability to charge at work, and home charger if you need (likely on weekend depending on how much driving you do).

How did you handle this scenario with a petrol vehicle?

Thanks. Its not a major issue for me, I was just interested to know how much it used. I work at home Friday and Monday so I can leave work with a full charge on Thursday night, get home with about 220 miles of range (pessimistically) and then ideally I don't need to charge again until I get to work on Tuesday morning (which requires at least 30 miles of range). This means I have around 190 miles of range to use across Friday to Monday (less any heating/cooling). With what I have heard here I should stick as little juice as I can at home on Monday night to ensure I wake up with 30-40 miles of range on Tuesday morning to get me to work. When I had a petrol engine I ran it to the orange light (and beyond at times) safe in the knowledge that regardless of whether I was at home or on the way to work I was never more than a few miles/minutes from a petrol pump (my fuel was free as I have a company fuel card) and filling up would take less than 5 minutes. A very different experience to driving a battery operated car which might need 15-30 minutes to charge if I can find a charge point!

 

[Darrow]

Don’t think leaving yourself 30-40 miles on a 30 mile drive is enough.

Do you have high electric rates at home? Since they paid for petrol, would they reirburse for energy?

Just normal rates although I'm on Ovo and they've just changed everything so that if you charge rarely its much more expensive. Like I said its not a major issue, I can afford to charge it myself, I would just rather buy a bottle of wine with the money instead!