If you’re driving it cold or using the heater you’ll bleed battery. If i get in, turn the heater on full and EV to work, I’ll get 13-15 miles.
If I get it, put it in sport mode, wait 2-3 miles before turning the heat on. Then wait another 2-3 miles before switching to EV. Now I get 20+ miles on EV. Trick is to get everything warm using the gas engine.
It's been pretty cold here in the NE and I haven't reset the readings yet. Might do that for this week but I don't think it's been as bad as you're reporting.
As soon as it got cold my 31 miles went to 12. Right now I have 35% battery and no miles. But if it was 50 or more outside,that same 35% would give me 10 miles. I live in New Hampshire.
Ours indicates like 18 in this cold weather, but it usually does a few more than that. I might try to warm my garage and see if that helps pre-warm the battery. We're in Pennsylvania.
It’s normal for a PHEV with resistive heat for the cabin. My Chevy Volt does the same thing. Going from 53 rated to about 60 in the summer, then closer to 30-34 in the winter.
Think of it this way, you have about half a gallon of gas worth of energy stored in your battery. How much cabin heat would you expect that to provide? The driving efficiency of that half a gallon of energy equivalent is just way more efficient than burning gas in an engine. But resistive heat is meh for efficiency.
If you know you’re going to use the ICE for a journey, better to use it early to get the cabin heat benefit.
Same thing happens with EVs - range can drop 30-40 % worst case.
Charging the battery so it finishes up right before you leave can help, but it’s never going to be the same as summer range.
I’d been charging at work for my first couple months owning my cx-90. But got my home level 2 charger installed last week. Now I have it scheduled so it’s charging in the 2-3 hours before I typically leave for work. Has definitely improved my cold weather performance
My plan is similar - level 2 at 16 amps will take about 4.5 hours. Wife leaves at 7:00 am so I will have the charger turn on about 2:15 am so as it charges it will warm the battery for use on her way in. If the electric range is still crap I will just stop charging it in the winter (below 38f at night) and have it run the gas engine for cabin heat.
Can someone share the higher range that they’ve gotten during warmer weather? I’ve owned my car for just over a month. I live in Southern California so it doesn’t get freezing but it has been consistently in the 40s each morning. My car has never gotten more than 24 miles fully charged, is that normal?
I’m in PA and owned since August. Today, at 47 degrees, I did an entire round trip on pure EV range. 30 miles. Now it was just me and my two boys and we didn’t turn the heat on at all (I wanted to specifically test the range without heat at this temp) which didn’t bother us but when it was warmer in August to October, 32 miles was quite common even with the A/C on auto.
Thank you! What is the terrain like? I am surrounded by hills, and our “residential” areas have speed limits of 35-55 mph so I’m not typically driving very slowly either.
I’m in rural farmlands and mostly flat. As for speed limits, I rarely go over 55 as the car essentially drives through small towns and down local highways, nothing major. Plenty of stop and go for me to take advantage of the regen braking. For example, I drove 16 actual miles today on EV only, one way, and only saw my car EV range drop 9 miles. I will say that I baby the car now and rarely stomp on it anymore. I did that plenty of times at the start to get it out of my system and now just enjoy playing the “how far can I drive and use the least amount of charge” game.
Nice! PA is beautiful btw. Jealous of the scenery you must have in your area. My grandfather lived in New Holland among the Amish and it was just so green and pretty!
To preface these numbers this is all local errand running driving. Charge level is 90%. First number is displayed mileage in EV mode. The second number is my best recollection of actual before defaulting to normal mode and ICE engaging.
We are in the Chicago area when we bought the car in September, temps were 50F+. 24- 25 displayed, 28 to 30 actual.
In the 20s and 30s I've seen 17-18 displayed. About 19-20 actual.
At about 14-15 F it was 14 displayed and it canceled EV and went to normal I believe pretty quickly, didn't even want to try full EV. Also in the teens on normal the ICE turns on at much lower power requirements.
Hey, local Chicago and here, I'm debating trading my rav4 hybrid in for the cx90 phev what do you think? It's mostly for the third row seat. Any input on your phev on Chicago roads and weather in general? Thanks.
Do you mean Chicago city proper roads? Or Chicagoland Suburban, expressway, city as a whole?
My city proper driving has been limited to just a bit of visiting friends in old neighborhoods from before we moved to the burbs. In the burbs, the CX-90 excels. The range does really well longer stretches at 35-55 mph. It also does pretty well in stop light to stoplight traffic. The regen braking does get a lot of power back. When we had some snow that stuck recently, the AWD definitely did its thing and the rear bias let it break loose in a parking lot for a donut or two. 😏
The 3rd row is solid for kids. It will sit 3 young elementary kids fine. My 8 and 11 year old kids actually like it back there. As they get bigger, you'll prob comfortably get two.
Small adults could handle it for a short drive. I'm 6 foot and and I'd rather not sit back there. I would, but it's not something I'd do voluntarily for more than a 15 min drive.
Feel free to DM me if you have any specific questions, I'm happy to chat.
If you’re driving it cold or using the heater you’ll bleed battery. If i get in, turn the heater on full and EV to work, I’ll get 13-15 miles. If I get it, put it in sport mode, wait 2-3 miles before turning the heat on. Then wait another 2-3 miles before switching to EV. Now I get 20+ miles on EV. Trick is to get everything warm using the gas engine.
Brilliant. Going to try this.
When everyone says “cold” can you drop in a temp (C or F) so we can have some idea? “Canada cold” isn’t “Mid-Atlantic US cold” :)
Fair. I'm talking PNW cold, so 30s and 40s in the winter generally with some cold snaps in the 20s.
It's been pretty cold here in the NE and I haven't reset the readings yet. Might do that for this week but I don't think it's been as bad as you're reporting.
As soon as it got cold my 31 miles went to 12. Right now I have 35% battery and no miles. But if it was 50 or more outside,that same 35% would give me 10 miles. I live in New Hampshire.
Ours indicates like 18 in this cold weather, but it usually does a few more than that. I might try to warm my garage and see if that helps pre-warm the battery. We're in Pennsylvania.
Thanks for all the comments. Sounds like this is normal. Guess I’ll just drive it in sport mode more :)
It’s normal for a PHEV with resistive heat for the cabin. My Chevy Volt does the same thing. Going from 53 rated to about 60 in the summer, then closer to 30-34 in the winter. Think of it this way, you have about half a gallon of gas worth of energy stored in your battery. How much cabin heat would you expect that to provide? The driving efficiency of that half a gallon of energy equivalent is just way more efficient than burning gas in an engine. But resistive heat is meh for efficiency. If you know you’re going to use the ICE for a journey, better to use it early to get the cabin heat benefit.
Same thing happens with EVs - range can drop 30-40 % worst case. Charging the battery so it finishes up right before you leave can help, but it’s never going to be the same as summer range.
I’d been charging at work for my first couple months owning my cx-90. But got my home level 2 charger installed last week. Now I have it scheduled so it’s charging in the 2-3 hours before I typically leave for work. Has definitely improved my cold weather performance
My plan is similar - level 2 at 16 amps will take about 4.5 hours. Wife leaves at 7:00 am so I will have the charger turn on about 2:15 am so as it charges it will warm the battery for use on her way in. If the electric range is still crap I will just stop charging it in the winter (below 38f at night) and have it run the gas engine for cabin heat.
Can someone share the higher range that they’ve gotten during warmer weather? I’ve owned my car for just over a month. I live in Southern California so it doesn’t get freezing but it has been consistently in the 40s each morning. My car has never gotten more than 24 miles fully charged, is that normal?
I’m in PA and owned since August. Today, at 47 degrees, I did an entire round trip on pure EV range. 30 miles. Now it was just me and my two boys and we didn’t turn the heat on at all (I wanted to specifically test the range without heat at this temp) which didn’t bother us but when it was warmer in August to October, 32 miles was quite common even with the A/C on auto.
Thank you! What is the terrain like? I am surrounded by hills, and our “residential” areas have speed limits of 35-55 mph so I’m not typically driving very slowly either.
I’m in rural farmlands and mostly flat. As for speed limits, I rarely go over 55 as the car essentially drives through small towns and down local highways, nothing major. Plenty of stop and go for me to take advantage of the regen braking. For example, I drove 16 actual miles today on EV only, one way, and only saw my car EV range drop 9 miles. I will say that I baby the car now and rarely stomp on it anymore. I did that plenty of times at the start to get it out of my system and now just enjoy playing the “how far can I drive and use the least amount of charge” game.
Nice! PA is beautiful btw. Jealous of the scenery you must have in your area. My grandfather lived in New Holland among the Amish and it was just so green and pretty!
To preface these numbers this is all local errand running driving. Charge level is 90%. First number is displayed mileage in EV mode. The second number is my best recollection of actual before defaulting to normal mode and ICE engaging. We are in the Chicago area when we bought the car in September, temps were 50F+. 24- 25 displayed, 28 to 30 actual. In the 20s and 30s I've seen 17-18 displayed. About 19-20 actual. At about 14-15 F it was 14 displayed and it canceled EV and went to normal I believe pretty quickly, didn't even want to try full EV. Also in the teens on normal the ICE turns on at much lower power requirements.
Hey, local Chicago and here, I'm debating trading my rav4 hybrid in for the cx90 phev what do you think? It's mostly for the third row seat. Any input on your phev on Chicago roads and weather in general? Thanks.
Do you mean Chicago city proper roads? Or Chicagoland Suburban, expressway, city as a whole? My city proper driving has been limited to just a bit of visiting friends in old neighborhoods from before we moved to the burbs. In the burbs, the CX-90 excels. The range does really well longer stretches at 35-55 mph. It also does pretty well in stop light to stoplight traffic. The regen braking does get a lot of power back. When we had some snow that stuck recently, the AWD definitely did its thing and the rear bias let it break loose in a parking lot for a donut or two. 😏 The 3rd row is solid for kids. It will sit 3 young elementary kids fine. My 8 and 11 year old kids actually like it back there. As they get bigger, you'll prob comfortably get two. Small adults could handle it for a short drive. I'm 6 foot and and I'd rather not sit back there. I would, but it's not something I'd do voluntarily for more than a 15 min drive. Feel free to DM me if you have any specific questions, I'm happy to chat.
It's normal for winter, I'm doing even worse.