[krypttic]

I would get between 40 and 43 mile electric range when it was warmer. Now that’s it’s colder, the range has dropped to 35-38 miles. Batteries don’t like the cold and running the climate control doesn’t help either.

[dwwStL]

Originally Posted by krypttic

I would get between 40 and 43 mile electric range when it was warmer. Now that’s it’s colder, the range has dropped to 35-38 miles. Batteries don’t like the cold and running the climate control doesn’t help either.

This is my experience as well. The extreme cold has really knocked down the full charge mileage.

[jad03060]

Preconditioning while still plugged in helps. Sort trips where it can cool off in between hurts.

[dmdmd]

Here's a follow up having now gone through 1 season in Missouri. We saw -11 F degree for a short snap, now back to 40-60 F deg.

The advice given on this thread is right on. Heating the cabin/seats/steering wheel really do impact considerably. At one point a full charge only reported 30 miles. Now, with the climate settings off and driving in 60 F weather, it's back to 43 miles.

[JMD]

Originally Posted by jad03060

Through the various threads, this has been discussed lots of times.

But, while people often think cooling with the a/c system is a big energy hog, it's not as bad as heating on an electrical system. The a/c system can move about 3W of heat out with 1W power from the battery to the compressor. For heating, 1W out of the battery only produces 1W of heat. Now, if they used a heat pump in this model, it would often be more efficient, but while BMW does offer them in some full EVs, they don't on the PHEVs (yet). My i3 had a heat pump with auxiliary resistance heat backup. All the X5 PHEVs have is resistance heat.

Every watt that is used for heating whether it's the cabin, seats, steering wheel, mirrors, armrests, rear window, means there's less left to move the vehicle with the EV motor...precondition while still plugged in, and you can minimize the range loss. Level 1 at 10A might still not be enough to keep the battery full, but it'll be much closer when you leave if still plugged in.

I noticed this too,...when cabin preheating is used,...the range is down a few miles. I would prefer it if BMW would provide an update which allowed owners to select between ICE for for conditioning the vehicle via tradition Remote Start or use of the HVB. I personally would prefer using the ICE for preconditioning.

Edit: Hmm, I just thought on this a bit,...and if I recall, I don't believe the A/C compressor is powered/driven by the ICE; so therefore, Remote Starting the ICE wouldn't precondition the cabin! So, I don't know what kind of trickery they could implement for using the ICE to preconditioning the cabin.