Hello everyone! New member here, so here’s my first post:
There’s a significant need within the EV community (and beyond) for more accurate range calculations.
I drive an E-GMP vehicle (Hyundai Ioniq 5), and like many EVs from various manufacturers, it displays a predicted range. Unfortunately, these predictions are often inaccurate, leading to confusion and frustration among drivers. What EV drivers truly need is a tool that can calculate range more accurately and in real time.
For example, in E-GMP cars, the predicted range is based on a weighted average of the past week's driving patterns. This approach is far from ideal, as it doesn’t always reflect current driving conditions. It can become particularly misleading during road trips, where efficiency differs significantly from city driving, leaving drivers unprepared and sometimes unable to reach a charger or destination.
Proposed Solution:
Real-time Range Calculation: Calculate range based on real-time efficiency and remaining battery capacity. Efficiency could be a rolling average over a user-defined distance (e.g., 5 miles), with the display showing the available range for the current and nearby efficiency values. Various graphs could show this in intuitive ways.
Trip Predictions: When a destination is set, show an estimated state of charge (SOC) upon arrival, including warnings if the destination isn’t reachable at the current efficiency.
Performance Insights: An accompanying tool could analyze vehicle performance to refine range predictions. This tool would collect and analyze data on key parameters like speed, tire pressure, outdoor temperature, HVAC usage, 12V load, wind speed and elevation (via external databases), etc. This data could be used to improve real-time calculations and offer insights into how different driving conditions impact efficiency.
Key Benefits:
The app could answer critical questions like:
- Will I make it to my destination with my desired energy reserve?
- Do I need to adjust my driving to reach my destination safely?
There are other tools out there that partially cover some of these aspects but not in one solution. Also, there might be special considerations based on the vehicle and destination that need to be taken into account, such as automatic HV battery preconditioning which will affect efficiency and thus range.
By helping drivers make better-informed decisions, this tool could significantly enhance the EV driving experience. While it’s more complex than simply displaying a PID value, it has the potential to make a substantial impact on how EV drivers manage their journeys.
Thanks so much for your consideration!