Cold weather economy

[Behgy]

Just filled the car up with juice today and done the necessary calculations to check on economy and am pretty disappointed at how crap the figures are in the cold.

Back in the mild weather of October i got 620 miles out of the first tank of petrol and used £18.75 worth of electric. If my sums are correct that works out to be approximately equivalent to 64 MPG (£18.75/£1.25 per litre = 15 litre equivalent, 15 + 29 litres added to top tank back up = 44, 44 litres/4.54 = 9.69 Gallons, 620 miles/9.69 gallons = 63.98 mpg).

Just gone through the same exercise with similar driving style & distances and got approximately 35 MPG
(£19.84/£1.25 = 15.87, 15.87 + 32 litres = 47.87, 47.87/4.54 = 10.54, 371 miles/10.54 =35.19 mpg)

I know that petrol has come down somewhat in price but in order to show a true comparison i've kept the same price per litre in both of the above.

I'm happy to admit that i do like to keep warm with the heater but never kick the arse out of it and the air conditioning/heated seats are never on. I also appreciate that the lights are on more often and the battery may not be as efficient when cold. However that is a massive drop in performance!

I'm happy to be corrected on my maths if i've made an error.

I assume that everyone else is suffering the same in the UK with the cold?

Cheers

 

[maby]

That is a bit more of a difference than I would have expected. I was getting about 55mpg in late September when we got the car (was still pretty warm weather) and am seeing high thirties now. But, yes, your running costs do go up very significantly in cold weather. You need to consider the economics of the car over a full year.

 

[maby]

P.S. to have got 620 miles out of a tank, you must be running on EV a lot - and EV performance suffers more than petrol performance in cold weather. I tend to get around 350 miles out of a tank - my travelling is primarily on petrol - that may be why I am seeing less of a degradation in performance in cold weather.

 

[maddogsetc]

Just filled the car up with juice today and done the necessary calculations to check on economy and am pretty disappointed at how crap the figures are in the cold.

Back in the mild weather of October i got 620 miles out of the first tank of petrol and used £18.75 worth of electric. If my sums are correct that works out to be approximately equivalent to 64 MPG (£18.75/£1.25 per litre = 15 litre equivalent, 15 + 29 litres added to top tank back up = 44, 44 litres/4.54 = 9.69 Gallons, 620 miles/9.69 gallons = 63.98 mpg).

Just gone through the same exercise with similar driving style & distances and got approximately 35 MPG
(£19.84/£1.25 = 15.87, 15.87 + 32 litres = 47.87, 47.87/4.54 = 10.54, 371 miles/10.54 =35.19 mpg)

I know that petrol has come down somewhat in price but in order to show a true comparison i've kept the same price per litre in both of the above.

I'm happy to admit that i do like to keep warm with the heater but never kick the arse out of it and the air conditioning/heated seats are never on. I also appreciate that the lights are on more often and the battery may not be as efficient when cold. However that is a massive drop in performance!

I'm happy to be corrected on my maths if i've made an error.

I assume that everyone else is suffering the same in the UK with the cold?

Cheers

You're doing better than me.

Since 29th Dec I've filled up 3 times and each tank has got me 432, 374 and 363 miles respectively.

In October & November last year I filled up 3 times and those tanks got me 1755, 617 and 844 miles.

Charge cost for Oct/Nov/Dec were all virtually the same and January is on target to match at around £60 (based on a fairly pessimistic 15p/KWh).

So the same cost (ignoring petrol price fluctuations) has got me barely 36% of the distance. Roll on Spring!

 

[DrSlackBladder]

I'm happy to admit that i do like to keep warm with the heater but never kick the arse out of it and the air conditioning/heated seats are never on.

Cheers

Use the seat heaters to warm you up rather than the cabin heating all the time.....uses much less power. I still get a good 600-700 miles per tank of petrol, but I charge at each end of my daily commute of 20 miles each way, so mostly EV driving. But yes, I barely manage the commute on a full battery in the winter, back in mild November when I got the car I managed it with a few miles to spare, hoping that in the Spring I'll get a few more miles out of a charge!