Displayed efficiency versus actual

[ASub]

My Lucid Air battery is losing nearly 30% more than distance driven. I bought it in August and have driven just over 2,000 miles. Why is this happening and what can i do to get better mileage.

 

[Bobby]

My Lucid Air battery is losing nearly 30% more than distance driven. I bought it in August and have driven just over 2,000 miles. Why is this happening and what can i do to get better mileage.

Much info about this can be found at www.lucidupdates.com in the FAQ.

 

[Tym]

Ideal range is what’s being displayed.

It isn’t including environmental impacts such as flat road, perfect weather, gentle driving.

 

[Amster]

Ideal range is what’s being displayed.

It isn’t including environmental impacts such as flat road, perfect weather, gentle driving.

That is true. If you get on a relatively even road on a clear day and drive a steady 65 to 70 and do not speed up quickly, you will see every one of the stated miles. I tested mine last year just to see it with my own eyes. I don't drive that way normally, so yes, I lose about 25% of the stated miles. This is my first full EV, but I had a PHEV before this and was losing about 20% of the stated battery range. So it wasn't a surprise to me.

 

[Sam6062]

It just means you are driving this Car the way it was meant to be driven and what they said above. Over 8.5K Miles my avg is 3.1

 

[EZEVDriver]

Yesterday, I did a roundtrip to LA. Not much traffic, set it to 70mph and forgot about it. With a few slowdowns to 30mph, my efficiency was 4.5 kw/mi roundtrip. Those slowdowns, unless they are stop-and-start are great for efficiency. So I second what the other posters are saying - you can get the advertised efficiency, but you need efficient driving habits to do it.

 

[borski]

So I second what the other posters are saying - you can get the advertised efficiency, but you need efficient driving habits to do it.

… and that’s no fun! jk

 

[Amster]

… and that’s no fun! jk

No joking about it. What's the fun in that?

 

[AwesoM]

We did 350 miles over the weekend. We drove from Richmond to DC to Skyline Drive to Charlottesville back to Richmond. Trip started with relatively flat to hilly highways to secondary roads. Driving the way I wanted we averaged 3.8. Admittedly it was very spirited going to DC, going through Skyline was more tamed, Charlottesville to Richmond was spirited again. Temp
Outside was 60s if I remember correctly AC was set 69-70 blower 3 in front and back. Hope it helps.

 

[Mel]

My Lucid Air battery is losing nearly 30% more than distance driven. I bought it in August and have driven just over 2,000 miles. Why is this happening and what can i do to get better mileage.

This morning, when it was 24 f, I left home this morning with a charge of 423 miles. I returned home after driving a total of 20 miles. My display shows my mileage inventory to be down to 368 miles, meaning i spent 55 inventoried miles to travel 20 miles, almost 3 to 1. I live in the Chicago area and expect to experience temperatures below zero over the next several months. It's got me worried.

 

[DeaneG]

This morning, when it was 24 f, I left home this morning with a charge of 423 miles. I returned home after driving a total of 20 miles. My display shows my mileage inventory to be down to 368 miles, meaning i spent 55 inventoried miles to travel 20 miles, almost 3 to 1. I live in the Chicago area and expect to experience temperatures below zero over the next several months. It's got me worried.

Short trips will use more energy than long trips, and cold-weather short trips much more, ad energy is spent bringing the car to temperature.

 

[McGriddle]

With the way I drive, I'm certainly in the -30% worse camp!

 

[Bobby]

This morning, when it was 24 f, I left home this morning with a charge of 423 miles. I returned home after driving a total of 20 miles. My display shows my mileage inventory to be down to 368 miles, meaning i spent 55 inventoried miles to travel 20 miles, almost 3 to 1. I live in the Chicago area and expect to experience temperatures below zero over the next several months. It's got me worried.

Take a moment to read the FAQ about range on lucidupdates.com. You will find that the range indicator in the car has more to do with EPA than actual driving. Frankly, it’s not to be trusted. It’s one of Lucid‘s greatest fails if you ask me. Anyhow, many have recommended changing it to the percentage display doing your own calculations based on current efficiency. Yes, I wish Lucid would do that for us, but it does not.

 

[Pragmatic]

You likely used 5 kw-hr to drive the 20 miles and 7 kw-hr (24,000 btus) to heat the cabin and battery (1.75 miles/kw-hr)

If you drove an additional 20 miles you would have used another 5 kw-hr to drive and 1 kw-hr to keep the car warm. This second leg would be at 3.3 mile/kw-hr.

For the 40 miles you would have used 10 kw-hr to move the car and 8 kw-hr to be warm (2.2 mile/kw-hr).

 

[hmp10]

For me, it's all very simple. We have an Air Dream Performance on 21" wheels (EPA rated at 451 miles). On a road trip I plan charging stops as close to the 230-250 mile mark as feasible. At the 80 mph speed at which I'm most comfortable driving on major highways, that means about 3 hours between stops, which is all my back and bladder can take. I charge up to 95% on such trips and, even with occasional bursts to higher speeds for passing, I never arrive at a charger with less than 25-30% of range remaining (which is a buffer for weather conditions, detours, or unforeseen traffic events).

In short, I drive the Air as I have driven any of the numerous ICE vehicles I've owned -- enjoying the car's power, never thinking about hypermiling, and not stopping any more often than with an ICE car.

There is no other EV in which I could do this with confidence.

For local driving -- which is the vast bulk of my driving -- it's even easier. I have never had to charge away from the house, no matter how much time I spent running around.

 

[AwesoM]

It would be nice that the GOM reflect the average based on the last charge versus showing the EPA number. With our BMW it updates it based on my average and not what it thinks I should be getting. I don’t even look at the miles, rather I look at percentage of charge, look at my average KW/h for the current charge to give me a more accurate number. With temps around 33, I have been losing about 30%, which is about 280-300 miles per charge… which is normal. In ICE cars you get less miles per tank when cold as well.

 

[Bobby]

It would be nice that the GOM reflect the average based on the last charge versus showing the EPA number. With our BMW it updates it based on my average and not what it thinks I should be getting. I don’t even look at the miles, rather I look at percentage of charge, look at my average KW/h for the current charge to give me a more accurate number. With temps around 33, I have been losing about 30%, which is about 280-300 miles per charge… which is normal. In ICE cars you get less miles per tank when cold as well.

This has been very high on the wishlist for a couple of years, and as far as I know they are not planning on changing it. So, it’s a good idea to display in percentage and do some mental math. Remember this: you’re not losing 30%… you’re not losing anything… you were just experiencing lower efficiency than was achieved during EPA testing under optimal conditions.

 

[borski]

This has been very high on the wishlist for a couple of years, and as far as I know they are not planning on changing it. So, it’s a good idea to display in percentage and do some mental math. Remember this: you’re not losing 30%… you’re not losing anything… you were just experiencing lower efficiency than was achieved during EPA testing under optimal conditions.

There are also ways to do this using Home Assistant. For example, a bunch of us have set it up to get a rolling average of the last 15 minutes’ efficiency, and then provide an estimated range based on that.

It would be great if we had access to whatever algorithm they’re using for range on arrival, because that is extremely accurate.

 

[Blue Lectroid]

This morning, when it was 24 f, I left home this morning with a charge of 423 miles. I returned home after driving a total of 20 miles. My display shows my mileage inventory to be down to 368 miles, meaning i spent 55 inventoried miles to travel 20 miles, almost 3 to 1. I live in the Chicago area and expect to experience temperatures below zero over the next several months. It's got me worried.

Did you precondition your car while it was still plugged in before you left? If you have the ability to do that in the winter it pays HUGE efficiency dividends…

 

[Pragmatic]

Even if it just gave a good estimate of kw-hr remaining in the battery and I'd be good. I know my efficiency and how much reserve I'd like. I'm good at quick in-the-head calculations but multiplying %battery remaining by battery capacity by efficiency is too much for me while driving. If it told me 38 kw-hr remain I'd multiply 30 by 3.6 for 108 mile (summer) or by 3.2 for 96 miles (winter), leaving an 8 kw-hr buffer.