More on Range Data

[Geoff (Gold Coast)]

Good afternoon. Just one more observation from my trip to Canberra. We did a side trip from Jamisontown near Penrith up the range to Katoomba, a distance of 49 km with a rise in elevation above sea level from 32 m to just over 1000 m.

The upward climb consumed 18% charge giving a hypothetical 100% range of just 272 km, but coming downhill used only 2% giving a hypothetical range of a whopping 2450 km!!!

So, it pays to be aware of changes in elevation on any trip you do and also to be skeptical of any other EV operators claims about great range - they might have been going downhill!!!

Cheers.

 

[Extee]

Very nice, thanks for sharing. Seems like the regenerative breaking really helps when going down hill. Just wondering, does the range estimator do any fancy calculations to determine range possible based on your driving condition?

 

[Geoff (Gold Coast)]

As far as I am aware the range calculator is based solely on the algorithm built into the central computer so at any % charge it will show the same range every time.

You can check your historical usage (which will take into account all of your driving history and style) by going to the New Energy page and consumption graph and then do your own calculations of kw per 100 km for future use.

Note that the power battery Is referred to by the dealer and motoring writers as being 60 kw but the owner’s manual describes it as being 65 kw. I suspect that the manufacturer is keeping a bit in reserve in their algorithm to avoid having drivers run out of charge but I would never go down to zero anyway.

Cheers.

 

[Extee]

Geoff I agree with you regarding the need to have some reserve battery power (~5 kWh). I did some research on the battery pack used in the Atto 3. It uses a cobolt- & manganese-free, Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery. Most EVs now and in the past (E.g., pre-2023 Teslas) use a Lithium Nickel-Cobolt-Manganese (NCM) battery.

One characteristic of LFP batteries is that as the battery discharges, it is able to maintain its voltage output (~3.2 V). LFP batteries only start to drop its voltage when it is close to full discharge. The advantage, I guess, is that the LFP battery can maintain max power output for a lot longer, right until the battery is nearly drained. This is different to NCM batteries where the voltage actually drops as it discharges. This allows EVs with NCM batteries to accurately determine the State-of-charge, as it is just a function of the voltage output of the battery. But, not the case for LFP. I think for EVs with LFP batteries, one would have to be careful to not drive the car when it has a low state-of-charge, because the voltage could suddenly drop resulting in power loss. So, to prevent that from ever happening, the engineers probably built in a reserve capacity for the Atto 3.

Check this link for more technical details and information about LFP batteries in cars:

Best charging behavior for LFP batteries - 🔋PushEVs

I have been writing about the importance of LFP (LiFePO4) batteries for a while now, but I haven't written about the best charging behavior for this battery chemistry yet. It's time to write a small, but important article about the subject, especially because I have seen some confusion on online...

pushevs.com