RAV4 PHEV EV Range

[Hayzee]

I know this has been discussed before, but having had mine since March 1st, I've seen the estimated EV range increase as the weather has warmed up (not surprising).

Just wondered what sort of EV range people are seeing. I know this is 'how long is a piece of string etc' but mine is now regularly showing around 53 miles with A/C and  seems to be largely confirmed with actual useage. Very impressed.

[Bcc212]

I’ve only had mine 6 days and I have consistently achieved 48 miles of range.

Mine is used daily for work purposes and usually I pick the most direct route. I’m seeing this range on journeys including fast dual carriageway stints, as well as slower town driving.

Incredibly impressive, especially as I was expecting around 35-40. 

[DavidJB]

Had mine about 6 weeks. Full charge suggests just over 50 miles and I have found the estimates to be pretty accurate.

Just coming up to 1K miles, £30 of petrol used so far - and lots of sunshine from my solar panels!

[Nick72]

50 to 54 miles at present. AC on. Averaging probably 30 to 40mph.

[ernieb]

Similar to Nick 50 - 54 with AC/heating. As it warms up you should get nearer to achieving the estimated range depending on driving style. I’ve had estimates in the high 50’s with AC in the summer.

One thing worth remembering is that is that cabin conditioning works really well in the summer it’s great to get into a car that is already cool.

[Hayzee]

2 minutes ago, ernieb said:

One thing worth remembering is that is that cabin conditioning works really well in the summer it’s great to get into a car that is already cool.

Ernie....do you use conditioning only when plugged in or without as well? If the latter do you know what sort of mileage you lose for say 10-15 mins conditioning?

[ernieb]

Colin, I use both the tethered and traction Battery only. If I use say the full 20mins I loose a couple of miles range but that depends on the ambient temperature  and how I’ve set the cabin temperature. I tend to leave the controls set at 20/21oC.

It’s worth the range reduction when it’s really warm.

[nlee]

4 hours ago, Hayzee said:

Ernie....do you use conditioning only when plugged in or without as well? If the latter do you know what sort of mileage you lose for say 10-15 mins conditioning?

It will be minimal when comparing powering those big powerful motors against a relatively small heat pump.

I don't know the exact figures but the heat pump, I think, will be around 1kw. In 15 mins that's about 0.25kw of consumption. Assuming you get around 3.5 miles per kWh, that's about 0.9 miles.

Just to note, the heat pump in the PHEV is about 3-4 times more efficient than a heat block or ceramic type heater. It might use a bit more power if you use the front and rear demisters but I'd still expect it to be fairly minimal.

[srt]

Only had my Rav4 PHEV a couple of weeks and whilst I understand that it adapts range to driving style etc. I am really pleased that my normal driving style is still getting 50+ miles on EV alone. The more I drive this car the more  impressed I am.

[Lawnmowerman]

12 hours ago, srt said:

Only had my Rav4 PHEV a couple of weeks and whilst I understand that it adapts range to driving style etc. I am really pleased that my normal driving style is still getting 50+ miles on EV alone. The more I drive this car the more  impressed I am.

Ahh, I remember the days when I achieved that - sigh.......

Unfortunately with the turn of the weather we are at 40 miles now - minus 1 last Wednesday!!!

Are you in warmer climes?

[srt]

Not really - I'm in Scotland 

[Flatcoat]

On 10/22/2022 at 11:25 PM, srt said:

Only had my Rav4 PHEV a couple of weeks and whilst I understand that it adapts range to driving style etc. I am really pleased that my normal driving style is still getting 50+ miles on EV alone. The more I drive this car the more  impressed I am.

Is this actual travelled range? I have noticed the fully charged range forecast has dropped from 57 to 55 in the past month as temperatures have dropped. Haven’t had chance to check actual real world range due to coinciding with job change entailing totally different commute conditions. 

[srt]

13 hours ago, Flatcoat said:

Is this actual travelled range? I have noticed the fully charged range forecast has dropped from 57 to 55 in the past month as temperatures have dropped. Haven’t had chance to check actual real world range due to coinciding with job change entailing totally different commute conditions. 

I did a couple of journeys last week where the distance was 50 miles and EV range corresponded.

[ernieb]

Trip today, car had aero bars fitted but no load on top. Two up, full bags of clothes, bedding, towels, coats etc., for a week away, food in cooler and dry goods plus two single hybrid mattresses rolled in their boxes. Temperature 11/12oC, ACC set to 64mph (60 ish real) and managed 49.6miles on EV.

I really felt this was a good idea of just what this car is capable of achieving. 

[Nick72]

On 10/22/2022 at 11:25 PM, srt said:

Only had my Rav4 PHEV a couple of weeks and whilst I understand that it adapts range to driving style etc. I am really pleased that my normal driving style is still getting 50+ miles on EV alone. The more I drive this car the more  impressed I am.

Yep. Still in the high 40s to low 50s despite it being about 15C.

[Nick72]

Good thing (one of many) about this car is there's not a lot of sensitivity to speed or temperature like many other PHEVs and several EVs. 

I posted some graphs here a while back to show this. Optimum range is at around 45mph from memory with little difference plus or minus 15mph either side. Optimum temperature is upwards of 30C. Can't recall the percentage fall off with speed and temperature but it's not that significant. Obviously if you're doing 76mph on the Battery and it's minus 5C with the heating on full then don't expect much over 40 miles. Come to think of it I don't think I've ever had under 40 miles a charge and this summer I was getting about 56 to 60 most of the time without any effort. Sure I've seen figures around 64 on the US forum. High temperature, higher elevation probably helps.

By means of example my Pukego 3008GT4 thing would see the range drop by 50 to 70% from 25C to 10C. And a 50% drop between its optimised speed of around 25mph going to 60mph. Bad design. Not the level of Battery conditioning and management sophistication we have on the R4P. That's a masterpiece of engineering.

[Flatcoat]

Here in hilly West Yorkshire those distances are but a dream….. hills kill the range very rapidly. 

[ernieb]

9 minutes ago, Flatcoat said:

Here in hilly West Yorkshire those distances are but a dream….. hills kill the range very rapidly. 

Absolutely.

[nlee]

14 hours ago, Flatcoat said:

Here in hilly West Yorkshire those distances are but a dream….. hills kill the range very rapidly. 

Only going up them, and what goes up must come down, but I know what you mean.

[Lawnmowerman]

21 hours ago, nlee said:

Only going up them, and what goes up must come down, but I know what you mean.

Yup, always a net loss  - ye canny change the laws of physics as one TV star used to say 😆.

[Nick72]

On 10/26/2022 at 7:46 AM, Flatcoat said:

Here in hilly West Yorkshire those distances are but a dream….. hills kill the range very rapidly. 

True. I'll be up in the north lakes at our other gaff for the weekend. Plenty of up and down across Whinlatter pass. 

[Strangely Brown]

I made a couple of trips yesterday. One a few miles down to a local business, the other by the same route in reverse.
The first was 72mpg the second was 35mpg. You can guess that the first was pretty much all downhill and the second back up again.
I reset the consumption when I picked up the car a few weeks ago and have averaged 53mpg overall since. Current tank is sitting at 56mpg.
 

ETA: BTW, it's an Excel Hybrid AWD.

[Mike2222]

On 10/25/2022 at 1:12 PM, ernieb said:

managed 49.6miles on EV. 

Out of curiosity, how are you measuring this? Did you take this figure from the app after the journey, as in "EV distance" in the hybrid monitoring bit? If so, doesn't that also add up all the other blue bits of the route tracking, where the car is in hybrid mode and occasionally runs on electricity alone? Thus is misleading as an EV-only range figure? 

 

I ask as seems a lot for the conditions described, as well as a very specific distance figure. I usually can only guesstimate by how far into my journey I am when the engine kicks in...? Or am I doing thta wrong? 

[philip42h]

27 minutes ago, Mike2222 said:

Out of curiosity, how are you measuring this? Did you take this figure from the app after the journey, as in "EV distance" in the hybrid monitoring bit? If so, doesn't that also add up all the other blue bits of the route tracking, where the car is in hybrid mode and occasionally runs on electricity alone? Thus is misleading as an EV-only range figure? 

I ask as seems a lot for the conditions described, as well as a very specific distance figure. I usually can only guesstimate by how far into my journey I am when the engine kicks in...? Or am I doing thta wrong? 

I have a HEV rather than a PHEV, so I can't plug it in to charge the traction Battery and, thus have zero EV range. That part is very, very easy to work out! 🙂

It is also a hybrid so I have "blue bits of the route tracking" where the ICE is off. But these only exist because I've been burning petrol and the car has recovered some of the otherwise wasted energy. I certainly wouldn't count any of that as EV-only range ... 😉

[Mike2222]

1 hour ago, philip42h said:

I have a HEV rather than a PHEV, so I can't plug it in to charge the traction battery and, thus have zero EV range. That part is very, very easy to work out! 🙂

It is also a hybrid so I have "blue bits of the route tracking" where the ICE is off. But these only exist because I've been burning petrol and the car has recovered some of the otherwise wasted energy. I certainly wouldn't count any of that as EV-only range ... 😉

Again, out of curiosity, does the app for you give you a "ev distance" number then or not? For the blue bits you get, albeit petrol-powered electricity!