Cold weather=not full power?

Faults and Technical chat for the CUPRA Born
Nacaduct
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Post by Nacaduct »

Ok, so 1°C today and I notice the little blue bar indicating power doesn’t go all the way… Suspect this is the battery being cold, and not being able to deliver full power to the motor?

5B8AD463-4FA0-48C4-BE2B-C57CAA504E97.jpeg

Cupra Born since ‘22

monkeyhanger
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Post by monkeyhanger »

Nacaduct wrote: Sat Nov 19, 2022 3:29 pm Ok, so 1°C today and I notice the little blue bar indicating power doesn’t go all the way… Suspect this is the battery being cold, and not being able to deliver full power to the motor?5B8AD463-4FA0-48C4-BE2B-C57CAA504E97.jpeg
Do you have an E-Boost, and was it in Cupra mode. If you do and it wasn't, maybe that could be the reason? Or maybe, doing 0 mph/0 kmph, it won't give you everything until you're rolling?
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TheBornIDentity
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Post by TheBornIDentity »

Nacaduct wrote: Sat Nov 19, 2022 3:29 pm Ok, so 1°C today and I notice the little blue bar indicating power doesn’t go all the way… Suspect this is the battery being cold, and not being able to deliver full power to the motor?5B8AD463-4FA0-48C4-BE2B-C57CAA504E97.jpeg
I had that a few of times on my ID3. I think it’s when the battery heater and cabin heater is running. Between them they use 10kW (7kW for the battery heater I think).

So if you floor it not all power is available as it’s being used for that.
Born2Ride
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Post by Born2Ride »

The battery will not be able to give full power when cold, and the car will prevent you from attempting this to protect it. After the battery warms it will give you back full power. The car can use about 150kW for full acceleration so while the heater is a large load, moving the thing quickly uses a lot more!
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

I have noticed this as well in the last few days.
It also takes mine a lot longer to reach a full bar than my previous ID3. I think level 3.0 doesn't apply battery heating like it would in 2.3 on the ID3 in an effort to improve range on very cold starts at the cost of a longer period without full power.
The battery pack on level 3.0 warms through driving and use and this takes longer. That was my understanding from previous ID3 threads anticipation level 3.0 release.
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monkeyhanger
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Post by monkeyhanger »

Daveion wrote: Wed Dec 07, 2022 10:59 pm I have noticed this as well in the last few days.
It also takes mine a lot longer to reach a full bar than my previous ID3. I think level 3.0 doesn't apply battery heating like it would in 2.3 on the ID3 in an effort to improve range on very cold starts at the cost of a longer period without full power.
The battery pack on level 3.0 warms through driving and use and this takes longer. That was my understanding from previous ID3 threads anticipation level 3.0 release.
With this cold snap, the short distance energy consumption is as high as it ever was in my ID3, doing a 2 mile round trip to school in 2C temperatures is still barely scraping 2 miles per kWh with 16C heating and 2.3 miles without. That same journey in temperatures exceeding 14C in the Summer is about 4 miles per kWh.

That seems to me then that the battery heating is working nearly as hard as it ever was, otherwise we would be seeing better efficiency, at the expense of full power availability.

I think that most ID3 Owners were expecting miracles with 3.0, but the differences are marginal. On cooler days in the Summer (especially 5am morning starts), the efficiencies I was seeing on the Born at temperatures below 12C still indicated that battery heating was still happening. The threshold for absolutely no battery heating was (on the ID3) and still seems to be about 14C.

I've seen no appreciable Winter improvements for our 3.0 Borns vs our old 2.3 ID3s, although they did seem marginally more efficient for long journeys in the Summer when maintaining 70mph on a 100+ mile motorway journey (3.9 miles per kWh vs 3.7 miles per kWh).

With all cabin heating off, I have access to a full bar after about 5 mins driving in current temps, but with cabin heating on, the shadow on the power bar to indicate potential does shorten marginally.

Given the drastic reduction in efficiency for those short and cold journeys, it would seem that battery heating is using a similar amount of energy as moving the car initially, so that draw could be as high as 12kW, so the cabin heating really is small potatoes in comparison.
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

It may be marginal as measured by miles/kW? I can't compare it with my ID3 because my driving and habits have altered going into my 3rd EV Winter. One other difference I noted this morning having used cabin pre conditioning for the first time this morning at -2 C whilst plugged in is that the battery remained on 80% for the 30 minute duration. When I did that in the ID3, despite being plugged in, there would be a small hit on battery percentage which indicated that the electrical load exceeded the 7kW coming in. I also recall that the blue shadow bar would be full by the time I un plugged and drove off. So I think these are differences between 2.3 and 3.0 but as you say not huge in terms of overall efficiency.
Upside, toasty warm ready for my Grandson who stayed over and his school run this morning without losing battery % to pre conditioning.
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TheBornIDentity
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Post by TheBornIDentity »

The last couple of days have decimated my range. I manually worked out I’m getting 1.2 miles per kWh! But I’m using cabin preheat on the departure times without it being plugged in.

Tbh though it’s worth the expense and inefficiency for the rewarding level of smugness as got in my warm defrosted car and drove straight off, whilst neighbours had to faff about de-icing 😁
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Daveion
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Post by Daveion »

20221209_121402.jpg

Still on this thread and some looking back at Monkeyhangers experiences I'm not sure my batteries warm up that well. After16 miles on dual carriageways just now I still don't have a full blue shadow bar! AC was on but only 50% of the time. Haven't seen a full blue bar for a while now....
And 20 miles later still not full blue or green?

20221209_131220.jpg

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monkeyhanger
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Post by monkeyhanger »

Maybe try Performance mode (or Cupra mode if you have an E-Boost)? I haven't been out to check, but only those 2 modes give full throttle response, so maybe you have to be in that mode to see the full bar?

Seems a throwback to ICE driving - "always let the engine fully warm up before you work it"
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2023 Audi S3 - to avoid rapid charging on long journeys.

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