How much EV range with AC on?

Hey everyone!

With the hot summer days upon us, I've been using my AC on the way back home from work. My commute is 17 miles total. Three miles are 25 to 40 mph while 14 are on the freeway going between 65 and 72 mph. With the AC off, the battery will be dead and the engine will fire up at the very last half mile home.

I noticed that the same trip with AC on going home, I can just squeeze 11 total miles out of a full charge.

How many EV miles do you guys get on a full charge with the AC on?

That sounds about right. When I make a regular, local round trip of about 5 miles (city driving), with AC and blower off, battery range drops 4-5 miles. With the AC on it drops 8-10 miles. Took me a while to realize that. Now, when running in EV mode, I routinely turn the AC off unless it’s uncomfortably hot or humid outside. On the freeway, I always switch to hybrid or battery hold.

As soon as I push the AC switch the mileage remaining number drops 2-3 miles on my 2017. What I do is push the recirculate air button when using AC. Then If I need to get an extra mile, I'll switch off the AC but leave fan running. Cool air still blows through the vents.

My two cents here is that I'm learning to make efficient use of my AC. First of all, assuming I'm alone in the car, I close the rear passenger vent as well as the front passenger vent, with 3 vents pointed directly at my torso and face. Then, instead of turning the AC on at say something like 72F, I'll start at around 78-80F all depending on what the current cabin temperature is so that the AC is working as little as possible while lowering my body temperature but not being so concerned about the overall cabin temperature.

I'll also turn on re-circulation as the air gets colder in the cabin, it needs less and less juice to just keep it cold. Over the miles, I end up clicking the temp down 1 degree at a time if I don't feel comfortable, I end up settling somewhere around 76F or so, the key is to forget about getting the cabin temp down, but rather focus minimal cool air directly on your person to keep you comfortable.

I have not done any testing to see if this method actually increases my range, but, I feel like I'm doing what I can to use the AC as efficiently as possible.

Thanks Sir Charge - good suggestions for conserving Volts. Now that it has finally become Summer in Seattle I am using your A/C tips. Sinise getting the eTron I find myself watching the KW/ reading and trying to minimize the power usage. I think I am slowly turning into one of those Hype Milers Prius drivers I used to avoid - going slow on the road way and being passed by everyone. As a guy who traded in a Porsche 911 for the eTron, that is a big change in driving style. Maybe it is also a factor of Aging??? But I really enjoy Not stopping at Gas Stations every couple of weeks!

Jacks A3 ET said:

Thanks Sir Charge - good suggestions for conserving Volts. Now that it has finally become Summer in Seattle I am using your A/C tips. Sinise getting the eTron I find myself watching the KW/ reading and trying to minimize the power usage. I think I am slowly turning into one of those Hype Milers Prius drivers I used to avoid - going slow on the road way and being passed by everyone. As a guy who traded in a Porsche 911 for the eTron, that is a big change in driving style. Maybe it is also a factor of Aging??? But I really enjoy Not stopping at Gas Stations every couple of weeks!

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@Jacks A3 ET , I'm right there with you LOL I would say that you are growing wiser, not older! But yeah, let's not fool ourselves, I used to honk at them, now they honk at me hahaha. It's funny how that goes. Welcome to having nothing left to prove and just enjoying your safe, quiet and peaceful ride.

911 is a beautiful ride, but I'm assuming the A3e feels bit more practical while still being a beautifully designed vehicle. Enjoy the new ride and the different mind set.

Since most of my commutes are within the EV range, I usually only buy gas 2-3 times a year. But @Jacks A3 ET, the A3 E tron is no slouch in the speed department. It's not a 911 but with the engine and and electric motor working together in Sport Mode it's pretty quick on the freeway.

bruuster said:

Since most of my commutes are within the EV range, I usually only buy gas 2-3 times a year. But @Jacks A3 ET, the A3 E tron is no slouch in the speed department. It's not a 911 but with the engine and and electric motor working together in Sport Mode it's pretty quick on the freeway.

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That's the lovely thing about having both power trains. You get the best of gas, the best of EV and combined together, see ya! I'm sold on PHEV. Not sure I'll go EV anytime soon, of course I would like a little more pure EV range, but no complaints, the car is fantastic.

best way to appreciate the A3e is to not get hung up about running the 1.4T which in itself is a pretty decent engine, far better than those lawnmower sounding things in toyotas. if you want it to be 100% EV then buy a pure EV eh?

cmc said:

best way to appreciate the A3e is to not get hung up about running the 1.4T which in itself is a pretty decent engine, far better than those lawnmower sounding things in toyotas. if you want it to be 100% EV then buy a pure EV eh?

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This is 100% true!

It was hard for me to shake the feeling from my 2.0T GTI where numerous short grocery treks that were less than 5 miles would just slaughter my MPGs down into the 17's.

cmc said:

best way to appreciate the A3e is to not get hung up about running the 1.4T which in itself is a pretty decent engine, far better than those lawnmower sounding things in toyotas. if you want it to be 100% EV then buy a pure EV eh?

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I had zero desire to be leashed to chargers. With the current charging infrastructure, i've seen the lines of teslas in the target parking lots trying to get a quick charge. No thanks.

I am a firm believer in PHEV, initially I did want to buy the Toyota Rav4 Prime, due to it's fantastic EV range and I did try, but those crazy people wanted $10k-$12k over MSRP due to high demand, I told them to go kick rocks and bought a 2022 2.0T Tiguan which I love for long trips and even some decent off-road trips. Its really a great SUV and makes long highway drives a breeze with it's assisted driving features, love it.

I had an Audi allroad which was totaled in a highway incident, some chick was texting instead of paying attention and side swiped my wife who was driving it at the time, the car did it's most important job, to keep her safe. I won't lie and say I wasn't bummed out, the allroad was my favorite swiss army knife car. The A3e scratched the itch for PHEV and put an Audi badge back in my garage which I did miss.

The day Audi brings a PHEV allroad to the US, is the day I'll rush to the dealer and pick one up assuming my financial situation at that time can afford me one. Long way to say, I'm super happy with PHEV and have zero desire to be tied down to a pure EV, I enjoy the "freedom" that a car provides, feels like pure EV with insufficient charge infrastructure is exactly the opposite of that.

Well it is summer now and it's happy EV season... Come winter the range plummets and causes much angst for EV owners. What I do with this car is to preheat the car before leaving and once that "burns off" I turn on the 1.4T and have battery-free heating. Then plan the journey so that I can switch to EV mode when I am almost arriving to match the indicated battery range... That way the residual heat generated by the 1.4T is fully used up and not wasted. I don't think the computers are smart enough to do this for you. The car is so well designed. I recently heard that some of the other PHEVs on the market do not offer electric heating and would insist on firing up the ICE for heating.

cmc said:

Well it is summer now and it's happy EV season... Come winter the range plummets and causes much angst for EV owners. What I do with this car is to preheat the car before leaving and once that "burns off" I turn on the 1.4T and have battery-free heating. Then plan the journey so that I can switch to EV mode when I am almost arriving to match the indicated battery range... That way the residual heat generated by the 1.4T is fully used up and not wasted. I don't think the computers are smart enough to do this for you. The car is so well designed. I recently heard that some of the other PHEVs on the market do not offer electric heating and would insist on firing up the ICE for heating.

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Do you know if there are any indicators or tells which show when heat is being provided by the electric heater vs 14.T heat? Or does residual heat from the gas engine always provide enough to not kick on the electric heater for the 16 to 20 miles of EV mode driving?

if the 1.4T is running there will always be residual heat... e.g. highway running... only about 30% of the energy in a gallon of gas is turned into propulsion... the other 70% is available for heating... if you really want to know where your cabin heat is coming from go get one of those OBD2 devices and have it display engine coolant temperature... if coolant is 70C or 80C you know where the heat is coming from... as you know this car shuts off the engine when coasting... I do observe the coolant drop very quickly into 40-50C... I think the system will just add electric heat as needed and use as much engine coolant heat as possible. If you have enabled oil temperature display that would be another clue though less reliable than actually watching the coolant temp.

cmc said:

Well it is summer now and it's happy EV season... Come winter the range plummets and causes much angst for EV owners. What I do with this car is to preheat the car before leaving and once that "burns off" I turn on the 1.4T and have battery-free heating. Then plan the journey so that I can switch to EV mode when I am almost arriving to match the indicated battery range... That way the residual heat generated by the 1.4T is fully used up and not wasted. I don't think the computers are smart enough to do this for you. The car is so well designed. I recently heard that some of the other PHEVs on the market do not offer electric heating and would insist on firing up the ICE for heating.

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How do you preheat the car- wasn’t that a function of the abandoned app?

you can do it through the MMI under aux air conditioning. also I have not looked but I think if you have a VCDS you can also check and see if the electric heat is enabled. there are a zillion things you can look at...

Definitely true about which BEV. We rarely use the A/C on our 2017 A3 Sportback e-tron, unless it is a short trip, because we do not want the gasoline engine to engage anymore, if possible. Our Audi is now an around town only car, switching to our 2018 Tesla Model 3 long range for everything else. Our Tesla has a much more efficient A/C than our Audi, and it is not even a heat pump.

Our first BEV had a heat pump in 2012, with a few other outstanding parts, but half of it was an economy car with lower quality parts, so it was a mixed bag. It did have a LiFePO4 battery pack and maintained its 110 mile range for all 4 years and 40K miles we owned it, so you never know about A/C efficiency until you use a BEV for at least a couple years. Nothing in the specs for any BEV truly tells the truth about A/C efficiency, but if you have a good size battery pack, it is not as important.