Intelligent battery heating: stops when selecting ECO driving mode

[fnegroni]

Intelligent Battery Heating (IBH) is Slightly more intelligent than I thought.

Even if the IBH setting in the Energy Consumption panel is set to Enabled, it won’t heat up your battery when the Drive mode is set to ECO.

It will start working the moment your drive mode is anything other than ECO. And will stop again when drive mode is set back to ECO.

That means it will work with CUSTOM drive modes even if the power is set to Eco instead of Normal.

i normally select ECO driving mode when driving in town and so for short journeys it won’t use up my battery.

 

[aitch]

Last winter I put intelligent heating on and forgot for a while and then got really concerned when the m/kw plummeted on my regular journeys, took two weeks to realise.

 

[fnegroni]

Last winter I put intelligent heating on and forgot for a while and then got really concerned when the m/kw plummeted on my regular journeys, took two weeks to realise.

So the ECO setting didn’t work for you?

 

[Kithmo]

I've suspected IBH may be on in my Trophy, even though the switch is off, due to the significant drop in m/kWh on colder days. I never use any other mode than the default Normal usually, but knowing this I can try Eco and see if it makes a significant difference. If it does then my suspicions may be correct.

 

[siteguru]

Alternatively ... turn it on and back off again.

 

[phil99]

I've suspected IBH may be on in my Trophy, even though the switch is off, due to the significant drop in m/kWh on colder days. I never use any other mode than the default Normal usually, but knowing this I can try Eco and see if it makes a significant difference. If it does then my suspicions may be correct.

Heating air uses a LOT of power. If you’ve got the heating turned on in the vehicle then this will seriously impact energy consumption especially on shorter journeys where it uses a LOT of power to heat the cabin initially. After it’s warmed up the consumption settles down as it takes less energy to heat the already warm cabin.

If you’re in a Trophy, try driving without heating on, using the heated seats and steering wheel in shorter journeys. If you’re in an SE…… wear a bigger jumper

For me, on the recent really cold days, the distance where I see consumption improve from 2mi/kWh seems to be about 6 miles. Anything less than that and it never gets above 2.

 

[Rolfe]

Honestly, it's not that much energy, and if you're on a cheap night-time tariff it's peanuts. Relax, use the heater and stay comfortable. What on earth is the point in freezing your bits off when you have a heater that will keep you really cosy, all for 7p/unit?

 

[Kithmo]

For me, on the recent really cold days, the distance where I see consumption improve from 2m/kWh seems to be about 6 miles. Anything less than that and it never gets above 2.

It's useful to know it's normal, I thought under 2 was a bit excessive.
My journeys are about 3 miles each way (heating on 27°C) and I did notice the mi/kWh does sometimes go just over 2 near the end of my return.
The reason I thought there was a problem is that my old 2020 ZS ev used to get nearer 3 mi/kWh on the same journey with the heater on.
FWIW there was no digital temperature readout on the ZS heater, just a blue to red scale, but I had it set well into the red and it was warmer than the 4.

 

[Macadoodle]

I've suspected IBH may be on in my Trophy, even though the switch is off, due to the significant drop in m/kWh on colder days. I never use any other mode than the default Normal usually, but knowing this I can try Eco and see if it makes a significant difference. If it does then my suspicions may be correct.

If you pop the bonnet you'll see the upper coolant reservoir showing some flow if the IBH is active, will also start to warm up after a while.
I have been using the battery heating recently when daytime temps didn't rise above 2 deg, definitely helps to release max amps for safe overtakes much sooner and regen is quickly normal too.
By gawd you pay in efficiency though, even after 20 miles it's usually still showing 2mi/kWh

SAIC's thermal management engineers need to speak to Tesla's I think, the MG has 2 totally separate coolant runs, one is dumping the several kW of inevitable waste heat from the motor and inverter while the battery loop is using an electric heater to bring the cells up to a decent temp. Madness