Real fuel economy (1 whole year)

[andrewtc]

For interest, I have just completed one year in my ID3. 12000 miles. Average fuel economy 4.5 mi/kWh, which was an average of >5 over the summer and ~4 last winter. Mixed use, av speed 28 mph. Always had driver cabin on cool even in winter but sometimes passengers are heated. That bit of the technology seems very good. The driver assist and voice control are both really rubbish; in general the software is poor compared to the hardware.

[Scratch]

For interest, I have just completed one year in my ID3. 12000 miles. Average fuel economy 4.5 mi/kWh, which was an average of >5 over the summer and ~4 last winter. Mixed use, av speed 28 mph. Always had driver cabin on cool even in winter but sometimes passengers are heated. That bit of the technology seems very good. The driver assist and voice control are both really rubbish; in general the software is poor compared to the hardware.

Those figures seem exceptionally good. Mine is running at around 3.9 mi/kWh. Does your car have a heat pump?

[MattgID3]

For interest, I have just completed one year in my ID3. 12000 miles. Average fuel economy 4.5 mi/kWh, which was an average of >5 over the summer and ~4 last winter. Mixed use, av speed 28 mph. Always had driver cabin on cool even in winter but sometimes passengers are heated. That bit of the technology seems very good. The driver assist and voice control are both really rubbish; in general the software is poor compared to the hardware.

Im around the same numbers on 11000 miles

[MotMot]

Think it depends on your usage/type of driving. I'm about 50% motorways and my Summer (late april to mid oct) average was 4.

For context - Manchester > Sheffield > south of Paris and back (1100miles) a couple of weeks ago was 3.5 in good temps (65mph ish UK and 120kph on the Autoroutes - OK the odd 150 when we knew we were going to stop to charge soon ).

I'm pretty happy with that TBH and this is on 3.2 - noticably better than 2.4.

[sidehaas]

Think it depends on your usage/type of driving. I'm about 50% motorways and my Summer (late april to mid oct) average was 4.

For context - Manchester > Sheffield > south of Paris and back (1100miles) a couple of weeks ago was 3.5 in good temps (65mph ish UK and 120kph on the Autoroutes - OK the odd 150 when we knew we were going to stop to charge soon ).

I'm pretty happy with that TBH and this is on 3.2 - noticably better than 2.4.

I found that the Autoroute really kills range, in my 58 I found that doing 133kph on an empty Autoroute increased consumption by almost 50% vs travelling at 65-70 on a busy UK motorway.

Our average since January is 3.8mi/kWh. We mostly do a mix of short urban journeys and long motorways (currently en route to Belgium) with few of the mid length 40-50mph journeys that are best for efficiency. We probably averaged around 4.2 or something in summer.

[Boattrainman]

Getting 4 miles/kw so seems very consistent across the range of users.

Mostly short urban trips, occasional long motorway stretches keeping it at 95kmh..........very hard to judge real world saving over previous 2 litre diesel without a spreadsheet, car has mixed charging of home PV, occasional home grid and public charging on trips.

Rob

[MotMot]

@sidehaas - yes part of the issue is there is little or no traffic on the peage!
So you can have a high average speed (and not much slipstreaming!) unlike most UK motorways!!

[TimF]

Although I don't use it much, I wonder if ACC helps boost mi/kWh? Although it can be distracting, the 3.2 continuous display of consumption seems to show it does a good job of maximising economy for a given target maximum speed.

[andrewtc]

Those figures seem exceptionally good. Mine is running at around 3.9 mi/kWh. Does your car have a heat pump?

No, I don't have a heat pump. The great majority of my mileage is a 20 mile commute; 14 miles of country roads and the rest urban. The country roads are rarely over 50mph. I have noticed much lower figures on motorways or when in a rush.

[Gwyver]

I'm pleased that some of the forum members are reporting improved 'fuel' efficiency following the s/w 3.2 update.

I've haven't experienced this as yet, though my ID.3 was only updated 5 weeks ago and I've only driven ~1000miles since then - so it may be early days.
Perhaps, since most 3.2 updates will have occurred this spring and summer, what is being seen is as a result of the warmer weather following the updates?

What I have noticed is that since the update, the reported Miles/KWH Since Start value shows much greater swings (both +ve & -ve) than before.

It also seems curious that if better efficiency was a general outcome of s/w 3.2 this isn't being promoted vigorously by VW in 'good news' press releases or apparent in the WLTP figures stated in the latest product brochures.

I have kept a database since new (Oct '21) recording every charging episode + the associated distance travelled. The current total is ~12,000 miles and 150 recharges. I record the amount of energy supplied by the charger and compute the M/KWH achieved - I don't use the M/KWH as reported by the car infotainment as this doesn't account for the energy losses in the charging process and is therefore falsely optimistic.
Here is a chart showing my experience (the results are grouped by month to smooth out variations in individual charging events).

Charging session summary by month
.

The difference between winter and summer efficiency is very apparent.

[Scratch]

I'm pleased that some of the forum members are reporting improved 'fuel' efficiency following the s/w 3.2 update.

I've haven't experienced this as yet, though my ID.3 was only updated 5 weeks ago and I've only driven ~1000miles since then - so it may be early days.
Perhaps, since most 3.2 updates will have occurred this spring and summer, what is being seen is as a result of the warmer weather following the updates?

What I have noticed is that since the update, the reported Miles/KWH Since Start value shows much greater swings (both +ve & -ve) than before.

It also seems curious that if better efficiency was a general outcome of s/w 3.2 this isn't being promoted vigorously by VW in 'good news' press releases or apparent in the WLTP figures stated in the latest product brochures.

I have kept a database since new (Oct '21) recording every charging episode + the associated distance travelled. The current total is ~12,000 miles and 150 recharges. I record the amount of energy supplied by the charger and compute the M/KWH achieved - I don't use the M/KWH as reported by the car infotainment as this doesn't account for the energy losses in the charging process and is therefore falsely optimistic.
Here is a chart showing my experience (the results are grouped by month to smooth out variations in individual charging events).

Charging session summary by month
.Screenshot 2023-10-24 at 16.49.02.png

The difference between winter and summer efficiency is very apparent.

If VW promoted better efficiency since an update, wouldn’t that be an admission that the original efficiency wasn’t terribly good? And anyway, it seems VW don’t feedback anything, good or bad. Having said all that, I’m personally not too bothered about this efficiency thing with our ID3. I also (sadly) run a spreadsheet of my own and the cost per mile is what I judge the car by. Since purchase in September 21, this has been 2p/mile when charging at home and 8p/mile overall, which includes trips involving public charging, both in the UK and the EU.

[G43FAN]

If VW promoted better efficiency since an update, wouldn’t that be an admission that the original efficiency wasn’t terribly good? And anyway, it seems VW don’t feedback anything, good or bad. Having said all that, I’m personally not too bothered about this efficiency thing with our ID3. I also (sadly) run a spreadsheet of my own and the cost per mile is what I judge the car by. Since purchase in September 21, this has been 2p/mile when charging at home and 8p/mile overall, which includes trips involving public charging, both in the UK and the EU.

Well they did promote increased efficiency with 2.4 which made the most difference for many earlier owners.
"The ID. software 2.4 provides an optimised thermal management, which can reduce secondary energy consumption in cold outside temperatures and increase the range of your ID. as a result."
https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/owners- ... e-2-4.html

[Scratch]

If VW promoted better efficiency since an update, wouldn’t that be an admission that the original efficiency wasn’t terribly good? And anyway, it seems VW don’t feedback anything, good or bad. Having said all that, I’m personally not too bothered about this efficiency thing with our ID3. I also (sadly) run a spreadsheet of my own and the cost per mile is what I judge the car by. Since purchase in September 21, this has been 2p/mile when charging at home and 8p/mile overall, which includes trips involving public charging, both in the UK and the EU.

Well they did promote increased efficiency with 2.4 which made the most difference for many earlier owners.
"The ID. software 2.4 provides an optimised thermal management, which can reduce secondary energy consumption in cold outside temperatures and increase the range of your ID. as a result."
https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/owners- ... e-2-4.html

Fair enough. Just goes to show how much notice I take of VW blurb.