Why won't my Superb iV charge to more than 95%?

[dickieboy]

Have had my iV for 4 weeks now and bought an Ohme charging cable with commando socket to get a faster charge. Unfortunately I can't get better than a 95% charge. What do others get when they charge theirs?

[skomaz]

if it's anything like other hybrid cars then it shouldn't charge fully - if it did you would get no benefit from the regenerative braking during initial stages of a trip, as there'd be nowhere for the charge from it to go...

[D402]

16 hours ago, skomaz said:

if it's anything like other hybrid cars then it shouldn't charge fully - if it did you would get no benefit from the regenerative braking during initial stages of a trip, as there'd be nowhere for the charge from it to go...

Many years ago I was working on an electric vehicle project where it was proposed to downsize the friction brakes because regenerative braking would be able to do most of the work, until I pointed out that somebody, somewhere, lived on top of a mountain and fully charged the battery every night...

[facet edge]

I think the battery is meant to last longer if it doesn't fully charge.

[IJWS15]

On 29/07/2020 at 09:22, D402 said:

Many years ago I was working on an electric vehicle project where it was proposed to downsize the friction brakes because regenerative braking would be able to do most of the work, until I pointed out that somebody, somewhere, lived on top of a mountain and fully charged the battery every night...

 

Regenerative brakes have been around for a long time in trains and earth movers.  They used resistors to burn off the electricity generated so easy to address.  Regen is fine at higher speeds but doesn't work well at low speeds.  Worked on a mine in SA where they had coal haulers with all up weight of 360 tons, the friction brake could only be used below 5 kph or they burned out.  While I was there the regen brake failed on a loaded coal hauler, it took a couple of miles for it to stop.   Not something you want to happen in a  car.

[jjc]

Hi,

 

I have a different charge system to modulate the charge to just use Solar but still does 100%.

Try charging from the 13A charger supplied with the car and see how that works, if that does 100% then it is your charger.

Have you got the connect app as this alerts you when the car is fully charged, and on mine is always 100%

 

John

[dickieboy]

Thanks for your responses. Apparently, OHME had put the wrong battery info into its software for its charging cable. Had the Superb's battery @ 12 Kwh not 13. Hence my problem. The battery now charges to 100% with both the 3 pin plug lead and the OHME lead.

[ERIK99]

Hi

 

It would be great if you could report here, what range you get before you drive off, when you start with 100% charge, especially during the very cold nights.

 

Mine was down to 16 miles, before I got a software update from SKODA, now upto 28 miles today.

[iV_grey]

At the moment, with temperatures around 0°c, I manage to get around 35-38 km (21-23 miles), while the displayed range is of 38km.

 

The update you received, was it done in the dealership or OTA ? (remotely) ?

[ERIK99]

My software "update" was done at the dealer - Since it was done I have consistently been getting above 23 miles range, maxing at 32 miles one day.

 

Actual range is dependent on use of the heating, and driving style etc

[MiniEggs]

What sort of charge speed are you getting is it almost 13amps or more like 10 as I think it as to be within 80% of max fuse rating ?

[ERIK99]

No idea how you can tell. Why does it matter. It takes about 5 hours 20 mins to charge my Superb IV from 0% to 100% charge, using the Skoda 13 amp cable, plugged into a 30 amp home supply.

[MiniEggs]

Which is about 2.4kwh so 10 amps

 

Thanks

Edited 22 February, 2021 by MiniEggs

[Guesto]

Can I get a response from Erik99 please. I also live in Milton Keynes. My car charges each night to 99% but each morning the electric distance displayed on the dashboard has decreased gradually from 34 to 23miles. I think you had a similar problem. The local Marshall’s dealership says it is normal and the battery is good. At this rate of decline would suggest I can only expect less than 10 miles within 3 months. What fixed your issue? 

[ERIK99]

It sounds to me as though you are not fully understanding how the car works out how far it thinks it can travel on a 100% charge.

It's not clear from your note, but I am assuming that you are saying that on different days that you are seeing an ESTIMATED range that varies between 34 and 23 miles.

If this is the case, then what you are seeing, is BASED ON your previous days driving. The car is estimating what your next journey will be, if you drive in the same way as you did yesterday (or since your last charge), but it never is.

This does not mean that the actual distance that you can travel will actually be 34 or 23 miles.  The actual range each time you drive is totally dependant on how you drive on the current charge.

For example, I have driven 42 miles on a 100% charge when the car has estimated that my range is only 24 mile. This was because I drove in a very economical manner.  After driving 42 miles the car estimated that my next charge to 100% would do 42 miles, but it wasn't because I drove differently.

In general you can expect the battery to give slightly less range in really cold weather, but the last few weeks should not have been cold enough to cause too much difference.

I was told by the dealer that the "fix" for me was software (the car computer), however my range was initially far less than you have quoted so I do not think that you have the same problem. I was only getting 16 miles of actual range on a full charge.

For comparison, my current range is varying between 24 and 35 so it's in line with what you are seeing, so I think that there is no fault.

You need to be more aware of the actual number of miles that you get from each 100% charge, and not the estimated range.

If the car has been using petrol as well as battery, the estimated battery only range is always going to be unreliable.

A key indicator of actual battery capability (and how you have been driving) is shown on the electric information display shown as miles per kw.

For me with short trips around town I rarely get anything any higher 2.6 miles per kilowatt hour of charge, which means no more than about 24 miles of actual range.

When driving on the open road at a steady speed of 45 to 50 mph, the miles per kilowatt will be between 4 and 5, and gives an actual range of between 35 and 40 miles.

All of my driving information quoted here is based on using the "B" drive mode, with 100% regeneration, with no reserve for battery.

Unlike full electric cars, the Superb has gears which will affect actual range in the same way as with petrol. You will get less range if you are driving in low gears.

For me, the only way to prove if the car has a fault or not, is to drive on a road with no stops at about 45mph. This should give you somewhere between 32 and 40 miles before the battery is all used (set the option reserve battery to zero so that the battery is fully used before the car switched to hybrid auto mode). 

If you can do the same route, in the same driving style, you should get a consistent result. If you then drive with lots of gear changes and acceleration, on the same route you will see a substantial drop in the actual distance travelled before the battery runs out. 

This is how it is supposed to work, and cannot be fairly compared to an ALL ELECTRIC car which has only one gear.

Hope this helps.

[Guesto]

Thank you for that detailed reply. Most useful and now i do understand how it should operate i am less worried going forward. 
i have only done 2 long journeys in hybrid D mode. MK TO MARGATE 135 miles and i still had 4 miles of electric left. Last week i went St Albans on hybrid and ran out of electric at Redbourn 29 miles. Running in D not B. 
I will try your test drive.

By the way, How do i do a software update if i cant access Broadband. 
Thanks again. 

[ERIK99]

Hi

You cannot do most software updates yourself. It has to be done by a dealer / service dept.

The Superb IV is supposed to have the capability to automatically do software updates if you can link it to the internet, but only if SKODA have released a general update, which has not happened in the last 12 months.

There are other dealer only bits of software that can be done to fix specific issues but I doubt that most dealers are capable of doing them.

 

I currently have a lot of issues with software faults, mainly on the SAT NAV, but nobody at SKODA customer services, or at any of the 3 skoda dealers I've asked, has any idea on how to get the fixes, or to even how to get get map updates. 

 

The skoda connect service (included free for the 1st 12 mths) should do all this automatically (if you link to the internet) but it clearly does not work.

 

It's interesting that you are using the hybrid mode all the time (per your message today).  I always use the battery only option for all my journeys until the battery runs out. This is the only way to really know how far the battery range actually is.

 

It also means that you should be able to do lots of electric only short journeys without ever using any petrol.

If you always use hybrid mode the car will use petrol most of the time because it tries to save the battery for when you go slow, or when you accelerate aggressively to get the best speed, as it does if you select SPORT mode.

Once the car automatically jumps from all electric to hybrid mode (because of hard acceleration or in sport mode) it can take a few miles of eco driving for the car to switch back to all electric mode, even if you try to force it to do so via the options in e-mode settings.

 

Once you run out of battery the car will always switch to hybrid auto, which will then be almost all petrol with a little battery assistance from the regenerative charging which you get mainly from being in the "B" mode.

 

I went to Margate last week.  I managed 32 miles all electric before the battery ran out, then for the next 90 miles I had about 10 miles extra from the battery regen process and 80 miles petrol. Overall I managed 76.3 mpg (that's the car taking the average including 42 miles all electric).

My normal petrol only is about 48 mpg.

 

Are you using the Skoda app. If not get it loaded and linked to your car. It gives lots of really helpful info on usage.

 

[Guesto]

Thanks again Erik. I am new to electric but i have never been impressed with Marshsalls MK. that is why i purchased my car elsewhere. Talking to people i know in Marshalls (off the record) they have very few trained mechanics and even less technical equipment. 
I took it for a service last week but i dont think they did any software updates. 
thanks again and i will try not to worry you again. Unless you want to meet up for a coffee or something stronger. 

[aerofurb]

I have two main missions - the work commute is 5 miles each way so is done on just electric. The nightly charge is normally up to 80% and I normally drive in B mode.

 

At the weekend, I often have a 105 mile journey (and back) which is about 10 miles of 30/40 mph town driving and the rest on dual carriageway/motor way. For these journeys, I use just electric when in the 30/40 mph zones and Sport for the faster bit - again in B mode. In Sport mode, it does recharge the battery up to 15 miles, so once I get within range of home, I'll go back to electric for the last bit. No idea how much the petrol consumption suffers when in Sport mode and its recharging the battery. It's always handy to have a bit of battery power left for traffic queues on the M3!

 

If I'm out and about on other journeys, I still stick to electric when in 30/40 mph zones and then Sport for the faster bits, again using battery in the final run to home when in range. I normally charge to 80% unless I know I'm off on a longer journey when I'll go to 100%.

 

As for Skoda MK - likewise, I've had my previous Yeti and Citigo serviced there - not impressed to say the least. The Superb came via internet lockdown shopping and was from Caffyns Tunbridge Wells. I'm very impressed with their service (customer and technical!) when buying and at the recent first service - quite a long way away for me but I have a friend down that way so combine the two visits.

 

My satnav did update itself a month or so ago. Since then, the GPS has lost its position twice but eventually recovered - may be a coincidence.

 

 

[ERIK99]

Hi

Can you please tell me how you got a map update, and what the current date is of the map. mine is date 0720, which I assume is July 2020. I've been told that 2021 cars have a newer map dated 0521, but nobody can tell me how to get it downloaded.

 

Its interesting that you use sport mode to do constant charging.  My purpose for going plugin-hybrid was to avoid using the petrol engine to charge the battery which seem to be the non-green way to get electric power. I'm quite sure that the the extra petrol used is neither good for the environment or good value, since I think that the cost in lost fuel is more than the cost of waiting until you can pug in again at home, unless you don't have home charging.

I see a plugin car as a part of my progress towards all electric in the near future, and I've been driving using the same as I would if already all electric with regard to planning routes, testing charging points, testing apps that find the charging points, comparing prices across the country, testing telephone support services (many charge point don't work, checking if there are free spaces when I get to  charge point etc.

 

It is possible to set the max battery use to more than 0% to keep back power for traffic jams, if this is a regular mode of use, which is great for pollution.  The nuisance is that it's not easy to just change the setting on the go (too many sub-menus to play with) so that you can use the last 10% or so of battery that you have reserved for heavy traffic.

 

For me the normal "B" mode with FULL regenerative option set to on, is the best compromise.  At first I thought that there was very little extra electric range from this mode, however on a recent trip of about 100 miles, driving in ECO mode, I got 40 miles all electric followed by a further 8 miles from regeneration (49 miles all electric, without needing to use SPORT mode to force the battery recharge.

 

I've noticed that if there are only a few times when you need to the extra power, for overtaking maybe, that pressing the sport mode button for a short time always seems to have some battery available to ensure power from both petrol and battery to supply really quick acceleration for a short burst, which is one of the reason for me to buy this specific car.

 

I note that you normally only charge to 80% - why is that ? 

 

I always charge to 100% to be sure that I always get max use of all electric mode to avoid as much pollution as possible.  I have read the views on only going to 80% charge, to keep the battery in "good" condition, but I'm sceptical about this. It seems to me to be a simple way for car makers to avoid warranty claims for batteries that fail early (less than 8 years).  I'm not too bothered about what this car will be doing in 4 years time, let alone 8 years.

 

If everyone follows this guidance (battery to 80%) then we all need cars now which claim to do at least 450 miles, which will maybe give a real world actual of about 300 miles range.

 

[jjc]

Hi,

 

mine does the map updates OTA and is on 21.7

 

John

[ERIK99]

Hi

 

This is great news.

 

Please detail how you managed to do it.

[aerofurb]

Apologies, I’ve been away from base.

 

My Superb iV is a July 2020 build and the Columbus System Information is as follows:

 

Hardware: H12

Software: 0156

Navigation database: 21.8

 

When I got home one evening, it flagged up that an update was available and I did no more than let it do its own thing ‘over the air’.

 

 

I bought the iV because a hybrid suits my car mission. I didn’t buy it to save the planet – as has been said by others, buying a car is not going to save the world no matter what slant you like to put on it. Previously, I had a brilliant 200+ hp Yeti diesel and a petrol Citigo. When my daily work commute changed from 35 miles each way to 4.5 miles each way, I bought the Citigo for the short journey. May seem strange but the Yeti was great for the longer trips (averaged 47 mpg over 90k miles) but I couldn’t (due to mechanical sympathy OCD) make it do a 4.5 mile commute trip. Once I had the funds, the plan was always to ‘downsize’ to one car that was good for my personal mission.

 

I seriously looked at leasing an Enyaq but for me it was bordering on too expensive and for my journeys was questionably the best route, if you’ll excuse the pun…. I’m sure that next time round (6-7 years away if all goes to plan) then I’ll go for a full EV because by then, the battery tech/range, purchase cost and charging infrastructure will be better suited to my needs.

 

I have home charging so the iV charges between 0030 and 0430 hrs (Octopus) at 5p/unit. This means my Monday – Friday work commute is about 24p (9 miles). This is a mixture of 30 mph town roads, dual carriageway A road and then a country road.

 

More often than not, on a Saturday, I have a 105 mile journey with a return on the Sunday. This is a mixture of 30/40 mph town driving (outbound: 1 mile at the start and 7 miles at the far end) with the rest on dual carriageway A roads and motorways. There are often queues on the M3 on the way home, so again the e-mode comes into its own. If there is any battery juice left at the end of the homeward journey then I switch to the battery for whatever is left.

 

So, I have a (relatively) cheap option for the daily work commute. Then, for my longer journeys, I use the battery for the 30/40 mph stuff and the ICE out on the open road. In both modes on those particular roads, the car works really well and it is a comfortable drive beyond all belief.

 

Interestingly, I’ve just had two weeks working away where I didn’t have a chance to plug-in. This meant using both the battery and ICE for a 9 mile each way commute. Most of the time, I took the option to recharge the battery from the ICE in the morning for a relaxing e-drive home at the end of the day. I have to say, driving in traffic with the ICE is not particularly pleasurable. If anyone knows if the Superb iV Sportline Plus has an internal synthetic engine noise generator, I’d like to know. I know there is a fuse for an ‘engine sound generator’ but whether that is internal or external e-mode pedestrian warning, I don’t know. Certainly, the ICE sounds like a rough diesel compared to the bliss of a battery powered commute.

 

I’m well aware of how to set the battery usage up but the way I use it works for me – and that isn’t to say that it’s the best way for others.

 

I wasn’t aware there was anything other than D or B mode – regen is regen, you can’t decide the amount of regen to have, it does its own thing. I normally drive in B and drive accordingly, using the throttle to reduce the amount of regen braking if required.

  

Everything I have read about charging Lithium-ion batteries says that for long life, don’t recharge them above 80% unless you’re imminently going on a trip. My daily 9 mile commute doesn’t need even 80% but that’s the default setting I have chosen. It means that if my plans change I have more (cheap) battery range available and if I know I’m going on a longer trip then I charge to 100% the night before.

 

So, that’s my world of Superb iV driving and it suits me absolutely perfectly.

 

[GarySN]

 

On 17/10/2021 at 13:50, aerofurb said:

 

Everything I have read about charging Lithium-ion batteries says that for long life, don’t recharge them above 80% unless you’re imminently going on a trip. My daily 9 mile commute doesn’t need even 80% but that’s the default setting I have chosen. It means that if my plans change I have more (cheap) battery range available and if I know I’m going on a longer trip then I charge to 100% the night before.

Hi there

I've had my year-old iV for two weeks, and am still getting to grips with the multitude of settings.  How do you set the charging limit?  

[aerofurb]

4 hours ago, GarySN said:

 

Hi there

I've had my year-old iV for two weeks, and am still getting to grips with the multitude of settings.  How do you set the charging limit?  

 

 

The way I do it (I’m sure others do it another way….!) is via the MySKODA app where you have options to save three charging plans.

 

My standard day to day use is an 80% charge, so Plan 1 is set to 80% and all seven days of the week.

 

If I’m planning going on a longer distance trip (my normal work daily commute is 9 mile) then I go to 90% (my Plan 2) or 100% (my Plan 3).  

 

For Plan 2 and 3 I just set the date and time as required. It automatically defaults back to Plan 1 80% after a Plan 2 or 3 charge as I have Plan 1 for every day.

 

I charge via an EO Mini Pro 2 wall charger and via Octopus GO. This goves me cheap rate charging between 0030-0430 hrs which is normally sufficient for a 50% charge at the ‘reduced’ rate.

 

The other way is controlling the charging via the Columbus/infotainment system (I just failed to find that in the Owner’s Manual and had to use the Search Function) but I don't think you can charge to a pre-set limit via this method. I just went out and had a look to check! The Columbus mirrors the plans set via the MySKODA app in time, date and charge rate but not the charge limit. I reckon you need the app to do that.

 

For setting the charging time up via the infotainment system (you've probably sussed this already) in the manual, it’s actually under Driver Information System >>> e-Manager >>> Settings

 

 

 

 

 

Hope that helps!