[CarZin]

For some reasons this forum is blocking this post. This will be my third attempt. I am wondering if it has the picture I am trying to attach.

I had posted this on the Audi E-tron owners club on facebook, but thought this would be helpful. I purchased my E-tron CPO about 3 months ago with 1650 miles. I was surprised by the range (lack of) despite this being my fourth electric vehicle, and having driven over 200,000 miles in electric cars. In short, I know how range works, and I know how to drive to maximize range. Until this car, I had always been well above EPA range.

Anyway, about a month ago I noticed the estimated range really dropping off a cliff. At first I thought it was all my short trip driving artificially driving down the range. This car definitely performs more efficient on the highway as opposed to around the town. My 80% charge range started (when I got the car) in the 180s. It had dropped to around 125 miles. 100% charge was around 160. So I started tests, charging the car to 100%. I would take longer drives and then compute what my state of charge SHOULD be based on my efficiency (miles per kWh), and what the car MEASURED when I stopped. It was off substantially. Most recently, I took a trip that was around 75 miles. My average efficiency was 3. miles per kWh. That should net me around 250 miles on a full tank (or 125 miles at 50% state of charge). At 50% state of charge, I had only driven the 75 miles. So I had lost 100 miles of range.

Someone on the forum stated they had also had their problem, and noticed a great indicator that you can pay attention to in order to see this problem. I had not noticed it.

1) Your power gauge will NOT read 100%. Mine has diminished to something in the 80% range.
2) Boost mode will NOT power up past 100%, or won't move at all. In my case, boost mode is unavailable.

I have attached a picture.

I have an appointment on Monday to have this looked at. No clue how long she will be out of service.

 

[CarZin]

View attachment 436

 

[Steviestainz]

View attachment 436

Would love to see the picture but it’s not available.. interesting story so far

 

[CarZin]

I will try posting when I am home. Apparently this site doesn’t like my picture.

 

[CarZin]

 

[Steviestainz]

Do you think it’s temperature related or dependent upon the drive mode selected? It’s definitely a weird state of affairs but it looks deliberate in order to control the use of available power

 

[CarZin]

No. There is no change regardless of drive mode. I've tried that. In a previous forum, it was discussed that this is a protection mode. Because there are damaged/defective cells, it limits the collective power of the pack. In other words, this is what you can expect to see when your pack gets old. Irritatingly enough, I believe this is why there is no alarm on the dash.

 

[RVA]

Interesting that you're finding you get better range on the highway than around town. I'm the exact opposite - highway range is 175 miles at best, but if I'm just driving around town, 200+ is easy. Mine seems to love going 35-45 mph; not so much for higher or lower speeds.

 

[CarZin]

So I live in an area with hills. I don't know if your area is flat. If your area is flat, I imagine your numbers are going to look at lot better. But stopped, with the e-tron pointing up-hill, and needing to get it moving again will waste a lot of energy.

 

[CarZin]

After being in the shop for 2 days, they called me and told me cell number 11 is bad. Apparently a special audi person has to be involved to fix this. So who knows how long it will be

 

[zabaroptik]

This sounds like the same issue I have. My range just started to drop from 180 miles to 120 mile range, took it to the dealership and after around 2wks they told me I have a bad cell(s) and then can measure high resistance levels. My dealership contacted Audi corporate and have placed an order for battery replacement. But they can not give me an ETA for the battery replacement and have given me a loaner car until resolved. The service agent told me this could take a long time as they have no idea how long they will need to wait for parts.

 

[CarZin]

So they are going to replace your entire pack?

This sounds like the same issue I have. My range just started to drop from 180 miles to 120 mile range, took it to the dealership and after around 2wks they told me I have a bad cell(s) and then can measure high resistance levels. My dealership contacted Audi corporate and have placed an order for battery replacement. But they can not give me an ETA for the battery replacement and have given me a loaner car until resolved. The service agent told me this could take a long time as they have no idea how long they will need to wait for parts.

 

[zabaroptik]

So they are going to replace your entire pack?

Yes. This is what they have told me. They have requested this to be changed and placed the replacement parts order, but still no authorization from Audi corporate to do it, and they told me once it is approved they have no idea how long it will take to receive the parts as they can't even see any inventory. I have received lots of apologies from the dealership as they are running blind just now and this is why they do not even want to guess a date on when it could be fixed... so right now I have no clue when the car will be repaired and I am guessing it could take several months to be resolved or even longer.

 

[CarZin]

Interesting... If that is the case, I'll be asking Audi to make some car payments for me. I know the individual on facebook actually had his battery pack opened up, and a cell or two replaced.

 

[zabaroptik]

Lets see if anything changes between the request for a replacement pack and what Audi actually approve... The dealership told me they could see the range was all over the place and even cycling the battery and doing a reset they could never get the pack above 160 miles and then the next cycle it would decrease to 120 miles and they could not figure out why / what was going wrong, it took them around 10 days of cycling to determine some cells were bad.

 

[CarZin]

Well, my dealership wasn't that incompetent. But I wrote them a letter detailing everything that was happening, and included the 'look at the power meter and see that is doesn't go to 100%'. Did you have a reduced power meter? I told them it was likely a bad module or cell. I gave them all the data so that they could start by running whatever program they need to run to check the battery. I dropped the car off yesterday, and they looked at this afternoon. So they made quick work of it.

I'm a little concerned this is going to be a repeat problem... Hopefully not. But in all the years of driving an electric car, I never had a problem like this with the battery. And there seems to be a decent trickle of these problems with the folks on the forum. If you didn't know your car well, you might think the reduced range is normal. I am pissed that there is something that went defective in the car, and there was no malfunction light. This is not just normal capacity loss.

 

[zabaroptik]

This was why they had a problem as the car was shown 100% charged and even the diag tools they have could not see an issue, and as they cycled the battery the range would change and they could not see anything wrong in the reports, but the range would change for no reason from 160 - 120 - 149 - 139. They were receiving remote support from someone to eventually isolate the issue to some cells. At least they eventually found an issue and have something to work on now.. it sounds like some car's have cells that are decaying faster than others. I am sure audi will be wanting to look at these cells to determine root cause.. so hopefully they surprise me and will get replacement parts faster than I expect..

 

[CarZin]

I think you are misunderstanding me. You have the battery charge and the power meter. The power meter is the thing that increases to boost mode. Otherwise, it should start at 100% and presumably stay that way until your battery is very low. Mine had been decreased to the mid 80s at 100% charge and boost was no longer available.

 

[ex-expats]

I would tell the dealer you'd like a long term loaner while they deal with it and then hit them for the repayment of the cost of the car for the amount of time it was in the shop. I had to do this with a BMW 5 series a few years back and got 3+ months of payments repaid to me.

 

[HJAutos]

Hi CarZin, I am having exactly the same problem with my e-tron 55. Started with a full range of 225 miles when new and now 2 months later, struggling to get over 150 miles on full charge. Also having the same issue with the 80% power mode you mentioned. Some days i have option for full power (boost mode) and others just 80%.
Did you get yours sorted in the end?