I tried out the Lane Keeping Assist in the snow this weekend. I was a little nervous of how it would join in on a twisting snow covered mountain pass (Julier in this case). In general it was ok but got somewhat confused when the road became 4 black stripes on a white background. It also tried to follow the tyre tracks from the bus in front which swung to the left and then turned off right. Finally it announced that it was no longer available, leaving an orange warning triangle on the instrument display.

Like my previous diesel the 1.0 TSI engine struggled to produce enough waste heat to warm the cabin. It took around 10 km at 80 km/h on a level road before the engine reached working temperature. That would be a significant battery drain for an EV.

I tried out the Lane Keeping Assist in the snow this weekend. I was a little nervous of how it would join in on a twisting snow covered mountain pass (Julier in this case). In general it was ok but got somewhat confused when the road became 4 black stripes on a white background. It also tried to follow the tyre tracks from the bus in front which swung to the left and then turned off right. Finally it announced that it was no longer available, leaving an orange warning triangle on the instrument display.

Like my previous diesel the 1.0 TSI engine struggled to produce enough waste heat to warm the cabin. It took around 10 km at 80 km/h on a level road before the engine reached working temperature. That would be a significant battery drain for an EV.

Not tried it in snow yet, normally you have to watch the little sticks at the edge on the hills around here (no pavements), as you speed past the grit lorry in the ditch (yes seen that).

With regard to EV range, my rule of thumb is start with manufacturers range, reduce by 1/3 for real world most of the year, reduce by half once temperature gets to around freezing. Heaters really hammer the battery plus the cold reduces capacity, strange they don't seem to broadcast that.......

In my very limited experience, that's a bit pessimistic.  I've only had my EV a few weeks, and done one long journey in it, in temperatures about 2°C.

The car's advertised range is 235 miles.  My journey was about 120 to 125 miles, and I got back with 40% charge left.

But it will depend a lot on how you drive.  Not knowing the car, I stuck to A roads and avoided the dual carriageway and motorway route.

Was that 40% usable charge or total charge? As I understand it you are not supposed to run the battery below a certain level (10%, 20% ???)

Not heard of that before - most batteries like to be fully cycled.  There is a recommendation for "battery life" not to routinely charge it to 100% unless you need that for a trip.  So mine goes to 90%.  Obviously no idea what long term difference this makes. I have run mine down to zero to get home without any ill effects (so far)

Yes its all in how you drive and how vicious the regen is set.  Speed above 70mph seems to hit the range (wind drag), heaters and other ancillaries do too. How many stop/starts and accelerations - and how gently you do them makes a difference to power consumption.  40% left seems a reasonable result for winter driving based on my experience too.  Clearly it is a "best guess" based on history as the car has no idea how you will drive/need to drive over future. 

Roger B said:

Was that 40% usable charge or total charge? As I understand it you are not supposed to run the battery below a certain level (10%, 20% ???)

That depends how cautious you want to be.  The manufacturers already allow a good safety margin at the top and bottom end of the charge range.  So when it says you have 0% left, it isn't really flat.