Fiat 500e Forum and Owner's discussion

I used to get up to 104 miles of indicated range on full charge. Now only 70 (@ 60 degree temperature). What is going on? Is my battery pack dying? Car only has 3500 miles.

The indicated range is only an estimate, and the car is delivered with a fantastical number. Mine charges to 76 miles now after a year old.

You are fine, this is normal.

Greg

Yes. My 2015 was charging to 81 all of the time and now only reads about 74. It was even lower for a couple months when it was 30 degrees outside. Any correlation to exterior temperature and the charged gauge reading?

yes, it has been proven that the outside temp radically changes the range estimate.

It also appears to somewhat affect the actual range.

Greg

My experience with my 2015 500e... after a year of use is that if I drive with high efficiency my range estimate actually goes up. I only gently drive around town and try and do everything I can to keep my MPGe up each ride... often my MPGe at the end of a ride is over 160+. My estimated range as of today is at 110. I use cruise control, try and use a featherlight touch to accelerate and don't spend much time over 50mph. I don't think my driving reflects real world commute style driving. I suppose that all the car is doing is taking average MPGe and calculating a range for the charge remaining. I do live in a temperate climate as well

As far as I can tell the range readout is about as useful as watching the range left for a tank of gas in a car. What is really important is how much charge/fuel I have left, not how many miles the car thinks I can go from its calculations.

Thanks guys, this answered a question I had too! My max range was reading 110 and now 5 months later it's at 77 Sounds like that's normal!

Yep, it "learns" and gets sort of close, but the estimate is really pretty much worthless, drive by the battery percentage number.

Greg

My 2017 500e has only 1200 miles on it. I drive in SF. At 100% charge, range has never been above 45 miles. I thought that was normal until reading this blog and talking to other 500e drivers in town. When I picked up the car, new from the dealership, it said 67 miles range, but it has never been that high since. Now, suddenly it won't take a charge - "SERVICE CHARGING SYSTEM" & "plug not detected" (something like that) flash on the instrument panel at public charging stations. The two outside light bars on the dashboard flash. When I plug in the 110V on-board charger, nothing at all happens. Flat bed to dealer today.

Yep, sounds broken... is it fixed yet?

What is your range?

Vehicle and battery Range is mostly a function of charging and weather. cold weather also makes the electric motor a bit less efficient. The motor's lubricating oil is a bit thicker when cold.

1st question (presuming) your BEV is parked outside is what is the weather?
Range and charging is unfortunately proportional to average temperature. It's how Lithium batteries work.
Batteries are like people they like it in the 70's, 80's and maybe the 90's outside. They like short sleeve weather and consequently perform better in those temperatures.

On the other hand, Batteries shiver when cold even when it's up to the 50-'s and 60's.
in those temperatures it hampers charge mobility and they give up less range. hard driving can warm the battery.

2nd question: are you charging on a level II charger or just a 110V level 1 charger, higher rate charging helps warm the cells a bit so it will charge better,

3rd question: Can you park in a garage overnight to help get the battery a bit warmer? this is kind of the solution to improved range in cool/cold or very hot weather. If it is cold, parking out in sunlight may help too.

Good luck!