Topic: Blueprint's 2017 Audi A3 Sportback e-tron

[EV-Light]

It is my duty to report to you how this thing copes with my daily grind, and this morning it did something new.

-16 outside, -27 with windchill cars can't feel, but humans most surely will. Coldest morning of the year so far (and we received 20cm of snow this week, so we're back into Winter Wonderland mode)

Full overnight charge. I press the starter button...and the ICE came to life right now and stayed on for the entire morning commute, except during certain traffic stops. There must be a system temp below which the EV mode is disabled, but here at least it's much lower than what I experience with a C-max Energy.

Oh and the sensors just freak out when covered in snow. I had to turn them off the day we received the dumping.

Just like a Volt would


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[Guy]

EV deal very well in -20 weather. No starting issue, no stiffness of the powertrain and you can pre-heat the cabin. Major downside is that range can be reduced by 40-50%.

[Blueprint]

-13°C this morning, again full ICE for the morning commute, and with hardly any traffic in this pre-XMas week, not stopping meant that the car never shut off the engine. It won't go in EV mode manually either at these temps.

The experimenting continues!

[tortoise]

What's your fuel consumption when the motor is running for your commute?  Presumably it's just generating heat for the cabin and the batteries and the electric motors are doing most of the work.

[Blueprint]

What's your fuel consumption when the motor is running for your commute?  Presumably it's just generating heat for the cabin and the batteries and the electric motors are doing most of the work.

No, the engine is really pulling the car through the DSG, and the exhaust has a sporty tune to it, so it's easy to track what's happening under the hood. When running in EV mode and getting the battery drained, the ICE will run in generator mode for a few seconds before replacing the electric motor - it's a very different feel and sound. The e-tron is not like the Volt for that aspect.

In warmer temps with a drained battery, it will shift between electric and ICE just like a regular hybrid.

Commuting on gas is around 7.7 l/100km as displayed at -13°C. Last September, highway runs on gas netted between 4.8 and 5.8.

Lifetime average is still 1.8 l/100km, but I expect this will move up in the 2's if the cold keeps up.

[tortoise]

Interesting.  I'm surprised it's using so much fuel when it's running in gas mode vs EV mode in the warm weather. 

[Blueprint]

Interesting.  I'm surprised it's using so much fuel when it's running in gas mode vs EV mode in the warm weather.

It's actually not that bad. Hybrids do best in urban context, and my commute is 70% no-traffic highway.

-8°C this morning and EV mode came back. I did note that if the car is given the time to warm up inside, then it'll run in EV mode even if stupid cold outside (if I could travel back in time, I'd convince Jacques Cartier that there's more future in the palm oil trade vs fur...).

[Blueprint]

Happy New Year everybody!

The e-tron sat outside for 3-4 days at near -30 temps and was started this morning before my wife left for work with the van, just in case. Usually, you press the start button once and leave the car to do the rest. First, the check engine light stayed on, but no ICE, and no EV traction. Hum. So I "cranked" it more by holding the button, and it started, but with black smoke coming out of the back for a good 15-30 seconds. Re-hum. Exhaust color went back to normal after that.

I'm going to hope the car ran rich on start-up. It's now being heated-up in the garage. Test-drive to follow later this morning.

[Guy]

Happy New Year everybody!

The e-tron sat outside for 3-4 days at near -30 temps and was started this morning before my wife left for work with the van, just in case. Usually, you press the start button once and leave the car to do the rest. First, the check engine light stayed on, but no ICE, and no EV traction. Hum. So I "cranked" it more by holding the button, and it started, but with black smoke coming out of the back for a good 15-30 seconds. Re-hum. Exhaust color went back to normal after that.

I'm going to hope the car ran rich on start-up. It's now being heated-up in the garage. Test-drive to follow later this morning.

No need to worry, both Volvos did exactly the same after sitting outside in -28C for 2 days. Started right up but black smoke for 15-30 secs or so.

[Patrick_D1]

Would bet that's exactly what it is - the engine picking a rich fuel map to help with warm-up and speed catalyst light-off.

[dirtyjeffer]

Would bet that's exactly what it is - the engine picking a rich fuel map to help with warm-up and speed catalyst light-off.

my guess as well, but my cars don't do that...odd.

[EV-Light]

None of my cars do that as well...


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[Scaerio]

Happy New Year everybody!

The e-tron sat outside for 3-4 days at near -30 temps and was started this morning before my wife left for work with the van, just in case. Usually, you press the start button once and leave the car to do the rest. First, the check engine light stayed on, but no ICE, and no EV traction. Hum. So I "cranked" it more by holding the button, and it started, but with black smoke coming out of the back for a good 15-30 seconds. Re-hum. Exhaust color went back to normal after that.

I'm going to hope the car ran rich on start-up. It's now being heated-up in the garage. Test-drive to follow later this morning.

No need to worry, both Volvos did exactly the same after sitting outside in -28C for 2 days. Started right up but black smoke for 15-30 secs or so.

My Volvo has been sitting outside for 9 days in Ottawa.  Will be interesting to see what happens when if it starts when I get back this evening...

[SKYMTL]

A week of sitting outside at -30C did in both our cars this morning.  Mazda 3 tried mightily to start but after a few chugs, it refused. Block heater engaged for an hour and then it started normally. 

The Audi?  Not even close.  It had the dreaded machine-gun rattle of a dead / cryogenically frozen battery.  The plastic battery cover then neatly shattered in my hands as I pried it open to access for a jump start.  I then realized my battery jumper wasn't charged.  OK, I have a backup plan! But...  the jumper cables I had kept in the car were so brittle from the cold that their rubber coating split and one of the wires detached. 

I gave up trying to got to work and went back to sleep.  Screw that. 

Moral of the story:  Black smoke ain't all that bad in such ungodly weather. 

[Blueprint]

If only we could travel back in time and convince Jacques Cartier that the palm oil & sugar cane trade had a brighter future than furs...

None of my previous cars ever did the black smoke thing, not even the TDI, but from what you guys said and what I could find online it seems "normal" for an FGC. The smoke cleared quickly and I drove around to warm it up prior to my daughter leaving for work with it and all is normal.

Did some RTFM and it seems that after 24 hrs below -25C the propulsion battery freezes and won't engage. The manual just says EV mode will resume once it thaws after parking in a heated garage or from driving the car on its gas engine. Only extreme heat seems to trigger bold warnings of impeding doom in the manual, so the car was built to withstand the cold. Unlike, say, Teslas, and maybe other full-on EVs - there is justification for PHEVs after all with our stupid weather. After spending an hour parked in the garage, it went to EV mode when my daughter drove off with it in silence 

[dirtyjeffer]

None of my previous cars ever did the black smoke thing, not even the TDI, but from what you guys said and what I could find online it seems "normal" for an FGC. The smoke cleared quickly and I drove around to warm it up prior to my daughter leaving for work with it and all is normal.

it isn't exclusive to FGC, and isn't really anything "harmful", assuming it isn't always running rich...the only time my car will belch out some black smoke is if i do a WOT passing move...full throttle combined with variable valve timing shoots lots of fuel into the combustion chamber and that is the only time i've seen it (i can see it in the rearview mirror)....i've been behind modern Audi vehicles who, when during aggressive acceleration, do the same thing (they may even have some carbon build up on the rear bumper if they do it a lot)...running rich during a WOT isn't really an issue (aside from perhaps wasting a bit of fuel, but fuel economy isn't really a concern during WOT).

[SKYMTL]

The neighbor's Model X flat out refused to start this morning.  That was exactly with the tech support told him to do:  push it into a heated garage for 4-6 hours to "thaw out" the battery.  It took 6 of us to push that elephant up a small incline and into his too-small garage.  Its there now and he took a taxi to work. 

[Blueprint]

The neighbor's Model X flat out refused to start this morning.  That was exactly with the tech support told him to do:  push it into a heated garage for 4-6 hours to "thaw out" the battery.  It took 6 of us to push that elephant up a small incline and into his too-small garage.  Its there now and he took a taxi to work.

We're buying EVs to cure global warming, but we need global warming for our EVs 

[dirtyjeffer]

The neighbor's Model X flat out refused to start this morning.  That was exactly with the tech support told him to do:  push it into a heated garage for 4-6 hours to "thaw out" the battery.  It took 6 of us to push that elephant up a small incline and into his too-small garage.  Its there now and he took a taxi to work.

We're buying EVs to cure global warming, but we need global warming for our EVs 

making me rethink my future vehicle purchase may be an EV.

[carcrazed]

The neighbor's Model X flat out refused to start this morning.  That was exactly with the tech support told him to do:  push it into a heated garage for 4-6 hours to "thaw out" the battery.  It took 6 of us to push that elephant up a small incline and into his too-small garage.  Its there now and he took a taxi to work.

We're buying EVs to cure global warming, but we need global warming for our EVs 

making me rethink my future vehicle purchase may be an EV.

Same here. PHEV is the answer for Canadian winter!