Hi, had my DS4 E-tense performance for 3 weeks now, registered June 2022.
On a full charge it shows an electric range of 20 or 21 miles, seems low but is this normal?
I’ve been using it mostly in electric mode as I only travel 4 miles to work, is this a bad idea, should I use hybrid?
I had the same issue with my 2023 E Tense, I never saw above 22 miles after a full charge.
My son is getting anything between 35 and 40 out of his Vauxhall PHEV which is the same hybrid battery as our E tense.
Both cars are built on the same platform built by Stellantis, and share many parts.
I’m now getting between 29 and 35, but my son does use his car on longer journeys than I do so his battery is "learning " to be more efficient , if that makes sense.
Heres what my son advised me to do, and it worked :
- Charge the hybrid to max.
- Drive the car on full electric mode until it runs out.
- Charge again to the max, keep doing this for a couple of days, 3 or 4 days perhaps, gradually the battery will learn to “stretch itself”.
- Try to keep the car in the electric “ECO” range whilst doing this.
- Try taking the car on longer journeys for a little while whilst trialing the above.
You should start to see an increase in the predicated electric mileage after charging.
The car needs to “learn” how to use the battery more efficiently.
Like you I only do short journeys of around 4 miles to work and then the same going home, for only 4 days per week so the battery was happy enough to just deal with that.
I’ve only just passed 2000 total miles and I’ve had the car 10 months.
If you go to a dealership they’ll tell you it’s all to do with algorithms, basically the car is learning how you drive and what you use the car for.
Another thing someone advised me was to reset your trip mileage BEFORE each charge.
So, you have to park the car, reset the trip milage (reset both Trip 1 & 2), BEFORE opening any doors or switching the ignition off, and then charge the car.
I was sceptical about this, but when I tried it the first time, the car instantly gained 3 predicated miles after a full charge, coincidence , maybe, but I was happy to accept it !
A few days later I did the bit above that my son advised, driving just on full electric for a few days after a full charge, so between the two things that I tried the car has now gained around 10 miles of predicated mileage.
Obviously, if the above does increase your predicated electric range, it will at some point top out, it wont just keep increasing, and dare I say, as it’s all based on algorithms you may see a decrease if the car goes back to “old habits” based on your driving style and usage.
Try the above s, hope it helps.
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My car says 33 miles in the summer but I can usually get 37 miles..
i had the same problem (26 km → 16 miles), but after few weeks it adopted to my driving, and now it is 46km
Thats exactly as it should.
The cars learns your driving needs.
I was seeing 22 miles on a full charge for many many months, it would not go any higher, so I did the full charge and deplete thing and only driving on full electric mode for around 10 days driving the exact same journey each day and its now on 33 miles after a full charge.
Brian.
Don’t treat your car as an EV, it has a small ‘Hybrid’ battery somewhere, and constantly running on Electric only will depleted the battery. When this happens you’ll start getting problems, keyless entry not working is one of them, then you will get an error message stating that Electric mode unavailable at this time.
To stop this from happening, you need to drive in one ofthe hybrid modes, for about 20-30 miles, every couple of weeks or so (more in the winter) and this should keep this Hybrid battery charged.
Brian,
What I’ve explained worked to increase the initial predicted electric range, it 100% worked , taking my range from 22 miles up to 32-35 miles after a full charge, and its stayed there.
I did this doing my usual low mileage back and fore to work over 4 days on full electric, probably recharging 3 times over the week, each time the predicted range increased.
I DEFINITELY DO NOT RUN THE CAR ON FULL ELECTRIC ALL THE TIME, AND DO NOT RECOMMEND THAT YOU SHOULD !
OBVIOUSLY the PHEV is NOT a full electric car, so YES, once you see your predicted range increased use hybrid mode, its an hybrid car !!!
OR just ignore what worked for me and stick to the current low predicted range that you’re seeing if you’re happy with that ?
Another thing to take into account is that these cars can almost think for themselves, so if they detect that the engine needs to run to charge the 12v batteries, which are the batteries that operate features like the keyless entry, then it will override the electric mode to start up the engine and throw some charge back into the 12v batteries.
There’s also the point that the car will always default to full electric mode if there’s enough charge in the hybrid battery, so if driving in full electric too often would cause issues why does the car default to full electric each time it is started ?
Clearly electric mode is the preferred choice over hybrid if there’s sufficient charge, otherwise the car would be defaulting to hybrid on start up and electric mode would be an option.
To clarify though, I’m not suggesting that you keep topping up the hybrid battery to use the car as an EV, that would be daft.
Just to note.
It’s well documented on here that I’ve had issues with the keyless entry from day one when I bought the car brand new 10 months ago, however it’s only recently that I’ve tried running on full electric for a little while to get the predicted range up, so I know for sure the issues I’ve had with the with the keyless entry has nothing what so ever to do with running the car in electric mode, in fact at no time in all during the visits to the dealership, have any of the DS technicians, and there’s been many, ever said NOT to run the car on full electric as it will effect the keyless entry or any other feature.
Just thought I should mention this.
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Been running Comfort mode only for about 10 days (~6 charges) regardless whether the distance I travel is within battery range or not, and I see absolutely no difference now in prediction than before. Just as I expected.
Of course you should run it like an EV if the distance is within battery range.
When you say, running on Comfort mode (6 Charges) are you letting the battery go to 0% before you recharge? An empty battery should take about 10.5 - 12kW to recharge.
If your only using say 9kW between charges than three car thinks you have a 9(ish)kW battery and calculates accordingly.
Sometimes it’s empty and sometimes not.
In general, the battery will always be empty at least once a week and I usually charge around 3 times /week (when at the office).
I tend to run from 100% down to 0% and then charge .
I’ve read conflicting reports online that you should not run down to 0 % before charging, but I’ve also read it makes no difference ?
Like Jay, the predicted mileage I’m seeing at the moment after a full charge is the same whether its charged from 0% or if theres charge left in the battery.
All I know is that my predicated mileage has gone from 22 to 32-35 after I charged the car, ran it on full electric, let it deplete to 0%, (hybrid then kicked in), charge again, ran on full electric again until it depleted to 0% again (hybrid kicks in), I did this cycle of running on full electric after charging until the hybrid kicks in for about a week and then started to see the predicted electric mileage increase.
My son who has a PHEV Vauxhall Astra (same platform as the DS), he does this cycle of running on full electric until it depletes and then recharging on a regular and has seen his predicted electric range hit anything between 35-40 miles on a regular basis, he does tend to throw in one or two longer journeys than I do though.
He has challenged me that if I let him use my DS for a little while he could get the predicted electric mileage up to around what he sees on his Astra , I might just take him up on it, just to use the Astra for a little while, it’s a cracking car to drive.
I personally feel nicer than the DS., and without doubt far less issues.
Zero percent is just an indication on the dashboard. Inn reality, there’s still 1.5kWh of reserve left for hybrid driving. The battery has 12.33kWh and a maximum charging capacity of about 11.8kW from 0% on the dashboard.
Daily driving (about 22 miles) in electric mode gives me a range of 35-37 miles.
Advice for all DS4 e-tense users: never update the TBMU firmware. The latest firmware is a surefire path to problems due to the reduced tolerance for voltage differences between the traction battery cells in this latest firmware.
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That’s roughly what my son gets in his Vauxhall Astra PHEV, and like you he tends to add more daily mileage than I do.
My daily usage is only around 7-8 miles in total back and fore work , same route each day for 4 days, I then sometimes use the car on a weekend, but again for short journeys, but more often than not its parked up until I go to work again the following week.
I’m probably only doing 50 miles max, and that’s if I use it over the weekend.
Its only done 2200miles in 10 months !
What is the TBMU ?
My car hasn’t requested that I accept an an update for many many months.
The TBMU is the traction battery module. It is responsible for, among other things, checking voltage differences after cells balance.
In the latest software they have reduced the tolerance for voltage differences between cells, which causes errors to appear.
So if a car was still under and was due for a service, and the owner refused to have the latest software installed during the service, how would that effect the warranty ?
I can understand how a owner could reject an over the air update, but during a service they check if a car requires the most recent updates, to refuse an update might open a can of worms in regards to warranty claims.
Just a thought ?
No one at a dealership does this because it’s not a service campaign, but a simple update. It’s a hidden minefield, so to speak, because it results in high repair costs if you’re out of warranty. Software updates are often requested by the vehicle owner and come at a cost.
“Advice for all DS4 e-tense users: never update the TBMU firmware. The latest firmware is a surefire path to problems due to the reduced tolerance for voltage differences between the traction battery cells in this latest firmware.”
Is the Traction Battery firmware just part of the main car sw updates (i.e. never update the sw), or is it some separate update?
It’s separate. Unit named TBMU_PHEV is a separate module listed in the Diagbox, same like gearbox, airbag, engine, etc.
The full name is Traction Battery Management Unit and not traction battery module as I wrote earlier.
Related errors include P30A0-00, -04, and -09. The “SERVICE” warning light illuminates with a warning message: Traction battery charging is impossible. Electrical performance is impaired.
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If its not a dealership update, which I assume all updates come from DS via the dealership, where does this particular update come from ?
Where did I write that it’s not from the DS via dealership? Yes, it is, but you shouldn’t update this one if you want to have the latest SW in all your car’s modules.
In short, newest doesn’t mean best, and this is true with the TBMU update. DS released the wrong software via the dealership.