1kw draw when idle (no climate controls on)

Anonymous · Feb 6, 2017

Anybody else seeing a 1kw draw when the vehicle is idle? I get this consistently when the heater/AC is off.

That is like running a hair dryer. I can't imagine that the computers, audio system and lights pull 1000 watts. Outside temperature is in the 60-70F range.

LeftieBiker · Feb 7, 2017

There may be coolant pumps running. Have you tried listening from outside the car?

gpsman · Feb 7, 2017

You probably didn't notice the meter only displays whole numbers.

There is no way to display 0.5 kw.

1 kw may be just saying "greater than zero". Consider it rounding error.

However ALL systems at idle could very well draw about 1kw.

Quick- Somebody turn their car on with a full charge and let it sit for 60 hours and see what the battery meter says at the end.
If empty, Yup, idle takes 1kw.

(But you have to climb out of an open window. If you open a car door and exit and leave a key in the car it will automatically shut off after 2 hours.)

GetOffYourGas · Feb 7, 2017

LeftieBiker said:
There may be coolant pumps running. Have you tried listening from outside the car?

I had similar thoughts. The battery is actively thermally managed. Do you know whether that system was running? I don't know if you have a convenient way to see? What was the battery temp? Does the car even report this for you?

CGameProgrammer · Feb 7, 2017

It actually does display 0.5 kW; when moving give it a tiny bit of "gas" and you can get it to show 0.5 kW of regen or 0.5 kW of draw. But after that it rounds to the nearest kW.

However when idle I suspect it is programmed to just show 1 kW whenever draw is < 1.5 kW because it says 1 kW even if the fan is on or off, radio is on or off, headlights are on or off, etc. Turning them all on, or all off, does not alter the displayed power draw even though they clearly would affect it (the fan and radio not too much, but the headlights for sure).

boltage · Feb 8, 2017

CGameProgrammer said:
It actually does display 0.5 kW; when moving give it a tiny bit of "gas" and you can get it to show 0.5 kW of regen or 0.5 kW of draw. But after that it rounds to the nearest kW.

Another way to see 0.5kW on the display is to start the car in service mode (hold the on/off button down for several seconds without pressing the brake pedal -- then it will be on but not drivable, so you can change the various settings).