Bruuster

When I purchased my 2017 A3 E Tron in 2019 I would get 19-21 miles on electric only. Now I only get 12-15 miles after a full charge while driving very conservatively and coasting to all stop lights.
I know the EV battery is warranted for 8 years. Does anyone know at what point (how low the the EV miles need to be} before the dealer would replace under warranty?
Audi USA customer service and my local dealer did not have an answer.
Thanks for your responses.

ehanauer

I just got back from the dealer with the same problem. When I bought the car in 2016, a full charge would be 25 miles. Realistically I was getting about 16, which was acceptable. Now a "full"charge is 15-17 miles, and I'm getting about 8. That's half what I was getting when new. The drop wasn't gradual; it happened within the past 6 weeks. The service rep said they rebooted the car's computer, and I should give it a month or so to learn our driving pattern. If it doesn't improve, bring it in and they will contact Audi of America. It sounds like the same story.The battery warranty in California is 10 years or 100,000 miles. But warranties are only as good as the company behind them.

Bruuster

Coincidence? I dropped my car off today at the dealer for the second time. Yes, 2 months a go they gave me the "song and dance" that they contacted Audi USA and the fact that it charges to 15 on the dashboard means it's within spec.
They told me that they re-balanced the battery cells and I should drive it 500 miles to see if there is improvement. I called Audi USA. They told me that no dealer really contacts them about service. The contact was made internally with the staff engineers at dealership.

I drove the 500 miles. No change. Now I get 11 miles on EV. I took photos of the dashboard showing
EV miles driven and remaining. I also have kept an EV mileage log since my purchase in 2019. I gave them this proof today. I'll keep you posted.

BTW in California the warranty is 15 years or 150,000.

SparkyInAudi

Similar story for my wife's 2017 A3 E Tron: New in Jan 2017. Typically 20+ miles range until a couple of months ago, now regularly at 15 with the same charging routine she's done since day 1 - Still exclusively using the OEM charger on a 240V/30A circuit every night. The "battery fuel gauge" in the instrument cluster shows 3/4's full after an overnight charge, and repeated restarts of the charger don't add range or change the battery gauge. Service manager and "lead technician" discussed the situation and recommended that it's "probably our charger". (Vehicle was in minor rear-end collision so we only asked them to determine if there was any potential hazardous damage to the battery from that incident. When vehicle goes in for 70k service we'll revisit with them and request they actually put hands on metal and perform more diagnostics.)

I'm taking the vehicle to an Electrify America charger today to see whether that gets it above 15 miles to test out this "bad charger" assertion.

Bruuster

Update: Received a call from dealer yesterday after car has been in for 10 days. They have agreed with me and are going to replace the EV battery pack.
I should get it back next week. There is hope.

Bruuster

I have my car back from dealer. EV battery was replaced. Car charges to 26-27 miles on dash. I've only driven a few miles but looks good so far.
It's getting about .8 miles for each mile ticking off on the display. Will keep you posted on longer drives.

burp

2018 A3 e-tron sportback with 54,000mi also got EV battery replaced. it took about 6 trips to dealer(s). early symptom was 1] slightly degraded EV range, 2] if going 60-70mph when EV ran out, change over to hybrid mode had odd behavior... many seconds of no acceleration even when floored. Later symptoms were much reduced range [10-12mi]. Dealer kept claiming normal degradation, but was never able to provide data. Also lack of faults from EV battery test. Audi USA said that every EV battery test should generate contact with TACS (technical Assistatce C? S?) for guidance. But there was not contact. Eventually dealer did get hold of TACS and then determined the EV battery was bad. I suspect that tech was running a simplified test which only looks at voltage, and does not measure battery capacity [kWh].After contacting TACS, deeper diagnostics in the EV test were enabled which measured kWh or Ah. I requested the results of the capacity measurements over and over, but dealer was unable or unwilling to provide them. Also was not able to determine if new battery is original 8.8kW capacity of upgraded 13kW.
now display is 8/8 bars, 27-28mi range, actual range 22-23mi with no hvac and max speed of 50mph. my best guess is that at least one cell developed high internal resistance. This could make the charging incomplete, and interfere with or confuse the change over to hybrid while under load.

Bruuster

Glad you were able to get replacement battery. I don't know if I received an upgraded 13kWh or the original. No info on final paperwork. However, I'm happy with the extended range. Since most of my drives are short trips I have to make an effort to run the ICE every few weeks to keep it lubricated. LOL The dealer did not tell me if this new battery has a warranty. So I will assume it does.

wmtunate

My '16 A3 e-tron is scheduled to go to the dealer for this issue next week. I'm going to press them on giving me measured capacity data of the traction battery. All of the info above is helpful, so thanks for that.

wmtunate

Dealer supposedly sent logs to Audi and they said everything is normal and will not replace the battery. There's apparently a SW fix coming out this quarter to address the display only showing 7/8 bars of charge at full. That doesn't address the reduced range though.

Not sure what recourse I have here. I expressed my frustration to the service advisor, but I know he can't do anything without approval from Audi.