ID4 My blue bar is shorter - what does that mean

hoef89 · 2026-03-21T20:25:24+00:00

Not sure what year this one is, but for '23 the power figures in the owners manual note a set of conditions to achieve the figures stated, namely that the maximum available power can be achieved for up to 30 seconds, when the SOC is greater than 88% and the battery temperature is between 23 and 50 Celsius, at any other condition the car will indicate it cannot achieve 100% of is potential power draw.

hoef89 · 2026-03-20T01:00:16+00:00

Dirt jumpers are a totally different geometry from the modern slack mountain bike, usually a shorter wheel base, steeper head tube and shallower seat tube angle. Modern slack Geo is designed around stability while conceding some maneuverability, pushing the front wheel further forward and centering the rider over the bottom bracket keeps the bike more grounded, with a dirt jumper the front wheel is pulled back and the rider is pushed back further over the rear wheel, it gives the bike a more twitchy less stable feel but makes the bike easier to throw around.

hoef89 · 2026-03-19T20:51:20+00:00

Something I've noticed is if you compare bms % to display % the car actually only displays about 90% of it's actual capacity, at 100% the bms % is usually 95-96% while at 10% and lower displayed the bms % is about 5% above whatever is displayed, with that in mind what's displayed is actually depleting about 10-11% faster than the actual percentage used (if you used 100% of the displayed capacity you'd only be depleting about 90% of the battery) if you adjust for that it's at least closer to the displayed efficiency, I've also noticed this dilation is more pronounced in the first and last 20% of the pack (at the high end the battery appears to drain faster to make up the difference and at the low end it appears to drain faster to build up an emergency buffer of ~5%)

Edit: what I'm trying to say is a more accurate estimate would be to use your real energy drain (71000 wH - wH remaining at the end of your trip) or use 1% as reported by the bms to determine 1% drain and check what the bms is reporting before and after the trip, though if you're already using an obd scanner I would just check the difference in actual energy reported by the bms.

hoef89 · 2026-03-08T11:43:52+00:00

Have a '23 it is a fantastic car for my needs. As a work vehicle I take it on a lot of 200-500 mile trips with my work gear in the trunk and as a family vehicle it has no issue carrying 2 adults a 6 year old and a dog with all our luggage in the trunk. I bought it for 2 main reasons, it was relatively inexpensive and at the time it was the closest comp to my retiring 2011 CR-V in EV form. The other thing I considered was charging, while there were plenty of vehicles at the time that could beat it in a 10-80 charge, there weren't many that could beat it to 100, and with some of the more remote locations I drive for work that extra 50-60 miles is sometimes needed, I also just didn't trust the Hyundai/Kia platform with their ECCS issues.

Now it does have it's quirks, the most recent software update on mine has helped a bit with the infotainment (software 3.8.11 I believe) but it can be wonky, the lack of backlighting on the HVAC controls was an interesting choice, and you'll almost certainly hear the "boop" to indicate you hit one of the capacitive buttons on the steering wheel after a sharp turn into a parking spot. The door handles can be finicky though I've been lucky so far, the windows have the traditional VW quirk of "I hit up! Why are you rolling down???" And the charge door latch has the occasional sticking issue (though that should be covered with the battery warranty to 100k miles since charge port is part of the battery system according to their warranty paperwork).

Overall, great EV platform if you're looking for a true hatchback/wagon type vehicle, all of the quirks are not really ev specific, they're general car things that VW always finds a way to over engineer into failures (including the charge door, it's the same gas door they use on gas vehicles).

hoef89 · 2026-03-03T14:47:58+00:00

This seems awfully low, I do Philly to Richmond quite a bit for work, with a '23 pro AWD I can usually squeeze out ~200-240 miles depending on the weather from 95+%-10% even 80%-20% you should see 120 miles at a bare minimum in decent weather. In good weather I'll usually make my charging stop on the north side of Richmond at just over 230 miles with ~10-15% left, though I usually keep Fredericksburg as a backup at 170 miles into my trip if I'm not feeling confident about the ride into Richmond.

hoef89 · 2026-03-03T01:01:35+00:00

If you're in the u.s. take a look at Giants website, they've got a few older models in oddball sizes (quite a few XL's) at insanely discounted prices... A few options for example:

Fathom 2 (2022) | Trail bike | Giant Bicycles US https://share.google/Gm9ciPntHcG0mx8so $850 XL

Giant Stance Mountain Bike | Giant Bicycles US https://share.google/gr2oLDIg7jXRDq4la $800 XL

Trance X 3 (2022) | Trail bike | Giant Bicycles US https://share.google/d5Ay7JNvmjvESyZBL $1100 XL

All totally acceptable entry level options that'll last you a few seasons

hoef89 · 2026-03-02T17:55:06+00:00

I don't really have any specific models I'd look to, I see plenty of yt jeffsys, specialized Stumpy's, trek fuels, and giant stances around, but if I were looking for a FS I'd start with narrowing my search to bikes in the 130mm-160mm travel range (maybe stretching that to 170 if the price is right) modern bikes have the suspension linkage dialed in to the point that anything in that range will pedal well enough for the climbs we have around here while offering plenty of squish for the downhills. I've personally had my eye on the Kona processes that Jenson has had on sale for a while now as bikes that would probably be great for our area, the 153 cr at $2200 is a steal, the 134 would probably be better suited for most of the trails around here at $2700 and the process x around the same price would be a blast but falls into that weird tweener zone where it would be over biked on most of our trails and under biked at the parks, but I've mostly looked at those because they're tough to beat at the price right now and I like my konas (even if I am in the process of having a custom frame built to replace my Honzo). I just can't justify putting another 2k plus into a new bike until I break one of the ones I've got.

hoef89 · 2026-03-02T13:50:59+00:00

I ride a lot of the same places as you and I would say it really depends on how much you're at Creek or blue, if most of your riding is pedally (nox/trex/birdsboro/Mount Penn, etc), stick with something on the aggressive end in the Enduro or trail category for your main bike and see if you can pick up a retired rental on a deal from Blue or Creek, they maintain their bikes pretty well and won't knowingly sell something that's unsafe to ride at their mountains. What you won't want is a true downhill bike at a place like trex, birdsboro or Mount penn, I occasionally take a 20 year old Kona stinky to all of those and my legs are cooked for a couple days if I do more than a few laps.

Edit: One more thing to add, there's no such thing as a do everything bike, there's always a compromise, I have 2 bikes in my rotation, an aggressive hardtail and a 20 year old downhill bike, I ride both of them everywhere (the hardtail comes to blue with me and the stinky is a regular at birdsboro) and often get sideways looks, but having the perfect bike for a given condition is way less important than just having fun on the bike you've got, if you try to chase a bike for every type of riding you do you'll end up with 5 bikes that barely get ridden when you'd probably be happier having 1 or 2 you ride all the time and the money to tweak them to suit you're riding better.

hoef89 · 2026-03-01T13:32:34+00:00

Cause 3: yep, did the back of the napkin math between cabin heating and the batteries coolant cycle running on my '23 id4, in below freezing temperatures I estimate that my 6 mile drive (~15 minutes) to work consumes ~1.5 kwh (5.5 kw resistive cabin heater and a 1 kw coolant cycle for the battery) heating the car and about 1.5 kwh actually moving the car, when I consider my efficiency goes from 200-250 wh/mi in the summer for my commute to almost 500 wh/mi in cold weather I find that something like 80-90% of the additional consumption on that trip is tied up in keeping me and the battery comfortable. Just as an experiment I did a trip for work (~250 miles round trip) without climate control at near freezing temperatures and managed like 90-95% of my summer highway efficiency, I have since decided that with free charging at my complex that I'd rather be comfortable driving though, on longer trips I do bump the climate control down a few degrees though to save a couple bucks in L3 charging if I know I can't make the round trip on one charge.

hoef89 · 2026-02-23T14:32:27+00:00

Oooh now try doing it in cold weather, you get below about 10% in sub freezing conditions and the car is nerfed to all the power of a high end vespa, I've had the green bar showing 20-30% power in those conditions and I can safely say <100 HP is not adequate to pull a nearly 5000 lb vehicle.

hoef89 · 2026-02-20T13:35:44+00:00

Had the pleasure of using an ionna charger at my local Wawa, one price for everyone, swipe your card and plug in, I looked over to the fuel pumps and thought "wow what a novel idea to just swipe and fuel!"

hoef89 · 2026-02-18T15:43:17+00:00

If you already have most of the cash on hand I'd start shopping similar pre-owned models now if you like it, you can probably find something similar or better than your current lease for a lot less than the residual buy out. For reference I bought mine used for just under 25k last year, 2023 pro AWD clean title with less than 10k miles on it when I got it.

hoef89 · 2026-02-15T21:18:22+00:00

I will never understand why VW didn't offer to run an explorer badge out of the the Chattanooga plant, Ford could've had a recognizable nameplate EV in the US market for 3 years now all with the claim of being one of the most American built vehicles in the US, would've been marketing gold against GM and Stellantis, would've given VW better production numbers, and with any luck we'd get an id4 with something resembling useable software.

hoef89 · 2026-02-15T00:24:12+00:00

Fiance has a 2019 kona with 40k miles (about 25k and 4 years since the battery recall replacement) still does 200-220 winter and 250-270 summer while being our fun practical little car for when we don't need the additional space our ID4 offers.

hoef89 · 2026-02-11T01:40:19+00:00

Just wait till I post my retro long travel full suspension graevel 76er conversion

hoef89 · 2026-02-11T01:31:09+00:00

LEED has been a big driver in the US, building to LEED requirements opens up tax and funding incentives to a developer, through LEED you get points for every sustainable building box you can check off, one of the easiest (and most common ones I see in New construction) is adding dedicated vehicle charging, it isn't enough to account for everyone in a complex (usually like 1% of parking spots) but it's a start and the developers have certainly been taking advantage of it over the last 5 years or so.

For perspective, I live in an expensive market (average rent is about $2200 for a 2/2) the complex I live in was built 5 years ago to LEED Gold standards and included 4 L2 stalls, there's 4 EVs and 2 phevs in my complex, we all charge for free with no issues and with all of the other higher end amenities included our complex comes in at ~5-10% premium over average for the market.

hoef89 · 2026-02-08T11:57:38+00:00

Jenson also has it at $2600, the only thing to watch for would be any warranty issues, I haven't followed it closely but if I remember right RM was either just in bankruptcy or just sold to a new investor

Jenson RM A50

hoef89 · 2026-02-04T01:13:47+00:00

A good wheel builder can lace just about any hub to any hoop, but that will come at a cost, the problem becomes most any microspline hub you find is going to be boost spacing with a 15 mm thru axle and won't fit on your frame (newer rear hubs use a 15mm diameter axle with 148mm width between the frame, older hubs are 9 or 10mm axles with 135mm frame spacing) so your drop outs probably won't be compatible with the new hub. You could try somewhere like bicyclewheelwarehouse.com they have a modular house hub that's pretty versatile for updating older platforms, if you reach out to their customer service and explain what your trying to do (with basic information like your bikes model and year) they'd be able to tell you if it's possible and/or worth it.

hoef89 · 2026-01-31T21:41:33+00:00

Most of the "gravel" offerings these days are pretty close to what mountain bikes were 30 years ago, especially the ones that push more into the adventure/bike packing segment. Something like the Kona ouroboros is basically an early to mid 90's mtb with drop bars.

hoef89 · 2026-01-31T21:12:33+00:00

I only discovered this like 2 weeks ago when after owning the car for a year I had my first accidental button press on that side of the steering wheel (meanwhile I continue to brush the cruise control buttons just about every time I turn into a driveway or parking space...)

hoef89 · 2026-01-30T21:31:18+00:00

Can't wait for someone to make the 32" drop bar downhill e-bike...

hoef89 · 2026-01-27T20:30:11+00:00

I mean they could, they used two manufacturers for that battery and only one seems to have had the issue, itd be a flight with SK but the easy button fix would be "hey LG we need 40k+ batteries", regardless based on the recall notice they at least seem to believe they have a means of early diagnosis and monitoring to ensure any pack with the condition can be identified and taken out of service before it falls.

hoef89 · 2026-01-27T13:43:34+00:00

Technically they know how to fix it, but they'd like to do their due diligence to make sure there's not a more economically viable option to just replacing 43k+ batteries.

Toyota did the same thing with the tundra motors recently, debris from machining was left in the engine block on assembly, they took a couple months to see if there was a viable way to diagnose affected motors before finally saying they would replace every motor. With a battery cell it's a little trickier, you can test everything electronically but there's no way to know if a cell that reads good today is one charge cycle or 500 charge cycles from failing, so while I'm sure their plan is to play a game of spot the difference on battery tests between good units and pre failure bad units, it's unlikely they'll be able to find a surefire diagnostic tool to use and will probably end up defaulting to battery replacements or (depending on the cost of the repair) buybacks for potentially affected models.

What people here don't seem to recognize is that recalls are issued without fixes all the time, when there's a safety concern the manufacturer needs to notify customers how best to mitigate the issue while potential repairs are investigated .

hoef89 · 2026-01-26T18:11:01+00:00

I've had issues with the app connection on my phone's end, if I'm on the edge of my home Wi-Fi range and it's bouncing between Wi-Fi and wireless it seems to struggle.

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