The update likely didn't affect the car's range one way or the other. It mainly changed how it estimates its range. You mat also find that you have less regenerative braking available.
arrgghh! It's always something! So if you're right, we'd see the remaining miles on a given trip decline faster than usual? Like a trip that used up 20 miles would now use up, say, 40? And the miles gained coasting down hills wouldn't be as many? Now that I think of it, that recalculation was the point of a software update years ago - one that I thought I'd gotten. Is it something that needs to be done more than once?
I drove from the dealership to our house - 4.5 miles, most of it pretty flat, the last mile of it uphill, the last 1/4 mile steep uphill - virtually the same kind of climbing we did to our house in Los Angeles, and there was a similar substantial drop in estimated miles in that last bit. So the estimated miles was 83 when I left and 64 when I arrived home - about what I would expect but better than before the update, when I would have left with 47 miles and arrived home with 25. No heat or defroster going.
Listen to what the service guy told me: The battery is guaranteed for 10 years. I told him 5. He was condescending, insisting on 10. Went to check it out - came back and weaseled himself into saying 5 years, that that was what he'd meant all along but I just hadn't understood. I think he'd been thinking of the drive system, not the battery itself.
I was also puzzled by his claim that they'd cleared the battery's memory - not something I thought had to be done with Li-ions, but he claimed it was necessary for the 2011 and 2012 batteries. But those are still Li-ions. I know the battery was improved for 2013 - I don't recall reading anything like this about them. As far as I know, that battery doesn't have memory that has to be cleared any more than phone batteries do - so why would he say that? I asked him about the conflicting things I've read about preserving battery life, especially charging only to 80%, minimizing the length of time it's at that 80% by timing it so it reaches the charge you need about an hour before you need it; minimizing DC quick charging. He said none of that stuff matters. I don't believe him. Since the distances in Eugene are so short, and traffic is ridiculously light, with well-timed signals, I think we'll just start doing the 80% charge, just in case it works.