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Is there a significant efficiency hit for accelerating quickly to your desired speed vs accelerating slowly? (in an EV) (self.electricvehicles)
submitted 2 weeks ago by bdonvr to c/electricvehicles@slrpnk.net
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Hey there,

I recently acquired my first EV and have been having fun trying to get the best efficiency numbers out of it. I was at ~3.5mi/kWh (5.6km/kWh), but by slowing down and taking the other road not the highway to work I got it up to 4.4mi/kWh (7.08km/kWh). Part of that was accelerating relatively slowly as this is one tip that I heard. But I've been thinking about it and from a simple physics calculation it should take basically the same amount of energy to accelerate an object to highway speed whether you do it very quickly or if you spread that energy over a longer period of time.

Does anyone have any insight? I don't mind granny accelerating but if I can have the zippy fun of accelerating an EV while still staying efficient that would be awesome too :)

Thanks!

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[-] imsufferableninja@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 weeks ago

Pushing the batteries and motors harder results in more waste heat. So the harder you accelerate, the less useful energy you get, i.e. lower range.

[-] SJSmith@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

Not to mention the tire wear

[-] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Does it or is it the same heat over a shorter period of time?

This graph shows 40C is optimal. So accelerating harder on a cold day could improve range.

[-] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 weeks ago

Better to pre condition the battery before driving then, while plugged in.

[-] kudra@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

but that uses energy you should account for, even if you don't see it in your EV dash.

[-] FireXtol@piefed.social 5 points 2 weeks ago

In cold conditions using the battery to heat itself is more efficient than not.

[-] bdonvr 4 points 2 weeks ago

Sure, and I can see that being a difference between accelerating very slowly vs flooring it and flooding the motor with 150kw. But I still wonder if it's significant between holding 20-25kw for several seconds vs 50-60kw for only a couple seconds.

[-] FireXtol@piefed.social 4 points 2 weeks ago

The efficiency peaks in the middle.

this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
27 points (100.0% liked)

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