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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[–] 17 points 4 months ago (3 children)

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.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago (1 child)

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

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