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submitted 2 weeks ago by bdonvr to c/electricvehicles@slrpnk.net

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.

[-] 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.

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this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
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Electric Vehicles

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Electric Vehicles are a key part of our tomorrow and how we get there. If we can get all the fossil fuel vehicles off our roads, out of our seas and out of our skies, we'll have a much better environment. This community is where we discuss the various different vehicles and news stories regarding electric transportation.


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