How Much Range Are You Actually Getting?

[Snafu]

I'm at 3600+ miles, 19" w/aero, and my "lifetime average" is 4.0mi/kWh. I drive mainly in Smooth, and my driving is probably 75% town/rural (winding/rolling) back roads and 25% highway (@75mph). Charging to 80% typically puts me at about 420 miles when I unplug in the mornings.

I know the car can do so much more, but something about EVs is so quiet, and this car is so comfortable and smooth, that I love to just relax and enjoy the ride.

 

[th14]

I'm at 3600+ miles, 19" w/aero, and my "lifetime average" is 4.0mi/kWh. I drive mainly in Smooth, and my driving is probably 75% town/rural (winding/rolling) back roads and 25% highway (@75mph). Charging to 80% typically puts me at about 420 miles when I unplug in the mornings.

I know the car can do so much more, but something about EVs is so quiet, and this car is so comfortable and smooth, that I love to just relax and enjoy the ride.

If you’re able to do those winding and rolling back roads at 45-60, that seems to be the absolute sweet spot for this car.

The big, big caveat to that you have to be able to do it without hitting the brake at all and just let the regen do the work.

400-450 miles of real world range is absolutely remarkable.

I’ve got some thoughts on usable range and quick charging that I’ll share in another post later this weekend when I have some more time.

 

[Snafu]

The big, big caveat to that you have to be able to do it without hitting the brake at all and just let the regen do the work.

I force myself to used the brakes at least once a day.... to prevent rust or other build-up, of course.

 

[GEWC]

Ran some range tests over the past week. As some background. I’m about 1400 miles in. I’m a moderate driver. Not heavy acceleration but at doing higher speeds on the interstate (call it 80). Overall, I’m averaging 3.5 mi/kw. That’s an even mix of city and highway driving. It’s flat where I live and the weather has been 60-70 degrees. So pretty ideal conditions.

What I did was get on the interstate, set the cruise control and then hit reset on the trip counter. I went at least 10 miles and in most cases, closer to 20-30.

80mph - 3.1 mi/kw
75mph - 3.5 mi/kw
70mph - 3.7 mi/kw
65mph - 3.9 mi/kw
60mph - 4.4 mi/kw

Below 60mph and I was consistently over 4. Sometimes into the 4.5-5 range.

Battery is 112 kWh so you can multiply the above rates times the total battery capacity to get estimated range.

I’m a pretty experienced EV driver so the above tests and most of my regular driving, I don’t ever hit the brake. The regen on this car is strong enough you really shouldn’t have to.

My takeaway from this is that higher speeds have a bigger penalty than I was expecting for this car. Coming from an SUV, I was used to big range penalties at high speed. I was hoping for better.

Oh, I’m in an AGT with 19” wheels w/ aero.

My other takeaway is that’s it’s pretty easy to get close to the EPA. Unfortunately, it requires slowing down to 60. But if you’re a long way away from a charging station and you have to get there, 55 mph is probably your best bet to stretch it out.

We all know acceleration is a big hit. My other observation was elevation changes were a big hit. Even in my relatively flat area, pushing this heavy car up an overpass caused a noticeable drop in efficiency. Which as well documented, is not fully recovered on the way back down.

I’m happy there is a set of circumstances where I can replicate the quoted range. I am a little worried about what this means for real world range in the Gravity at highway speeds. Hopefully they pack in a little more battery for that vehicle.

Interesting. I get much higher numbers at 70-75, finding that is the car's sweet spot. If I stick to 70 mph, I usually average 4.3 at 70 and 4.1 at 75.

 

[stratus]

Now that temperatures have dropped , we have had some snow and I am using heat , my m/kWh has significantly dropped. However, this has been exclusively in town driving with lots of stops and starts and a big hill. I am around 2.7 m/kWh in the last week, which I find perfectly acceptable.
Of note, we had our first significant dump of snow a few days back and the car did very well on snow covered roads , with great traction. The snow wasn’t too deep on the roads , but that will come soon enough.
Pretty pleased thus far and completely expected a drop in efficiency.

 

[DJL]

Now that temperatures have dropped , we have had some snow and I am using heat , my m/kWh has significantly dropped. However, this has been exclusively in town driving with lots of stops and starts and a big hill. I am around 2.7 m/kWh in the last week, which I find perfectly acceptable.
Of note, we had our first significant dump of snow a few days back and the car did very well on snow covered roads , with great traction. The snow wasn’t too deep on the roads , but that will come soon enough.
Pretty pleased thus far and completely expected a drop in efficiency.

Sounds like you have 21 inch wheels. Is that correct?

 

[th14]

Interesting. I get much higher numbers at 70-75, finding that is the car's sweet spot. If I stick to 70 mph, I usually average 4.3 at 70 and 4.1 at 75.

I think it's been well established your driving technique is superior to the rest of us mere mortals!

I meant to put a note in my original that each person's baseline was likely to be different. But that I found the exercise helpful to know on a relative basis, how speed affects range. And it looks like your experience mirrors that. About 0.2 mi hit for every 5 mph of additional speed.

 

[stratus]

Sounds like you have 21 inch wheels. Is that correct?

No, I have 19s. I was getting 3.5-4 but since weather cooled, it has dropped a lot. The hills really kill efficiency , especially the one I drive up to get to my house.
If it wasn’t for that hill, I would be in mid 3’s, but I drive it every day as part of my small 17 mile round trip . Additionally, it’s cold in the morning , so the car doesn’t have enough time to warm up before I get to work .
It’s a lot of stop and go, so I expected this.

I had one drive last week, about 40 miles in a snowstorm , and was in the low 3’s, with the heat on and a fair amount of stop and go.

I think small trips , in chilly weather, will hurt efficiency, but that’s ok and is expected.

 

[Bus Driver]

Ran some range tests over the past week. As some background. I’m about 1400 miles in. I’m a moderate driver. Not heavy acceleration but at doing higher speeds on the interstate (call it 80). Overall, I’m averaging 3.5 mi/kw. That’s an even mix of city and highway driving. It’s flat where I live and the weather has been 60-70 degrees. So pretty ideal conditions.

What I did was get on the interstate, set the cruise control and then hit reset on the trip counter. I went at least 10 miles and in most cases, closer to 20-30.

80mph - 3.1 mi/kw
75mph - 3.5 mi/kw
70mph - 3.7 mi/kw
65mph - 3.9 mi/kw
60mph - 4.4 mi/kw

Below 60mph and I was consistently over 4. Sometimes into the 4.5-5 range.

Battery is 112 kWh so you can multiply the above rates times the total battery capacity to get estimated range.

I’m a pretty experienced EV driver so the above tests and most of my regular driving, I don’t ever hit the brake. The regen on this car is strong enough you really shouldn’t have to.

My takeaway from this is that higher speeds have a bigger penalty than I was expecting for this car. Coming from an SUV, I was used to big range penalties at high speed. I was hoping for better.

Oh, I’m in an AGT with 19” wheels w/ aero.

My other takeaway is that’s it’s pretty easy to get close to the EPA. Unfortunately, it requires slowing down to 60. But if you’re a long way away from a charging station and you have to get there, 55 mph is probably your best bet to stretch it out.

We all know acceleration is a big hit. My other observation was elevation changes were a big hit. Even in my relatively flat area, pushing this heavy car up an overpass caused a noticeable drop in efficiency. Which as well documented, is not fully recovered on the way back down.

I’m happy there is a set of circumstances where I can replicate the quoted range. I am a little worried about what this means for real world range in the Gravity at highway speeds. Hopefully they pack in a little more battery for that vehicle.

Thanks for posting your “rules of thumb”. Extrapolating from it, I’m figuring that if I drove between 85 and 90 mph on long interstate stretches, I’d get about 200 miles of range. That’s still pretty respectable.

Sometimes it’s just fun to dash between charging stops just as fast as you can.

 

[nasilemak]

Thanks for posting your “rules of thumb”. Extrapolating from it, I’m figuring that if I drove between 85 and 90 mph on long interstate stretches, I’d get about 200 miles of range. That’s still pretty respectable.

Sometimes it’s just fun to dash between charging stops just as fast as you can.

is there a rule of thumb of "at what state of charge %", you will stop at "x type charger", and charge for "x amount of time" and "how much additional range" you get?

 

[nasilemak]

Interesting. I get much higher numbers at 70-75, finding that is the car's sweet spot. If I stick to 70 mph, I usually average 4.3 at 70 and 4.1 at 75.

I think it's been well established your driving technique is superior to the rest of us mere mortals!

I meant to put a note in my original that each person's baseline was likely to be different. But that I found the exercise helpful to know on a relative basis, how speed affects range. And it looks like your experience mirrors that. About 0.2 mi hit for every 5 mph of additional speed.

asking for the mortals, what are the "driving technique" that you speak of? please educate us haha

 

[th14]

asking for the mortals, what are the "driving technique" that you speak of? please educate us haha

Ha. If I knew, I’d be doing them. I just know @GEWC consistently has much better range than all the rest of us.

Regarding education, I know others have already been asking for lessons. So I think you need to get in line!

 

[nasilemak]

Ha. If I knew, I’d be doing them. I just know @GEWC consistently has much better range than all the rest of us.

Regarding education, I know others have already been asking for lessons. So I think you need to get in line!

lmao. getting in line to get the car and now there is a separate line for the lessons haha

 

[Volund]

I don't want to be off topic, but on the topic of being cold weather and efficiency, if you're charging at home, do you still need to pre-condition every time you plug in to charge?

 

[hydbob]

I don't want to be off topic, but on the topic of being cold weather and efficiency, if you're charging at home, do you still need to pre-condition every time you plug in to charge?

No, that's just for fast charging

 

[Steveinarizona]

Thanks for posting your “rules of thumb”. Extrapolating from it, I’m figuring that if I drove between 85 and 90 mph on long interstate stretches, I’d get about 200 miles of range. That’s still pretty respectable.

Sometimes it’s just fun to dash between charging stops just as fast as you can.

And hope to avoid the highway patrol. Many, many years ago I flew into Sacramento on business and then rented a car to proceed on to San Francisco. The traffic was horrendous and I was stuck in a long line of cars on the highway driving 55 mph. Finally I got to a point in the road where I could see way ahead and there was a California highway patrol car driving 55 (speed limit at the time) and nobody was going to pass him. He drove all the way to San Francisco.

 

[msav2000]

Put 800 miles on my ATG with 21" so far - getting about 220 - 250 miles out of a full charge (370 to max 417 miles set). I'm in LA, but don't spend much time in traffic and mostly do highway driving, although a lot of it is at 40-60 mph. Driving in my normal fashion as I am used with gas cars (that is as fast as possible based on traffic and road conditions).

Not impressed with the range, to say the least. Yet, according to the poll, I am only one of two ppl, who gets 50% range. Am I doing smth wrong or should I have the car checked out?

 

[stratus]

Put 800 miles on my ATG with 21" so far - getting about 220 - 250 miles out of a full charge (370 to max 417 miles set). I'm in LA, but don't spend much time in traffic and mostly do highway driving, although a lot of it is at 40-60 mph. Driving in my normal fashion as I am used with gas cars (that is as fast as possible based on traffic and road conditions).

Not impressed with the range, to say the least. Yet, according to the poll, I am only one of two ppl, who gets 50% range. Am I doing smth wrong or should I have the car checked out?

That sounds a bit low , but it may have something to do with break in period.
If you are doing a lot of heavy accelerating, that will definitely reduce efficiency . Also, if you climb any large hills that will significantly reduce efficiency.

I would experiment a bit with a steady drive on a flat road with no major changes in speed . In those conditions you should not be getting such a low m/ kWh, theoretically.

Also, make sure your car is not waking up a lot when not in use. All phones and fobs out of range. I also turn off my app when not in use.

 

[njg-agt]

.... Also, make sure your car is not waking up a lot when not in use. All phones and fobs out of range. I also turn off my app when not in use

Yes! We're under 2 weeks in, so still in battery "break in/self tune" period, but see huge difference to charges that are only drive time Nd those where we have walked by the car lots (each walk by is a boot/idle/poweroff sequence that is all wasted energy).

Curious what you mean by "turn off my app when not in use". What action are you referring to?

 

[hydbob]

Put 800 miles on my ATG with 21" so far - getting about 220 - 250 miles out of a full charge (370 to max 417 miles set). I'm in LA, but don't spend much time in traffic and mostly do highway driving, although a lot of it is at 40-60 mph. Driving in my normal fashion as I am used with gas cars (that is as fast as possible based on traffic and road conditions).

Not impressed with the range, to say the least. Yet, according to the poll, I am only one of two ppl, who gets 50% range. Am I doing smth wrong or should I have the car checked out?

That's how it was for me in the beginning as well. 12k miles in and will average 370 miles on a full charge without regard to efficiency.