Lucid's Tips to Optimize Range

[Thinjake]

I recently had my car in for service and I asked about my battery and range during these cold winter months. Here is what Lucid had to say:

Attributes or variables that can decrease driving range:

• Driving at constant high speeds (>70mph)
• Driving at varying speeds (using cruise control is more efficient)
• Driving with headwind (aero drag increases with speed cubed)
• Driving up and down grades that cause switching between motoring and regenning
• Driving “enthusiastically“ with aggressive acceleration and deceleration
• Using HVAC heating excessively can affect efficiency significantly. It’s more efficient to use seat and steering wheel heating.
• Running cabin AC in manual mode, rather than auto (controls are balanced and optimized in Auto)
• Running cabin AC outside mild conditions (roughly: <10C and >35C or 50F and 95F) (we have made changes that make the AC operate more efficient between 10C and 35C)
• Running cabin AC with setpoint outside normal range (<15C and >25C)
• Using the brake pedal to slow the car instead of using regen. (All energy from the moving car is lost.)
• Driving with Swift or Sprint modes that are not optimized for maximum efficiency. Smooth mode is optimized for maximum efficiency.
• Driving a fully loaded car (more mass means more torque to accelerate and more mass requires more energy to move car up hill)
• Driving up a mountain (e.g. elevation changes of Bay Area to Tahoe)
• Driving twisty roads with loads of steering input (rolling resistance is higher with steer angles)
• Driving with low tire pressures (more rolling resistance)
• Driving the car in a warm, humid environment, as opposed to warm, dry environment (it takes a lot of cooling energy to condensate water vapor in the air).
• Efficiency of the vehicle is suboptimal at the early life of new vehicle. Particularly, optimal efficiency requires approximately 2000 miles of driving to allow the tires and drive units to break-in.

Suggested settings to optimize driving efficiency:

• Use ‘Smooth’ mode in the Drive menu
• Use ‘Hold’ mode in the Settings/Vehicle menu
• Use ‘High Regen’ in the Settings/Vehicle menu (especially for those not used to single pedal driving)
• Use ‘Auto’ and ‘Sync’ in the HVAC menu, combined with a 72°F set temperature
• For road-trips use cruise control as much as possible
• Use heated and ventilated seat options

I also recommend using battery pre-conditioning while the vehicle is plugged into your home charger so it will pull from the grid and not your vehicle battery to warm up the battery during the cold temps

 

[Steveinarizona]

In other words: driving!

 

[bdham]

What is this joke? Driving at either constant or variable speed will both kill the range?

Take home message: leave the car parked in the garage to preserve range.

 

[CraZ8]

So basically freeze in the winter, boil in the summer, drive like a blue haired MeMaw with cataracts and keep those tires pumped up to Fred flintstones level of rolling rocks? I’ll take the Range hit to have a comfortable cabin and supple ride( 45psi) and get “only” 340 miles of range.

 

[Bobby]

What is this joke? Driving at either constant or variable speed will both kill the range?

Take home message: leave the car parked in the garage to preserve range.

It says constant speeds >70mph.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

It says constant speeds >70mph.

I consistantly speed above 70 so ( checks item off list).

 

[Steveinarizona]

It says constant speeds >70mph.

Out here, if you drive 70 on the highway everyone is passing you, even the "blue haired MeMaw with cataracts".

 

[joec]

Out here, if you drive 70 on the highway everyone is passing you, even the "blue haired MeMaw with cataracts".

Well, they’re just offering advice. Drive how you want.

The fact of the matter is, even with an ICE car, there’s a big difference between driving 60 and 80, in terms of efficiency. People think it’s a linear thing, but it’s exponential.

Meanwhile, the time savings is linear. So, unless the trip is many hours long, you end up burning a lot more energy to save a couple of minutes of time.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

People think it’s a linear thing, but it’s exponential.

This is a difficult concept even if you understand the math.

this is not the curve I was looking for but it illustrates the point: look at the blue plot at 10 mph and at 20 mph ...then look how steep the curve gets!

The force of the wind increases by the CUBE (third power) of the velocity. This is why co-efficient of drag is touted and important. It is also why the Category V hurricane is not a "maybe it won't come this way" emergency.

You can know this without understanding it. I knew this when I took-up hang gliding, but let me tell you from first-hand experience, learning to fly a hang glider on a training hill in a 10 mph breeze is fun. Trying it in a 20 mph breeze and you will die. The difference is hard to describe but it hurts a lot.

 

[HariK]

What is this joke? Driving at either constant or variable speed will both kill the range?

Take home message: leave the car parked in the garage to preserve range.

He said constant speed above 70mph will be bad for the range.

 

[HariK]

Well, they’re just offering advice. Drive how you want.

The fact of the matter is, even with an ICE car, there’s a big difference between driving 60 and 80, in terms of efficiency. People think it’s a linear thing, but it’s exponential.

Meanwhile, the time savings is linear. So, unless the trip is many hours long, you end up burning a lot more energy to save a couple of minutes of time.

Exactly. I drove a Toyota SIenna minivan and Lexus LS 430 many times between SF and LA on I5. When I drove in the left lane at 10 over the limit most of the time, I got about 20 to 22mpg on 18 to 20 gal tanks and I had to stop once for gas. When I drove at 70mph and slowed down when there was wind or the incline, I got 25mpg. One other thing was, I did not have to look out for cops or other drivers as much and it was insanely relaxing with adaptive cruise control. 365 miles average driving time was only 30min more door to door because when we try to drive 10 over the limit we accelerate a lot and also need to slow down for slower cars and really average perhaps 75 but with adaptive cruise control set at 70, the average was pretty close to 70 because it does go between 68 and 73 in the Sienna and Lexus.

I will drive my Lucid the same way to LA as I drive the other cars and report back my findings for the trip including charging.

 

[HariK]

Out here, if you drive 70 on the highway everyone is passing you, even the "blue haired MeMaw with cataracts".

So what difference does it really make other than ego bruising if at all? What did we actually do when we arrived at the destination a bit earlier?

 

[HariK]

So basically freeze in the winter, boil in the summer, drive like a blue haired MeMaw with cataracts and keep those tires pumped up to Fred flintstones level of rolling rocks? I’ll take the Range hit to have a comfortable cabin and supple ride( 45psi) and get “only” 340 miles of range.

Sure you can. IMHO 15C = 59F 25C = 77F pretty far from either freezing or boiling.

 

[bdham]

He said constant speed above 70mph will be bad for the range.

Driving at least at 70 mph is probably the norm on most interstate highways

 

[HariK]

Driving at least at 70 mph is probably the norm on most interstate highways

I think the norm is 10 over the posted limit and watch for cops

 

[Bobby]

Driving at least at 70 mph is probably the norm on most interstate highways

The point of the original post was to explain how to maximize efficiency. Highway average speeds have nothing to do with the physics of aerodynamics and the EV efficiency envelope.

 

[Dortreo]

I recently had my car in for service and I asked about my battery and range during these cold winter months. Here is what Lucid had to say:

Attributes or variables that can decrease driving range:

• Driving at constant high speeds (>70mph)
• Driving at varying speeds (using cruise control is more efficient)
• Driving with headwind (aero drag increases with speed cubed)
• Driving up and down grades that cause switching between motoring and regenning
• Driving “enthusiastically“ with aggressive acceleration and deceleration
• Using HVAC heating excessively can affect efficiency significantly. It’s more efficient to use seat and steering wheel heating.
• Running cabin AC in manual mode, rather than auto (controls are balanced and optimized in Auto)
• Running cabin AC outside mild conditions (roughly: <10C and >35C or 50F and 95F) (we have made changes that make the AC operate more efficient between 10C and 35C)
• Running cabin AC with setpoint outside normal range (<15C and >25C)
• Using the brake pedal to slow the car instead of using regen. (All energy from the moving car is lost.)
• Driving with Swift or Sprint modes that are not optimized for maximum efficiency. Smooth mode is optimized for maximum efficiency.
• Driving a fully loaded car (more mass means more torque to accelerate and more mass requires more energy to move car up hill)
• Driving up a mountain (e.g. elevation changes of Bay Area to Tahoe)
• Driving twisty roads with loads of steering input (rolling resistance is higher with steer angles)
• Driving with low tire pressures (more rolling resistance)
• Driving the car in a warm, humid environment, as opposed to warm, dry environment (it takes a lot of cooling energy to condensate water vapor in the air).
• Efficiency of the vehicle is suboptimal at the early life of new vehicle. Particularly, optimal efficiency requires approximately 2000 miles of driving to allow the tires and drive units to break-in.

Suggested settings to optimize driving efficiency:

• Use ‘Smooth’ mode in the Drive menu
• Use ‘Hold’ mode in the Settings/Vehicle menu
• Use ‘High Regen’ in the Settings/Vehicle menu (especially for those not used to single pedal driving)
• Use ‘Auto’ and ‘Sync’ in the HVAC menu, combined with a 72°F set temperature
• For road-trips use cruise control as much as possible
• Use heated and ventilated seat options

I also recommend using battery pre-conditioning while the vehicle is plugged into your home charger so it will pull from the grid and not your vehicle battery to warm up the battery during the cold temps

Thank you! That’s an awesome post with lots of helpful advice that I wasn’t aware of.

FYI… My AGT with 19” tires gets 2.8 to 3.0 mi/kWh at 75mph when 15 to 20F but 2.0 at -5 to 0F on the same stretch of Mass Pike with same climate control settings. So plan accordingly for cold temps.

 

[Jefferoo]

Thanks Thinjake. Appreciate the advice.

 

[borski]

This is a difficult concept even if you understand the math.

this is not the curve I was looking for but it illustrates the point: look at the blue plot at 10 mph and at 20 mph ...then look how steep the curve gets!

The force of the wind increases by the CUBE (third power) of the velocity. This is why co-efficient of drag is touted and important. It is also why the Category V hurricane is not a "maybe it won't come this way" emergency.

You can know this without understanding it. I knew this when I took-up hang gliding, but let me tell you from first-hand experience, learning to fly a hang glider on a training hill in a 10 mph breeze is fun. Trying it in a 20 mph breeze and you will die. The difference is hard to describe but it hurts a lot.

Went paragliding for the first time today and I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun. But yes, wind speed matters *a lot*.

 

[borski]

So what difference does it really make other than ego bruising if at all? What did we actually do when we arrived at the destination a bit earlier?

Exactly. I drive my car fast because I like driving my car. If I want to preserve range, I throw on HA and chill out while it handles my range for me. I don’t get the hubbub.

Maybe the beaches are just getting to me, but driving is supposed to be fun, so stop worrying and drive more, and enjoy it.