Road Trip Report

Since fuel economy is being shared, here is the recent MPG part of my tracking spreadsheet. These are full tanks, with ICE mileage tracked diligently by hand. Note you can get way more than 280 miles on a tank, as these fillups are generally with 30-40 mi range remaining projected in HV.



Anecdotally, I noticed the in-car current-trip economy showing much higher when speeds are below 70 mph, so starting 3 June I am typically driving 68 on the interstates rather than 72. East coast area so speed limit is generally 70. The last line I was in more of a hurry so I was doing more like 73.

I am conjecturing that there may be a discontinuity in drag around 70 mph relative air speed. Note that typical drag laws are idealized and drag is not a smooth function of speed, as various boundary layers and vortices become separated from the vehicle. This seems like a reasonable hypothesis too as that is about 110 km/hr which seems like a reasonable design point for a Japanese designer.

These are two road trips: one DC to Ft. Lauderdale to Hunstville to DC, about 2600 mi; the other is to Detroit and back. I recommend that you remember to take your L1 cord with you if you want to maximize EV miles; on the first trip, 3 out of 5 recharges were with the L1 cord. On the second, 2 out of 3 (when at relative's house).