Elevation gain and Range

DisgruntledSanta

DisgruntledSanta

Active Member
Hey guys!

I am planning a family vacation on the other side of the Appellation mountains, and there are a couple stretches where ABRP is suggesting a reduced speed of 55mph.. but it’s only a 84mi stretch, with a net gain of 400ft (and a pass with a 1200ft gain and descent). Going 55mph on an interstate doesn’t seem super great…

From my experience, going 100mi at 70mph is pretty durable, but I’ve never tackled real elevation gain.

What has been your experience with elevation and efficiency?
 
My first ever drive back from the dealer had a 96mi stretch between chargers with 4970ft up and 2779ft down (gain of 2191ft) and I made it with 28% remaining (started at 99%). The speed limit was 55mph and I did stick close to that but I wouldn't think twice about only 400ft gain.

(ignore the time/bike, it's the only way to get google to spit out the elevation)
upload_2022-6-30_7-57-59.webp


I also regularly drive 20mi at 70mph with 800ft gain and typically get over 3.5mi/kWh even with my inefficient aftermarket wheels/tires.

Also, you can calculate the energy required for the elevation change (mass * height * gravity):
3500lb * 400ft * 9.81m/s^2 = 0.52kWh = 1.8%
 
Every situation is different. For me ABRP is pretty close, but generally on the slightly conservative side. I often do a 30 mile drive with about 2500’ of elevation gain. ABRP says I should use 33% of the battery, one of my recent trips, I used 27%. This is a windy canyon road, not at freeway speeds so it’s not quite apples to apples to what you are doing but you get the idea. You will also be surprised how much you gain back on the descents.
 
I’d suggest every owner should go out and do a test of their car in various conditions to see what kind of range they might get.
For me, ABRP is ridiculously conservative.
I think it defaults to about 265wh/mile but I find 210/wh/mile to be closer to what I actually experience. But that’s my driving.
 
Not sure if this is helpful. Every morning I leave my house at 6450 ft elevation and get to work (35 miles) down to 5200ft. I used at about 15-20% of battery. When I get home in the afternoon , my battery is down to 45% … climbing back home daily use twice more of battery then going into work in the mornings…


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
AndysComputer said:
For me, ABRP is ridiculously conservative.
I think it defaults to about 265wh/mile but I find 210/wh/mile to be closer to what I actually experience. But that’s my driving.
Click to expand...

Agree that ABRP's default consumption is quite conservative. I adjusted it manually using my own observed consumption values and improved its predictions.

I have since been using a Bluetooth OBD2 dongle to "train" ABRP (which can now connect directly to dongles for live data), and have found its predictions to be much more accurate.
 
I just drove 110 miles round trip from 5,100 ft to 12,200 ft and back. I turned around at 41% and finished with 39% battery left.


That calculates to a full range distance estimate of 180 miles. Regen is amazing, but I thought I would have lost more on that big climb. Just calculating the 55 miles uphill, the total estimated range was 93 miles at the turnaround point. I guess it pays to have a light car.
 
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