Niro EV Break-in period

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Dave Smith

Dave Smith

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Hey guys,

I haven't found a lot of information on the Niro; but, what I have found is that people seem to be able to get much better average mi/Kwh at speeds below 60 Mph. Maybe it's because I only have a couple hundred miles on it?

My current low speed Average is 3.3 mi/Kwh and that's just barely maintaining speed. I also have the tires slightly over-inflated.
 
Hi Dave,

Welcome to The Club! I got mine a year ago in August. In addition to driving habits, weather and terrain has a big effect on the efficiency. For example, when I used to go to work, the trip in would always be around what you're getting 3.3 mi/Kwh, but on the way home I might get upwards of 4.0 mi/Kwh. Some days, with some luck and careful hyper-miling style driving, I would get over 5 mi/Kwh.

One screen I configured to be on My Menu was the Electricity Usage screen. It shows real-time and cumulative information about where your battery juice is going. I was quite surprised to see that Electronics & Climate consumed such high percentages. And if your weather is starting to dip much below 45F, then you'll likely see some loss from that too.
 
I actually just traded in my Base 2019 Ioniq EV for the Niro. I would have waited longer but the low range, hard seats and low ride height were bothering me a lot. I have seen very impressive energy usage from the heat pump over my Ioniq. It uses about 1/6 of the energy to heat the cabin. On days like today the Ioniq's heat elements would cook at 5-6 Kw instantaneous. The Niro's max power usage as 1-1.2 Kw. It's a great feeling to know that some baselines can get destroyed.

I would like more opinions on everyone else's energy usage and any methods to get that number higher.
 
Dave Smith said:
Hey guys,

I haven't found a lot of information on the Niro; but, what I have found is that people seem to be able to get much better average mi/Kwh at speeds below 60 Mph. Maybe it's because I only have a couple hundred miles on it?

My current low speed Average is 3.3 mi/Kwh and that's just barely maintaining speed. I also have the tires slightly over-inflated.
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EVs are more efficient at lower speeds. It also varies hugely based on your driving style. However, there's no "break-in" period on an EV like there is for a gas engine vehicle.

Perfect example, I average 4.0 on our Niro when I drive it. My wife's efficiency is.....much less.
 
I was driving the other day at freeway speeds 65-70 and got 4.4 MPK. I was driving with the windows down and the AC off, temps in the low 80s. I was going to try the reverse trip with the windows up and AC on , but there was a 4-5 mile slow down that skewed the MPK. I was quite suprised at the efficiency.

I noted that the electronics use double the percentage of power around 10%, while the headlights and for lights are on. I did originally think that it wouldn't really be worth it to get LED headlights and fog lights but saving 5% if I drove early morning and nights it may be worth it.
 
snowy2020 said:
EVs are more efficient at lower speeds. It also varies hugely based on your driving style. However, there's no "break-in" period on an EV like there is for a gas engine vehicle.

Perfect example, I average 4.0 on our Niro when I drive it. My wife's efficiency is.....much less.
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Higher speeds harms the efficiency of all vehicles - ICE vehicles are worst at low speeds because the engine can't work at it's optimum RPM; so they have a sweet spot where they can run in high gear but before they hit an aerodynamic mountain of drag.

Electric motors are so efficient, that they are best at low speeds, but they can actually have higher threshold before hitting that aerodynamic mountain of drag, IF they have a lower drag coefficient, by taking advantage of a smooth underside (no scorching hot exhaust system) and by having smaller cooling systems. The radiator and the inside of the engine bay contributes a not insignificant amount of drag.
 
I've reached a slow speed benchmark.

35 to 50 mph (around town 32 mile trip): 4.8 miles/kwh.

Y'all need to keep sharing. I need to see an optimal efficiency for highway speeds above 70 mph.
 
There is a lot of things that lead to the efficiency. Tempature road conditions, tire condition, time of day, and Traffic flow are just to name a few. The basics are the faster you go the worse your efficiency.


There may be a perfect speed for each set of conditions, but I would plan my hope for efficiency on how far I'm going and what I want to accomplish during that trip.

If it is a trip well within the range for the conditions. I dont worry about my efficiency. I still get pretty good numbers high 3s low 4s, but I have other things to concentrate on. If I take a longer trip most legs there isn't a worry about efficiency, also. At one point there was, not so often now and will be even less so in the future.
 
I want specific numbers here. I'm a nuclear mechanical engineer, I know what's going on. let's get specific... Speed, climate, tire pressure, terrain.
 
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Hit the road with some paper and pencil, along with a thermometer, barometer, tire pressure gauge, tread depth gauge, also check the road condition and elevation change every 50 feet and record it all.

Once you get some data that the other conditions affect the efficiency more significantly than speed and weather. You let us know, becuase The others do not affect the efficiency enough for me to bother with figuring it out because I would have to stop and continually check them on a trip to make any useful conclusion.

The general case is useful enough for everyday use.
 
I just wanted other people's real world mileage data based on the kind of trips y'all take.
 
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When driving on freeways I generally average ~3.7 mi per kwh if I'm driving around 70 mph. If driving at high speed, it's more efficient to run the fan than roll down windows. Other than that, I don't think there's a whole lot to do to improve efficiency besides driving at a consistent speed and not jamming the acceleration pedal into the floor.
 
ITown said:
When driving on freeways I generally average ~3.7 mi per kwh if I'm driving around 70 mph. If driving at high speed, it's more efficient to run the fan than roll down windows. Other than that, I don't think there's a whole lot to do to improve efficiency besides driving at a consistent speed and not jamming the acceleration pedal into the floor.
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I'll have to see because I got really good numbers the other day with the windows down, I'll have to wait for a similar temperature day to see if I can reproduce the conditions.
 
The other day I was on a 30 mile trip back and activated the ACC, then I switch to the energy flow screen only on significant declines did the energy flow switch to regen.
 
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