Rain and Wind Impact on EV Range...an example

Dave Ferrell

Dave Ferrell

Member
After 5 months and 5k miles with the Clarity I have a good base of typical EV range. In my case with about 80% of my driving being at 65-75 mph I averaged 47-51 miles of EV range.
Last week we had 4 days of heavy rain and wind at 20 mph with Florence. Same driving habits each of those days and the EV range went down to 41-43 for those days. As soon as the roads dried and the weather cleared the range slowly crept back back up each day and is now back to 49 EV miles.
Proof enough for me that rain, increased road and wind resistance has a serious impact on EV range. I saw this in my prior car, a Leaf as well.
Good news is that the range is back and exceeds my expectations for the car given my driving routine. Also during those bad days the car drove well, handled ok, no fogging of the windows and the often complained about wipers worked fine for me.
 
Dave Ferrell said:
After 5 months and 5k miles with the Clarity I have a good base of typical EV range. In my case with about 80% of my driving being at 65-75 mph I averaged 47-51 miles of EV range.
Last week we had 4 days of heavy rain and wind at 20 mph with Florence. Same driving habits each of those days and the EV range went down to 41-43 for those days. As soon as the roads dried and the weather cleared the range slowly crept back back up each day and is now back to 49 EV miles.
Proof enough for me that rain, increased road and wind resistance has a serious impact on EV range. I saw this in my prior car, a Leaf as well.
Good news is that the range is back and exceeds my expectations for the car given my driving routine. Also during those bad days the car drove well, handled ok, no fogging of the windows and the often complained about wipers worked fine for me.
Click to expand...


Friction loss...maybe get 75+ EV with a strong tailwind. lol
 
I wonder about reasons for reduced range (and here I assume you're talking about actual and not estimated range, the latter being a more complex topic). It seems unlikely that a wet road would affect range, but use of HVAC, wipers, rear window heater,...?

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Don’t know about rain, but based on my records using the ac cost about 4 to 5 miles of EV range per full charge. Went from low 60s to high 50s when I started using the ac. But now I’m back to low 60s with ac and I can’t account for how that happened. (All in town, 1 person, 75/25 city/hwy, max 55). Maybe temps a little lower but not by much.
Math works out to 135 to 140 MPGe and about 2.2 to 2.3 cents/mile with rate of $0.09287/kW. So I’m very happy.
 
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