Compensating for Elevation in Route Planning

[Garyl]

I'm planning a trip into south central Colorado later in the year. I laid things out with my normal time and distance between charges and was satisfied with the route. Being from east of the Mississippi I hit the elevation change as an after though and full stop. 3000ft in the middle 300 miles and 5000ft in the last 100 miles. I'm thinking that can't be good. Is there a rule of thumb that experienced elevation drivers use? I'm planning on the EV6 but getting cold feet.

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[WaterboyNorCal]

ABRP (A Better Route Planner) does a great job of taking factors such as live weather forecasts and elevation changes into account, assuming you configure the app correctly.

Quick take- you’ll be fine in either the EV6 or a Lightning. I’m assuming you are thinking about taking the truck, or you wouldn’t be asking on this forum?

Just for reference, I have a SR Lightning, and I regularly drive from sea level to 7000 feet in 90 miles (Sierra Nevada mountains between CA and NV). My uphill consumption at 65mph varies with weather between 1.4 and 1.1 miles/kWh (1.1 in the dead of winter). On the way down, I get more like 4 miles/kWh, sometimes more if there’s traffic which keeps the average speeds down.

 

[Garyl]

ABRP has leed me astray too many time for me to put any stock in it. Probably operator error but much rather hear from real world experience. So assuming a 2.0 starting point 1.4 would be a 30% hit.

 

[WaterboyNorCal]

Yep- 30% is about right. That’s odd that ABRP hasn’t been great for you- I don’t love the UI, but as far as mapping out charging stops and SOC, it’s light years ahead of Ford’s Nav. I am hopeful that Apple Maps and Google Maps will improve their EV route planning; right now they are unusable. Ford Nav is pretty worthless for finding good charging stops- it seems to prefer EV Go, EA & ChargePoint, and ignores Tesla, which is my go-to due to charger availability and reliability.

 

[Jseis]

I'm planning a trip into south central Colorado later in the year. I laid things out with my normal time and distance between charges and was satisfied with the route. Being from east of the Mississippi I hit the elevation change as an after though and full stop. 3000ft in the middle 300 miles and 5000ft in the last 100 miles. I'm thinking that can't be good. Is there a rule of thumb that experienced elevation drivers use? I'm planning on the EV6 but getting cold feet.

I’ve driven Snoqualmie Pass (Interstate 5), Roger’s Pass (MT200) with both SR Mach E and ER Lightning. ABRP recommended 54 mph or less speed with MME headed east from Missoula and by the time we hit Rogers Pass heading to Great Falls we were under range by about -27 miles. Got to Great Falls with 40+ miles. The ER Lightning did fine though I’d forgotten typical MT 2-Lane speed is 80+ . Booking West on MT200 at 70+ had me pulling over occasionally for the one-finger salute troops.

The Ford Nav wouldn’t calculate a route from Missoula to GF with sending MME or LT to a RV park off path. Or stay on I-90.

ABRP does fine once I figured out how to configure. And remember to change vehicle ! Ford Nav or ABRP are always conservative. I often use the BLUE RING OF OPTIMISM to test fate.

I’d take a mountain pass any day over constant headwinds!

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