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!

 

[BarryGoyette]

Apple Maps generally does an admirable job with range estimates involving elevation changes. Slightly conservative, I always end up gaining a few percent throughout the trip. (Although for a recent Vegas trip I found it was shockingly underestimating range in both directions). I’ve driven enough using Maps to trust it implicitly on the range side (I won’t let it plan charging stops).. this no need to break out the trig when heading into and out of the mountains.

 

[RickLightning]

Has to be operator error. I find ABRP is a bit conservative when I use it.

 

[jlferg0509]

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.

Have you ever towed, in that environment? If so, what was the impact and how's the infrastructural support?

 

[twodogsdennis]

I've driven I-25, hwy 50 and 285 between Denver and Pueblo, Salida, Gunnison and points further south many times in the Pro SR with and without a 4200# camper. Range can unexpectedly fluctuate at times, not so much because of elevation but from headwinds, tailwinds, and crosswinds usually late in the day. I drive exclusively in Sport Mode and while range will drop on the climb it will often return to average after the descent. Charge Point is often the choice and I've noticed more dealerships with EV Connect stations. Bring a charger with a duel L1/L2 option to take advantage of overnight charging. I use Plug Share to compare price options and will occasionally find a free or cheap overnight charger at a city bldg.

 

[Joe Dablock]

Even in the east the affects of elevation make Ford’s nav stupid sometimes. I was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike headed east gradually climbing the Appellation mountains and suddenly the nav started telling me I didn’t have enough charge and I need to do something. But I knew once I reach the top of the mountain the next 50 miles were all down hill. The stupid thing is, I was going to get a quick Tesla charge when we were leaving (that Ford nav didn’t even know existed) and the the nav was telling me to charge 100 miles east. And I thought ok, I will follow nav. So, keep in mind you (I) am ultimately in charge, and if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.

 

[richl025]

Even in the east the affects of elevation make Ford’s nav stupid sometimes. I was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike headed east gradually climbing the Appellation mountains and suddenly the nav started telling me I didn’t have enough charge and I need to do something. But I knew once I reach the top of the mountain the next 50 miles were all down hill. The stupid thing is, I was going to get a quick Tesla charge when we were leaving (that Ford nav didn’t even know existed) and the the nav was telling me to charge 100 miles east. And I thought ok, I will follow nav. So, keep in mind you (I) am ultimately in charge, and if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.

The "Appellation Mountains" - is that what you are "calling" them?

Sorry - I couldn't resist the unintenional pun!

 

[Jseis]

The "Appellation Mountains" - is that what you are "calling" them?

Sorry - I couldn't resist the unintenional pun!

Our Cascacills make the Appellations look positively cute.

 

[Joe Dablock]

Yea, I was thinking “Appalachian” was miss spelled when I clicked post, but it just wasn’t that important to me. People in the Rockies wouldn’t even recognize them as mountains anyways!

 

[CD4TNF]

I use PlugShare website's Trip Planner feature. There's a nice map that shows the pins in relation to the elevation gain.


I make an initial charging stop plan based on ABRP or using the radius feature on the Trip Planner using 140 miles. Then I'll look at the elevation graph. If it looks like a large climb, I'll find a charger before the mountain. Likewise I'll find a charger after the climb or on the downhill to charge up.


I use @invertedspear 's great range estimator to get a sense of range based on my gut feeling mi/kWh. If it's a big hill to climb, I'll estimate 1.2mi/kWh. If it's flat highway I'll estimate 1.7mi/kWh.

https://lightningcalcs.pages.dev/?battery=131


I'm use to plotting trips manually. That's how I planned my 2000 mile trip last year. I haven't tried a longer trip with Google Android Auto or the Ford nav with its updates last year.


The charging infrastructure last year was a little sparse in certain areas. So I had to charge sooner in some areas before mountains so I could make the climb.


The benefit of my plotting manually was I knew my estimated efficiency. I could tell during the drive if I was doing okay or worst. If the dash efficiency wasn't meeting my expectations, I knew to slow down to extend my range.


The major highway thru Colorado has really good coverage of chargers when I drove it. As long as you can hop from charger to charger. The Lightning is a great road tripping machine.

 

[Garyl]

This is where I have landed planning road trips. Plugshare trip planner and then check elevation. Looks like a 30% reduction in range and a little larger cushion until a person has experience is probably the appropriate starting place.

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