Estimating Efficiency on Long Uphill Drives

[TheBigBezo]

As someone who's spent most of their life within 100ft of sea level, I find myself driving a very fat and heavy lightning through new mexico and arizona. I was getting 1.6mi/kWh doing 75mph on the gradual climb to 4200ft. Next I'll be going up and down several mountainous areas from 3ish thousand ft up to close to 8 with a peak estimated grade of 7.6%. There's not going to be many charging stations along my route either.

Anyone with mountain driving experience have a rough idea of what I should expect efficiency wise?

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[RickLightning]

The answer is ABRP. Put your route in and it adjusts. It also adjusts to the normal climate that time of year, which can be seen by changing the trip date.

You will get low efficiency climbing, and high regen going downhill.

We drove to Colorado, then Utah, then California, then back through Utah, then Wyoming, then home. In scanning my trip sheets (This Trip each start to stop cycle), I see a low of 1.3 miles per kWh and a high of 2.6. Some of the high is due to lower speeds, some of the low is due to higher (80mph) speeds. And weather (end Feb into March).

 

[mmcguirk]

The answer is ABRP. Put your route in and it adjusts. It also adjusts to the normal climate that time of year, which can be seen by changing the trip date.

A little off topic, sorry @TheBigBezo. @RickLightning, do you also use ABRP (via Android Auto) as your primary source of nav info while driving? I find ABRP routing often takes me on weird routes as compared to Google Maps. Or do you use Ford Nav? And, on a multi-stop trip, whatever app you use on the display, do you navigate one charge stop at a time or the whole days worth of charge stops? Tx.

 

[TheBigBezo]

A little off topic, sorry @TheBigBezo. @RickLightning, do you also use ABRP (via Android Auto) as your primary source of nav info while driving? I find ABRP routing often takes me on weird routes as compared to Google Maps. Or do you use Ford Nav? And, on a multi-stop trip, whatever app you use on the display, do you navigate one charge stop at a time or the whole days worth of charge stops? Tx.

I use ABRP to find stops, usually screenshot the route, then go charger to charger via Google maps and Android auto because I like having Spotify up.

As for ABRP, I wasn't sure how much to trust it with elevation changes. I bumped the efficiency on the app down because it was underestimating my usage climbing the Texas plains into New Mexico.

 

[Quantum]

Headwinds - tailwinds - can be a major factor for non-aerodynamic Lightnings - and none of the guess navigation factors it in - that I'm aware of. I recently took a 265-mile 1500' uphill - 15 mph downwind trip that navigation called for a must charge up - but made it w/50 miles to spare / 2.2 kwh.

 

[Zprime29]

I average 60% SOC used from El Paso to Deming, another 60% from Deming to Tucson, and about 25% from Tucson to Phoenix. I also drive 70 unless I find a caravan of Semi's to follow that are going faster.

 

[mmcguirk]

As for ABRP, I wasn't sure how much to trust it with elevation changes. I bumped the efficiency on the app down because it was underestimating my usage climbing the Texas plains into New Mexico.

For what it's worth, probably not much, but I did some experimenting a month or so ago, round-tripping on a 20 mile stretch of I-95 to neutralize any wind effects, and got about a 0.4 mi/kWh difference between the uphill leg and the downhill leg.

 

[RickLightning]

A little off topic, sorry @TheBigBezo. @RickLightning, do you also use ABRP (via Android Auto) as your primary source of nav info while driving? I find ABRP routing often takes me on weird routes as compared to Google Maps. Or do you use Ford Nav? And, on a multi-stop trip, whatever app you use on the display, do you navigate one charge stop at a time or the whole days worth of charge stops? Tx.

I run ABRP on my phone.
We run GoogleMaps on my wife's phone.
We run Ford navigation, usually just to the next charger, on the big screen.

 

[sdingeldein]

I got 1.8 going from 660 feet to 3500 feet in NC but rarely broke 65 MPH. It was relatively cold and windy.

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