It might be worth looking at your regen. Ideally, you’d get back a lot of that uphill energy on the downhill. What’s your efficiency over the whole trip? If you’re full when you start downhill, some regen will be lost.
@jeff
I average 2-3 mi/kWh, depending on speed. I regain about 3-4% on the downhill sections, which feels reasonable. It’s really just the uphill that’s eating my range.
Kenneth said:
@jeff
I average 2-3 mi/kWh, depending on speed. I regain about 3-4% on the downhill sections, which feels reasonable. It’s really just the uphill that’s eating my range.
That’s fair for an uphill route, but ideally, you’d recover most of it downhill. Each 100m of elevation gain uses roughly 0.7 kWh, about 1% of the battery capacity.
If you’re not using Google or Apple apps on the display, try the split screen with the battery widget to see real-time usage across drivetrain, heat, and other factors. Uphill vs. flat driving should show big differences in energy use.
For uphill climbs, I’d say using I-Pedal is best.
The range meter is often called a ‘guess-o-meter.’ It estimates based on recent mi/kWh and remaining charge. If you suddenly switch to uphill at high speed, the guess will drop fast, but you’re just using more energy temporarily.
Look for a bar on the dash showing historical and current efficiency. If the car expects 4 mi/kWh but you’re only getting 2 uphill, it’s normal to see range drop quickly.