[NortonCommando]

Nortoncomando,
That’s basically all highway. 55-70. I believe I took this as I was leaving a charger....

I'd like to believe you,, but my car would not display 5mi/kWh even if I religiously never went past 55 mph.
I admit I have el'Cheapo non-LRR tires on the front and, somehow, one original Mich and one without the self-sealing on the rear. I paid to have the alignment checked recently and all's good there.
Next time around I'll have 4 matched LRR tires.

But then again you have WAY more miles in a Bolt than I do!! And I salute you for that.
But really? ?
315 miles on the GOM and 5mi/kWh has to be from fairly low average speeds.
It can't be all downhill and tailwinds with that many miles on your trip odo.

 

[MichBolt]

I'd like to believe you,, but my car would not display 5mi/kWh even if I religiously never went past 55 mph.
I admit I have el'Cheapo non-LRR tires on the front and, somehow, one original Mich and one without the self-sealing on the rear. I paid to have the alignment checked recently and all's good there.
Next time around I'll have 4 matched LRR tires.

But then again you have WAY more miles in a Bolt than I do!! And I salute you for that.
But really? ?
315 miles on the GOM and 5mi/kWh has to be from fairly low average speeds.
It can't be all downhill and tailwinds with that many miles on your trip odo.

Living in Michigan, I've realized that (crappy) road conditions can have a significant impact on efficiency.

 

[jefro]

MI roads are the best.

 

[LighteningBug]

here is what 55 mph gets me

decided to end the road trip off on a bang.

that’s 7,000 or so miles nothing but free chargers.

and over 8,000 total miles.

not once did I ever need a generator lol.

and my route took me right through the toughest spots for finding chargers. Still made it. Not only that, I made it on free chargers alone.

 

[NortonCommando]

here is what 55 mph gets me
... Not only that, I made it on free chargers alone.

Nice!
All DCFC or did you sit at Free L2's while on a road trip?
Free is really nice, I admit, but was everyone else on the road passing you constantly while you were saving a few dollars at 55 MPH?

I don't think there is a road trip I can do that would work at 55 MPH,, and not be an obstruction.

 

[Packard V8]

I don't think there is a road trip I can do that would work at 55 MPH,, and not be an obstruction.

For true; 55 MPH on major highways would be dangerous, but if one has the fortitude, patience and following cruise, staying in the right lane at 60 MPH, in the midst of the trucks, I-5 on the left coast and 1-95 on the right coast, for example, would work. OTOH, I'd get claustrophobic in that convoy; instead, I'd have to take secondary roads.

jack vines

 

[LighteningBug]

The 55 mph was specifically a one time thing I already said earlier in the thread I go faster than that normally unless the speed limit mandates it (obviously) I showed what 55 would do because people seemed to be having trouble grasping that I was getting good range and going at a reasonable speed.

The free chargers are a mixture of fast chargers and level two chargers. It depends what I can find. Most were l2 though. I managed to time much of it for when I wanted to sleep which was handy.

By the way, my car was super loaded up while doing this. Idk exactly but possibly 750 lbs of stuff in it that I collected on the road trip from buddies places. (Much of it were steel plates my buddy hooked me up with.)

 

[NortonCommando]

The 55 mph was specifically a one time thing ....
I showed what 55 would do because people seemed to be having trouble grasping that I was getting good range and going at a reasonable speed....

..."having trouble grasping [Believing] that I was getting good range and going at a reasonable speed"...

Sorry,
$1200 aero wheels and a box on the trailer hitch. Is that it?
And carrying 750 lbs extra weight.
And going "reasonable speeds".

Sorry, this is really hard to believe.... but I'm the biggest skeptic you'll ever meet.
Don't mind me...

I can believe your display pictures, but I think that had to be done at LESS THAN 'reasonable speeds'.

Maybe someday I'll make my 1/16" Lexan wheel cover discs ty-rapped to the stock wheels and make some sort of wood and lexan box mounted to my trailer hitch and cargo tray.
And then I can try to recreate your numbers.
And I'll need some true LRR tires also. Is that it?

 

[LighteningBug]

The last pic was 55mph the prior ones were 55-65 sometimes 70depending on conditions. You can obviously see that in the last pic something was improved. (Less speed)

 

[NortonCommando]

The last pic was 55mph the prior ones were 55-65 sometimes 70depending on conditions. You can obviously see that in the last pic something was improved. (Less speed)

That's what I'm saying "Less speed".
I'll hold my tongue until this is repeatable by someone else.

I have places to go.
I can spend a buck or two more to drive normal speeds.

 

[efbolt]

I'd like to believe you,, but my car would not display 5mi/kWh even if I religiously never went past 55 mph.
I admit I have el'Cheapo non-LRR tires on the front and, somehow, one original Mich and one without the self-sealing on the rear. I paid to have the alignment checked recently and all's good there.
Next time around I'll have 4 matched LRR tires.

But then again you have WAY more miles in a Bolt than I do!! And I salute you for that.
But really? ?
315 miles on the GOM and 5mi/kWh has to be from fairly low average speeds.
It can't be all downhill and tailwinds with that many miles on your trip odo.

I've done a couple of round trips to work with the ac off. Going 9 mph over the speed limit gets me 4.4 miles/kwh. If I try to stay at or under the speed limit, I get 5.0 miles/kwh.

Short of maybe not running the heater in the winter, speed seems to big the biggest factor for me at least in efficiency. I don't see a big difference despite changing to all weather tires. I haven't tried comparing different tire pressures either though; perhaps someone else has done a comparison on tire psi?

 

[jefro]

700# of steel? Maybe lowered ground effects?
I'd believe 700# of reefer more 😃

 

[NortonCommando]

I've done a couple of round trips to work with the ac off. Going 9 mph over the speed limit gets me 4.4 miles/kwh. If I try to stay at or under the speed limit, I get 5.0 miles/kwh.
...

What speeds are we talking about here?

Wind, temp and elevation change matters. But measuring a round trip should null that.
Winds and temp can change a lot in a day or two.

There are 70 MPH sections in my metro area. 65 mostly.
One state farther north 80 MPH is posted on the interstates!

I'm not going to be a Prius guy looking at my "Go Slow" display.

 

[efbolt]

What speeds are we talking about here?

Wind, temp and elevation change matters. But measuring a round trip should null that.
Winds and temp can change a lot in a day or two.

There are 70 MPH sections in my metro area. 65 mostly.
One state farther north 80 MPH is posted on the interstates!

I'm not going to be a Prius guy looking at my "Go Slow" display.

Most of the way I'm going 44‐55 mph. Slower for a couple miles downtown and in my neighborhood. Faster for a couple miles on the interstate. Temp when I do no ac run is generally 65-75F.

I don't have the need to be ultra efficient, but I was curious to see how big a difference speed makes. More than I thought it would for my particular commute.

There's a sizable difference between going 65-70 on the interstate vs 75+, but that's more obvious.

 

[MichBolt]

Most of the way I'm going 44‐55 mph. Slower for a couple miles downtown and in my neighborhood. Faster for a couple miles on the interstate. Temp when I do no ac run is generally 65-75F.

I don't have the need to be ultra efficient, but I was curious to see how big a difference speed makes. More than I thought it would for my particular commute.

There's a sizable difference between going 65-70 on the interstate vs 75+, but that's more obvious.

The power required to overcome air resistance (drag) is P = F x V, where F is the drag force and V is the velocity (speed).

It's even worse, because drag force is F = c x V x V, where c is the drag coefficient, and V is the velocity (speed). So that means P = c x V x V x V.

So the power required to overcome air resistance (drag) varies with the cube of speed. Increasing your speed from 55 mph to 65 mph is an increase of ~18%. That will increase the power required to overcome air resistance by > 64% (118% x 118% x 118% > 164%).

That's also why as speed increases, air resistance quickly becomes the dominant factor in power consumption / efficiency (compared to, say, rolling friction of the tires on the road).

TLDR: The most effective way to decrease your power consumption is to simply slow down.

 

[NortonCommando]

....TLDR: The most effective way to decrease your power consumption is to simply slow down.

That's the answer!

When Bolt owners post pics of their GOM showing +300 miles and such, and others praise them and ask how can they also achieve that,,,
I say, 'It's easily attainable. Just drive 5-10 mph slower each day until you wake up to that number being displayed.!!"

 

[LighteningBug]

That's the answer!

When Bolt owners post pics of their GOM showing +300 miles and such, and others praise them and ask how can they also achieve that,,,
I say, 'It's easily attainable. Just drive 5-10 mph slower each day until you wake up to that number being displayed.!!"

I mean, you aren’t wrong. It will definitely keep going up the slower you go.

I attribute my good numbers to a light foot, long highways with no stops, the improved aero from the box, compulsory usage of the paddle regen and D to L for stopping, (I avoid brake pedal as much as possible) the improved aero from my ev01+ wheels, and 45 psi in the tires. Range definitely goes up with lower speed and I reported the speeds I was going.

At the guys calling me a liar, you need to get a life lol. Seriously, not my job to convince you. Test it your self, clowns. 😆

 

[redpoint5]

Mich's point though is that we need the EV community to understand the very dominant factor is speed. "A light foot" is so insignificant of a factor that it isn't worth mentioning. If someone complained about their range, we wouldn't open the conversation with "how light is your foot". Hypermiling techniques in EVs hardly make any difference in comparison to simply driving slower. After speed, micromanaging the HVAC would be the next lowest hanging fruit on the efficiency tree.

As I've probably mentioned in this thread already, it would be rather easy to get a rough measurement of how much the cargo box contributes to efficiency. Create a throttle stop which limits it to a particular position when you "floor it". Set this to be about the speed limit on a flat highway. Note the speed achieved on the highway with the cargo box on vs with it off. If it's improving efficiency, you'll go faster for a given throttle position (power consumption).

 

[LighteningBug]

Your throttle stop assumes controlled conditions, other vehicle’s wakes, wind speed, road being level. Perhaps choose a day where the wind is dead calm, use a flat country road and the exact same path and direction for both runs.

roads where I am aren’t very level and there is usually always some wind, but if obsessed enough you may be able to do it.

I did use the AC during that 7,000+ miles maybe 20% of the time? Maybe less? I used it a lot after tennesee, in Mississippi, some of texas.

trying to recall, I think Mississippi was where I couldn’t live without it haha.

it definitely ran a lot while charging but on highway in most places cracking one front window and a opposite rear window about a inch or two was more than adequate for a refreshing cross breeze

the most uncomfortable I got during the trip was probably in southern states when I was L2 charging in the sun with no shade. I would blast the AC and put up sun shades. But that sun.. ahh.

if moving it wasn’t a big deal though. But stagnant in the sun really sucked.

 

[NortonCommando]

Mich's point though is that we need the EV community to understand the very dominant factor is speed. "A light foot" is so insignificant of a factor that it isn't worth mentioning. If someone complained about their range, we wouldn't open the conversation with "how light is your foot". Hypermiling techniques in EVs hardly make any difference in comparison to simply driving slower. ....

So true.
Accelerating an EV:
0 - 60 mph in 10 seconds, hit cruise.
0 - 60 mph in 60 seconds, hit cruise.

Is there any measurable difference in kWh consumption in a 1 mile trip? In a 100 mile trip?
I think it's not wasteful to have your back pushed into the seat while accelerating quickly.
It is in a gasser.