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I just got close to 400 miles on one charge. Not in a specially designed marathon, but in my daily commute over the course of 3 weeks.

I only did two main things:
Used zero heat or air conditioning.

Accelerated at 20 kW or less and braked at 20 kW or less. *When feasible.

So I'm calling this the "20/20 Challenge".

Challenge yourself to accelerate at 20 kW or less. This is not as difficult as it sounds. This is faster acceleration than an 18 wheel truck, and about the same acceleration as the smallest horsepower economy gas car. A bit more gentle than most, but I did it for 3 weeks in the SF Bay Area and never got honked at once.
* I say "whenever able". Exceptions are allowed. The freeway on-ramp is one place I had to break my own rule...if traffic was flowing at the speed limit. If I could look ahead and see the freeway was jammed, then no need to sprint down the on-ramp. I kept it under 20 kW in those cases. Once on the freeway keep it at 60 mph or less. You will see you will have no trouble keeping it under 20 kW at 60 mph or less. Hills are the exception. For me bridges are hills, and I had to exceed 20 kW for those brief instances going up bridge

Braking: I used L almost exclusively. Love one pedal mode. BRAKE at 20 kW or less. When able. Don't hit anyone! I found this even more of a challenge and you have to break the rule and "brake" to not hit others. But when you have a lot of room, try braking at 20 kW or less.

I'd say I kept acceleration under 20 kW 90% of the time.

I'd say I kept braking under 20 kW 75% of the time.

I kept speed under 60 mph 100% of the time. 55 or less 95% of the time.

Temperatures 48 to 72 degrees.
The end result:
28881
 

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Great post. ?
I admire your patience. Amazing to see what the car can do. I was wondering if using D and coasting further would have allowed you to do even better. I would think coasting would be better than regen, although would be harder to keep regen under 20 once you do need to stop.
I did it for 3 weeks in the SF Bay Area and never got honked at once.
That's an achievement in and of itself.
 

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Ok I am taking up the challenge and see how far I can go. Currently I limit my cruising speed to 63mph. 4.4 mile / kWh is what I get year round. It is about 260 miles for a full charge.

I used to drive the same way with my leased spark EV and got 5 mile / kWh. I will be glad if I can get close to that with this new ish 2019 bolt LT. Maybe the limits on acceleration / deceleration will help. Will see.

BTW one morning I was stuck in slow traffic for 10 miles. The average speed was no more than 20mph. I got over 10 mile / kWh. Speed makes huge difference.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 

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I just got close to 400 miles on one charge. Not in a specially designed marathon, but in my daily commute over the course of 3 weeks.

I only did two main things:
Used zero heat or air conditioning.

Accelerated at 20 kW or less and braked at 20 kW or less. *When feasible.

So I'm calling this the "20/20 Challenge".

Challenge yourself to accelerate at 20 kW or less. This is not as difficult as it sounds. This is faster acceleration than an 18 wheel truck, and about the same acceleration as the smallest horsepower economy gas car. A bit more gentle than most, but I did it for 3 weeks in the SF Bay Area and never got honked at once.
Very well done!

The killer here is highways with hills. Try taking US 101 north from San Francisco to San Rafael. You cannot maintain a 45-50mph speed at 20kW going up those grades. Or even CA 1 between San Francisco and Santa Cruz. Stick to flat roads and I can believe it possible.

My normal commute (now indefinitely on hold, due to current crisis) is about 8 miles of 35-45mph streets. I can eke out 6 mi/kWh if the lights cooperate perfectly. But as soon as I start hitting red lights, it's hopeless.
 

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60 mph and being able to get 6.2 m/kWh? No way. It must be a very short highway or slipstreaming.
Then, all other speeds must be below 40 mph.

I did similar challenge just yesterday.
No faster than 40 mph, no heat or anything. It felt so awful. Yet, I got 4.7.
Nice, considering other days 3.5 or less. Sure, MI cold days do not help.

I am DONE with this.
I can have my own challenge - 120/20. I will have blast from driving it. Hard take offs and let it coast.
I did not buy this car to move like a turtle. I have 200 HP and over 250 lb*ft and I want to use them.
Tires? Oh well... Electrons? Oh well...

I am glad, though, to know that my car is capable of getting over 6 miles to kWh. Or in my route - almost 5.
Good luck on 20/20 adventures.


EDIT.
One thing I wanted to add here.
The other day I wanted to see how the car rolls. It coast in N beautifully.
Having said that - for the challenge, or just for the best results - let it coast in D. Not L. Avoid any regen at all. Regen by default is 70% efficient as driving, so if one can predict where the coasting will take them, that is the best way to get to higher numbers.
Funny, but that also applies, to much greater extent - in ICE cars. Not the acceleration matters as the stopping - give it a good accel and then let it coast to stop. It will be better than gentle accel and grind the brakes.
 

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Ok gang, I have done the 20/20 challenge all week, What a difference in my efficiency.... this is the way to commute! I only charged once all week, versus everyday before.
My 80% max charge top I have said 265 miles when I did charge up.... I am going to try it with "Sport" mode and see how it does by comparison.
 

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Ok gang, I have done the 20/20 challenge all week, What a difference in my efficiency.... this is the way to commute! I only charged once all week, versus everyday before.
My 80% max charge top I have said 265 miles when I did charge up.... I am going to try it with "Sport" mode and see how it does by comparison.
Forgot my stats: begin each day with 30-40 temp end with 75 temp (No climate controls) Totally did 55 on the highway 80 miles a day... kept my regen to 20 or less, no braking (I had thought regen to the max was better.... but not so much. No brakes, just shited L or paddle stopped. If I keep driving like this for a couple weeks I will be at 350+ capacity with 80% top.
 

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Yeah... I tried, too.
But then, about 150 miles into my "tank", I could not stand the slow moving cars an I zipped between them.
Screw the efficiency! :D

So far I saw 5.5 miles/kWh. That would give me over 300 miles on the full charge.

What kills my stats are stop and go. If I could just roll... it would be nearly 6 as speeds are about 45 mph and below.
I did a trip at 50 mph steady, round 60 miles, and the average was 5.2. But that was no stopping at all. Maybe once.

With average of about 4.5 miles to kWh I translate it to (using MI petrol price 3.0/gallon for premium at Costco and 0.15/kWh at home) 90 MPG.
Far better than, say GTI if I had one now, that would average 20 MPG.

If I do 5.5 m/kWh, it would be 110 MPG.
What for? No fun... why would I buy GTI if I do not drive it?

The car is to be driven.... zooommm, brrruuuum, burp, burp (those are DSG farts :D)
 

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Yeah... I tried, too.
But then, about 150 miles into my "tank", I could not stand the slow moving cars an I zipped between them.
Screw the efficiency! :D

So far I saw 5.5 miles/kWh. That would give me over 300 miles on the full charge.

What kills my stats are stop and go. If I could just roll... it would be nearly 6 as speeds are about 45 mph and below.
I did a trip at 50 mph steady, round 60 miles, and the average was 5.2. But that was no stopping at all. Maybe once.

With average of about 4.5 miles to kWh I translate it to (using MI petrol price 3.0/gallon for premium at Costco and 0.15/kWh at home) 90 MPG.
Far better than, say GTI if I had one now, that would average 20 MPG.

If I do 5.5 m/kWh, it would be 110 MPG.
What for? No fun... why would I buy GTI if I do not drive it?

The car is to be driven.... zooommm, brrruuuum, burp, burp (those are DSG farts :D)
Well now you know what you can get.... so Drive away.... do the Beep Beep here comes the roadrunner.... LOL
 

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Well now you know what you can get.... so Drive away.... do the Beep Beep here comes the roadrunner.... LOL
I enjoy every day, because life is short :D


You are right. I know what I can get. And I did it to each and every my car - I forced myself to baby the gas pedal, to time all lights, maintain speed to avoid using brakes and got 40 mpg in 2009 Elantra on my daily commute to work and back.
It was just boring. Enjoyable exercise, but boring.
 

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I must admit, I probably like to relax more than most on my commute. I take personal time and do some thinking and meditating on my highway commute. On occassion though I love to open her up and put on some "Grove" music and just enjoy. My next electric (won't be commuting anymore) will be much more fun to drive....
 

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My next electric (won't be commuting anymore) will be much more fun to drive....
Are you saying Bolt is not fun to drive?

Although, I must admit - 500e was way more engaging and feisty.
 
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