Interesting Range Observation

For seven years, I have been driving down the hills from my house (mostly regen) to our local mall where I park and head out on a daily hike. I drive back up those same hills to go home. It is two miles each way. I know exactly where I drop my first bar on the return trip.

Recently, our roads were completely refurbished-blacktop (thanks CA gas tax). I realized I am traveling an additional 300-500 yards up the hill before I drop that first bar. No other change in my driving patterns. The only difference is the new polished, smooth road. Interesting...

By the way, I have a new Nissan installed traction battery (12-bars) and start each trip with a full charge.

You start each day with a full charge? Then drive 4 miles total? You must be doing more with the battery....yes?
I do think I get why a new road surface might have less friction > meaning better efficiency.

Not sure I understand why you would start the day with a a full charge. There is essentially no regen at all if the battery is full....no place to store the electrons. When I was brand new at EV I thought something was wrong with the car before I figured it out.

LeafPowerIsIxE said:

For seven years, I have been driving down the hills from my house (mostly regen) to our local mall where I park and head out on a daily hike. I drive back up those same hills to go home. It is two miles each way. I know exactly where I drop my first bar on the return trip.

Recently, our roads were completely refurbished-blacktop (thanks CA gas tax). I realized I am traveling an additional 300-500 yards up the hill before I drop that first bar. No other change in my driving patterns. The only difference is the new polished, smooth road. Interesting...

By the way, I have a new Nissan installed traction battery (12-bars) and start each trip with a full charge.

Click to expand...

Not surprising if you've ever done a lot of bicycling. The relationship of energy expenditure to hills, speed, wind and road surface becomes a lot clearer when you're the motor . And, "chip seal" sucks!

flydiver said:

You start each day with a full charge? Then drive 4 miles total? You must be doing more with the battery....yes?
I do think I get why a new road surface might have less friction > meaning better efficiency.

Not sure I understand why you would start the day with a a full charge. There is essentially no regen at all if the battery is full....no place to store the electrons. When I was brand new at EV I thought something was wrong with the car before I figured it out.

Click to expand...

The post was intended to highlight my observation the smooth roads have added a noticeable increase to my range. But to clarify your other inquiry, yes - I am doing "more" with the battery. I fully charge the vehicle because the first half mile out of my property is mostly uphill. I open up 3 regen bubbles, and then the next one mile is mostly downhill, putting me back to full charge at the bottom of the hill. I make many trips where I need 50-60 miles of range (all freeway driving). This was a lot of words unrelated to the central focus of the post.

As we continue to see the expansion of the EV footprint, it would seem prudent significant improvements need to be made to infrastructure that would improve the efficiency. Plus new roads are much nicer to drive on, and we're certainly paying enough in gas taxes here in Corruptifornia to expect (demand) these improvements will continue.

Agree. My ICE is a Prius. Nice to get 45-48mpg, but the thing just HOWLS on well worn pavement roads. Leaf is much more quiet and nice to drive, but doesn't have the range for hiking or scuba diving excursions.

I have noticed that on the smoother sections of new road, easy to tell since it's a LOT quieter, that the efficiency does seem to go up a tad. I can tell with the Prius monitoring, pretty sensitive.
In WA keeping roads in that condition is short lived. They still allow studs here and some people put them on the day they can and don't take 'em off until required. That plus LOTS of big truck traffic and it really beats up the roads.

Smooth roads reduce rolling resistance for sure; however your new battery probably has better regen.
You would have to keep careful records to sort the two out.

As for your other point, improvements in efficiency benefit the least efficient car the most. So if you want to make an argument why your roads should be well maintained, point to the ICE cars and not your LEAF.

however your new battery probably has better regen.

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"Allows more regen" would be a better way to put it, as the battery is pretty much a passive actor in regeneration. Internal resistance is what determines possible regeneration rates, along with state of charge and pack temperature.

SageBrush said:

Smooth roads reduce rolling resistance for sure; however your new battery probably has better regen.
You would have to keep careful records to sort the two out.

As for your other point, improvements in efficiency benefit the least efficient car the most. So if you want to make an argument why your roads should be well maintained, point to the ICE cars and not your LEAF.

Click to expand...

Just a point of clarification -- the new battery has been in vehicle just over a year. That did, of course, improve the time to first bar drop, but I took this into account, having sampled >300 runs up and down the hill. The range improvement was linked directly to the road repairs, which were completed about a month ago.... Understanding this is totally unscientific, I did clearly see a positive difference.

Still waiting on that 300 mile range, tricked out pick-up truck. My next purchase...

LeafPowerIsIxE said:

For seven years, I have been driving down the hills from my house (mostly regen) to our local mall where I park and head out on a daily hike. I drive back up those same hills to go home. It is two miles each way. I know exactly where I drop my first bar on the return trip.

Recently, our roads were completely refurbished-blacktop (thanks CA gas tax). I realized I am traveling an additional 300-500 yards up the hill before I drop that first bar. No other change in my driving patterns. The only difference is the new polished, smooth road. Interesting...

By the way, I have a new Nissan installed traction battery (12-bars) and start each trip with a full charge.

Click to expand...

Insignificant. Bars are not that well behaved. Your overall pack balance fluctuates. Temperature partially determines when "full" happens. Traffic, weather, etc. all becomes significant when you are talking a few hundred yards of range.

I am more interested in how you got a reserved parking space at the mall to insure your route does not vary on a day to day basis.

DaveinOlyWA said:

LeafPowerIsIxE said:

For seven years, I have been driving down the hills from my house (mostly regen) to our local mall where I park and head out on a daily hike. I drive back up those same hills to go home. It is two miles each way. I know exactly where I drop my first bar on the return trip.

Recently, our roads were completely refurbished-blacktop (thanks CA gas tax). I realized I am traveling an additional 300-500 yards up the hill before I drop that first bar. No other change in my driving patterns. The only difference is the new polished, smooth road. Interesting...

By the way, I have a new Nissan installed traction battery (12-bars) and start each trip with a full charge.

Click to expand...

Insignificant. Bars are not that well behaved. Your overall pack balance fluctuates. Temperature partially determines when "full" happens. Traffic, weather, etc. all becomes significant when you are talking a few hundred yards of range.

I am more interested in how you got a reserved parking space at the mall to insure your route does not vary on a day to day basis.

Click to expand...

I get there at 9:30 each morning - before the mall opens - same spot dead center in front of JCP. :lol: