Best Highway Driving Practices for maximum range

What would be the best set of highway driving practices to ring out the most range from my Leaf?

I had to use the expressway (highway) the other day and I quickly realized I didn't know which mode was most efficient. I rarely use the expressway, so I wasn't sure. Normally I always keep my Leaf in ECO mode and that's where I leave it. But, I think I read someplace to keep it in normal D mode a while back for best efficiency.

When I use the expressway I only go 20-40 Miles total and I maintain a constant speed of 60MPH. I don't care if people ride my bumper or honk either (of course I stay in the slow lane).

The other day, I drove 57 Miles total (for the day) with 90% being high-speed expressway driving at or above 60MPH. I had it in normal D mode while on the expressway and I always change back into ECO when not on the expressway.

That was 57 Miles total (according to my tripometer) and when I pulled in the drive, the DTE displayed 32 Miles left. That wasn't too bad I think? It certainly seems accurate since that would put me in the 80-90 Mi range in all.

By the way, my whole days driving was done at 40F with no heat on the whole day, only seat heaters and steering-wheel heater on relatively flat terrain.

Are these practices optimal? Do other Leaf drivers do these same things? Am I forgetting to do anything else to help my range?

electriccarfan said:

What would be the best set of highway driving practices to ring out the most range from my Leaf?

Click to expand...

The best practice (by far) is to keep speed to a minimum. 55 MPH will be significantly better than 60 MPH, 50 MPH even better. Just depends on the conditions and your tolerance for going slower.

Stoaty said:

electriccarfan said:

What would be the best set of highway driving practices to ring out the most range from my Leaf?

Click to expand...

The best practice (by far) is to keep speed to a minimum. 55 MPH will be significantly better than 60 MPH, 50 MPH even better. Just depends on the conditions and your tolerance for going slower.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll try to keep that in mind.

But, I can't help but worry about getting pulled over for going too slow, or getting rear-ended. I guess it would depend on the circumstances.

Go 55MPH upgrade, 62-65 downhill, and leave it at 60 on the level - that's only 58MPH actual, anyway. Use ECO if using heat or A/C, and either mode otherwise.

Thanks, that's really helpful to know.

If you have the patience, don't use Cruise control. Its better if you can keep a constant pull on the battery (ex. keep to 2 white circles on the dash), and let your speed decrease on uphills. You can decrease throttle on down hills if they are steep enough. Every extra MPH costs you wind resistance.

As mentioned earlier, keep it to 55. Most freeways don't have posted minimums below 45 or 50.

BTW the strategy is not unique to electric vehicles.

DougWantsALeaf said:

If you have the patience, don't use Cruise control. Its better if you can keep a constant pull on the battery (ex. keep to 2 white circles on the dash), and let your speed decrease on uphills. You can decrease throttle on down hills if they are steep enough. Every extra MPH costs you wind resistance.

Click to expand...

As mentioned, this is true of all vehicles. Just it makes itself more apparent in cars that put it right in your face like the Leaf and the Prius.

DougWantsALeaf said:

As mentioned earlier, keep it to 55. Most freeways don't have posted minimums below 45 or 50.

Click to expand...

Check out your state laws though. Here the minimum is 55mph when the speed limit is 75mph. And of course, the left lane is passing only so you would have no business there. And if taking the back roads, if you are on a 2-lane, 1 each direction, road and more than 5 cars are stuck behind you, you need to pull over and let them pass. You will be ticketed for it.

On long, flat stretches the cruise control is the best way to avoid 'driving fatigue' and it won't cost you efficiency. Just switch it off when you have to go up hills.

LeftieBiker said:

On long, flat stretches the cruise control is the best way to avoid 'driving fatigue' and it won't cost you efficiency. Just switch it off when you have to go up hills.

Click to expand...

I have the S trim level, so I don't have cruise control. I try to hold a given speed and then let off on hills.

2k1Toaster said:

DougWantsALeaf said:

If you have the patience, don't use Cruise control. Its better if you can keep a constant pull on the battery (ex. keep to 2 white circles on the dash), and let your speed decrease on uphills. You can decrease throttle on down hills if they are steep enough. Every extra MPH costs you wind resistance.

Click to expand...

As mentioned, this is true of all vehicles. Just it makes itself more apparent in cars that put it right in your face like the Leaf and the Prius.

DougWantsALeaf said:

As mentioned earlier, keep it to 55. Most freeways don't have posted minimums below 45 or 50.

Click to expand...

Check out your state laws though. Here the minimum is 55mph when the speed limit is 75mph. And of course, the left lane is passing only so you would have no business there. And if taking the back roads, if you are on a 2-lane, 1 each direction, road and more than 5 cars are stuck behind you, you need to pull over and let them pass. You will be ticketed for it.

Click to expand...

Here the speed limit on the expressway is 60MPH in some areas and 65MPH in others. Once you cross over into Michigan it kicks up to 70-75MPH.

I always stay out of the fast lane (farthest to the left) unless I'm really moving along like they are. I stay in the slow lane all the way to the right. Around here, there are no posted minimum speed limits on the expressways.

A lot of these hypermiling tips I already practice in daily street-level driving, just I wasn't sure about expressway driving. It seems the Leaf leaves you very little to do to conserve energy when on the highway. The high power draw of the high-speeds really cuts into the range a bit it seems. It would be nice if Nissan could have implemented a special "highway energy saver" mode that makes more efficient use of the motor. Maybe allows it to perform the same but under a fraction of the power draw. Or, they could have put a lower draw electric motor in the Leaf that still had equivalent performance output. Whether this is at all possible, I'm not sure. I'm just saying, it would sure be nice.

I know somebody said on a BMW i3 post here that the i3 is more efficient on the highway. They now own one and they said they observed since they drive a little bit of highway.

electriccarfan said:

A lot of these hypermiling tips I already practice in daily street-level driving, just I wasn't sure about expressway driving. It seems the Leaf leaves you very little to do to conserve energy when on the highway. The high power draw of the high-speeds really cuts into the range a bit it seems. It would be nice if Nissan could have implemented a special "highway energy saver" mode that makes more efficient use of the motor. Maybe allows it to perform the same but under a fraction of the power draw. Or, they could have put a lower draw electric motor in the Leaf that still had equivalent performance output. Whether this is at all possible, I'm not sure. I'm just saying, it would sure be nice.

I know somebody said on a BMW i3 post here that the i3 is more efficient on the highway. They now own one and they said they observed since they drive a little bit of highway.

Click to expand...

It's all physics, there is no motor that exist that produces the same output for less power, otherwise you would use that motor all the time anyway. The only thing one can do at higher speeds is to cut down on air resistance. The Leaf is a hatch-back design, so it tries to look like all the vehicles out there now. If you really want to streamline your Leaf, you need to shape the back of it so it has less drag.


I am guessing one could probably create an attachment kit to achieve the same, just like they do for Semi-trailer trucks to decrease air-resistance on the trailers.

I think this is just a photoshop job:

garsh said:

I think this is just a photoshop job:

Click to expand...

Nice one at that, but yeah basically that is the idea!

knightmb said:

It's all physics, there is no motor that exist that produces the same output for less power, otherwise you would use that motor all the time anyway. The only thing one can do at higher speeds is to cut down on air resistance. The Leaf is a hatch-back design, so it tries to look like all the vehicles out there now. If you really want to streamline your Leaf, you need to shape the back of it so it has less drag.

I am guessing one could probably create an attachment kit to achieve the same, just like they do for Semi-trailer trucks to decrease air-resistance on the trailers.

Click to expand...

I accidentally goofed, it was the Kia Soul EV that somebody said got better highway range. How could the SoulEV or i3 possibly get better highway range? Neither seems to be more aerodynamic than the Leaf!

What I meant to say on the whole highway "energy saving" thing is, something like Variable Cylinder Management (Variable Displacement. Obviously not exactly this, as this is an ICE thing, but something equalivant of this to be used on an electric motor. With Variable Displacement the computer will reduce the cylinders in use to save fuel.

If the Leaf could reduce its electric motor's draw at highway speeds, then that could extend our range.

I wasn't sure if its possible, but it'd sure be nice to have such a feature.

Once on the highway, my range drops rapidly.

garsh said:

I think this is just a photoshop job:

Click to expand...

This does look pretty cool! It may be Photoshoped but it's interesting and looks legit. I don't think I'd like to invest in one for my leased Leaf though.

It's probably pretty expensive anyhow.

electriccarfan said:

If the Leaf could reduce its electric motor's draw at highway speeds, then that could extend our range.

I wasn't sure if its possible, but it'd sure be nice to have such a feature.

Click to expand...

The electric motor is already very efficient. There are no huge gains to be had there. For some great expense one could probably produce a *slightly* more efficient motor. Or you could implement a multi-speed transmission to put the motor in its exact "sweet spot" for efficiency. But these would be small gains. You can achieve the same results at no cost by slowing down a couple MPH.

Nubo said:

electriccarfan said:

If the Leaf could reduce its electric motor's draw at highway speeds, then that could extend our range.

I wasn't sure if its possible, but it'd sure be nice to have such a feature.

Click to expand...

The electric motor is already very efficient. There are no huge gains to be had there. For some great expense one could probably produce a *slightly* more efficient motor. Or you could implement a multi-speed transmission to put the motor in its exact "sweet spot" for efficiency. But these would be small gains. You can achieve the same results at no cost by slowing down a couple MPH.

Click to expand...

That makes sense and I totally agree with you but, then in that case they really need to think of other ways to give drivers more range. 84 Miles just doesn't really cut I'm afraid. It works for me, but that's only because I don't mind sacrificing certain things in exchange for all the benefits of an EV.

Even though it works for me, I really would like to travel across country, or at least city to city. That has proven to be very true here in Toledo OH (and most of the Midwest). Most people I've talked to about my Leaf couldn't and or wouldn't tolerate such a paltry driving range. That's most always the thing they scoff at first and foremost.

I wouldn't mind stopping to charge either. If DCFC ever becomes more prevalent I could make a cross country journey. Here in the Midwest there are few outside Chicago. I don't want the upkeep of an ICE, so I don't want to downgrade to a Volt, or Range Extender. Sounds like to me they could just put a larger battery in the Leaf and we'd have all our problems solved (or most). Maybe a 40kWh or 60kWh pack perhaps. Oh well, sounds like I'll be waiting for the 2017 Gen II Leaf to get more range I guess.

electriccarfan said:

I accidentally goofed, it was the Kia Soul EV that somebody said got better highway range. How could the SoulEV or i3 possibly get better highway range? Neither seems to be more aerodynamic than the Leaf!

Click to expand...

Actually, the Kia Soul EV gets quite a bit less range on the highway as compared to the city. According to the EPA, the Soul EV's range is 104 miles city / 80 miles highway. Where you may be confused is that the Leaf is rated 74 miles highway. So the Soul EV gets better highway range as compared to the Leaf. There is no magic here - the Soul has a considerably larger battery - roughly 27kWh usable versus the 21kWh usable in the Leaf.

GetOffYourGas said:

electriccarfan said:

I accidentally goofed, it was the Kia Soul EV that somebody said got better highway range. How could the SoulEV or i3 possibly get better highway range? Neither seems to be more aerodynamic than the Leaf!

Click to expand...

Actually, the Kia Soul EV gets quite a bit less range on the highway as compared to the city. According to the EPA, the Soul EV's range is 104 miles city / 80 miles highway. Where you may be confused is that the Leaf is rated 74 miles highway. So the Soul EV gets better highway range as compared to the Leaf. There is no magic here - the Soul has a considerably larger battery - roughly 27kWh usable versus the 21kWh usable in the Leaf.

Click to expand...

Oh, I see. I thought they both had the same battery capacity. That's pretty much it then I guess.