Efficient driving tips?

[tn77]

So I'm new to the LEAF, and I'm wondering about ways to maximize range. Are there general tips? I feel like it's probably the opposite of driving a gas car.... let me give an example.

I visit one place that's about 16 miles away via highway. In my ICE car, I usually drive on a route that takes 12 of that on the highway and the rest of that on in-town roads. This highway route actually takes me a little bit past the venue and I have to back-track, but it seems like the way to go for ICE efficiency and it shaves about 2 minutes off the trip.

Now, if I go to this place through town, I'm only on the highway about 9 miles, and then there are 5.5 miles of in-town roads. This route, while shorter in mileage, is actually slower and with an ICE, probably burns more gas.

So what is the mindset for trips like these, when you have a choice of highway/street? Am I going to be more efficient by avoiding highways when possible? Will the braking and lower speed on trips like these be helpful? And what about ECO mode? Would you use it in this situation? How often are people using ECO mode?

Thanks again! This has been a great forum so far.

 

[Firetruck41]

Three main tips: accelerate slowly (2-3 bubbles), closer you are to 25mph the better, and the less you touch the brake pedal the better.

 

[LeftieBiker]

You are on the right track. The Leaf is most efficient up to about 45MPH, and really sucks juice above 55-60MPH. It is best to take secondary roads and drive like the proverbial Little Old Lady - but NOT the one from Pasadena. Unlike an ICE car, accelerating briskly doesn't hurt economy as much as highway speed, but accelerating more gently does still help. Unless you have a 2013+ Leaf with heatpump heater, using the heat also hurts range quite a bit, even in mild weather. The heatpump uses no more than the A/C in "chilly" temps, but below about 25-30F it too starts to use lots of power.

 

[garsh]

Lots of threads on this topic:
Stoaty's Guide to Energy Efficient Driving of the Leaf
How to Maximize Range?
Best Highway Driving Practices for maximum range

 

[powersurge]

I've heard so much about the Leaf not being good on the highway, and that its mileage is better in stop and go traffic. That is completely false. We are dealing with physics here, and it is exactly the same for the gas or ev car.

The energy consumed for both gas and electric cars is related to the amount of "work" that that is has to produce. (Think of it as how much energy you would use if YOU were pushing the car.) The leaf, or any car is best when acceleration is gentle, and reaches and stays at the cruising speed because it does not have to fight the inertia of the weight of the car.

so.. The worst energy consumption is with rapid acceleration, and stops and starts. E.G., I get my best mileage on the highway at 53mph.

 

[LeftieBiker]

You are misunderstanding the physics of the situation. Rapid acceleration that uses, say, six bubbles and lasts for 2-3 seconds uses less power over time ("energy") than the extra work of pushing the car through the air at 65MPH. That may only take one full extra bubble of power over driving at 55MPH, but it pulls that power for every second you spend at that speed. Thus a 20 minute trip at 65MPH uses much more energy than several "stoplight drag races"..

 

[garsh]

The energy consumed for both gas and electric cars is related to the amount of "work" that that is has to produce. (Think of it as how much energy you would use if YOU were pushing the car.) The leaf, or any car is best when acceleration is gentle, and reaches and stays at the cruising speed because it does not have to fight the inertia of the weight of the car.

What you say is true, but only if the average speed is the same in both scenarios. When people say that the car is better in stop-n-go driving, the unstated assumption is that your average speed is going to be a lot lower than highway driving.

The speed at which the Leaf delivers the best mileage is 12mph. Below that speed, the fixed costs of running the electronics & inverter dominate. Anything above that speed is going to deliver worse mileage than going slower.

 

[LeftieBiker]

It gets written about every generation, but I do have to wonder "What are they teaching kids in school these days?" ;-)

 

[RonDawg]

Much of the economy tips that apply to ICEVs also apply to EV's, namely keeping your speed down and reducing the number and duration of acceleration events. Remember that it's easier to keep an object in motion than to set it in motion. At least that's what bicyclists tell me when they justify running stop signs and red lights.

The one that doesn't apply to ICEVs is the use of cabin heat, as mentioned already. A fully warmed internal combustion engine produces far more heat than it needs and what a human being would need to keep the car interior comfortable, so turning up the heat until you have a four-wheeled sauna is not difficult at all with an ICEV. But with a battery electric, now some of your battery juice is needed to run a heat pump, or worse a resistive heater, to produce heat. So keeping heat down to a minimum and taking advantage of pre-heating while plugged into shore power most definitely increases range. A heat pump has less impact on range than a resistive heater as long as temps are within its own operating range; below that the resistive heater will kick on anyway.

Conversely, running the AC on a BEV doesn't impact range nearly as much as it does with an ICEV, so don't be afraid to drive with a nicely cooled car interior.

 

[powersurge]

Christ, why do I have to always find people to disagree with me that a car in motion uses less energy than a lot of stop and go's. Try starting and stopping a skid of topsoil at home depot a few times... THEN tell me that it uses less energy than pushing and keeping it in motion...

 

[Stoaty]

Christ, why do I have to always find people to disagree with me that a car in motion uses less energy than a lot of stop and go's. Try starting and stopping a skid of topsoil at home depot a few times... THEN tell me that it uses less energy than pushing and keeping it in motion...

What you say is true if speeds are equal. However, driving 53 MPH uses a lot more energy than driving 25 MPH due to drag from air resistance.

 

[Firetruck41]

When you are recovering part of energy of the stop, and you are not fighting aerodynamic resistance, and you are keeping battery and motor temps lower, "city driving" is usually more efficient...physics works .

 

[DuncanCunningham]

I'm only going to relate my experience and not get into who is right or wrong.

I have a 13 mile commute (one way), lucky me. I can drive it on the freeway or on surface streets with stopping and starting. The freeway runs parallel to the surface streets, same up and down and all evens out in the end. On the freeway route I have 10 places where I might have to stop and start, which doesn't include traffic congestion stopping and starting on the freeway and about 2 miles off freeway driving.

On the surface streets I have about 30+ stop and starts and speeds from 30 up to 45mph.

Both ways I get about the same 'Miles per KW' if I drive like the average ICE car. With the surface street route I can get much more MilesKW if I use efficient driving techniques and time my approaches to red lights to decrease the need to totally stop and get going again.

Doing the latter I get informed, via finger gestures, that it is about 1 O'Clock. Those poor muggles, don't they know it's about 7:45am?!

 

[NeilBlanchard]

The most efficient way to drive is as much steady speed as possible, 30-45MPH - with as much coasting as possible. When you need to slow down, use as much regen as possible, and only as much friction brakes as necessary.

Stop and go is better in an EV than in an ICE - but it still takes more energy than slower speed steady driving.

Higher speeds lower efficiency dramatically. Aero drag goes up with the square of the speed. At ~30MPH, aero drag is ~50% of the load on the drivetrain, and at 55MPH it rises to ~75%.

I "shift" into "neutral" whenever possible and coast; trying to use down slopes to my advantage. I shift into B to increase regen when the car gets going too fast down a hill, and when I am approaching a stop. If you feather the accelerator you can sorta' coast, and this is what I do for situations that won't work better in "neutral".

I have been ecodriving for 8+ years and my average (on the dash meter) for the entire New England winter was 4.7 miles / kWh. During the summer, I average 6+ miles / kWh in the hottest weather. Air temperature affects the aero drag significantly - colder air is more dense, and colder tires have higher rolling resistance.

Here's my energy log: http://ecomodder.com/forum/em-fuel-log.php?vehicleid=8730

The black line through the middle is the EPA Combined rating for the Leaf:

My energy log is corrected for the tires - and it is the actual energy used. Obviously the dash meter is way to optimistic, and it is not corrected for the tires - which are smaller diameter than the tires used on the SV/SL models. I calibrate the distance both with a GPS and Google Maps.

 

[Nubo]

I've heard so much about the Leaf not being good on the highway, and that its mileage is better in stop and go traffic. That is completely false. We are dealing with physics here, and it is exactly the same for the gas or ev car.

The energy consumed for both gas and electric cars is related to the amount of "work" that that is has to produce. (Think of it as how much energy you would use if YOU were pushing the car.) The leaf, or any car is best when acceleration is gentle, and reaches and stays at the cruising speed because it does not have to fight the inertia of the weight of the car.

so.. The worst energy consumption is with rapid acceleration, and stops and starts. E.G., I get my best mileage on the highway at 53mph.

The two types of vehicles are quite difference in practical use, as evidenced by the fact that EVs economy is greater for the CITY rating than HWY, exactly the opposite of what we all became used to with gasoline vehicles. The gross inefficiency of internal combustion, along with the fact that gasoline engines are designed to maximize highway cruise efficiency, is enough to swamp the effect of drag increasing with square of velocity. But yes, of course, stop and go wastes lots of energy regardless of vehicle type. Choice of efficient route depends on how much stopping you'll actually do. Steady-state 35mph will get you far further than steady-state highway speeds.

 

[powersurge]

I will valiantly remove myself from this topic. The truth is that no one really should give a creep or a crap about all this issue. So what that your mileage is best at 15-20 mph. If I am going somewhere, I am not going to spend my time trying to hypermile everywhere I go. If I have a 20 mile drive, I will get on the highway, and go 55 or so, and not do stop and go. My experience with the leaf is that it is very practical to go long distances on the highway at about 55 mph. The moral of story is that the leaf is the most efficient car on the road, we really don't need to know just exactly by how much.

 

[garsh]

The truth is that no one really should give a creep or a crap about all this issue.

You really like to argue in absolutes, don't you?

All of this otherwise useless information came in handy when I hit turtle a mile away from my destination. I managed to make it by driving 12mph the rest of the way.

 

[Beefjerkie]

To help answer the question, I am also a recently new owner of my 15 LEAF and today will be my 3 month anniversary with the car. While my round trip to work is 12 miles (lucker me) it has really kept my range anxiety low. I am only able to use the L1 charger at work to charge my car since my home wiring is too questionable to use but here is my economy stats so far:

While that is only Owners Portal stats, I feel I have found my ways on getting the most miles out of my LEAF.

• Tree Meter
  While I think the tree meter has gotten some bad rap, I believe that the circle bar around the tree gives the most information on being top dog in miles per KWh. During acceleration and braking, the system provides how well you are driving.
• Slow Acceleration
  While that is a given, I used to watch the energy screen and bubbles to adjust to my driving habits, but found looking at the circle bar around the tree has given me better tips on my acceleration and braking habits
• B Mode /w ECO Always!
  B Mode enables your LEAF to be more aggressive on regen while you are slowing down. This also helps to reduce the wear and tear on your brakes. D Mode is nice if you want more of a coasting feel when you coming to stops but not as much regen back compared to B Mode.
• Tire Pressure
  While the Nissan recommended tire pressure is 36 PSI, I been having my tire pressure at 44 PSI. While this makes the drive a little more stiff to bumps, it has really helped on my mileage.
• Cruise Control when possible!
  I try to use Cruise Control as much as I can. Its hard to keep my foot right at 40mph since the car is so smooth and fun to drive, for that, I can just set the speed and let it take control. Cruise control is not great on hilly roads since you don't need to stay 40mph on every hill and it will use extra energy just to keep that speed with not needed. Lucky for me, my area is mostly flat so cruise control is not an issue to me.
• Lowest speeds possible on trips
  While I am driving to the mall, or work, or anywhere, I try to find ways to stay off the freeway as much as I can and find low speed areas to my destination. Most of the time I am not in a rush to arrive to my destination, so I tend to stay 3 to 5 mph under the speed limit without being a huge pain to traffic. There is some streets on my way to work that is 30mph instead of 45mph that makes it easier for me to get the high numbers on miles. It may slow me down 3mins or so, but since I am limited on charging, its worth for me.

I am sure I am missing some things on this list and like @garsh said

Lots of threads on this topic:
Stoaty's Guide to Energy Efficient Driving of the Leaf
How to Maximize Range?
Best Highway Driving Practices for maximum range

There is plenty of resources to find ways to boost economy on this forum and other online resources. You can always PM me if you like on questions and I will do my best to answer them