dgpcolorado
Well-known member
I assume that you are going up Boulder Canyon to Eldora. While you would be able to make the trip in cold weather on dry pavement with a new battery, trying to do it on snow or with an older battery pack that has lost capacity could be difficult. As others have said, the key is whether or not you make it to the ski area, going home should be easy.Flatirons said:
If you look at Tony William's range chart you can get an idea of what range to expect. Note his estimate of about one fuel bar per 1000' gain. My guess is that you will be going down a bit then heading from about 5300' to 9200' or about 3900' vertical gain. Note also the estimate of about 1% loss in range per 4ºF in temperature below 70º. So a trip at 30º would have about 10% less range at a given speed. On the plus side, your entire trip would be at high altitude and that is a significant increase in range over sea level; it makes a big difference in my experience (I live at 7670 feet). You would get about 8% or more range increase over sea level numbers at a given temperature. Another plus factor is that typical speeds up Boulder Canyon are fairly slow. But your ten miles of flat (Foothills Highway? SH 93?) might be at higher speeds, which is a range killer, especially in cold air. (If your route involves the Peak-to-Peak Highway instead of Boulder Canyon then that would change the calculations somewhat.)
Yes, you could probably do the ski trip when the car is new and if the weather wasn't too sloppy. But pushing through snow on the road kills range quickly due to increased rolling resistance and decreased traction efficiency. Whether you want to give it a try depends on how much of a challenge you want. Some people freak if they get anywhere near the low battery warning. A few have even sold their LEAFs because they can't handle the "range anxiety". Others of us learn quickly what the car will do and don't worry about it.
As others have said above, if you gave it a try and determined that you weren't going to make it on any given day, you should be able to turn around and safely make it home because you likely would gain enough from regen downhill to drive that final ten miles on the flat. Again, if the roads weren't too sloppy. But if you are trying to make a job at Eldora, that wouldn't practical. Play around with the range chart to see what you think. Be sure to read the footnotes.
As others have said, a Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid would be the "safe" solution to making the Eldora commute in winter weather. And you would get 40 miles or so of electric range for routine driving. The downside is the complexity of a hybrid versus the simplicity of an EV like the LEAF.
For the record: I lived in Boulder (Gunbarrel) for more than fourteen years, but I can only guess at your route without more details.
