adric22
Well-known member
As any Leaf driver will tell you, if you hop on the highway and hit 65-75 mph, your range drops nearly in half. I've noticed after driving the Volt for a while that the highway doesn't really seem to affect it nearly as much. I seem to get 40 miles in town or 40 miles on the highway.
So the question is, why? Is it a matter of aerodynamics? Or is there something about the Leaf drivetrain that makes it inefficient at those speeds? I remember reading something about Tesla having to make modifications to the model-S to improve high speed efficiency. The Volt's drivetrain is considerably more complicated to include the I.C.E., however I believe I read somewhere that it does use both of the electric motors at times even when the I.C.E. is powered down. Is that the key?
I was just thinking if the Leaf could improve the highway efficiency where one could reliably get 80 or more miles per charge on the highway that would actually make a pretty big difference in the acceptance in the USA market.
So the question is, why? Is it a matter of aerodynamics? Or is there something about the Leaf drivetrain that makes it inefficient at those speeds? I remember reading something about Tesla having to make modifications to the model-S to improve high speed efficiency. The Volt's drivetrain is considerably more complicated to include the I.C.E., however I believe I read somewhere that it does use both of the electric motors at times even when the I.C.E. is powered down. Is that the key?
I was just thinking if the Leaf could improve the highway efficiency where one could reliably get 80 or more miles per charge on the highway that would actually make a pretty big difference in the acceptance in the USA market.