Coquihalla Pass

[ataman]

Has anyone tried to make it to Merritt, BC from Hope,BC ? It seems impossiable to me, but I wonder if you were to go slow enough, maybe you can make it???

[TonyWilliams]

Has anyone tried to make it to Merritt, BC from Hope,BC ? It seems impossiable to me, but I wonder if you were to go slow enough, maybe you can make it???

Well, you start at 600 meters elevation, and go over the pass at 1000 meters, and then all the way down to sea level. The journey is only 120km.

Looks pretty easy in the summer with a new condition car with no heater use.

[ataman]

Well, you start at 600 meters elevation, and go over the pass at 1000 meters, and then all the way down to sea level. The journey is only 120km.

Looks pretty easy in the summer with a new condition car with no heater use.

You start at sea level, summit is 1210m and Merritt is 600m. You got is opposite...

[TonyWilliams]

The net elevation gain will burn about 3kWh (1.5kWh per 300 meters), so assuming you have a brand new car with a 20C or greater temperature battery, then you have 21kWh useable minus 3kWh for your journey.

120km / 18kWh = 6.66km per kWh or 150 wattHours per km.

With no reserve, perfect battery, no heater, no wind, dry roadway, blah, blah, blah, you could drive 100km/h.

You'll note that I didn't factor the extra power consumed over the pass because you will get a bunch of that power back, but of course, there is some loss. So, let's say some speed below 100km/h.

Now, if your car is not new, or the battery not warm, then we would have to readjust for the actual capacity of the battery to start.

See range chart to see how I calculated this.

[Berlino]

You start at sea level, summit is 1210m and Merritt is 600m. You got is opposite...

The OP said he wants to go from Merritt to Hope, so starting at 600m. Is there really a valley deep enough to be at sea level in that area?

Edit: I see that Hope is indeed at sea level. Of course, this only helps the OP for the one-way Merritt-->Hope

[davewill]

You start at sea level, summit is 1210m and Merritt is 600m. You got is opposite...

The OP said he wants to go from Merritt to Hope, so starting at 600m. Is there really a valley deep enough to be at sea level in that area?

Might as well figure the worst case. The OP is likely to want to come back after all.

[surfingslovak]

You start at sea level, summit is 1210m and Merritt is 600m. You got is opposite...

The OP said he wants to go from Merritt to Hope, so starting at 600m. Is there really a valley deep enough to be at sea level in that area?

Try getting an elevation profile for the trip. From gpsvisualizer.com for example.

[Berlino]

Might as well figure the worst case. The OP is likely to want to come back after all.

He probably has rightly given up returning that way. Instead, there is a longer route which goes around the mountains.

[johnrhansen]

I thought it would be nice if people kept records in a database somewhere of charge used for different trips, that way only one person would have to figure it out and after that people could just look it up.

[Berlino]

See range chart to see how I calculated this.

Thanks for all the work you've done on the range chart and elsewhere.


Did I read that the Green Race range calculator uses your charts? If they do, I take it they don't use your default "ideal conditions" and instead factor in a certain amount of battery degradation or extra power consumption.

I have a new SL and your chart has been accurate, but I have been using 15% to 30% less energy than Green Race predicts.

In this case of Coquihlla pass, Green Race projects using 99.7% of battery capacity at 100km/h.