Hey there,

I recently acquired my first EV and have been having fun trying to get the best efficiency numbers out of it. I was at ~3.5mi/kWh (5.6km/kWh), but by slowing down and taking the other road not the highway to work I got it up to 4.4mi/kWh (7.08km/kWh). Part of that was accelerating relatively slowly as this is one tip that I heard. But I’ve been thinking about it and from a simple physics calculation it should take basically the same amount of energy to accelerate an object to highway speed whether you do it very quickly or if you spread that energy over a longer period of time.

Does anyone have any insight? I don’t mind granny accelerating but if I can have the zippy fun of accelerating an EV while still staying efficient that would be awesome too :)

Thanks!

  • FireXtol@piefed.socialBannedEnglish
    14·
    7 days ago

    Your physics instinct is right in a vacuum.

    Same speed should be the same kinetic energy.

    But the real world adds losses, and those punish hard acceleration:

    Electrical losses scale roughly with current², so flooring it wastes more as heat

    Motor/inverter efficiency drops at very high power

    Tires waste more energy under high torque (slip)

    Drag starts biting earlier if you hit high speeds sooner (ever ride a bicycle?)

    Moderate, steady acceleration is most efficient. Not crawling, not flooring it. Use ~30–60% pedal (middle way). Smooth, continuous push.

    You can still have quick launches occasionally without wrecking your efficiency. Just don’t make it your default mode.