How EV Range Tips Differ From ICE MPG Tips – CleanTechnica

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Recently, we had a company reach out to us hoping that we’d share some fuel efficiency tips and a link to their website. Honestly, the tips are really good (here’s a link to their website, they earned it), but this is a website that generally focuses on EVs instead of gas-powered vehicles. So, I’m going to adapt their tips to EVs and add a few more of my own. So, if you’re trying to get more range or use less electricity, read on!

Equipment

Before you do anything, keep in mind that your equipment choices can have a huge impact on your vehicle’s efficiency. One EV can have a lot less range than another, even if they’re the same make, model, and battery size. 

One great example of this problem is roof racks. For some people, roof racks are used for real cargo hauling, carrying a bike or skis along, and otherwise making use of the rack. But, for other people, a roof rack is a fashion accessory that rarely if ever gets used, with some people even riding around with an empty cargo box 99% of the time.

Sadly, this can rob you of 25% of your range, so if you’re not using the rack or box, take it off and leave it at home. Or, even better, get a hitch rack to haul cargo behind the rear bumper where it impacts range less!

One other thing you can do is choose a lighter colored car. This doesn’t make a huge difference, but in the summer a darker colored car can mean you lose 1–2% range because the power-hungry compressor in the AC system has to work more.

Tires are another important factor. The obvious advice here is to maintain proper tire pressure. Some people go over the recommended pressure to varying degrees, which is usually safe up to the “max sidewall” pressure. There’s a lot of debate online over how much this extra pressure helps with range, but there’s really no debate that under-inflated tires will cause you to lose range.

Because EVs take longer to charge than ICE vehicles take to fuel, choice of tire is a much bigger deal. Low rolling resistance tires usually come equipped on EVs to give them more range, and switching to something like all-terrain tires or winter tires can negatively impact range. It’s good to use efficient tires when possible, but safety is more important than range. So, don’t hesitate to use a less efficient tire if you need to do so.

Maintenance is also very important. If your car gets in a fender bender and ends up out of shape, this can affect your range. So, get things like bumpers repaired. Keeping coolant systems in working order (aging EVs need hose inspections), not letting brakes get rusted up due to non-use, and alignment can all impact an EV’s range severely. It’s also a good idea to periodically (I’d say every 75,000–100,000 miles) have drive units flushed and filled with fresh fluid to reduce friction and avoid premature wear.

Weight, on the other hand, doesn’t affect range as much as people think. Around town, weight means negligible increases in energy use, but on the highway, weight is greatly dwarfed by aerodynamics. Keeping your car clean is good, but throwing away a few burrito wrappers and soda cans won’t give you a noticeable amount of range back. Losing a mile or two of range for important safety equipment (spare tires, roadside assistance kits, blankets, etc.) is foolish, so don’t get rid of such things.

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Driving Style

This is where EVs vary drastically from the advice our parents and grandparents gave us for ICE vehicles. Some things apply, but other things are polar opposites.

One area where EVs and ICE are the same is that less driving means less energy gets used. This seems obvious, but it’s easy to forget about this during the challenges of day to day life. Things need to happen fast sometimes, and you don’t have time to plan for everything. But, when you can get away with it, combining trips and doing more things in one circular drive helps. Doing a “hub to spoke” drive over and over means more energy gets used and you have less extra range available.

Taking it easy also helps EVs save energy. Using more power by stomping on the skinny pedal can be fun, but an EV’s batteries and motors have to overcome more electrical resistance to deliver that power. So, the power used per mile goes up, and you get less miles out of a battery. 

When it comes to speed, EVs are the opposite of ICE vehicles. ICE vehicles generally get better mileage on highways, as the primitive pile of pistons that pushes them around works better at a steady RPM, and around town, they waste a lot of energy braking and then taking off again. EVs have regenerative braking, and generally are more efficient in town than on the highway. But, just like ICE vehicles, faster speeds mean less range, so going a little slower on the highway saves range either way.

That having been said, don’t do anything unsafe to save energy, like go 40 MPH on the freeway! You’re better off to stop at another charger or two than to go home in a body bag.

Another area where ICE and EVs differ a lot is idling. Put simply, the main electric motor that pushes an EV around just doesn’t idle. If the car is sitting still, that motor doesn’t sit there and waste energy. It also doesn’t produce any direct emissions, so you can sit in a place for days if not weeks slowly draining the battery. Perhaps more importantly, you don’t sicken passers by or kill yourself if you’re in an enclosed space with the vehicle.

This doesn’t mean that EVs use no energy while sitting still, though. There are some small power draws to power things like the vehicle’s computers, the cooling system, and heating or air conditioning. Because there’s no engine to bog down with an air conditioner, keeping your car cool during the summer doesn’t make that much of an impact on range. But, if your car doesn’t have a heat pump, running the heater can have a HUGE impact.

Because resistive heaters take up some much energy, and because they don’t work well below freezing, your best bet for range is to try to use the heat as little as possible in extreme cold. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t be comfortable! Pre-heating the vehicle, using seat warmers, and dressing up a little bit more can help save a ton of range.

The other benefit to pre-heating is that it helps heat the vehicle’s battery up, and you can double down on that benefit by setting a charge timer for just a few minutes before you go. By warming up the battery pack with a last-minute charging session at home, you can make your battery pack operate a lot more efficiently.

Do you have some tips to increasing EV range? I can’t possibly cover all of them here. Be sure to share yours in the comments or on social media!

Featured image by Jennifer Sensiba.