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by BluePen8 1783 days ago
On the flip side, I wish EV makers would advertise range at higher speeds.

Hell, I wish ICE car makers would advertise MPG at higher speeds.

Every weekend I head up around 200 miles away, and it's on an empty mountain pass with a 80MPH speed limit.

In town, my sports sedan gets the same fuel economy as my old Tacoma, but on that trip the Tacoma consumes over 50% more if driven even remotely comparably (80+). The sports sedan has surprisingly little variance between 70-90MPH.

While the truck's aerodynamics aren't helping, I've experienced the same in other "fuel-efficient" vehicles, where the fuel economy falls off a cliff once you go above 60MPH. A Chevy Aveo I owned was actually one of the worst offenders, you'd get on the highway and get SUV-tier fuel mileage.

2 comments

Its a trade-off with engine power. A small, low power engine is really efficient around town at low speeds (and scores well on EPA tests). But to drive at 80 mph, you have to put significant load on that tiny engine, making it really inefficient.

A more powerful engine consumes more gas in general, but is operating in a much more efficient range at 80mph because it is not under much load.

It's weird, I've driven a few different cars and measured the MPG in them, and that's what I'm finding too. 60mph seems like the sweet spot.

I wonder if they design specifically for that speed, as it's the speed on most highways in america (someone correct me if not true)

Anecdotally I was once told that vehicles are turned to optimize their fuel economy around the 55mph mark.