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by vlangber 1605 days ago
Very strange. The Norwegian version of AAA just tested lots of different EVs in winter conditions. Most cars lost 10-25%.The link below is in Norwegian, but the results table should be easy to understand:

https://www.motor.no/aktuelt/motors-store-vintertest-av-rekk...

2 comments

There is a lot of potential variation between their tests and my use.

* Norway doesn't have speed limits which go anywhere near 160kph. I was on the Autobahn for most of my trip. How fast were they driving? 50-80kph appears to be a lot more efficient than 160kph.

* Did they drive to maximise efficiency of power or time? I have a heavy foot accelerating.

* Were they using the heater liberally? We were. I'm told this uses a lot of power, especially on models which don't have a heat pump.

* Was brake regen high or low?

For the record, I'm not arguing that the Model 3 can achieve better efficiency than I achieved. I was simply explaining that in my case, it was poor.

Regarding efficiency, for your "average car", driving at 160 kph requires 3x the energy as 110 kph (aerodynamic drag mostly), while only increasing velocity by 1.45x. Simply put, you're requiring 2x the energy per kilometer, which pretty neatly lines up with losing half the manufacturer rated range.
Isn't it true that in most of Norway you'd be hard pressed to find places where you can drive faster than 80-90 km/h?

Meanwhile, in germany, you have the autobahn...

in a few years the autobahn will be limited to 130 km/h aswell I guess.
Yup. So the ev owners can feel better about their choice.