We spoke to Linda Noble, one of Mission Motorsport Hypermiler. She was medically discharged from the army in 2018 after an 18-year military career and turned out to be one of the most efficient drivers on Mission Motorsport’s hyper-mile record team, despite never having driven an electric car before.
Advice from a record breaker
“Drive as smoothly as possible,” was her main piece of advice. “That’s the most important. The quieter you drive, the more efficient you will be. It is best to keep a fairly constant speed. We didn’t accelerate or brake, just a bit of brake regeneration [see below] everything we used was on the descents. “
Smooth driving is the first rule to get the best range from an electric vehicle.
Other efficiency gains
If you look far ahead that you have enough time to brake for traffic, and not brake too hard or accelerate too hard, you can make big gains in efficiency at a low cost of comfort and convenience.
It also makes good use of the brake regeneration systems (sometimes called Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems or KERS) that are found in every electric car. When you release the gas, an electric vehicle automatically begins to use the electric motor as a generator to extract energy from the car’s natural forward thrust.
The strength of this brake regeneration can vary. Many electric vehicles offer a range of braking regeneration strengths so that they may not differ from normal engine braking or be so strong that you barely have to touch the brake pedal when the car is doing what is called “single-pedal drive”.
To get an idea of how much energy the regeneration system can hold, a report by the Energy Saving Trust states that “the energy recovery from regenerative braking is around 10% during normal driving and up to 30% during descents”.
Air conditioning or an open window to stay cool?
As you can imagine, the record breaking Mission Motorsport team turned off the air conditioning to avoid significant battery drain, but no one wants to live with that discomfort in everyday life, especially in an expensive new car.
The Energy Saving Trust EV Efficiency Report cited above estimates that opening the window on a warm day affects efficiency less than using an air conditioner, assuming you are traveling at less than 45 mph.
At higher speeds, air conditioning is a better choice to maintain comfort and maximize range, as the drag of an open window at these speeds significantly reduces efficiency.
Almost all electric vehicles offer the option of presetting the cabin temperature. This means that if you’ve parked and plugged in the car overnight, it will use AC power to cool or warm up the cabin for your departure time. Since the air conditioning can consume around 20% or more of the battery power of an electric vehicle in bad weather – and thus eat up almost a quarter of your possible range – it is worth using the air conditioning presets.
The eco driving modes in an electric vehicle often provide reduced air conditioning functionality but do not turn it off completely, which is a great energy efficient way to maintain a comfortable temperature.
