AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Interesting. Alan. I would not have even questioned the original statement if the speeds discussed had been in the 40 to 70 range. Where I see my Wh/mi take off is above that. My point of bringing this up was to not have new folks thinking higher speeds are not an efficiency loss in the winter. What I see in my ongoing trials to maintain my commute during the Montana winter is that the best way I can improve efficiency on very cold days is to keep my speed under 70, if I need the range. Otherwise, I drive my usual Montana 85 mph. Anyway, thanks again for that input. I appreciate it.
Phil
Agreed. The rough plots above bear out your empirical results. Seems like something around 55-60mph is best, and that is what you are finding it seems. You’d see very little difference between 55 and 70mph (maybe 5%) so may as well go faster. But by 80mph the impact becomes a bit more concerning, probably 10%, and takes off rapidly for speeds above that.
I guess the corollary to this, which is obvious from above, is in winter you REALLY don’t want to be going slow or stuck in traffic. Your range will be destroyed! It’s pretty clear that speeds below 30mph are not good in extreme cold. You need to be moving along at around 40mph or higher. The “knee of cold winter range destruction” appears to be around 30mph to 40mph. Stay above the knee!
Last edited: