Hi all, long time lurker shopping a number of vehicles now. We finally rented a '23 MY LR on Turo for local driving and a short road trip. I will be posting soon with pics and many thoughts and questions, but I've got to get this off my chest first: Holy crap does rain do a number on the mileage! Is this normal??
Our road trip was between Indy and NWI so the trip was almost entirely on I-65, a 70mph mostly 4 lane interstate. We charged up to 90% (as per the owner) and hit the road. We're just testing it out, and I'm no longer an impatient teen, so I set the cruise control for (gasp!) only 72 and luckily got behind a semi truck that barely changed lanes and apparently used his cruise control. The distance between vehicles setting was at 3, so I was close enough, but hardly drafting. It was a fairly enjoyable drive, and the road was thankfully not too busy. We hit a supercharger very close to the end of our trip which reported 231 Wh/mi for 162 miles on a sunny spring day in the upper 50s, lower 60s. In retrospect, I should have waited the extra 10 min or so to get up to 90% at the SC, but we capped off at 80% since everyone was anxious to get to Easter dinner.
We left at night after it started raining, and I didn't pay much attention to the charge at first since I "calculated" that we had enough juice to get home, but certainly to get to any of the SCs along the way. I saw there was at least one in Lafayette, which is sort of in the middle of our route. I could easily make it there. We drove most of the way in the rain, and we skipped the first SC option, although the car suggested we stop. Yes I realize that was a mistake, but again, considering my inexperience and the Wh/mi we got on the way there, I assumed we'd get something similar on the way back. About 20-30 min past that SC, I noticed that the estimated mileage was decreasing at about twice the rate we were accruing them. But we had plenty of battery to get to Lafayette. The car was not routing us to that location though. My wife looked it up and discovered only hotel options, so we assumed it was for guests only? Why else wouldn't the car route us there? It routed us further away.
The rain really started coming down, and we started to get nervous. Actually, I got confused, and my wife started to get a little panicky. We shut off all possible battery draws, but the battery continued to deplete precipitously, getting into the 390s for usage. What is going on here? I don't know how mpg changes in our Palisade driving in the rain - if at all - but I'm quite certain it doesn't increase gas consumption by 70%. I'm no dummy, but as I said, this was our first EV experience. It matched estimates with actual mileage almost perfectly for the previous couple days, and on the ride there. I couldn't believe that it was just a matter of rain that utterly wrecked the Wh/mi.
Needless to say, we squeaked into an SC with I think 6% left. I charged up to 45% or so, and that was about 3.5x what we should have needed to get home. Coincidentally, it stopped raining just in time for me to plug in. We left and stayed in the right lane, dutifully behind semis doing under the posted car speed limit. We got home with about 100 miles left in the e-tank, having averaged 245 Wh/mi for the remaining time on the road.
Now keep in mind that I'm filtering all this info through the lens of a 40 year history of ICE cars without as much as a hybrid in the mix, much less an EV. I did a fair amount of research before (and now after) our scare last night, and found little info about the efficiency during the rain. Not that it isn't out there, but I would have assumed that big of a hit to efficiency would have been "front page news" but I never heard of it until I specifically looked it up, and even then there isn't much said about it.
Is this normal? If so, how can the car correctly plan road trips with the unknown of weather absolutely ruining the fuel consumption rate?
(other than that, the car has been an absolute blast, but that review is for another post. The Y was probably #1 on our replacement vehicle list after we sell the Palisade, but this definitely knocked it down a few notches behind PHEVs and hybrids in my wife's mind. I need to get after some damage control if I think this is going to be our next family car.)
Our road trip was between Indy and NWI so the trip was almost entirely on I-65, a 70mph mostly 4 lane interstate. We charged up to 90% (as per the owner) and hit the road. We're just testing it out, and I'm no longer an impatient teen, so I set the cruise control for (gasp!) only 72 and luckily got behind a semi truck that barely changed lanes and apparently used his cruise control. The distance between vehicles setting was at 3, so I was close enough, but hardly drafting. It was a fairly enjoyable drive, and the road was thankfully not too busy. We hit a supercharger very close to the end of our trip which reported 231 Wh/mi for 162 miles on a sunny spring day in the upper 50s, lower 60s. In retrospect, I should have waited the extra 10 min or so to get up to 90% at the SC, but we capped off at 80% since everyone was anxious to get to Easter dinner.
We left at night after it started raining, and I didn't pay much attention to the charge at first since I "calculated" that we had enough juice to get home, but certainly to get to any of the SCs along the way. I saw there was at least one in Lafayette, which is sort of in the middle of our route. I could easily make it there. We drove most of the way in the rain, and we skipped the first SC option, although the car suggested we stop. Yes I realize that was a mistake, but again, considering my inexperience and the Wh/mi we got on the way there, I assumed we'd get something similar on the way back. About 20-30 min past that SC, I noticed that the estimated mileage was decreasing at about twice the rate we were accruing them. But we had plenty of battery to get to Lafayette. The car was not routing us to that location though. My wife looked it up and discovered only hotel options, so we assumed it was for guests only? Why else wouldn't the car route us there? It routed us further away.
The rain really started coming down, and we started to get nervous. Actually, I got confused, and my wife started to get a little panicky. We shut off all possible battery draws, but the battery continued to deplete precipitously, getting into the 390s for usage. What is going on here? I don't know how mpg changes in our Palisade driving in the rain - if at all - but I'm quite certain it doesn't increase gas consumption by 70%. I'm no dummy, but as I said, this was our first EV experience. It matched estimates with actual mileage almost perfectly for the previous couple days, and on the ride there. I couldn't believe that it was just a matter of rain that utterly wrecked the Wh/mi.
Needless to say, we squeaked into an SC with I think 6% left. I charged up to 45% or so, and that was about 3.5x what we should have needed to get home. Coincidentally, it stopped raining just in time for me to plug in. We left and stayed in the right lane, dutifully behind semis doing under the posted car speed limit. We got home with about 100 miles left in the e-tank, having averaged 245 Wh/mi for the remaining time on the road.
Now keep in mind that I'm filtering all this info through the lens of a 40 year history of ICE cars without as much as a hybrid in the mix, much less an EV. I did a fair amount of research before (and now after) our scare last night, and found little info about the efficiency during the rain. Not that it isn't out there, but I would have assumed that big of a hit to efficiency would have been "front page news" but I never heard of it until I specifically looked it up, and even then there isn't much said about it.
Is this normal? If so, how can the car correctly plan road trips with the unknown of weather absolutely ruining the fuel consumption rate?
(other than that, the car has been an absolute blast, but that review is for another post. The Y was probably #1 on our replacement vehicle list after we sell the Palisade, but this definitely knocked it down a few notches behind PHEVs and hybrids in my wife's mind. I need to get after some damage control if I think this is going to be our next family car.)