HERE is a thread that describes factors that can affect range.
You drove 168 miles. Going 70-75mph should add about 20% to your consumption. It being 55 degrees should add about 5%. Going up about 500' net should consume about 5 miles.
So I'd expect you to have consumed 168 * 1.25 = 210 + 5 = 215 miles. You actually used 231.
I am going to adjust my answer for some new information: 21" tires, and heater set at 78 on a 50 day. If we add 3% for the tires, and adjust the HVAC factor to 10%, then from the numbers in the thread I linked to, we should expect you to have used
168 * 1.33 = 223 + 5 = 228. You actually used 231, so that's pretty darn close to the expected energy consumption.
Rated miles are exactly the same thing as EPA rated MPG - a reasonable tool for comparing across cars, but completely useless for determining how much energy you will use on a specific trip. The battery doesn't store miles, so displaying rated miles can be pretty misleading (in fact the only
BLOG I have written here asked manufacturers to not do that). That's why I follow MSEV's advice and just display the percentage of the battery remaining. Most days it doesn't matter because I know I'm not going to drive anywhere near the battery's limits, so I don't even look at it.
The few days a year I am on a road trip, I watch the Trip tab of the Energy app - a very easy-to-follow graphic depiction of how much battery you have, need to get to your destination (well, that part is an estimate; it takes in to consideration some things like elevation, but not others like head winds), and are using. If you started with a big enough buffer, you have no worries and the screen shows you that. If it starts to get tight, just slow down. If you find yourself having to slow down more often, you will probably start leaving with a larger buffer. I tend to leave with a good-sized buffer so I never have to slow down.
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On Power Management: Should energy savings be ON or OFF?
That doesn't matter for driving; it's for when the car is turned off. I leave energy savings ON; it can save a few miles (especially when cold) if the car is sitting there for a while, and doesn't cost you anything other than occasionally a few-second delay when you, say, try to connect to the car with your phone.
On Climate: Should Smart Reconditioning be ON or OFF?
Smart Preconditioning should be OFF if you have a variable schedule - it tries to watch what you do and then do it automatically for you. But if you take off at 7am every day and set the temperature to 78 degrees, it can be good in that the car will be warm before you start. This also means you used grid energy to warm the car, and can start your trip with a full battery so you can go farther. However, it doesn't decrease total energy used, and if it's just a short round-trip to work it doesn't really matter whether it was from the grid or from the battery. It only matters on a long trip, but unless you take long trips very regularly it's not going to learn the pattern.
Pre-warming manually before a trip is a very good idea (mentioned upthread).
On Efficiency: Should Range Mode (i) be ON or OFF?
On.
On Efficiency: Regenerative Braking SHOULD be on Standard NOT Low, correct?
No braking for the trip, no wind and mostly flat driving. Also we went up and back so whatever we went slightly up we came down ( I realize you don't get it all back though).
It depends on how you drive. If you use regen to replace some or all of the braking you would otherwise HAVE to do, regen is a good thing - it recovers some energy that would otherwise be wasted heating brake pads, so STANDARD is what you want. But if you lift your foot off the accelerator while driving and it slows the car down and then you have to speed up again - that's wasting energy, so LOW would be a better setting.
I leave mine on STANDARD and try to only use regen to replace braking I have to do.
