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Tally of Ideal Mile Consumption on Various Routes

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We Roadster owners have all sorts of general rules for figuring out where we can get to on a single charge. Drive at XX speed and you need 1.X times the route miles in Ideal Miles, or each X feet of elevation costs you Y IM (Ideal Miles), etc.

What we don't have is a database of actual drives and actual Ideal Miles consumed. I'd like to get us started along that path. Here's a start:

Monterey <-> San Luis Obispo via Hwy 1 (thru Big Sur) is 135 Actual Miles
Southward in 199 minutes consumed 157 Ideal Miles (IM)
Northward in 184 minutes consumed 165 IM

San Luis Obispo <-> Northern Santa Barbara via Chumash pass is 94 miles
Southward in 102 minutes consumed 123 IM
Northward in 127 minutes consumed 127 IM

San Luis Obispo <-> San Simeon is 42.5 miles
Northward consumed 53 IM

San Simeon <-> McWay Cove is 52.3 miles
Northward consumed 61 IM

Soquel (Hwy 1, Porter St Exit) <-> Summit Store via San Jose-Soquel Rd is 11.75 miles (1600' elevation difference)
Northward (uphill) in 23 mins (~35mph) consumed 20IM


For flat freeway at 62MPH, a good rule of thumb is you need at least 1.2X the real miles in Ideal Miles.
 
I have details at home on my regular trips but I've noticed significant differences between top on/off, windows up/down - something like 5% or more. I almost never use the heat or A/C so no records for that. Most of the trips were predominately freeway at a constant speed (60, 62, 65, 70) and of course noticed significant differences.
 
Here is some trips

Long Beach - San Bernadino ~ 70 miles (65 miles freeway), net 1,700' gain, gross 3,000' gain.

1.18 IM/Actual @ 70mph, top off, windows down
Return Trip 1.02 IM/Actual, top off, windows down

1.07 IM/Actual @ 60mph, top off, windows down
Return Trip .93 IM/Actual, top off, windows down
Return Trip .85 IM/Actual, top on, windowns up

Long Beach to Sylmar ~ 45 miles (40 miles freeway), net 1,300' elevation gain, gross 3,000' gain

1.25 IM/Actual @ 65mph, top off, windows down
Return 1.01 IM/Actual, top off, windows down
Return .87 IM/Actual, top on, windows up

Long Beach to Barstow ~ 125 miles (122 miles freeway, net 2,000' elevation gain, gross 5,500' gain
1.22 IM/Actual @ 65mph, top off, windows down
Return .97 IM/Actual, top off, windows down
 
From home in Sunnyvale via 85 and 101 to Salinas
69.4 miles in 77 minutes, 64 ideal miles

Salinas to Atascadero via 101
111.5 miles in 119 minutes, 117 ideal miles

Atascadero to Santa Barbara via 101 and 154
110.1 miles in 125 minutes, 115 ideal miles

Santa Barbara to Occidental College in Eagle Rock (Los Angeles) via 101 and 210
96.8 miles in 115 minutes, 104 ideal miles
96.8 miles in 100 minutes, 103 ideal miles (return)

Santa Barbara to Downtown LA via 101, 134, 5 with a side-trip in Camarillo
111.6 miles, 120 ideal miles

Downtown LA to Goleta via 5, 134, 101
104.9 miles, 115 ideal miles

Goleta to Lloyd's house in SLO via 101, 227
91.1 miles, 103 ideal miles

Lloyd's to Salinas via 227, 101
135.8 miles in 141 minutes, 149 ideal miles

Salinas to Michael's at Shoreline (Mountain View) via 101
(to hear Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning give a talk to an IEEE group!)
72.0 miles in 76 minutes, 81 ideal miles

Mountain View to home in Sunnyvale via 85
8.5 miles, 10 ideal miles

Conclusion: It takes more energy to drive northward because that is uphill!
 
Santa Barbara to Occidental College in Eagle Rock (Los Angeles) via 101 and 210
96.8 miles in 115 minutes, 104 ideal miles
96.8 miles in 100 minutes, 103 ideal miles (return)

Conclusion: It takes more energy to drive northward because that is uphill!

I'm surprised at the Santa Barbara/Occidental College usage. A significant difference in time - which I assume was a significant difference in speed - yet the energy usage was nearly identical.

As for your conclusion - if you raise the rear end (air shocks) then you will always be going downhill and therefore will use less energy. :biggrin:
 
I think the speed was about the same for the bulk of the drive in both directions. The difference on the way to Oxy was a few instances where the LA traffic got heavy. The return trip was at night with no traffic. With headlights, but that is not a significant load.
 
I do not believe such a list would be helpful as mileage can vary quite a bit depending upon weather. I frequently travel to west Knoxville 110 miles on a lightly traveled 55 mph road. If there is no wind and I need no heat or AC I can easily make the round trip and my W/mile has been as low as 220. But I have seen as high as 265 W/mile when I was battling a 30 mph headwind and rain. If I use the heat then 300 w/mile is about the best I can do. As with any system there is variation and we need to account for that. Your mileage can and will vary, often significantly. So same road similar traffic yet I have seen a 36% difference in energy.
 
@dhrivnak, your point about variations is valid. However, for the trip I documented in the earlier post, I took the numbers from a northbound trip from Santa Barbara the previous year and inverted that trip (with some interpolation for different stopping points) to make my plan for the first half (southbound) of this trip. Actual came out very close to the plan. So, indeed, the data was quite useful to me. But it was my own data, same path, and perhaps similar conditions, and those details may be important.