Maximizing Time not Range

[rav4buyer]

If I want to get from point A to point B on a highway assuming a fixed battery level which I will consume all of to reach my destination, assuming no traffic, what are some tips that would maximize the time getting from point A to point B.

My initial thoughts from reading this site and others as well as two weeks of commute driving are the following:
1. You want to avoid sudden acceleration and sudden deceleration so you will want to use a constant speed.
2. You will use cruise control on flat roads as the computer is more precise than your foot.
3. Inclines you will want to take it out of cruise control and decelerate to a certain level in proportion to the grade thereby minimizing power consumption. Then slowly accelerate back to your steady state.
4. Conversely on declines you will want to accelerate to a certain level in proportion to the grade to maximize speed relative to power consumption, then decelerate slowly back to your steady state.

Other than drafting semis at the perfect speed, are there any other tips out there?
I'm trying to minimize the time spent on my 90 mile round trip commute.

 

[n3ckf]

i'm not sure its better to decellerate on downgrades, rather than leaving the vehicle in cruise control. cruise seems to use the regen braking effectively. I only take it *out* of cruise control when i want to carefully control downhill speed (and cant maintain a constant speed like on mountain roads - then i put it in "B").

 

[cwerdna]

If I want to get from point A to point B on a highway assuming a fixed battery level which I will consume all of to reach my destination, assuming no traffic, what are some tips that would maximize the time getting from point A to point B.
....
I'm trying to minimize the time spent on my 90 mile round trip commute.

I'm confused as to your question. You're trying to minimize AND maximize your time? Or, are you trying to be as efficient (use as little charge) as possible?

If you're trying to minimize the time spent, then you should as fast as you feel comfortable going and take the route that has the least waiting and least slow driving. At highway speeds, the faster you go, the lower your efficiency.

 

[rav4buyer]

I'm trying to minimize time spent between two locations. Or phrased another way, maximize my miles/kwh but doing so going as fast as possible.

What I meant was one should accelerate going downhill, and decelerate going uphill. Doing that versus using cruise control throughout will save you energy while having the same approximate average speed on let's say a roundtrip commute. You can use the extra energy saved to maintain a faster average speed and get to the destination faster. The steeper the uphill, the more you want to decelerate and the steeper the downhill the more you want to accelerate. Flat ground cruise control.

 

[miimura]

...maximize my miles/kwh but doing so going as fast as possible.

These objectives are diametrically opposed. Going faster always reduces your efficiency. You really want to eliminate unnecessary speed changes but there are always external constraints like speed limits, traffic signals, other vehicles, etc. IMHO, if you do everything you can to reduce or eliminate the use of the friction brakes within the constraints of traffic, you're 90% there.

 

[TonyWilliams]

If you're trying to minimize the time spent, then you should as fast as you feel comfortable going and take the route that has the least waiting and least slow driving. At highway speeds, the faster you go, the lower your efficiency.

I agree... you don't need to conserve energy to drive 90 miles, therefore to minimize time, you need to go fast on the shortest distance roads.

Start each day with 100% charge from your house.

 

[cossie1600]

You can cover 90 miles doing constant 75mph cruise on 80% with ac on

 

[rav4buyer]

Going up steep grades at 75mph kills the battery though. I figure you could go even faster if you managed the downgrades and the climbs manually. Cruise control on hilly areas is less efficient cause on uphill climbs it has to use a ton of energy to maintain that speed, and on declines it has to constantly brake which is also inefficient.