Range - wondering if I can make it 138 miles

I need to make a trip from Santa Barbara to Irvine in the next couple of weeks. It is 138 miles according to Google maps.

When I complete an extended charge, my GOM usually says 106-110 miles, but I see people on this board well exceeding that. The road from SB to Irvine is mostly flat. Going up and over the 405 will probably be the steepest part. I'll be leaving in the evening when there will be (hopefully) minimal traffic. Evening travel will also mean I don't need AC.

I will map a couple of stopping points (with chargers) just in case, but wondering if most here think I'll be able to make it.

Thoughts?

Depends on speed mostly. I'm comfortable driving 115 miles at 60 mph (leaving 5-10 miles on the GOM). So if I were you, I'd plan on one charging stop for at least 1 hour along the way.

My two cents.

I can make it 121 miles to my moms house on an extended charge and still have a bar or two left. I try to keep speed at or under 60 mph.

I would plan on stopping to charge for an hour or so along the way to be sure. Once you get more familiar with the car you will know what you can do.

Santa Barbara to Irvine is virtually the same elevation at the start and finish. You'll push a bit of a headwind on the return, particularly westbound (that locals call "north") on highway 101.

Assuming you have a new condition battery (without noticeable degradation) and you do NOT use the heater (seat heater is ok), and the battery is about 70F degrees or higher, then the following chart applies.

Drive 55mph with cruise control on and you'll make it the entire way. Obviously, fully charge the vehicle. If it's chilly out at all, make sure that you use the timer to set the departure time for cabin preheating (this will heat the battery, too).

plenty of stops along the way... down the 405.. stop in Cypress at Mitsubishi for a charge... or Santa Monica for TONS of free charging and have dinner around the promenade/ pier area...

tons of choices but you could make it! I go 129-135 easily all the time round trip with hills from Sylmar to the Santa Ana meet... with AC on!

And people know I do not drive slow :lol:

The Rav's a beast!

P.S. I just checked.. 63.4 miles each way from my house to HTB in Santa Ana.. :lol: and I'm usually at 65-70mph.

Yes!
You can easily make that in one charge if you put the cruise control @ 50 - 55 mph.  You should get there with 2 - 4 bars to spare. Use all of Tony's advice above especially extended charge mode. 

Hypermile and Cruise Control:

First, be really carefully to accelerate slowly to speed, grandpa/grandna style.  The other range extending tactic I use is to drop speed slowly up hills by 3 - 4 mph over the course of a hill and accelerate up to 75 mph down hill and drop 1 mph every thousand feet until you get back to setting the cruise control at your base 50 - 55 mph speed.  This may sound hard but just try to keep an eye on the green energy output bar on the dash and make sure it stays as low as possible on the hills and don't regen down hill... instead keep energy output consistent down hill and again gain speed downhill and decelerating when your flat to your base speed. 

Using this strategy, I get excess of 4 miles per kWh vs my normal of 2.9 - 3.2 when I'm not hypermiling or paying attention to my speed or energy use.  I use cruise control on flat land and no cruise control on hills.  Its a little slower going but you won't have to worry about range anxiety and will get there with a good range cushion and be able to get back to full charge quicker.

Using this tactic I recently went 152 miles and had 6 miles to spare...  2x the range I was able to get in my leaf. With my best hypermiling in the leaf I could do a bit over 80 miles and never came close to the leaf 100 mile club. Don't miss my Leaf though it was an outstanding car besides the range.

Thanks for all the info. Very helpful. I was particularly interested in not using regen on downhill to hyper mile. Just focus on as consistent output as possible the whole way. I'll go for it and report back.

Sadly, when I get there, my hotel won't have a charger.

There is one nearby though.

Thanks again.

Jealous. I get about 70 miles of range.

Ferdball said:

Jealous. I get about 70 miles of range.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but you're driving a Mur-say-deez-benz..."All my friends have Porches and I must make amends".

rickrides said:

Ferdball said:

Jealous. I get about 70 miles of range.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but you're driving a Mur-say-deez-benz..."All my friends have Porches and I must make amends".

Click to expand...

It is nice. What's wrong with eating your cake too?

My car is a tuned Mazdaspeed3 with 350HP at the wheels. Talk about opposites.

Tony,

It would sure be nice if you'd either remove the "DRAFT" banner or make it transparent enough to read the numbers underneath.

shade said:

I need to make a trip from Santa Barbara to Irvine in the next couple of weeks. It is 138 miles according to Google maps.

When I complete an extended charge, my GOM usually says 106-110 miles, but I see people on this board well exceeding that. The road from SB to Irvine is mostly flat. Going up and over the 405 will probably be the steepest part. I'll be leaving in the evening when there will be (hopefully) minimal traffic. Evening travel will also mean I don't need AC.

I will map a couple of stopping points (with chargers) just in case, but wondering if most here think I'll be able to make it.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

How did the trip go?