When I first started driving electric cars 2 years ago,
Mitsubishi loaned us an i-MiEV. In 2012,
it was voted the most efficient electric vehicle on the planet. If you knew what you were doing with the
throttle and regenerative capabilities, you could turn 16 kilowatt hours of
electricity into 120 kilometers of range or more. I think every EV owner should learn to
ecodrive on an i-MiEV. Exacting 120
kilometers of range takes patience and technique. It helps that the i-MiEV has a very simple
“driver coach” display on the dash and excellent regenerative
capabilities. As the i-MiEV trains you
to drive energy efficiently, those special energy-saving driving techniques
become second nature for an EV driver.
These deft energy-saving skills that convert every electron into forward
motion in an i-MiEV, translate very well to improve the range of a LEAF, Focus,
i3 and etc.
Last week I had to make a trip to the Georgian College
Autoshow in Barrie where Plug’n Drive will host their first EV ride’n drive
event with their students. I am driving
up on Highway 11 through the rolling farmland north of the GTA in a 2014 Nissan
FEAF at around 85 kilometers per hour (km/h).
The speed limit is 80 km/k, traffic is light, and it is a sunny warm day
which is perfect since I am trying to conserve battery for the ride’n drive
activity for the students. I drive the
LEAF in B mode the whole time which maximizes the LEAF’s regenerative breaking
and ensures I get the best range from the splendid 24 kilowatt hour (kWh)
battery.
I don’t use cruise in a vehicle too often, since I like to
participate in the driving experience.
However, this time I set it for 85 km/h in the LEAF. There is an energy coach display which is a
series of blue circles that fill the white dots from left to right
corresponding to the amount of energy you are suing at any given moment. As we ascended one of the many hills on this stretch
of highway, I noticed the car used precisely as much energy as it needed to
maintain the speed I asked for. Then on
the downside of the hill, it regenerated electrons beautifully all while
maintaining my speed! I could not have
done it better myself, the car did a better job of using energy than me. Frankly, I found that a bit
disconcerting. As a driver, it seems
that I am being made more and more redundant by the electronic system in cars.
If maximizing the range in your EV is important to you,
using the cruise control was a valuable lesson in electron management. For now, I am still the better driver in the
city. That is, until autonomous cars
that talk to each other hit the market.
Google, Toyota, Nissan, Volvo, Tesla (which one of these is not the like
other?) and many others are all working on vehicles that can take over from
drivers and do either the entire job, or take the humdrum out of stop and go
traffic jams or long distance highway trips.
The good news is most of these vehicles are being developed as pure
electric or hybrids. Using clean,
plentiful, mostly carbon free electricity that we generate right here in Canada
to power our cars is good news for sustainable transportation. I just hope these new intelligent cars will
let me drive from time to time.
