Extend your EV range by following big trucks.

I've had my 2015 Gen 2 LEAF for just under 3 months now. It's been a fascinating experience making the mental transition from petrol car habits to electric car habits. The facts and features of the change itself are one aspect but the other is how one's mind acquires 'habits' and ways of seeing things shaped by a certain context....and if the context changes we're forced to re-think some things from first principles.

I find that process of challenging and re-shaping habits and perceptions to be really useful.

Anyway.....this post is about driving habits. Specifically those on longer highway journeys.

This week I have been driving each day from Greenlane in Auckland to downtown Hamilton to do some work. Each evening, I drove back again. The one-way distance from one place to the other was just under 120km.

On the first day, I just drove on down. About 110kph (actual 100kph on the GPS) on the Southern motorway. Over the Bombay Hill....and so one. It was cold. I had the heater on a couple of times. I used the seat warmer. I turned on the heated steering wheel. I arrived at the Waikato Electric fast charger in Te Rapa on 18%. That's cool. Two previous trips had been 18% and 19%. I expected it.

I connected to the WEL charger and went and had the Big Breakfast at the nearby Donovan's Cafe. I stopped it at 95% and then drove downtown and arrived there on 90%. From there, I drove home....no special effort...and arrived on 4%.....and let rip on the way up the southern motorway because I knew I had more than enough power.

But I wondered if I could do better. I didn't really want to drive more slowly. Say 90 in a 100 zone. Reduce the wind resistance (It squares - gets bad fast - as you speed up). I'd tried that one trip down a few weeks ago and arrived on 24%, but I was 'that guy' who got in the way on the two-lane bits more than I liked.

So what else?

Maybe following big trucks might. Not right up their backsides.....just 4-5 car lengths back. A safe distance. Let them break / take the wind....and I coast in their wake.

Well.....that REALLY works. Of course it will work for any car and reduce fuel use, but it's especially useful for electric cars in extending range.

The first day I tried it, I just happened to pick up a big truck coming onto the southern motorway at Takanini. He was doing about 105-110. I thought that might chew up my battery......but no. At that speed what eats my battery is drag...and behind the truck the drag was much reduced. So I was both going faster AND using less power. Cool.

I arrived at WEL in Te Rapa on 28% that day. a full 10% better than my previous, slight slower, trips....and LOT faster than my 'slow' 24% effort. I also noticed that the GOM (Guess o Meter) on the dash was estimating some serioulsy decent range if I kept this up. On this day, it was steadily showing me as being able to do 160-165km on a full charge. That's pretty good. I generally count on at least 140km and can make some effort and get to 150km....but 165? Awesome. ..and that's a route that includes the Bombay Hill and some ups and downs between there and Mercer / Meremere.

The next day I caught a big, heavy truck at the bottom of the northern side of the Bombay Hill. This guy was going a bit slower. Maybe 90-95kph. Less on the big hills. This made my LEAF even more efficient. I was doing my 'careful' speed and paying a very low price in power for it. At one point, going through Huntly at 70kph, the actual kms already done plus the estimated remained totaled 176km....with more than 3/4 of the trip already finished. I was thinking I'd found the Holy Grail. This was awesome. I took a photo. As you can see, I've done almost 100km and still have close to half of my battery left.

I arrived in Te Rapa on 31%. Almost double the battery remaining of two days prior. That extra 14%-15% is a very real 25km extra range. I'll be following more trucks in my travels. The things is....this works for any kind of car. On a $100 tank of petrol you could easily save $15 on a road trip in terms of extra distance per tank.

In a petrol car I never thought this way. I'm sorry I didn't. I wasted a LOT of money over the 40 years I've been driving. This is just one of the many re-wiring features of switching from petrol to battery. This week I drove about 800km in my LEAF....and it cost me about $15 in electricity at home...and $0 for the use of the free charger at WEL.