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Another efficiency topic

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 6:07 pm
by londiniumperson
I've had my Honda over 2 years & driven almost 18k miles.

I had done a couple of airport runs for my son to/from Gatwick via a couple of routes over the past few months and I have observed the following:
The 'best' route is not that generated by any of the mapping tools: ABRP/ZAP Map/Google/Apple Maps but my own just by looking at a map and using Zap Map to find suitable chargers manually. What I determine as the best route is the one which didn't require a charge and was almost as quick as the quickest route calculated by the above mapping tools.

My last trip was a round trip distance of 97.4 miles at efficiency of 4.7 mile/kWh and that was to arrive at the pickup point at 12:30pm on a Sunday, so gives some indication of traffic conditions and the outside temperature was about 16C.
I decided to drive without Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) off because it wasn't needed and drove reasonably efficiently where I didn't hold anyone behind me and at or very near all 30/40mph limits and 50 in the the 50 & 60 limits and between 60-70 (mainly around 65mph) on the M23 from Crawley to Gatwick.

In conclusion which I always knew was:
  • ACC saps energy because it uses the rear brakes unnecessarily (proven by my last service where the rear pads were worn a lot more than the front).
  • HVAC saps energy even if it doesn't appear to be heating or cooling even when the energy monitor indicates that it reduces range by a a couple of miles.
  • It's very easy to drive efficiently but still quickly (just don't accelerate rapidly and look/plan ahead).

Re: Another efficiency topic

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 6:43 pm
by Reuben80
Automation is not good for anything, just for lazy people to become more lazy.
For efficiency all it counts is how minimum you press the gas pedal to go forward.

Re: Another efficiency topic

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 9:38 pm
by MattHero
I've never used ACC and HVAC very sparingly and averaged 4.6 miles per kWh in the 25 months of ownership without really trying (virtually all on OPD, if that helps). I also on my longer drives do my own route planning using Zap Map rather than app suggestions.