Friday, June 8, 2012

Yes...the ActiveE is efficient


I've completed 4,600 miles in just over 3 months.  During that time my ActiveE or Serenity as I affectionately call her has been calculating how efficient my driving actually is.  Result....4.0 mls/kWh or in other words for every kilowatt hour used I can go 4 miles.

So what does that really mean as far as going the distance....since the ActiveE battery has a capacity of 32 kilowatt hours I should be able to achieve on average 128 miles (4 x 32 = 128)....well not exactly since the ActiveE only allows me to use around 27kWh of that battery for driving so realistically I should get 108 miles (4 x 27 = 108) of range per charge or as I like to say MPC (miles per charge)

So is that good?  It sure is.  I do not baby this car, I use the AC when needed or the heat, I play the radio and sometimes I accelerate hard.  On the highway I usually stay with traffic and most importantly I'm driving 90% of the time with eco-pro off.   80% of my driving are on country roads with an average speed of 30mph...this EV works perfectly for me.  Again this is the overall average, on some days where I've reset the trip computer and kWh indicator to see how high I could go if I babied it I've achieved over 5 mls/kWh after 30 or so miles.   So that means 135 plus miles...I have not had the opportunity to try that yet but one day I will.

By the way...the EPA rates the ActiveE at 94 miles range or 33 kWh/100 miles so I'm doing better than the EPA figures.  I'm currently at 25 kWh/100 miles


4 comments:

  1. Why no Eco Pro? Impressive numbers with or without Eco Pro.

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    1. Thanks Keith. My commute and weekend drives consist of country roads with lots of curves and hills, with eco-pro on the car felt lethargic. I had to really press on the peddle to maintain my speed. The ActiveE is much more entertaining on these roads with eco-pro off and feels at home. On longer trips and highway I usually turn it on.

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  2. Good post. I've been evaluating our ActiveE (Buzz) too for efficiency in different sorts of drives -- my commute is a lot of stop/starting on surface streets.

    I usually EcoPro during my commute, but I do like to turn it off and open it up when I'm cruising around.

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    1. Thanks Steve....the ActiveE begs to be driven. It is really a blast to drive.

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