What Is Range Of An Electric Vehicle?

Range of an electric vehicle is the distance it can travel on a full charge. The range varies significantly depending on your driving habits, driving conditions, charging habits and load on the electric vehicle.

In this article I will share some general tips which you can follow to increase or improve the range of your electric car or electric scooter.

1. Accelerate Gently – This is a general tip which will increase the range of most Electric Vehicles in City driving conditions with turns, signals and high traffic. The reason is simple, too much acceleration drains battery faster and more power is lost in case of braking in city driving conditions as city driving is more stop-and-go type of driving.
2. Charge Battery Everyday – Battery experts may not like the idea of charging very frequently, but in automobile batteries and Electric vehicle batteries, its best to keep them close to full charge. This ensures smooth ride and better motor performance and better range.
3. Optimum Tyre Pressure – All Electric vehicles have recommended tyre pressure listed in the user manual. Please remember it and get the pressure checked once in a week or fortnight. This will ensure that you are not running the Electric Vehicle with un-necessary drag, it improves the range as well as handling.
4. Timely Service – Although the service of an electric vehicle is not as extensive as of a conventional engine vehicle which involves engine maintenance, yet servicing of Electric Vehicle is important. Usually in service, the authorized service-operator will check battery health, electrical and inspect motor for any problems, inspect brakes and lubrication of bearings etc. Getting your Electric Vehicle serviced on time will ensure a smooth ride with improved range.
5. Loose Some Weight – I am not asking you to loose weight, I am suggesting you to remove extra stuff from the Electric vehicle which might be lying around for long time in the boot space unattended. Removing few Kg from the car will ease the load on the electric car / scooter.
6. Keep The Charger In Good Health – It may not sound very important, but good health of charger is very important for good health of batteries. Keep the charger clean and wires properly. The wires should not entangle too much. Keep the charger clean of excessive dust or moisture. A bad charger may damage battery health hurting the range of your electric vehicle.
7. Load Capacity – Read the user manual of your Electric car or electric scooter for the rated load capacity of the same. Try to keep the load on your electric vehicle within or up to the load carrying capacity. Overloading the vehicle can adversely affect the motor, batteries and may permanently reduce the range by damaging them even after you reduce the load afterwards.
8. Electrical Accessories – Avoid adding too much electric accessories as they consume the battery and reduce the range of your EV. Get the electrical accessories fitted by a trained technician or from the authorized centers to avoid any damage to the electrical circuitry of your Electrical Car / Scooter.
9. Highway Driving – In an electric car, keep the glass windows closed on high speed highway driving for better aerodynamics and less air-drag. This will help to improve the range of your electric vehicle.
10. City Driving – Avoid sudden acceleration and braking, rather go slow in congested driving conditions and maintain a continuous speed for uniform load on battery, less braking losses and improved range.

There may be many more which might have not come to my mind, please share the same through comments below. You might also like to check out some Tips To Improve Mileage Of Your Petrol / Diesel Cars and Scooters from CarBlogIndia Technology Articles Section.

Tip 1: Do not accelerate too fast

Too quick acceleration consumes too much fuel, accelerate slowly and gradually. That will save quite a significant amount of fuel in city driving.

Tip 2: Do not use clutch too much

If you use a manual transmission car, as is mostly used by people in India, do-not drive with clutch pressed, or use clutch only when needed, too much use of clutch will waste a lot of fuel.

Tip 3: Change gears appropriately

This is also applicable for manual transmission cars. Use correct gears at correct speeds, this will help save the fuel. For correct speeds, see your car’s user manual.

Tip 4: No Excuses to delay car service

Get the car serviced as per manufacturer’s recommended schedule. This will ensure good health of engine, less maintenance due to break-down.

Tip 5: Do you drive in dusty environment? Clean the Air-filter

If you drive in dusty environment the air-filter gets filled with dust and makes the engine suffocated. Clean the air-filter more often than the service schedule( say  every 5000 KM or so) , this will help the engine run more easy and consume less fuel. Trust me, its going to really help.

Tip 6: Red-Signal Ahead? Put the feet off the accelerator

If you are sure that you got to stop after next 100 or 200 meters due to a red signal, keep your feet off the accelerator and car will slow down on engine’s resistance, saving on fuel as well as the brake shoes, apply brakes only when about to stop. This is a great help to save that extra drop of fuel.

Tip 7: Air Pressure in tyres

Get the air-pressure in tyres up to the recommended pressure, and check it once at least in 15 days, it helps the car run smooth and drink less fuel.

Tip 8: Try to keep a constant max speed

When driving in a city or highway, try to maintain a constant speed, that will help the engine put less effort to accelerate or decelerate unnecessarily. This will help reduce fuel consumption.

Tip 9: Keep the window’s glass rolled up on highways

Driving with AC on and glasses rolled up will actually help the car move easy because when windows are open, the car faces more air-drag due to cross ventilation through car, thus consuming more fuel. So always try to keep windows rolled up specially when driving at high speeds.

Tip 10: Buy fuel during morning hours

Buying fuel during morning hours makes sense, because the fuel is a liquid and cools during night hours as temperature is low, and it becomes more dense, so in night hours, you get more weight of fuel for same litres, so its like a bargain in fuel amount

Tip 11: Re-fuel your car when tank is close to half

This will help reduce the vapors formation in tank, which moves out as you open the lid to re-fuel, thus saving some amount of fuel in the tank.

Tip 12: Clean up the crap from the boot-space

Remove any un-necessary luggage or stuff that you don’t need from back space, that will let the car feel light and run easy on less fuel.

Save fuel, burn it less, save economy and environment both, for a greener and cleaner tomorrow.

Also try to follow a car pool if you are traveling to office or college, that is fun to be with some friends and it reduces traveling boredom too

Happy saving!