How to Drive an EV Efficiently | 12 years of experience talking

Good tips. Didn't realise poor weather made quite that much difference. Interesting you also feather the throttle - used to do this on our old Zoe. Now I have a car with regen paddles but I can get a smoother result by feathering the throttle. And FINALLY someone who doesn't say "max regen for max efficiency" 🙈.

Great to see one of your videos pop up again. I started following you many years ago. For some reason YouTube didn't show me your videos.

Thank you! Good information for EV drivers. I had a conversation with a fellow Tesla owner. He was telling me about coasting. I explained the fact that you can control coasting with the pedal. The small regen bar also shows the power consumption. If no green or grey is displayed you are coasting. There is really no neutral like an ice car. The neutral is just no power or regen to the motor. I agree with you in learning to control the pedal for efficiency. I also owned a leaf first. What a fun challenge to make it to your destination and back.

It’s a good point about maximising coasting. Coasting is always more efficient than regen as you point out, so the best strategy is to coast as much as possible and use regen braking when you have to slow down more quickly than coasting allows. In other words, don’t use one pedal drive modes which reduce coasting, but instead swap it for less efficient regen.

Most tips also apply to ICE's. Totally agree on using higher power than eco mode and high regen.

"get behind a truck" Absolutely. This goes for all vehicles, not just EVs. I regularly use the motorway that connects Girona and Barcelona. Both have airports, and both have shuttle coaches to take passengers to the cities. Coaches are speed restricted, but to 100kph, not the 90kph of trucks. Getting behind a coah increases the speed, but hardly influences consumption at all. Even a decent sized van can have a significant impact on consumption. So, even if you're in a hurry and can't tag along behind a truck or bus, getting behind a VW Crafter or M-B. Sprinter, even a Trannie, doing the limit is going to have a significant impact on your efficiency.

Hi James really enjoyed this one mate very informative and interesting really glad your back vlogging again all the best

James, that was simply a delightful video, from the beginning to the lack of Starlink ending! I am so sorry to hear about your mom losing an important connection to her past with your father. I think that’s what that means at least. What year are those encyclopedias? I remember how much fun I used to have with seeing how outdated our 1963 World Book Encyclopedias were in the early 1980’s! We had Astronauts in the Gemini program and computers the size of a small room, which was compact!

Hi James , nice to see you vlogging again .

Myth Busters disproved efficiency of traveling behind a truck. It only made a difference if you were within a car's length. They determined that it was not worth the danger of being that close.

Hi James it's always good to tune into your vlog, which doesn't seem like so many these days! You spoiled us with your daily vlogs! I thought your Tesla would do 260 on a new battery, your range is only as good as my 52kw Zoe! Such is progress!

Hi James, Flimwell is our go to charging spot when visiting Eastbourne. The south East is a bit of a charging desert at Present.

Next month we will hit the end of warranty. But, the car is working better than when we first bought it. Looking forward to the next 8 years. We were looking forward to your videos with much anticipation when we were waiting months for our car. It's been a fun journey and appreciate you being there and sharing your experience. Thank you. #CarLife #ProgressiveJourney 🚗💨

Efficiency is a game for me - always fighting for the most distance per wh. Clawing those miles. I need a better hobby, haha

0:55 that’s why it’s called a “guesstimator”.

In Kia and Hyundai EV's you can quickly and easily adjust the regen using the paddles behind the steering wheel. You can therefore have the car in "coasting" mode and increase regen as you enter an area where you are likely going to need to slow down more.

It’s wild that I remember watching you before I even had a car, or at most I had my first car which was a scion. Had a Kia soul EV for a couple years and just bought a Tesla model Y a few months ago. One thing I noticed is FSD drives far LESS efficient than I do. I have to put it in chill to get 285 where with basic autopilot I get somewhere around 270-275

I'm an ex international HGV1 driver, who now owns a Mini Cooper Electric, to get maximum efficiency out of it, I drive the Mini the same way I drove the truck, which is second nature to me, so far, I've managed to get a range of 170 miles out of it, without even thinking about it, the manufacturers stated range is 145 miles, so that's quite a few extra miles of range. I recon I could get a 200 mile range out of it on a special route under unique circumstance, like this, start point Buxton, which is about 1,000 feet above sea level, destination Lowestoft, which is obviously at sea level, distance 192 miles, on a warm day with a decent West to East wind, so that route, is basically downhill all the way, with the wind behind you, LOL, and is probably as much fun as doing the Red Bull Soapbox Challenge, as just getting across the finishing line (192 miles later), would be an achievement, then I would have to, drive around the block of an EV charger there, a few times, to get to 200 miles and still have 5 miles of range left of course. As for getting a safe distance behind a truck, there is another reason to do that, especially on quieter dual carriageways at night, in rural areas, DEER, hit one of those at 70 mph and that's yer Jalopy written off, NO PROBLEM, and deer have a habit of popping up on roads, that don't even have the wild animals warning signs too, (up to about 20 UK drivers/passengers per year, are killed in accidents involving deer, a lot more drivers/passengers are injured too), I've seen dead deer, on the M25/A22 roundabout, which isn't exactly right out in the sticks either, I recently did a London-Lands End-London trip, and left Lands End at midnight and the A30, is basically a 70 mph limit dual carriageway from Penzance to Exeter, and its All out in the sticks too, so instead of blasting along at 70 mph when there were no vehicles in front of me, I just pottered along at about 50 mph, waiting for the next vehicle to overtake me, be it a truck, van or car, then sped up, to get a safe distance behind it, "thinking" IF a deer gets in their way, THEY might hit it and I won't, and a deer wouldn't step into my path, as it wouldn't try crossing the road behind them and in front of me, go on, do 75 mph, as thats as fast as I'm prepared to go, as I'm in a rush to get home too, the person in front of me, was literally "driving blind", to this issue, that could cost them their life, SOME people went flying past me and the vehicle in front, doing at least 90 mph too, probably "thinking????" great stuff, there's NO TRAFFIC or speed cameras on the road so I can floor it, Fallow Deer have a habit of, crossing roads in numbers, one behind the other, so IF yer see ONE that has crossed the road 100 meters in front of you, WATCH OUT, as the other 3 or 4 or 9 of that herd, will probably blindly follow that leader some way behind it, so I just tucked in, a safe enough distance from the vehicle ahead of me, doing a sane speed, all the way, from Lands End on the A30 to Exeter and all the way up the A303 from Exeter to the M3. (when I used to drive a 40 ton articulated truck around Europe, the main objective when going from A to B was, "arrive at B alive" and on average ONCE per yer, that was in serious doubt too, after 4 years and 4 near death experiences at the behest of others, I had "had enough of that game", some of the "stuff" I saw on Europe's roads, was truly unbelievable, a pedestrian crossing 6 lanes of an Italian motorway, while pushing a wheelbarrow, had me in tears, "IF it had been full of bricks, he wouldn't have made it", (it was only half full) to an Italian, "ONE journey across a motorway, with a FULL wheelbarrow is insane, BUT, 2 journeys across a motorway with a HALF FULL wheelbarrow, instead, makes sense" LOL that's some sort of "sublime???" Italian style "time, speed and distance" risk assessment

One important thing an EV driver can do is to pick the right replacement tyres. Tesla and every other manufacturer fits low rolling-resistance tires on new cars. One can gain or lose a lot of range depending on tire selection when replacing worn-out tires. Tyre manufacturers are finally paying attention to rolling resistance, and are making great progress.

James, No chargers in Hastings? There are three Osprey 75kW chargers about halfway between St Helen’s Down and the Conquest hospital just off The Ridge, just off to the right (on a left bend, as I recall). Only about half a mile, or so after exiting Pilot road onto The Ridge (next to the Conqueror’s March pub?)? Only used it once for about 20kWh - just enough added to get back to Lincolnshire. A good alternative, if staying overnight, with off-road parking, would be a ‘granny charger’ on a decent extension lead.🙂 Done that twice, but not at Hastings. Dunno about Superchargers, mind. I planned to stop at Cambridge for the ‘open to all’ Superchargers but didn’t need to …. home with 4% was good enough for me.