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Welcome to the future.
The future of electrified driving with more electrified options on the market than ever before, you have more reasons than ever before, to give up on that gasoline habit and go with fully emissions, free driving Or if maybe you're not quite ready to go cold turkey you could go for a plug in hybrid like this Volvo XC 90 t we have here, which will do about 20 miles on a charge.
Whether you go for a full Eevee or a plug in hybrid, you're going to want to get the most miles out of your battery pack that you possibly can.
So here are five tips that will take you farther.
The first step is temperature.
I know we still haven't mastered the art of controlling the weather, but you will definitely want to check the forecast before setting out.
You see the batteries in TVs or plugins are a little like us.
They don't like extreme heat or extreme cold.
Chances are if you are uncomfortable, have side They are too and that means less range.
Some cars with advanced thermal management systems like Tesla's latest Model S, for example, might only see range losses of 20% or so when the temperatures drop below freezing.
But on other simpler cars like the Nissan LEAF, I've seen range estimates go down by upwards of 50% on a cold day.
That could end your trip real quick.
Now while you can't exactly move your ski vacation to the middle of summer to avoid cold temperatures, there are some things you can do to mitigate bogus temps and the impacts on your range.
Our second pointer is to make sure that you use your cars pre-conditioning, almost all EVs and most plugins have some way of turning on the cars heating or air conditioning systems remotely.
Either via a smartphone app like the Volvo on call app here for our xc 90, or perhaps via a timer set through your car's dashboard interface, which admittedly isn't going to be too useful unless you're the type who leaves for work at a very specific time every day.
preconditioning heats up or cools down your car while it's still connected to the charger, It says heating up and cooling down can use a huge amount of electricity.
That's power saved from your battery pack giving you more range.
It also means the initial part of your commute will be that much more comfortable.
The third tip is to be careful about what systems you use in the car.
Most importantly, the H vac system.
When it's a little chilly, our first inclination is to reach down and turn up the heat.
But in a car that's just running on electricity.
On a cold day, it has to run an electric heater to warm up some air and then blow that in your general direction.
That's not very efficient.
So instead reach for the heated seats and if your car has one heated steering wheel to these are not only more efficient, they're also more effective.
Help you maximize your range.
Our fourth tip is all about how you drive your car.
Your car is least efficient when it's accelerating and it's wasting energy when you're slowing down.
So to be most efficient, I'm going to try to do neither of those things whenever you can.
And the best way to do that is to rely on your cruise control.
Now when you're just driving along at a steady speed, minor changes to the throttle can actually mean big changes to the amount of range you get out of your car, decreasing the efficiency.
But if you set your cruise control your car will set a nice steady speed and maintain that in an efficient way.
That's doubly effective if you have adaptive cruise control.
Our fifth and final tip is all about your tires.
Make sure you have the right tires fitted to your car.
Ideally the ones that the manufacturer recommends because many EVS and electrified cars have special rubber with lower rolling resistance.
But regardless of which tires you choose, make sure you check your tire pressure.
All modern cars will warn you if your tire pressure gets dangerously low.
But they might not tell you if you're only off by a couple of psi.
So get in the habit of checking yourself, especially as the seasons are changing.
Colder air means lower tyre pressure, and lower tyre pressure means less wrench.
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There you go our five favorite tips for maximizing your electric range.
Use them wisely and you might be surprised how much farther you can go.
Without needing one of these or one of these.
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