Just Joined - Here's My EV Story

[slobodanc]

Well in this case the speed is the biggest factor. Unfortunately Soul has poor CD causing increased power use at higher speeds. From my experience speed above 90 km/h (60 mph) start to pull a lot of power out of battery. This has 2 effects:
1) lower range, lower efficiency (as your stats clearly show)
2) higher temps causing faster battery degradation

See: http://www.mykiasoulev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=675

I understand it is hard/impossible to drive slower in CA on highways. My strategy is to speed up to match the flow when traffic is heavy and drivers are impatient, then slow down when there are less cars around me.

Can you find an alternate route using less highways?

Otherwise when looking at another car make sure the next car has a low CD as that is the single most important factor for your high speed driving. For instance the Chevy Bolt or Volt would be far better. Just an example, but there are many models with much better CD than Soul.

Good luck

 

[JejuSoul]

see also http://seekingalpha.com/article/4002421-teslas-larger-battery-packs-feature-waste

.... data so far shows that Tesla's battery pack seems to decline at a smaller rate than the Leaf battery pack..... it is mainly because Tesla's tend to have smaller depth of discharge cycles, due to their "extravagantly wasteful" battery pack sizes. While a Leaf customer with a 70-mile daily commute will have a daily depth of discharge of close to 75%, the Tesla would be a much more reasonable 35%.