Different road profiles could also affect the range of your electric vehicle. Although the range is affected by various factors, the EV users may not be aware of their respective influence on the range. Of the many factors affecting range in EVs, some are controllable like user driving style, some are semi-controllable like battery type in the EV and some are not controllable at all like weather. Let’s understand the various road profiles, characteristics and what impact they have over the range of an electric vehicle.
Background on Road Profile
The profile of the road encompasses different characteristics that roads possess. These characteristics affect the range of an EV in different ways. It is a user-controlled factor when it comes to EV range because more often than not, the user decides which road to take. The main road profiles that affect the range in EVs are:
- Road surface
- Road gradient
- Amount of traffic
Impact of various Road Profiles on Range
Road surface
Smooth roads as opposed to bumpy roads have been known to produce a greater range. This is because smooth roads give smooth acceleration and braking with minimal stopping. This also enables the EV user to utilize regenerative braking to the maximum extent which gives extra range.
On the other hand, bumpy roads are detrimental to the range. Depending on the extent of bumps in the road, the EV user continuously accelerates and uses brakes to go through the bumps at a mild speed. This cycle of acceleration, braking and the extra power that is needed to travel across the bumps contributes to higher energy consumption in the electric vehicle.
A more common occurrence in Indian roads is the presence of trenches and large cracks on the road. When roads contain these abnormalities, the driver is forced to brake harshly at various intervals. This causes wastage of energy as the brakes are used instead of regenerative braking.
Road gradient
Depending on the value of the gradient, it could have a negative or positive effect on the range of the electric vehicle.
An EV travelling on a road with a positive gradient (uphill terrain) has to supply greater power traversing the road due to its weight acting against itself. Thus, the battery consumes more charge while travelling on a road with a positive gradient.
Generally, an increase in the gradient by 100%, almost doubles the power consumption of the motor from the battery in electric scooters. Hence, there is a close to a linear relationship between the energy consumption and the gradient provided the speed is kept constant.
On the other hand, a negative gradient (downhill terrain) does not directly affect the range in a positive or negative way. This is because the weight acts for the EV during a downhill road profile and thus, there is no need to apply the throttle in the EV.
However, in electric scooters or vehicles having regenerative braking technology, the downhill profiles can generate large amounts of additional charge for the battery due to self-spinning. This essentially adds extra range to the electric scooter. But, often downhill terrains are associated with uphill terrains and hence, the extra charge gained from downhill terrains may not be so useful after all in the end.
Similar to uphill profiles, downhill profiles generate charge in the battery by regenerative braking in a linear manner with respect to the absolute value of the downhill gradient.
Traffic congestion
The amount of traffic affects the energy consumption of EVs in different ways. One major advantage with EVs over ICE vehicles during traffic is that there are very minimal idling losses in fuel/charge which complements its range.
If traffic congestion is very high, the range is degraded as the EV user is forced to brake and accelerate in short periods of time. The frequent acceleration and the inability to use regenerative braking add to the quicker depletion of charge.
Moreover, harsh braking and accelerations are used even more owing to the fact that in these types of roads the speeds of other vehicles are more unpredictable. Examples of these types of roads are city roads, roads connecting highways to cities and improperly planned/designed roads.
If the traffic congestion is moderate, the EV user adopts a driving style consisting of smooth acceleration and a smooth deceleration or braking accompanied by regenerative braking.
Moreover, due to the incoming traffic the user is forced to drive at a moderate speed that is close to the cruising speed of the EV. In this scenario, the range is maximum for the EV as it is not used at high speeds and the acceleration, deceleration is in such a way that the charge depletion is minimum. Examples of these types of roads include residential city roads, roads on the outskirts of the city etc.
If the traffic congestion is low such as in highways and intercity roads, the EV user tends to drive at high speeds with little to no acceleration and braking. As high speeds increase the air resistance of the EV, more charge is depleted in overcoming this resistance which reduces the range.
Nesh connectivity solutions for EV manufacturers retrieves and analyzes the battery and vehicle data discussed above to predict the battery’s state of health (SOH) and state of charge (SOC) at a given time. This allows prediction of range and timely notifications to the user for the best route to take when planning a trip in their EV. Additionally, we can also provide alert messages to the user if needed, upon harsh braking, accelerations and over-speeding. Such continuous monitoring of performance helps manufacturers to drive safety and efficiency of their vehicles along with a seamless customer experience.
