High speed power use test

Having read about power use at different speeds I decided to test it myself.
Late night alone on a newly paved straight road I reached 131 km/hr speed and set the cruise control to get a stable power reading:

outside temp 10c, no wind, straight road, climate off

131 km/hr = 40 kW = 30.5 kWh / 100km = 3.3 km/kWh

wow, that is bad

My usual slow driving max 90 km/h is about:

13 kWh / 100 km = 7.7 km/kWh

So indeed, 50% speed increase requires double energy, ouch

I knew this, just wanted to see for myself.
Kia's shape certainly doesn't help high speed either as I felt the car struggle to accelerate beyond 120 km/h.

Not a big deal for me but my wife has a heavy foot and bugs me when I am not driving over 100 km/h LOL

High speed ? Welcome !

Column W is speed.
others spreadsheets are here : http://www.mykiasoulev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4510#p4510

Reading are made with the regulator on flat road.
Take care about reading the TORQUE (phase current in motor) ... you can smell the wind resistance here.

Interesting data. The Soul EV becomes much less efficient at higher speeds.

This graph posted by the AVTA is thus slightly misleading, because the efficiency actually dramatically declines above 130km/h (80mph)
From https://avt.inl.gov/fuel-type/electric This graph is for Kia Soul EV '1908'



Comparing this data with a recent trip I just took in an Ioniq EV.
The Ioniq EV does much better than the Soul EV particularly when driving fast.



On the 21st September I drove on a fairly empty freeway for 343km fast.
Weather conditions were perfect, 24C, dry, no wind.
The speed limit was 110 km/h but I was often driving at 120 km/h or above.
City traffic at the end meant my speeds for the last hour were significantly slower.
I set off with 100% charge. I drove more than 200km at speed before needing to recharge.
I would estimate that the Soul EV would only go 100km at these speeds before needing to recharge,

On the 22nd September I drove on a fairly empty freeway for 265km slowly.
Weather conditions were perfect, 24C, dry, no wind.
The speed limit was 80 km/h but I was often driving slower.
In these conditions my Soul EV could go 220km before needing to recharge.
For the Ioniq EV 265km was easy to do on a single charge. (I would have begun to worry at 300km)
This road was a 220 km stretch between chargers, hence in this specific circumstance having an Ioniq EV rather than a Soul EV is clearly preferable.

JejuSoul said:

The Ioniq EV does much better than the Soul EV particularly when driving fast.

Click to expand...

:mrgreen: yep, i have seen immediatly this in your report ... but, problem : i don't like the sedan style.
I like the soul cubic shape ! (more easy to park, too !)

OMG 8.7 km/kWh at 100+ speeds is hard to believe. Really???????
Clearly CD is better but didn't expect such a big difference.

thanks