How To Get The Most Out Of Your Electric Car Battery

Posted by: My Electric Lease, 4th Apr 2023

How to get the most out of your electric car battery

Driving an electric car is an exciting new prospect for a lot of people. However, it does bring a number of requirements that are a little different to the ones you’d get from a conventional petrol or diesel car.

One of those is how you get the best from your battery. It is, after all, at the very heart of an electric car’s makeup, so it’s a very important factor. But what can you do to make sure you’re getting the most from your EV’s battery and, in turn, getting the best possible range too?

Turn off the air conditioning

One of the biggest killers of electric vehicle range is the air conditioning system. It puts a massive strain on the electrical supply and can quickly knock off several miles - particularly if it’s being put hard to work. So, if it’s a relatively balmy day, try and do without it and just use the fans instead.

A great way to help this issue is with pre-conditioning. This feature, which is available on most EVs, allows you to remotely cool down or warm up a car while it’s still on charge, meaning it’s bang-on by the time you get in. You can then switch off the air-con and drive in a comfortable temperature without hampering range.

Remove any extras

It might sound simple, but removing any extras from the exterior of your car will greatly improve range. Many EVs are available with roof racks and top boxes at the moment, but having these fitted when you don’t need them is only reducing range unnecessarily.

So if they’re not in use, make sure that they’re removed and stowed away safely.

Use regenerative braking

Regenerative braking is a way for an electric vehicle to collect some of the energy that would usually be lost during deceleration and transfer it back to the battery. It does this by effectively reversing the car’s electric motor, but it also means that you can get some helpful extra kW just by slowing down more effectively.

So rather than accelerating down a gradient or towards a roundabout, try lifting off a little earlier and allowing the car to slow itself down. It won’t add hundreds of miles, of course, but every little helps in this area.

Drive less aggressively

Tweaking your driving style can pay dividends, too. If you’re usually one for harder applications of throttle you might want to switch this out as this can drastically reduce range. Instead, take a more measured approach, lifting off the throttle when you reach the top of a climb and allowing the car to naturally coast for a little longer than usual.

Likewise, try and be as smooth with your steering as possible as this will help reduce the level of friction generated by the tyres which will, in turn, allow you to maintain your speed more easily and thus reduce the amount of range used up.

Reduce your speed

Electric vehicles struggle to operate efficiently when tasked with the job of travelling at high speeds for long periods of time. It’s why you might notice that your range will tumble if you’re driving on the motorway at the set speed limit.

So knocking off a small amount of speed - even as little as 5mph - can really help to extend that range and make sure you can travel as far as possible on one top-up.