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Comment by outworlder | Hacker News Reader

> So, what a kilowatt hour of high-grade electric energy can do for you?

According to my car, it lets me drive 4.2 miles at highway speeds.

In a Nissan Leaf, you can get around 5 miles per KWh average. You can plug in the 1.1 kWh charger and realize you will get 5 miles per hour. If you use a bigger 6.6 kWh charger, it's 30 miles per hour.

Better yet, you can fiddle with the dash controls and get a power meter: acceleration takes 30-60 kW, but regeneration can make up to 30kw.

Like the OP says, this kind of thinking really changes your perspective.

Interesting, is it Tesla? Which model is it?

As a reference point, a Tesla 85D uses 290 watt-hours to go one EPA rated mile. So 1 kWh takes you 3.448 miles.

> one EPA rated mile

Are EPA miles not the same as normal miles?

What's a "normal mile" regarding energy consumption?

There is a series of standardized driving profiles that is averaged to get a comparable, somewhat realistic value.

just guessing, it's a standardized way to declare the driven distence, given all the variables.. such as: up hill, down hill, low/high rolling resistance surface?

I think the poster means the EPA test cycle for miles, they have a pre-defined "cycle" of acceleration, braking, coasting etc for Highway ratings and City driving.

I had a Leaf; the typical cruising power consumption was 4 miles per kWh. Battery was 26kWh.

A kWh gets me easily >30km on my bike (250W for 1h if you assume average 25% efficiency)

But you don't ride at highway speeds ;)

Bike also doesn't weigh 2500 pounds

Drivetrains on bikes can be > 98% efficient, so I assume you mean the human power output efficiency. But 250W applied directly to the crank via an electric motor should get you a good 40km/h for 4 hours! :)

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