Analyzing my commute for an EV switchover

I mentioned that, in order to make the best decision possible, I did plenty of research.  Here is the research that I did on my commute.  The weekends are easy, the commute is what I wanted to make sure the EV could handle.  Most people drive less than 80 miles per day, hence the 24 kw battery in most EVs that gets an estimated range of 84 miles on a test track.  What does that mean?  we do not drive on a test track.  So here is the research I did on my commute.

Resources:

• Elevation of points along my commute - https://www.whatismyelevation.com/
• An app to help me determine what EV to purchase - http://mygreencar.com/
• Spreadsheets - I am a Google sheet person
• Map tool - maps.google.com

Here is a map of the route that I take, by elevation.  Why?  because they say that elevation affects the energy used by an EV and can change the range of the vehicle.

So it is not a perfect elevation chart, but you can see that I start at about 1500ft, rise to a peak of 2500ft, then drop steadily down to sea level.

The road has twists and turns, but these are some pretty clear landmarks with safe places to record data.

From the look of things, I figured that the way to work will be easier than the way home from work.  Still not knowing how elevation actually, precisely affects range, I made some guesses to predict if I could make the drive.

Going to work

Loc	Elev	Mi Mark	% Gradient	Miles in range	Multiplier	Battery Range
Home	1519	0	0	0	1	0
Base	1309	10	-0.40%	10	1	10
Peak	2665	15	5.14%	5	2	10
Lazy W	735	27	-3.05%	12	0.5	6
Antonio	220	35	-1.22%	8	1	8
La Novia	108	38	-0.71%	3	1	3
Work	75	40	-0.31%	2	1	2
					Total Range	39

Coming Home

Loc	Elev	Mi Mark	% Gradient	Miles in range	Multiplier	Battery Range
Work	75	0	0.31%	0	1	0
La Novia	108	2	0.71%	2	1	2
Antonio	220	5	1.22%	3	1	3
Lazy W	735	13	3.05%	8	1	8
Peak	2665	25	-5.14%	12	2	24
Base	1309	30	0.40%	5	0.5	2.5
Home	1519	40	0	10	1	10
					Total Range	49.5

I figured out the %gradient by getting the difference in elevation divided by the result of the miles times 5280 (ft per mile).  These are the gradients going to work and the signs would be flipped when going home from work.

To figure out the battery range of the vehicle needed, I doubled the miles in range count for the 5% gradient going to work and the 3% range going home and I halved the range for the negative gradients.  Totally guesses, but I figured it would take twice as much power going up and 1/2 the power going down.  That was based on reports that you can gain 2/3 of the energy going down that was spent going up a hill.  I was conservative.  As you can see, from the  39 miles I predicted it would take to get to work, and the 50 miles it would take to come home from work, I figured I needed a car with 90 miles range.