How to Maximize Your Electric Vehicle’s Range

Drivers in Maine and around the world are making the switch to electric vehicles. Electric vehicles, or EVs, are fun to drive, cheaper to operate, and cleaner for the environment. Efficiency Maine offers rebates to make the switch to an electric vehicle even easier. If you’re interested in buying an EV, we’d like to share some useful information about owning and driving them. Over the next few weeks, we’ll cover a variety of EV topics that we hope will help Mainers feel confident and excited about switching to an EV. Today’s topic: how to maximize your EV’s range.

The following tips will help you maximize your EV’s battery range, which may help you drive even farther during your daily activities and encourage you to go on more outings and adventures.

1. Programming your car to charge overnight is a great way to maximize your charge and helps you avoid being unexpectedly left with an empty battery. By programming your vehicle to charge overnight, you can wake up in the morning to a full battery and have plenty of charge for the day’s activities. You can use your car’s onboard software, your smart charger, or an app on your smartphone to set your car’s charging schedule. 

2. We recommend preconditioning (heating or cooling, depending on the season) the cabin of your car while it is still plugged into the charger. This will not only help make your car more comfortable before you get in, it will also preserve valuable battery range before hitting the road.

3. We also recommend that you use heated seats to stay warm during winter months, reducing the need to heat the air in the cabin. Heated seats are a more efficient way to stay warm while driving, and they save battery range, especially when driving longer distances or at higher speeds on the highway. Some EVs even come with heated steering wheels for added comfort, which is another good way to reduce the need to heat the cabin.

4. It’s a good practice to use regenerative braking to maximize your vehicle’s battery range. Regenerative braking also gives your brakes a rest by converting the vehicle’s momentum into energy that charges your battery. This helps EV drivers save money on charging and maintenance. To learn more, watch our video on One-Pedal Driving and Regenerative Braking here. 

5. Keeping your tires properly inflated and adhering to the speed limit also help maximize your EV’s range. Driving at high speeds and with underinflated tires can deplete your battery more quickly and, in turn, reduce your range. 

Following these tips can help you get the most out of each and every battery charge. You can also find these tips in our instructional video here. 

Efficiency Maine offers instant rebates for eligible battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) at participating Maine car dealers. Eligible BEVs and PHEVs direct from a manufacturer are eligible for mail-in rebates. For a detailed list of vehicles that qualify for Efficiency Maine rebates, visit https://www.efficiencymaine.com/docs/EV_Rebate_Eligible_Vehicles.pdf. To find a participating dealer near you, visit https://www.efficiencymaine.com/docs/EV_Accelerator_Participating_Dealers-3.pdf. Also check https://www.efficiencymaine.com/ev/ for our EV video library and other resources.

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