Reach your destination quicker by driving slower

It seems contradictory and yet it appears to actually be the case. VAB demonstrated, with a realistic test , that a journey to the south of France would take less time if you drive at a lower average speed. Even the energy cost for charging would be reduced if you lower your average speed. How is this even possible? We discuss these strange results below!

Context of the tes

For this test, two identical electric cars were used, the MG 5. They were evenly loaded, to ensure that they were on equal footing, to cover the route from Montélimar in the south of France to Zwijndrecht in low season. The only difference was that one car would drive faster than the other. The slow car would limit its speed to 100 km/h and would avoid hard accelerations. The fast car would simply stick to the speed limit of the motorways and drive less consumption-consciously. The results were surprising...

Slower and yet faster?

The test showed that, in almost every aspects, it is more advantageous to drive the route at a maximum speed of 100 km/h. We list up the biggest positive points below:  

• The slow EV arrived 10 minutes earlier than the fast electric car.
  

• The slow car stopped to recharge a mere 4 times, compared to 6 times with the fast car.
  

• The difference in average fuel consumption was 40% lower with the slow car than with the fast EV.
  

• The energy cost of the slow EV was 36% less than that of the fast car, which results in a difference of almost €40.

Conclusion: Slow & steady wins the race!

So VAB has found that by reducing the average speed in an EV, it effectively reduces energy costs and consumption. But what is particularly surprising is that the travel time is shorter when you stick to a constant speed of 100 km/h than when you drive at the motorway's speed limit.