A man has taken an electric car down a mountain with just 1% battery to find out what would happen.
One YouTuber decided to put it to the test by taking his car to the top of a mountain in Wales when his EV was nearly out of charge.
Known online as Efficient Alex, the content creator explained: “I am at the top of a mountain, but there’s one big problem. My car is on very low battery. It’s not even showing me any range on the dashboard. Take a look. See, I’ve got no miles left. Today, we’re going to charge my electric car using only gravity and start at the top of a hill to see how much we can get on the way down.”
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This is possible because electric cars have the ability to gain charge using gravity.
Putting this method into practice, Alex documented himself descending a mountain in his car, with the battery on just 1%.
He continued: “We’ve currently got no battery level at all. We got no range at all. No battery level. Ah, wish me luck. I’m scared. Okay, I have to go uphill to start with. I’ve got no range left at all. Let's turn the heater off to get it absolutely 100% accurate. Beautiful scenery. Oh, I’m scared. Okay, there’s no one behind me.
“So, as you can see, the battery isn’t actually on 1%. Now, this is because it would probably break down immediately and not work at all. 1% of a 24 kWh battery is just 0.24 24 kwatt hours and that wouldn’t even make it to the start point. Now I also have no backup, no spare battery pack and no recovery, so if I break down I am stuck. All EVs do have a safety buffer on the battery just in case.”
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However, things didn’t quite go to plan as, instead of regaining charge, the car continued to drain power at a slower rate.
Reacting to the results, Alex said: “Oh my goodness. I might run out of battery on the middle of the mountain. It is beautiful though, so it's a good place to stop. I have to keep accelerating, so it's not really going downhill much. This is an absolute disaster.”
The clip prompted many people to share their reactions in the comment section, with one user saying: “This would have been much more successful, on a warm, sunny day. When cold, the oil in the differential is thicker, and, colder tires have more hysteresis, which increases rolling resistance. As cold as it is in the video, and, having to run the defrost, and still using only ~6% battery, I would call this a success!”
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Another wrote: “You moved into neutral and that does not regen. Also wrong type of hilly road as too many flats. Maybe accelerating to speed earlier and driving normally would have gained more regen.”
And a third person added: “Maybe changing to the lower regeneration rate instead of coasting would be better.”