Kernville is small mountain town some 50 miles from Bakersfield. It’s a nice get-a-way from the San Joaquin Valley.
The short trip required nearly a complete charge in the 2015 Leaf to get there, charge for several hours at an RV Park, and then a return.
The Chevy Bolt makes the trip to and from Kernville an easy outing.
We’ve now done the trip several times and we can look at the variability in consumption relative to estimates by EV Trip Planner, Chevy’s Energy Assist app, and A Better RoutePlanner (ABRP).
The 2,000-foot climb to Kernville takes 15 to 16 kWh. That gives us an efficiency from 3.5 to 3.7 miles/kWh, or a difference of about 5%.
On the uphill leg, ABRP gave the best results, followed by Chevy’s Energy Assist.
The results for the return trip vary more widely. The return trip used from 10 to 13 kWh for an efficiency from 4.2 to 5.4 miles/kWh. This is a difference of about 20%. The last entry in the table was a drive in a cold rain using the windshield wipers and seat heaters the entire route.
EV Trip Planner gave the best results on the downhill leg.
