Vehicle Energy Use Simulator (Estimating Impacts of Weather, Roads, Tires, Cargo)

efusco · Mar 8, 2012

I have a friend, Wayne Brown, who is a bit of a geek/genious/inventor.
He's created a program that will calculate your energy use for any sort of vehicle where you can vary the speed of travel, weather conditions, climate control settings, wind direction, etc. to estimate your energy use. This is an update and major upgrade from a previous program he created that I used extensively in my early Prius owning days.

The tool estimated about 252 mile range at 70mph in an 85kWh Model S for an example.

Currently only available for MAC computers, not iPad, iPhone, or PC yet.

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Model S Energy use Simulation by efusco, on Flickr

Model S Energy use Simulation by efusco, on Flickr

Alfred · Mar 8, 2012

Very nicely done. In a metric environment a bit harder to use. In the Roadster one tends to think in terms of Wh/km and not in MPGe.

jcstp · Mar 8, 2012

maybe with this program PhoneGap he can make an app that fits multiple platforms!
it looks great his programme!

jerry33 · Mar 8, 2012

That's great. I haven't heard from Wayne for a long time.

efusco · Mar 8, 2012

Jerry,
Wayne says he's keeping a "low profile", but chose not to explain. Says in the coming months he will be making a reappearance, but this is his first step out the door. Really nice tool.

Alfred, I suspect there are things in the settings to allow you to get your data or enter it in Wh/km, and if not currently I suspect he'd be more than happy to build it in.

email him at : [email protected] -- VEUS for (Vehicle Energy Use Simulator)

woof · Mar 8, 2012

Very nicely done. Needs some more predefined cars (like say, a Model S?). I was playing around and it was very interesting to see how much extra energy driving on slush vs dry pavement takes.

Robert.Boston · Mar 9, 2012

What settings are people using for the Model S? We know the Cd, but not the A. And rolling resistance?

efusco · Mar 9, 2012

Robert.Boston said:
What settings are people using for the Model S? We know the Cd, but not the A. And rolling resistance?

The images in my original post are from Wayne's computations for the Model S. Those numbers should work. He also did some other calculations using estimated numbers for the coolant pump, monitor, etc.
What the Tesla S - cooling pump will draw, I don't know exactly but, their current system uses 146 watts and I don't see that needing to change radically. Anyway here is the list I used for the breakdown of the 470 watts that I factored into the simulator:

Cattledog · Dec 25, 2012

Estimating Impacts of Weather, Roads, Tires, Cargo, etc. on Range

This an interesting app that estimates range deltas based on a number of factors. Noticeably missing is change in elevation, however it has things like impact of road surface (asphalt, gravel, etc.), weather (rain, snow, wind speed/direction) etc. For example, it shows that the losses associated with rain vs. a dry asphalt road can be between 14% and 24% depnding on storm severity. I have asked the app author to build a Tesla Model S for us as I can't begin to guess at variables like frontal area. BTW, I have nothin to do with this app, just found it interesting.

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efusco · Dec 25, 2012

Wayne Brown is a friend of mine and has been working on various versions of this program for years. He was previously looking for testers on this forum (Vehicle Energy Use Simulator). I can tell you that he is meticulous in his mathematics and calculations and the simulator is quite accurate (assuming steady state of wind speed and direction and such).

Would be nice if he had it as an iPhone app.

jerry33 · Dec 25, 2012

I have Wayne's app and it works really well. Highly recommended for those interested in simulations.

dsm363 · Dec 25, 2012

If someone figures out all of the details to enter for this program, post them here. Just bought the program. Looks cool.

I merged the two threads (and the titles if that is ok with efusco)

Cattledog · Dec 25, 2012

efusco - Perhaps you could ask him to models up the Model S with the right technical info. I sort of felt at a loss trying to guess the Model S frontal area, rolling resistance of tires, etc. He'd nail it years before I could mess with the variables and approximate something that was close. Thanks.

jerry33 · Dec 25, 2012

The Roadster's frontal area is 2.3 m[SUP]2[/SUP]. The Model S' frontal area is estimated to be 25% larger so 2.9 m[SUP]2[/SUP].

efusco · Dec 25, 2012

I'll tell him there is renewed interest with the S being delivered.

brianman · Dec 25, 2012

efusco said:
I'll tell him there is renewed interest with the S being delivered.

Maybe if/when we get the SDK we can capture some statistics for him to feed into his model.

Al Sherman · Dec 26, 2012

Neat program. My (many) hillbilly friends are gonna have yet another thing to make fun of me about. Evan, I don't see your Model S setup configuration. I'd like to use yours please?

Cattledog · Dec 27, 2012

Wayne e-mailed me today and said he was going to try and get technical data to construct a Model S to just grab from the drop down menu. Cool. Was very cordial in his e-mail. Looking forward to the app update. Hope there's not a $2,500 price increase heading into 2013!

Cattledog · Jan 3, 2013

Simulator Update

Wayne provided me with the data for the Model S. See below. I plugged his numbers in and it showed 290 miles range at 55 MPH with a series of assumptions about road surface, temperature, etc. Makes me confident in his calcs. You should all consider his app if you want realistic projections about range with a variety of weather, surface, and user variables. Impressive.

Robert.Boston · Jan 3, 2013

FWIW, I was told by someone who knows that the actual Cd is 0.239.

Vehicle Energy Use Simulator (Estimating Impacts of Weather, Roads, Tires, Cargo)

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