If it pull less current, you can use batteries which aren't specced for high amps.
If use use less amps, you can use thinner cabling and split the batteries up i various compartments. That means heat is more distributed. Less active cooling, if any, is needed, of both batteries and motors.
All of the above can translate to less weight, which mean better range.
Looks like rolling resistance decreases with diameter [1]. So, is it from the increased drag from higher stance? Would lowering the car the same work better?
I think it's mostly from aerodynamics. Lowering the car could help but even just smaller rims, with the same overall diameter (rim + tire), can have a 15% impact on range. This Engineering Explained[1] video does an okay job with some of the math but he clarifies it well with a comment:
> CLARIFICATION! Why do bigger wheels mean worse efficiency, when the overall tire diameter remains the same? This comes down to aerodynamics. A 20" wheel will cause more of a disruption in airflow than an 18" wheel. That's why Tesla (and others) uses aero covers on their wheels (Car & Driver testing showed it gives about a 3% efficiency bonus at speed). The smaller the wheel, the more of the side profile of the wheel & tire is perfectly flat (the tire is flat, the wheel open: more tire = more flat area, less open area). Ideally, you'd have just a plain, solid sheet for the wheel, but obviously that's not idea for brake cooling. Wheel covers are today's common compromise as they have some airflow, but minimal.
That's interesting. It demonstrates that regenerative braking really works. The energy you expend going uphill, you mostly get back going downhill. The energy you expend speeding up, you mostly get back slowing down.
His tests were a round trip, so start and end altitude are the same.
And he kept a fixed speed on a freeway, so there wasn't much acceleration energy expenditure or energy loss into friction brakes.
You don't get drag or rolling resistance back, so that apparently dominates.
Those don't vary too much with load.
I meant for normal highway driving, not drag racing.
Optimal highway driving is still lowest resistance and losses. Cold weather driving is what mostly results in a battery capable of the high performance, from what I understand.
Is a "small" motors more efficient than a large one? I suspect no, with the assumption that everything is sized so the "drag race" operating range would be well into the peak, rather than sustained, operating range.
It the motor is smaller, it pulls less current.
If it pull less current, you can use batteries which aren't specced for high amps.
If use use less amps, you can use thinner cabling and split the batteries up i various compartments. That means heat is more distributed. Less active cooling, if any, is needed, of both batteries and motors.
All of the above can translate to less weight, which mean better range.