Do you have a Tesla or Rivian show room close? Schedule a test drive.

Tesla employees don’t get commission, they won’t have to lie for a living.

Watch e.g. the video below to understand how efficient a Model Y is designed and built. It’s a Mache vs a Model Y, not a Kia, though. I don’t think they dismantled an EV6 yet.

https://youtu.be/m1kHsd3Ocxc?si=vGh1BHBt5POALsWw

TL;DR drive at the speed that is save and comfortable. Take the shortest route, even if it’s steep. If this is I-70 up to Eisenhower tunnel, just go at “speed limit”, even pulling 11,000 lbs (or even with an 82,000 lbs Semi)

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With a high-school physics level, the amount of energy used for elevation on a given hill and trailer is pretty much proportional to the elevation gain. It matters not (at first order) how fast you go up, the work done is the same and thus the energy used is the same.

But speed still matters, driving at 70mph will be double the air drag than 50mph. Air drag matters much less at lower speed, so 25mph vs 35mph will make less of a difference

In theory, it also matters not which road you take up, but in practice regen is not 100%, so a road that only goes up will be better than one that goes up and down and up. Also, a longer road will lead to more losses due to friction (both pavement and air). You also have more “parasitic” load (heating, etc.) if you drive the long way around - but that parasitic load is immaterial if you are moving heavy loads up and down.

Regen is pretty good in modern EVs, maybe 80%+ You only have losses in the vehicle, 90% on the way to the wheel, and 90% on the way back to the battery.

Note that if it takes you 30kWh to climb Eisenhower pass, you don’t get 0.8*30kWh=24kWh back when you drive back down. Some of the energy used to go up went into friction (road, air), and you still pay that penalty on the way down.

For a walk through of high-school level physics for this problem, check out

https://kilowatt.page/tesla-semi-vs-eisenhower-pass/

it has links to a Google calculator that you can use to play with numbers.

This is one of the underappreciated advantages of an electric Semi. No more slow, painful crawl up Eisenhower, Donner, the Grapevine or any of the other passes. An EV Semi goes at speed limit, both up and down (down speed limit is limited for Semis, though, but an EV Semi will not have any brake issues, regen is enough to keep it at any speed desired)

This will not age well…

It will be extra money to not return full. It seems to depend on locations and other factors. It’s not unreasonable in general. Hertz will tell you.

The night before you return charge to 90%, then just return the car and pay whatever.