Same Route, Two Times of Day: What the Lyriq's Numbers Actually Showed

I drove the same 191.2-mile route twice — once starting at 5:45am with the temperature at 77°F, once starting at 1:00pm with it at 92°F. Same roads, same distance, same three-hour-and-five-minute drive both times. The only real variable was the clock and the thermometer. I wanted to see what the numbers actually said, not what I assumed they'd say.

The morning run started at 100% and finished at 39% — 61% of the Lyriq's 102 kWh battery, or 62.22 kWh, for 191.2 miles. That works out to 3.07 miles per kWh, or about 32.5 kWh per 100 miles. In gasoline terms, that's roughly 104 MPGe.

The afternoon run, same distance, same duration, finished at 33% instead of 39% — 67% of the battery, or 68.34 kWh. That's 2.80 miles per kWh, about 35.8 kWh per 100 miles, or roughly 94 MPGe.

Same trip. Same car. 9.8% more energy in the afternoon.

That's the part that surprised me a little, because the instinct with EVs is usually "cold is the enemy, heat is fine." And it's true that extreme cold is worse for range than extreme heat — but this wasn't extreme cold versus mild, it was warm versus hot, and even that gap was enough to show up clearly. My best read on why: the cabin and the battery both need active cooling once you're sitting in 90-plus-degree heat for three hours, and that's power the climate system is pulling the whole time, not just at the start. A 77-degree morning barely needs the AC to work at all; a 97-degree afternoon has it running the entire drive.

None of this changes how the car drives — it's still the same quiet, quick cabin either way. What it does change is how I think about range planning for longer charters. If a trip is going to run through the hottest part of a summer afternoon, I'll plan the charging stop accordingly instead of cutting it close, because now I have real numbers behind that decision instead of a guess.

That's really the whole value of driving an EV professionally instead of just owning one — you start paying attention to numbers a gas car never gives you in the first place.

Coach EV runs the same flat $40-an-hour rate no matter what the thermometer says. Reserve a ride.