You regain a bunch of miles on the way down though, through gravity and regenerative braking.

Unfortunately, very little.

I went back to look for my notes on this and this is what I experienced: The Fiat would use up about 30-40 miles of indicated range to go uphill less than 10 miles. But it would only regenerate 2-3 miles (of indicated range) on the downhill side.

Not my experience in my Zoe. You get nearly all of it back on the long climb and then descent which I often used to do before I moved.

And weather. My colleague has a Leaf, his range is cut by a 30-40% in winter, and he is saving on the heating too to save range, so it is double uncomfortable.

The Leaf is somewhat famous for having poor battery management; it's one reason we avoided them. I don't think a used Leaf could handle a 50mi roundtrip commute, especially with a 10yo battery.

The Fiat does have a range penalty for cold weather (it occasionally gets below freezing in the part of California I live in) and running the heater (one way; usually it's warm enough by the trip home). My wife still gets home with > 10%.

Keep in mind this is a 10yo car with an 80mi range; newer cars have bigger batteries.

Kudos on making it work for you! It's a great example you don't have to have the latest and greatest to drive electric.

Commutes are extremely predictable, it's the same every day.

> Commutes are extremely predictable, it's the same every day.

Tell that to my colleague, who due to an accident near a major junction, took over an hour to travel a key couple of miles on his commute home from work yesterday.

Some journeys are "predictably unpredictable" during rush hour.

Well, the good news about an EV is that if you're creeping along at barely any speed, the consumption is going to be way lower than a comparable gas car. Basically all you're using is AC/heat. A gas car comparably is much less efficient while idling.