I would like to address the video’s quote “The lower the speed you can go on the uphills, the better. Because it’s all about the rate of energy use…”

That’s wrong. Lower speed saves energy whether on hills or not. Climbing a hill costs you an energy toll which is unrelated to the speed. The two are mostly unrelated.

“After heading out of the Wasatch mountains east of Salt Lake City, we drove ~180 miles to the KOA campground in Rock Springs, WY. Surrounded by mountains, we were able to get a standard 80% charge, do some laundry, replace the ice in our frunk cooler and use their free wi-fi to update the blog, skype with family, etc. They charged us $10 for the electricity used during our 5 hour stay. Awesome!
Rock Springs, WY has to be one of the driest places I’ve ever been. We hung some laundry out and within a half hour, it was bone dry.”

http://teslamodelsxc.wordpress.com/

“Monster” charged with Electric Tesla Model S can produce a big Flash – the guy in the passenger seat next to Nobuhiro Tajima was sweating, holding with both hands and praying! Tesla Model S is a serious piece of automotive technology – Lithium powered rocket on the wheels – and it can handle even Monster despite all its designer look and high tech pleasantries. It is a Real “Normal’ Super Car – only better.

http://sufiy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/lithium-jolt-nobuhiro-monster-tajima.html#

Altitude is the distance above sea level, not above the earth’s surface.

A vehicle traveling on level ground cannot both coast and maintain its speed, because it must overcome rolling resistance and air resistance. You can’t regain energy on flat ground at a constant speed.

When you’re traveling uphill, it takes more energy than traveling at the same speed on a level surface primarily because you’re doing work against gravity to raise the elevation of the vehicle. The rolling resistance should be about the same. I haven’t done the math for air resistance, but a little web searching results in a ballpark estimate of 3-5% less air resistance at 5,000 feet.

The answer is in the first sentence: air density
decreases as altitude increases. So the EV is affected by altitude. In a
positive way, as the air resistance is lower at altitude.

“Slow traffic, which was encountered near the end of the trip also affects electric vehicle range, in two ways”

Actually in three ways. The most important one is that lower speed means lower aerodynamic drag, hence lower consumption. See: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/model-s-efficiency-and-range

C’mon, with a ‘keen interest in physics-intensive topics’ you could have figured those out, coudn’t you?

Btw, a fresh owner of a Model S is driving his new car home from the factory and keeping a blog of the journey: http://teslamodelsxc.wordpress.com/