The true typical motorway range of the latest electric vehicles is up to 50% lower than advertised figures, new research has revealed. Neil Winton, who carried out the research, has written up his findings for Forbes. Here’s an excerpt.
New buyers of EVs need more information. Current range data rarely mentions speed, but it assumes about a 55 mph average. Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted this to me at a Geneva Car Show press conference in 2016. It’s true that at this speed, EVs are very efficient. It’s only when high speeds are held for long distances that a big problem emerges. Particularly for buyers in mainland Europe, where the autoroute speed limit is often 130 km/h, i.e., 81 mph. (It’s 70 mph in the U.K.) So it makes sense to be honest about range at these speeds, not least because it will be severely cut.
The Lexus RZ 300e (£54,595/$71,350 after tax) for instance claims a range of “up to” 297 miles, but the battery only filled to an average 224 miles. In autoroute cruising mode the range was slashed by 39%.
The Peugeot 3008e (£49,650/$65,000) claimed a range of 326 miles. This was repeated daily, but because of other wild results, which included an autoroute penalty of at least 50% and unconvincing explanations from Peugeot, it can’t be taken seriously. (Peugeot has been asked to comment.)
The Kia EV9 (£77,025/$100,000) battery averaged consistently around the claim of 313 miles after six refills, but the penalty was 50% on the autoroute.
The Hyundai Ioniq 6’s (£55,735/$72,800) battery filled up to an average 270 miles compared with the claim of 384 miles, a 30% shortfall, while on the autoroute the penalty was 38%.
This www.wintonsworld.com data for each vehicle are the result of each being driven for a week over the same country roads and motorways in similar conditions. The data shows autoroute and battery inadequacies on more than 30 other EVs.
These negative results shouldn’t be a surprise because of the basic science.
Emmssions Analytics CEO Nick Molden put the problem this way.
“Air resistance (drag force) is proportional to the square of the speed. Drag will correlate (negatively) with range. So range will decline more than proportionately as speed increases. Vehicle design can change other factors, such as the coefficient of drag (Cd), which is why Tesla has focused so much on aerodynamics,” Molden said.
“All other things being equal, the drag force will be 164% higher at 130 km/h than at 80 km/h (50 mph) which is a speed increase of 63%,” Molden said.
Peter Wells, Professor of Business Sustainability at Cardiff Business School has summed up the problem like this.
“Range falls off a cliff at high speed. For an electric car, the extra energy required getting from 60 mph to 75 mph is astonishing and virtually doubles energy consumption to move all that air out of the way,” Wells told me in an interview a couple of years ago.
Worth reading in full.
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